WH AT A S I T E
Tillinghast, who worked with stained glass artists Louis Comfort Tiffany and John La Farge, also designed several windows at St. Stephen’s Parish and two windows at First Church of Christ, Congregational, both in Pittsfield.
Even without entering the space, I can
low industrialist and inventor Lyman R.
feel the presence and energy it exudes;
Blake, who had recently invented a shoe-
McKay retained artist and designer
if the exterior of the tomb is monumen-
sole sewing machine. McKay, ever-inter-
Mary Elizabeth Tillinghast of New York
tal and commanding, its interior is an
ested in new technologies, bought the
to develop a design for what would even-
inviting sanctuary, more like a place of
patent for the machine and worked to
tually become the family tomb. Choos-
worship than of somber reflection.
improve its functionality and accuracy.
ing Tillinghast as the designer for this
Nearly three years later, in May 1862,
particular project was not an obvious
structure was built for Berkshire local
McKay’s patent for the updated sewing
choice. Although regionally established
and Gilded Age industrialist Gordon
machine was accepted.
as an accomplished glasswork artist,
Completed in 1893, this amazing
McKay (1821-1903). McKay, who spent
Soon, McKay was manufacturing tens
More than a decade before his death,
having worked for (and eventually, with)
much of his life in Pittsfield, is a char-
of thousands of boots a month, and on
some of the century’s most recognizable
acter whose story captures the zeitgeist
his way to building a fortune.
names in stained glass, Louis Tiffany
of the Industrial Revolution and its res-
With the Civil War came a great-
onance in Berkshire County. Trained as
er-than-ever need for boots among the
an engineer, he left the Berkshires at 22
Union Army. McKay saw a huge oppor-
It is not clear whether McKay ap-
to work as a corpsman for the Boston &
tunity for profit and pounced on it. Just
proached Tillinghast with a particular
Albany Railroad, and subsequently an
a few months later, with his operation in
architectural style in mind for the mau-
engineer on the Erie Canal. Years later,
full swing, McKay was manufacturing
soleum. Perhaps McKay had seen — or
he returned to Pittsfield and established
tens of thousands of boots for govern-
read about — Tillinghast’s glasswork
a repair shop for paper and cotton mill-
ment contracts. After the war, McKay
exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World Fair
ing machines.
kept his business in the black by leasing
for the glasswork in the exhibit would
his machines to shoe manufacturers
be installed in McKay’s tomb after the
managing the Lawrence Machine Shop.
across New England, earning royalties
exhibition closed.
This is where he crossed paths with fel-
for each pair made.
In 1859, McKay took a job in Lawrence,
20 Berkshire Landscapes I SUMMER 2022
and John LaFarge, she had never designed a building or a tomb.
Nevertheless, whether it was at
