North Adams was first settled in 1745 during King George's War, when the most western of a line of defensive forts was built along the bank of the Hoosic River, and occupied by Massachusetts militiamen and their families.

[4] During the war, Canadian and Native American forces laid siege to Fort Massachusetts and 30 prisoners were taken to Quebec; half died in captivity.

The city is named in honor of Samuel Adams, a leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and governor of Massachusetts.

[7] Manufacturing began in the city before the Revolutionary War, largely because the confluence of the Hoosic River's two branches provided water power for small-scale industry.

By the late 1700s and early 1800s, businesses included wholesale shoe manufacturers; a brick yard; a saw mill; cabinet-makers; hat manufacturers; machine shops for the construction of mill machines; marble works; wagon and sleigh-makers; and an ironworks, which provided the pig iron for armor plates on the Civil War ship, the Monitor.

[8] Expansion westwards started with the creation of three mill villages, Blackinton in 1821, Greylock in 1846[9] and Braytonville in 1832, located to take advantage of the Hoosac River's water power.

Despite decades of success, falling cloth prices and the lingering effects of the Great Depression forced the company to close its Marshall Street operation in 1942 and consolidate at smaller facilities in Adams.

Sprague physicists, chemists, electrical engineers, and skilled technicians were called upon by the U.S. government during World War II to design and manufacture crucial components of advanced weapons systems, including the atomic bomb.

From the post-war years to the mid-1980s, Sprague produced electrical components for the booming consumer electronics market, but competition from abroad led to declining sales and, in 1985, the company closed operations on Marshall Street.

When mayor John Barrett III (serving 1984–2009) suggested the vast Marshall Street complex as a possible exhibition site, the idea of creating a contemporary arts center in North Adams began to take shape.

Subsequent economic upheaval threatened the project, but broad-based support from the community and the private sector, which pledged more than $8 million, ensured that it moved forward.

The eventual proposal used the scale and versatility of the industrial spaces to link the facility's past and its new life as the country's largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts.

Since it opened, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) has been part of a larger economic transformation in the region based on cultural, recreational, and educational offerings.

North Adams is located in the valley created by the Hoosic River, which has been walled and floored with concrete in portions to prevent floods.

Formed by glacial melt by 11,000 BCE, the arch and abandoned quarry have long attracted attention from hikers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1838, who wrote of it (among other local features) in his An American Notebook.

To the east, the city is bordered by the western face of the Hoosac Range, with visibility on its West Summit extending throughout the tri-state area.

Due to North Adams being the location of MASS MoCA, there are numerous art galleries spread throughout the city, and a few of the old mills have been converted to lofts for artists to live and work in.

A new, Frank Gehry-designed Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum is proposed to be built in North Adams.

[29] North Adams' first professional sports franchise was the Berkshire Battalion, an expansion team of the Federal Hockey League, which played a single season in 2014–2015.

[30] North Adams is located in the Eighth Massachusetts Governor's Council district and is represented by city resident Tara Jacobs.

[citation needed] North Adams is the western terminus of the Mohawk Trail, which ascends to the West Summit along a steep, curving road.

The nearest passenger rail service to North Adams is the recently re-routed Amtrak Vermonter in Greenfield, Massachusetts, an hour to the east.

There is a proposal known as "Northern Tier Passenger Rail" in the early stages of planning which would extend MBTA's Fitchburg Line westward through Greenfield and terminate at North Adams.