But from the beginning, no one believed a museum alone could replace Sprague. The plan was to use the museum to get noticed, and to rent out unused buildings to businesses that would help rebuild the city's job base. In hindsight, the years in limbo were a blessing. The project was pushed back until the Internet era, and the accompanying flood of companies that can operate as easily in remote mountain towns as anywhere else. But the effects are spreading.
Housing prices are up in the city, though they still pale in comparison to nearby cities.
A handful of restaurants and a pair of coffee shops have opened on Main Street. A local high school is being renovated, and a string of once-dilapidated Victorian houses across from the museum is being renovated into an upscale hotel catering to Berkshire tourists. Six months ago, there were no cappuccino machines. Now there are two. Most extraordinarily, the unemployment rate is now 2.8 percent.