Several authors count Samuel Gray Ward’s (1817-1907) purchase in 1844 of the original Highwood as the beginning of Lenox as a resort community. Ward certainly set the mold for others…
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Judge Bishop House – Gone But Not Forgotten Corner of West and Main. Cozynook Cozynook was built for George Tucker in 1865. This charming house…
Cliffwood has so many lovely homes today that they could all be considered estates in modern terms. For the sake of manageability, this enumeration is limited to those that have…
A plaque across from Hawthorne Street celebrates the location of the first settler of Lenox – Jonathan Hinsdale. It was, for a long time, the primary north-south route to Stockbridge…
Windyside Windyside (111 Yokun) was built by Boston physician Richard Cranch Greenleaf (1845-1913) and his wife Adeline Emma Stone (1849- 1936). It is notable as one of the few stick…
*The Bishop Guest Houses Thirty five and forty five Walker were built as “overflow” guest houses for the Bishop family Thirty Five, called the Henry W. Bishop House was built…
Frelinghuysen Cottage Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, who served as Secretary of State under Chester A. Arthur, and his wife Martha Griswold Frelinghuysen built this house in 1888 (some sources say 1881)…
Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe Henry Ward Beecher became minister of Plymouth Congregational Church in Brooklyn (shown here with his equally famous sister Harriet Beecher Stowe) in 1847....
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The Mount Fortunately both the buildings and grounds of Edith Wharton’s 1902 masterpiece have been largely restored. The Mount is notable for its lightness and modernity in comparison to…
The Lenox Academy The lovely Federalist Academy building (still standing on Main Street) attracted well educated Lenox residents and visitors who would set a tone for future centuries. Although…
By the turn of the 20th century, the episcopal church in Lenox had added four grand looking gilded age buildings to Lenox: church, chapel, and rectory in Lenox village and St….
Started in 1805 and dedicated January 1806, the Church on the Hill remains one of the loveliest buildings in Lenox. Information on the architecture and the nearby burying ground and…
The Lenox Historic District was established in June 1975 by a vote at a special town meeting of 162 in favor, 20 opposed. It was one of the first Historic…
Repression in Response to Desperation The farmers of rural Massachusetts had been struggling with debt and the non-responsiveness of their representatives since before the end of the Revolutionary War. By…
Lenox Becomes the County Seat in 1782 In November of 1782* the Massachusetts state Legislature appointed a committee of three men to visit Berkshire County and pick a location more…
What was the end of the Revolutionary War like in Lenox? This is another instance where we’ll have to guess from information about the general state of affairs. Major Fighting…
Pre-Revolutionary Lenox Dale As Jan Chague points out in her excellent new book, History of Lenox Furnace and Lenox Dale, the official history of Lenox Dale begins with a 500 acre…
What was a Loyalist in Lenox? It may have been something different than a loyalist in New York or New Jersey where loyalists were more prevalent and the war was…
We know of no eye-witness accounts of Revolutionary War service by Lenox enlisted men. However, Joseph Plumb Martin from Becket gives a fascinating and colorful picture of what life would…
Although no shots were fired, the Revolution in the Berkshires could have been said to have begun in 1774. The revolt of 1774 was a demonstration by Berkshire and Litchfield…
On July 14, 1774 one hundred and nine Lenox men made their first official act of rebellion against the British empire by signing an agreement not to buy British manufactured…
We’ve discussed the economic and political reasons for the Revolution, but there were also emotions that drove colonial Lenox citizens to endure eight years of war and sacrifice. Idealistic reasons…
Almost up to the time of the American Revolution, Lenox residents probably would have been satisfied that they could have the rights of self government to which they were accustomed…
Because records are limited for early Lenox, we probably will not be able to draw conclusions about why Lenox in particular took up the cause of independence from Great Britain….
Proprietors were akin to a modern corporation in that they owned a % of the land and acted as a board of directors for the town. The money they put…
What were to become the towns of Lenox and Richmond began as one tract with the catchy name of Lot #8. Lot #8 was auctioned in 1762 as part of…
Newport and Lenox had shared families, architects and roles in the Gilded Age. They also differed in several important ways that had impact on their future. We were fortunate…
Yale Emeritus Professor of History John Demos explored gender relations in colonial America at a Bidwell House lecture June 20, 2015. He discussed how male-female difference was understood at the…
Housing in Colonial Lenox Given the primitive transportation available, housing for the earliest settlers would have been limited to raw materials readily at hand: logs, stone, and clay. Initial houses…
Yes the Bidwell House is in Monterey, but like many historic homes in Lenox it requires intelligent intervention to remain standing and to be true to its historic heritage. Not…
Lot 8 Put Up for Sale in 1762 Although the French and Indian Wars would not officially end until 1763, things had turned sufficiently favorable for the English that, by June…
Lenox Land Grants The land that would comprise Lenox and Richmond was auctioned as Lot 8 by the Royal Colony General Court in 1762. But, the land that was being…
Berkshire County was established in 1761 — almost a hundred years after Hamshire (later Hamden, Hampshire and Franklin) County to the East. Why establish a new Massachusetts county at all?…