Designed by writer Edith Wharton (1862&ndash;1937) and built in 1902, The Mount is where she wrote the bestselling novel The House of Mirth. It is now a house museum.

Edith Wharton Estate

This scenic drive includes numerous historic homes and studios that were home to leading novelists and artists. The tour also includes elegant mansions and homes that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The tour concludes at the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum which is located in a historic depot.

French's only child, Margaret French Cresson, bequeathed the house and property&nbsp;to the National Trust of Historic Preservation, which continues to own and operate the home. Chesterwood was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966 and a year before was declared a National Historic Landmark.

Chesterwood was once the home of one of America's foremost sculptors, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), who created two of the most iconic sculptures in the country: the Minute Man and the massive statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The home was built in 1896 and designed by his architect friend Henry Bacon in the Colonial Revival style. The 122 acre property features gardens, woodland paths, and permanent sculptures; there are also exhibitions of sculptures as well. The Barn Gallery contains a permanent exhibition about French's life and work, featuring sketches, plaster casts and bronze molds.   

Chesterwood

The Norman Rockwell Museum contains the largest and most significant collection of paintings and drawings of American artist Norman Rockwell, who lived in Stockbridge during the last 25 years of his life. The museum, which opened in 1969 in his house, contains 998 of Rockwell's works. A new building was constructed in 1993 and Rockwell's studio was moved to the new museum site. Inside the studio visitors will find original art materials, furnishings and personal items in the studio. There is also an archives which houses a collection of 100,000 items related to Rockwell—photographs, letters, correspondence, etc. 

Norman Rockwell Museum 

Located on Main Street in Stockbridge, this National Historic Landmark was home to the first missionary to the Mohican Indians. It not only provides a glimpse into Colonial history but also the Native American tribe that lived here.In the mid-1730s, the Mohicans living in western Massachusetts gave permission for a young minister to live among them. The Rev. John Sergeant lived in a simple cabin until he married Abigail Williams in 1739 and built the Mission House c.1742.Originally located&nbsp;on Prospect Hill in Stockbridge, this National Historic Landmark was carefully disassembled, moved, and restored between 1926 and 1930 by Miss Mabel Choate (then owner of nearby Naumkeag, which is now also a Trustees property) at its present location on Main Street.From 1928 to 1933, noted landscape architect Fletcher Steele designed the Colonial Revival garden, which features a colonial-style dooryard garden of circular brick paths enclosed by a cypress fence. A kitchen garden divided by crushed stone walkways contains 100 herbs, perennials, and annuals that had culinary or medicinal value to early colonists. A replica of an old cobbler shop serves as the entrance to the property.The house showcases an outstanding collection of 18th-century American furniture and decorative arts. A grape arbor in the Well Courtyard behind the Mission House leads to a small Native American museum that tells the story of the Mohicans through artifacts gathered by Mabel Choate in the early 1930s and stories and perspectives from Mohicans today. The red barn behind the Mission House serves as The Trustees’ Berkshires regional office.

This house was built in c. 1742 by Reverend John Sergeant, the first Christian missionary to the Stockbridge Indians. It is now owned and operated by The Trustees of Reservations as a house museum.

Mission House

Since the 1870s, Joseph and Caroline Choate had summered in Stockbridge with their young family. Like so many others, both then and now, they fell in love with the Berkshires and decided to build a summer retreat of their own. In 1884, Choate sought the advice of his friend, Charles McKim, of the architectural firm McKim, Mead &amp; White. The result was Naumkeag – a gracious 44-room “cottage” with breathtaking views over the Housatonic River Valley.Naumkeag was a creation of the Gilded Age, a time of transformation after the Civil War, a time when Andrew Carnegie and Cornelius Vanderbilt built their fortunes. The newly rich cemented their social position by constructing elaborate European-style country estates. The Choates were part of this social mix, but Naumkeag was a bit different –&nbsp;instead of a showplace open six weeks a season, it became a beloved family home used from April to November.Naumkeag was the Native American name for Salem, Massachusetts, where Joseph Choate was born. Choate graduated from Harvard Law School and moved to New York City where he quickly rose to prominence. During his illustrious legal career, Choate was the premier courtroom lawyer, arguing cases in front of the Supreme Court. In 1899,Choate was appointed by President McKinley to be the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Caroline Choate was a trained artist interested in women’s education, co-founding Barnard College.Their daughter, Mabel Choate, inherited Naumkeag in 1929, and for the next 30 years worked with landscape architect Fletcher Steele to create the magnificent gardens for which Naumkeag is now known, including the world-famous Blue Steps. Today, Naumkeag provides a glimpse – through the eyes of one family – into a brief and now-vanished period of American history.Mabel Choate bequeathed Naumkeag in its entirety, including all of the household furnishings and fine art, to The Trustees of Reservations. Since the property’s opening in 1959, it has become a popular destination for area residents and visitors to the southern Berkshires. Approximately 11,000 people tour the house and experience the beauty and tranquility of the gardens each year.

This Gilded Age mansion and country estate was designed by McKim, Mead &amp; White, with landscaping by Fletcher Steele. Built in the 1880s for lawyer Joseph Choate, it was given by his daughter to The Trustees of Reservations, who operate it as a museum.

Naumkeag

Edith Wharton was born January 24th, 1862 to a distinguished New York family. This time was known as "Old New York", meaning women were discouraged from achieving anything beyond proper marriage. It is also called the Gilded Age, meaning post-Civil War period of American expansion in business and arts.&nbsp;It was a tightly controlled society; one that Wharton broke through to become one of America's greatest writers. Her life stands as an example of the obstacles that a women in her time had to overcome to find self-realization; just like the characters in the books she wrote.Edith's parents were descendants of English and Dutch colonists who had made fortunes in shipping, banking, and real estate. Edith moved to Manhattan when she was ten. She did not attend school, but educated herself by reading from her father's library. In 1885, when she was 23, she married Edward Robbins Wharton. He came from similar social background, but they did not share similar interests which led to an unhappy marriage.Edith Wharton's writing career was launched in 1897&nbsp;with the publication of her first book, The Decoration of Houses, which she was a co-author with her architect friend Ogden Codman. The two authors denounced Victorian decorating practices, and proposed creating rooms based on simple, classical design principles such as symmetry, proportion, and balance. Her book states that &nbsp;"lambrequins, jardinières of artificial plants, wobbly velvet-covered tables littered with gewgaws, and festoons of lace on mantelpieces and dressing tables" were a thing of the past. Decoration of Houses was an immediate success. The Mount was Wharton's design where she implemented those principles in 1902. Soon after this book was written, Wharton suffered a nervous breakdown and her physician suggested she write fiction instead. In 1899, her collection of short stories The Greater Inclination appeared. In her 1905 novel The House of Mirth, Wharton depicted the contemporary world of the rich and the materialism. In 1921, she won the Pulitzer Prize for her Age of Innocence, written in 1920. In 1934 she wrote an autobiography A Backward Glance. She died on August 11, 1937.

The Mount was designed by Edith Wharton in 1902. The building is an example of the wide ranging talents of one of the finest American novelists of the 20th century. During an era of flamboyant house decoration, Wharton designed an airy, informal mansion with many design elements drawn from the houses of continental Europe. Wharton teamed up with her niece, an acclaimed landscape architect, to design the gardens of The Mount. Wharton wrote her 1911 novel Ethan Frome while living at The Mount. The Mount survived as the Foxhollow School for Girls until the 1970. It was later purchased and saved from neglect by Edith Wharton Restoration, Inc.

The Mount

The studio was built in 1930 and the house, which was designed by modernist architect John Butler Swann, was completed in 1941. In the same year that they opened their studio, George (1905-1975) and Suzy (1911-1988) were married. Both artists are best-known for their work as painters. In addition, George, who had a strong inclination towards Cubism, was also writer and sculptor. Suzy was also an opera singer until 1951, when a bout of bronchitis ended her singing career.

The Frelinghuysen Morris  House & Studio is a museum dedicated to two of America's leading abstract artists, George and Suzy Morris. The house and studio is open for tours and feature works by both artists, as well as contemporaries such Pablo Picasso. In addition to their works of oil on canvass, the couple created fresco paintings that also adorn the walls in the house. The house and studio opened to the public in 1998.


Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio

Founded in 1894 by train enthusiast John W. Herbert and others, the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum preserves and promotes the history of railroading in this part of the Massachusetts. The museum offers train rides from North Adams to Adams, features several pieces of vintage railroading stock and equipment, and manages historic buildings including the Lennox Train Station which was built in 1850 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Historic Homes of Stockbridge and Lennox Massachusetts

Edith Wharton Estate

Introduction

Images