Alford is a New England town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 399 at the 2000 census.

History
Alford was first settled in 1756 as part of a purchase of land from the Shauanum Stockbridge Mahican tribe by a group led by Timothy Woodbridge. The town, originally part of Great Barrington, separated in 1769 and was officially incorporated in 1773. It was named for Colonel John Alford of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who was known for his work in preaching Christianity to Native Americans, and for sponsoring a theology professorship...

Alford is a New England town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 399 at the 2000 census.

History
Alford was first settled in 1756 as part of a purchase of land from the Shauanum Stockbridge Mahican tribe by a group led by Timothy Woodbridge. The town, originally part of Great Barrington, separated in 1769 and was officially incorporated in 1773. It was named for Colonel John Alford of Charlestown, Massachusetts, who was known for his work in preaching Christianity to Native Americans, and for sponsoring a theology professorship at Harvard University Divinity School. The town has been mostly agricultural throughout its existence, although several small mills existed in the nineteenth century, as well as a marble quarry.

Around New Year's Day, 1776, Henry Knox passed into Massachusetts through the town, bringing cannons from Fort Ticonderoga eastward to help end the Siege of Boston. Today, this route is known as the Knox Trail, and a marker is located at the state line.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 11.6 square miles (29.9 km²), all of it land. Alford lies along the western border of Berkshire County and Massachusetts, east of Columbia County, New York. The town, which is roughly shaped like an arrowhead, is bordered by West Stockbridge, Massachusetts to the northeast, Great Barrington, Massachusetts to the southeast, Egremont, Massachusetts to the south, and Hillsdale, New York and Austerlitz, New York to the west. Alford is located 19 miles south-southwest of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 50 miles west-northwest of Springfield, Massachusetts, and 138 miles east of Boston, Massachusetts.

Alford is surrounded by hills and mountains of the Taconic Range. The Green River, a tributary of the Housatonic River, flows through the southwest corner of town, and the Alford Brook flows through the central part of town, eventually flowing into the Green River in neighboring Great Barrington. Several other brooks flow into these two waterways. To the northeast of town, Tom Ball Mountain peaks just over the town line in West Stockbridge, with its western face being somewhat marshy.