Poet's Seat Tower and Rocky Mountain

If you look up eastward toward the nearby mountain, you'll see Poet's Seat Tower perched towards the top.

This tower was influenced by the local poet Frederick Tuckermann, and possibly other local writers, who frequently used the location that the Tower now stands upon while writing, thus inspiring the name Poet’s Seat. Tuckermann called this site “Poet’s Rock” in a poem of his titled, “The Stranger” published in 1860.  

Throughout his time writing, Tuckermann was drawn to the transcendentalist beliefs of people such as Ralph Waldo Emerson. He studied many of these transcendentalist beliefs alongside his own. Transcendentalism was a belief that societal institutions corrupted people and as a result, it favored ideas of personal independence.

Diving more so into the roots of the Tower “Contrary to public belief, the name predates the era of poet Frederick Goddard Tuckermann, who is commemorated with a plaque on the current stone tower.” (Images of America Greenfield, 122). This poses a contradiction to what was previously discussed, however, we can't say exactly where this may have originated believing it predated Tuckermann.

The Rural Club was responsible for creating the first wooden tower on Poet’s Seat in 1879. The club was created to encourage tree planting along public streets in town.

The wooden tower was set on fire in 1908 after it had fallen into disrepair. Rebuilt as a sandstone tower in 1912, it’s now a tourist destination and the location that Greenfield uses to set off the 4th of July fireworks.

Jenkins, Paul. The Conservative Rebel. The Town of Greenfield, Massachusetts, 1982.

Cutler Kellogg, Lucy. History of Greenfield. Town of Greenfield, 1931.

Miller, Peter S., and William C. Garrison. Images of America Greenfield. Arcadia Publishing, 2000.

Photo of a circa 1940s thread-cutting tool (http://americancenturies.mass.edu/collection/itempage.jsp?itemid=18398)

Theodore Judah | American Experience | PBS. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tcrr-judah/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2024.

University, © Stanford, et al. “Maps of Theodore Judah.” The First Transcontinental Railroad - Spotlight at Stanford, 3 Apr. 2019, https://exhibits.stanford.edu/rr/feature/maps-of-theodore-judah.

“Science Church Marks 35th Anniversary.” Greenfield Recorder, 23 June 1973.

“Purchase of Former Church Spells Expansion for Franklin County’s YMCA.” Greenfield Recorder, 6 June 2023.

Moorhead, Andrea, et al. The Greenfield Common Court Square Bank Row. Greenfield Historical Commission, 2022.

A Walking Tour of Downtown Historic District -- Greenfield Massachusetts. greenfieldsfuture.org.

“Frederick Goddard Tuckerman.” Poetry Foundation, 2018, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/frederick-goddard-tuckerman.