A history of Lee,
since 1760
Postcards, papers and photographs of Lee from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Lee occupies land that was originally territory of Mahican Indians. The first non-native settlement in the area was known as Dodgetown as early as 1760. Dodgetown was named after its founding settler, Asahel Dodge, who immigrated to the area from Cape Cod. Lee was incorporated in 1777 from parts of Great Barrington and Washington. It is named after Revolutionary War General Charles Lee. Lee is a former mill town.
In the autumn of 1786 during Shays' Rebellion, about 250 followers of Daniel Shays encountered state troops commanded by General John Paterson near East Lee. The Shaysites paraded a fake cannon crafted from a yarn beam, and the troops fled.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Lee’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewNorth End from Prospect St, c. 1907: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Lee, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Congregational Church of Lee, Massachusetts, under Dr. Hyde (1878) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (16), the Library of Congress (2) and the National Register (2). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.