MASSACHUSETTS LOOKOUTS
LENOX MOUNTAIN
(LENOX)
Berkshire County
1915: A steel tower was erected.
May 27, 1944: "Bernard T. Kirchner has taken a position with the Massachusetts Forestry Dept., and is stationed at the Lenox fire tower." (Pittsfield Berkshire Evening Eagle)
May 19, 1947: "At 3:15 Saturday afternoon, Fire Chief Thomas LeVardi received a telephone call from the fire tower in Lenox asking him to look for a forest fire in the vicinity of Hinsdale. The caller said smoke could be seen, which looked as though it was coming from this area.
Chief LeVardi spent the remainder of the afternoon and part of the evening driving over the outlying roads searching for the source of smoke, but wasn't able to find a lighted cigarette. He said, however, that earlier in the day he had given open-air fire permits to two persons on Peru Road, and it may have been those bonfires that caused the smoke.
At 5:30 Chief LeVardi called back the Lenox fire tower intending to report that he had been unable to find a fire but no one answered the phone." (Pittsfield Berkshire Evening Eagle)
October 28, 1950: "John Sires, fire spotter at the Lenox fire tower, is on a two ---- vacation." (Pittsfield Berkshire Evening Eagle)
July 9, 1952: "Construction of a power line up Lenox Mountain to tie in the fire tower there with the state forest fire radio network has been started by a state Conservation Department crew, it was announced Thursday by Francis B. Mahoney, district fire warden.
The tower is being approached from the Richmond side of the mountain, through property owned by Arthur Yerkes, Richmond farmer, and the poles will be erected starting next week. It is expected that the job will be completed by the start of the fall forest fire season just after Labor Day.
Installation of radio facilities at the Lenox Mountain tower will bring that station into the network that already serves the county's other three fire towers at Mt. Wilcox in Monterey, Spruce Hill in Savoy, and Mt. Everett in Mount Washington. Because of its inaccessibility, the Mt. Everett tower has its own electric generator, but the other two are supplied by power lines." (Pittsfield Berkshire Evening Eagle)
November 19, 1969: "The 54-year-old fire tower atop Lenox Mountain was taken down last month by the state Department of Natural Resources.
Francis Messer, district fire warden and the man who took down the old tower, said yesterday that it had been removed in the interests of public safety. He said the tower had been put up for bid several times with no response.
Messer noted that the new Hutchinson Tower, named after the late Lenox Fire Chief Oscar R. Hutchinson, which was erected three years ago, stands less than 100 feet from the site of the old tower." (Berkshire Eagle)
April 3, 1970: "A spectacular accident occurred in South County this morning, when the high winds sent an 80-foot-high fire tower on Lenox Mountain crashing to the ground. The tower, which is manned by the state Department of Natural Resources, was under slow repair this noon." (North Adams Transcript)
March 9, 1971: "Commonwealth of Massachusetts - Department of Natural Resources: Notice to Contractors.
Sealed proposals for project No. 641-70. Construction of a Fire Tower on Lenox Mountain in Richmond, Massachusetts, will be received at the Office of the Massachusetts Department of Natural Resources, Room 1304, 100 Cambridge Street, Boston, Massachusetts, until two p.m. on March 30, 1971 at which time and place the bids will be publicly opened and read.
The project includes ledge excavation for concrete foundations, steel fabrication and erection, observation cabin construction, and electrical supply and wiring.
. . . . . etc." (Berkshire Eagle)