© 2024
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An update has been released for the Android version of the WAMC App that addresses performance issues. Please check the Google Play Store to download and update to the latest version.

$14M Hotel Set For June 1st Opening In Downtown Pittsfield

Credit Jim Levulis / WAMC
/
WAMC
The $14 million Hotel On North is set to open in downtown Pittsfield, Mass. June 1st.

Pittsfield’s four-story Hotel on North is set to open Monday complete with a restaurant, bar and retail store.In about six months the hammers and saws have given way to a chef’s knife and the ripping of lettuce as preparations wrap up for the $14 million hotel’s grand opening. Although the Berkshires are famous for several lodging options, Hotel on North marks a rare expansion into downtown Pittsfield.

“It’s all about the detail,” Tierney said. “Detail is what sets us apart from every other little cookie-cutter hotel out there.”

Owner Laura Tierney is hopeful the attention to detail produces a “wow” factor for people who walk under the building’s marquee and through its revolving door.

“I was stuffing insulation into the cracks and I could hear someone say ‘I can’t remember the last time there was a revolving door on North Street,’” Tierney said. “They thought it was really cool. So it’s kind of fun that we’re bringing that back.”

Unique items are scattered throughout the two 19th century buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A cream separator serves as a hostess stand, wooden lumber carts are being used as coffee tables and the building’s original iron birdcage elevator’s new purpose is still up in the air.

“It’s too pretty to get rid of,” Tierney said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do with it yet. We’re going to clean it up and put it in the corner…might put a little table in there, maybe a couple chairs. Maybe it will be one of those places where somebody comes in and proposes…in a little iron elevator.”

A wraparound bar with high-top tables and separate dining areas can seat 125 people at the hotel’s restaurant Eat on North. It will offer breakfast, lunch, dinner, a late night menu and 24-hour room service. Chef Sean Corcoran says the restaurant itself will be an unmatched experience.

“With locally sourced food we have tacos on the menu, meatballs and gnudi…so we are trying to draw from all sorts of different cultures around the world,” Corcoran said. “That is all going to tie into the experience that’s out front which is our raw bar. There will be some cooking done out front. We also have a Berkel slicer which is going to be out front. It’s a hand-crank slicer for all of our house-made charcuterie.”

Tierney and her business partners will run a retail store called Dory & Ginger on the first floor seven days a week. It will offer jewelry, lifestyle gifts and barware. 

As Tierney explains, none of the hotel’s 45 rooms, some extended stay, are identical. All have street views with refurbished floors, but offer a mix of wooden columns, painted and brick walls, claw-foot bath tubs, showers and even one Japanese soaking tub. One hundred twenty-five bookshelves line the walls of the Library Suite while a chandelier from the Fox Theatre hangs from the ceiling.

“The Fox Theatre….actually the Beatles performed there early in their career,” Tierney said. “So we like to say that light that you’re going to be sleeping under, the Beatles walked under at some point in their lives. How about that?”

Antique skis, tennis racquets and snowshoes from the Besse Clark menswear and sporting goods store that used be run out of the building will adorn the walls. 

Separate conference areas and a ballroom allow for large gatherings while a skylight creates an atrium on the upper floors.

“So this will be social spaces,” she said. “We’ll have tables set up so people can sit here and work on their computers. We’ll have couches and chairs. Over in the middle will be a nice floor to ceiling book shelf. My idea is to have window seats so kids can curl up and read a book. Imagine that…curl up and read a book.”

It’s been about two and a half years since Tierney and her husband bought the buildings, which used to house two restaurants. MadJack’s BBQ and Spice Dragon closed their locations during hotel construction last year. Those spaces are now filled by the hotel restaurant and retail store. Tierney says hotel rooms are close to being fully booked for some weeks in June.

“It’s our legacy,” Tierney said. “We want to bring something to downtown unlike anything they’ve seen certainly in this century.”

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
Related Content