Western Gateway Heritage State Park - History Museums on Waymarking.com

The Western Gateway Heritage State Park is a museum within an old freight depot and among other buildings that were formerly part of a railroad siding.

The area has been transformed into a walkable plaza with nearby parking. In the plaza there is a combined history and science museum for North Adams in one building, a restaurant in another, and the heritage state park in the depot. Nearby is a nice iron truss bridge that spans the channel of the Hoosac River.

There are some exhibits of the area industries (better exhibits are at the North Adams museum), and a small HO scale train layout where you can push a button to run the train, but the main feature is the Hoosac Tunnel exhibit along the back of the museum. The Hoosac Tunnel was built in the mid 1800s, and, at the time, was considered both an engineering wonder and expensive and tragic endeavor. In the end, however, it opened a northern route through the Berkshires that competed with the Boston and Albany Railroad and allowed cities like North Adams, Troy NY, and Fitchburg MA to grow and prosper.

In two to three hours, you can cover both museums here. The Western Gateway Heritage State Park is free and open every day except some holidays.

Theme: Cultural history, especially about the Hoosac Tunnel, which is about 3 miles to the south of the station. Street Address: 115 State Street Building 4 North Adams, MA 01247 Food Court: yes Gift Shop: no Hours of Operation: Open 10:00am–5:00pm every day except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s days. Museum Size: Small Relevant Web Site: [Web Link] Cost: Not Listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/31/2012 oraclebennett visited it