Cummington and the Hilltowns lost an important community resource this weekend when the 170 year old West Cummington Congregational Church burned to the ground.

Besides serving as a place of worship, the building had great acoustics and acted as a venue for many musical events. During the past few years the congregation invested a large amount of money and volunteer time to make the building handicap accessible.

The congregation plans to rebuild. In the meantime, services will continue to be held in the nearby Parish House.

Donations can be mailed to P.O. Box 148, Cummington, MA 01026 or sent to West Cummington Congregational Church Rebuilding Fund, c/o Florence Savings Bank, 85 Main St, Florence MA 01062.

Visit the church website here to read about the fire or ways to help with the rebuilding effort.

Do a google search on Northampton, MA and you’ll get back over 1.8 million hits. The town is well known both for Smith College and its ‘outing’ as Lesbianville, USA by the National Enquirer in 1992 (followed by Newsweek and then a segment on 20/20 in 1993). In 2001 Boston Magazine named it a best place to live. In 2005, Money Magazine named it as one of the 10 best…

Museums, Music, Theater, etc. Links to art museums, historic museums, galleries, science museums, local music and the arts. Add your reviews, comment on which places are kid-friendly, have outstanding or unusual displays, or were especially interesting.

Eventually the goal is to add a page for each listing within the subcatories where people can put comments and reviews…

The library has a large children’s area, a multimedia collection (music, video, DVD), the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library & Museum, the Hampshire Room for Local History and Special Collections (including digital collections available online, one of which features the Northampton State Hospital), a collection of…