Lee Town

Berkshire County, Massachusetts

Home • Whats New • Site Index • Contact • Search

Lee Town Hall is located at 32 Main Street, Lee, MA 01238.
Phone: 413‑243‑5500.

Neighborhoods

Beginnings [1]

First settled about 1760, Lee was incorporated in 1777. It was named for General Charles Lee, later notorious for his treason to Washington. In the 1930s Lee was a prosperous paper manufacturing town. Because of its abundant water power, 3 mills had been built by 1821; the Smith Paper Company, one of the first to use wood pulp, greatly reduced the price of newsprint. This company, in 1913, began to manufacture India Bible paper, up to that time an exclusively British product. It is said that one half of the paper used during World War I was made in Lee.

1. Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts, Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People, American Guide Series, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1937.

Nearby Towns: Lenox Town •