When Lenox was founded in 1767 most residents would have been farmers – even if lawyering, tavern owning, shoemaking, etc. formed part of the support for themselves and their families. So initially, most lots in the village would have been large enough to accommodate a garden, a pig, chickens, and perhaps a cow plus, in many cases, land elsewhere in town for corn or wheat.
From the end of the Revolutionary War into the early 19th century, transportation improved and allowed for more specialization and trade. Village residents still probably would have had enough land for a garden and an animal or two but perhaps smaller lots. This drawing is of Lenox Village in 1839.
By the 1840’s when new territories, immigrants, and railroads had entered the picture, village residents still would probably have wanted to have a small garden plot, a chicken coop and certainly an outhouse. However, they would increasingly be craftsmen, professionals (perhaps working in the county court which was in Lenox until 1868), retail merchants, laborers in Lenoxdale, teamsters, stable keepers, or servants in the larger homes. More and more residents would have been working to earn money to buy food rather than surviving through local exchange of goods and services.
A.J. Jessup Mansion built in 1890 is a typical Lenox Gilded Age Mansion
Belvoir Terrace was designed by Rotch & Tilden and built between 1888-1890 for Morris K. Jesup, with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmstead. John Shepherd purchased the estate in the early 1920’s, making many renovations: the addition of two rooms, the enclosure of the porch, and the installation of a slate roof. Like Mr. Jesup, Mr. Shepherd and his family enjoyed summering at Belvoir. As a summer camp, Belvoir Terrace preserves the great lawn, wooded paths, and imported trees, while restoring the mansion and carefully developing new facilities.
In 2001, a study prepared by The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission and The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission stated, “Among the great estates, Belvoir Terrace is one of the best examples of an estate that maintains a reasonable balance between active use and preservation. The balance is attributable to the current owners’ singular knowledge of building preservation standards, adherence to a maintenance plan, and to the estate’s successful re-use as a summer arts camp. The estate is itself an important focal point on Cliffwood Street.”
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This Colonial Revival style building has two stories, an asphalt shingle roof and has been altered. It now has a 4-bay, wood frame; mansard roof with a dentiled band at the cornice, gable roof dormers and shed dormer on the rear ell. It has wood clapboard siding. There are 4 brick chimneys-1 on front wall, 1 rear wall; 1 side wall & 1 interior on side/rear ell. The house has some early 12 over 1 and 6 over 1 windows. There is a full front porch with fluted Doric columns and dentils. The front door is surrounded with molded header, architrave, and 2/3-length side lights. The 2-story right side ell extends to the rear and probably incorporates the original kitchen wing off of the right rear corner (depicted on 1876 Beers Map). The rear porch has Doric columns at the interior corner of the main house & west side of rear ell. It has a 1-story faceted bay window on front of right side ell and authentic window blinds on the 2nd story windows on the front facade and bay window.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
The original portion of the structure was the home of Israel Dewey, one of Lenox’s earliest settlers. Dewey, who established a home in the area by 1764, was one of the proprietors of Lenox and served in a number of public positions. Like many Berkshire householders, Dewey was licensed as an innkeeper. He left Lenox for Vermont in the early 1790’s, and after several changes in ownership the property was acquired by Zadock Hubbard in 1798. He enlarged the house and opened it as the Hubbard Tavern. In 1806 the building was sold to Azariah Egleston, a locally prominent man, and converted back to a private residence. The house was substantially enlarged and altered after Mary Loring bought it in 1868. In 1885 it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Dana of New York and was remodeled for use as a summer home. The Dana family retained ownership until 1953, when it was sold and returned to use as an inn.
The property was sold to Toner Associates Inc. in 1991 and then to Ellen Gutman Chenaux in 1999.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
Not shown on1854 Clark Map. 1939 Sanborn Map depicts current footprint.
The Book of Berkshire, Clark W. Bryan, 1886
Lenox – Massachusetts Shire Town, David H. Wood, 1969
County Atlas of Berkshire, Mass., F. W. Beers, 1876
Atlas of the Garden Spots of Berkshire, Barnes and Jenks, 1894
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This is a 2-story, wood-framed house with wood clapboard and shingle siding prominently sited atop a hillock. It displays characteristics of both the Shingle and Queen Anne architectural styles. It has an asymmetrical arrangement of the front facade and irregular footprint. The roof is cross-gabled, clad with asphalt shingles, and features a number of dormers. A small dentil band on the cornice encircles the house. There are four massive brick chimneystacks (having multiple flues). There are a variety of shingles—the front gables have scalloped shingles with incised circles; the right side gable has sawtooth and tongue shingles alternating every row; and the second floor has rows of notched shingles over regular rectangular cut shingles. Scroll sawn brackets support all the projecting gables. Two projecting front gabled bays dominate the front facade. The larger of the two is on the right. It has a projecting gabled roof with a set off three attic windows, a broken pediment spanning all three. (This attic window arrangement is repeated on the right side of the house.) A canted bay window on the second floor is centered below, and below it is a 1-story sunporch with balcony atop. The left side pavilion is similar, except with a single 6-o-6 attic window and second floor French door that gives out onto a balcony that tops a fairly recent 1-story addition to the front. (It obscures the original front entry). The entrance, which was moved to the left (north) side, has a porch with two plain pillars and two pilasters with spindled balustrade atop, finials at its corners. The current entry door surround has a fanlight and 2/3-length sidelights. There is a 1-story ell on the left side of the rear ell. In 1885 a large 2-story rear addition was constructed. Attic windows are generally 6-light barn sash type, though on the right side, it has been replaced with a screen. There are a number of original Queen Anne style windows (small square panes surrounding a larger pane) and others with multi-paned transoms.
A large wood-framed carriage barn is sited well behind the house to the east. It has a gable roof with dormers and a cross-gabled right side ell. A greenhouse is also set back from the house, north and west of the carriage barn. A newer front gabled 2-stall garage is located behind the house and south of it is an in-ground swimming pool and gable-roofed pool house. The rear side yard in which the pool and pool house are located is fenced. A curvilinear driveway off Yokun Avenue with its entrance to the north of the house ascends the hill to a wide drop-off area at the front entrance, continues behind the house to access the garage, with a branch eastward to access the carriage barn. There are many mature coniferous and deciduous trees throughout the property.
Architect Henry M. Seaver (3/6/1873 –
The Edward A. Jones Memorial Building was designed by Pittsfield architect Henry M. Seaver. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1897 and began his own architectural firm in 1901.[1] By 1903 he had entered into a partnership with George C. Harding that lasted until Harding’s death in 1921.[2] During that period the firm designed the YMCA Building in Pittsfield; the Chapel at Colgate University in central New York; the Museum of Natural History and Art in Pittsfield; the Colby Academy in New London, New Hampshire; and the Lenox Town Hall.[3] After Harding’s death in 1921, Seaver kept the office open through 1933, during which time he designed the Jones building at the House of Mercy. Other buildings for which he was responsible in this period include the R.J. Flick Residence; an addition to the Berkshire Life Building in Pittsfield; and an addition to the Pittsfield Boys Club Building. He was also an associate architect on the Pittsfield High School Building.[4]
Architect Charles Follen McKim FAIA (August 24, 1847 – September 14, 1909)
McKim, with the aid of Richard Morris Hunt, was instrumental in the formation of the American School of Architecture in Rome in 1894, which has become the American Academy in Rome, and designed the main campus buildings with his firm McKim, Mead, and White.
“KING EDWARD HONORS CHARLES F. McKIM”. NY Times. June 9, 1903.
Moore, Charles (1929). The Life and Times of Charles Follen McKim. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. pp. 204-241. The royal gold medal was awarded for the restoration of the White House. In 1902 Congress appropriated $475,445 for this purpose to be spent at the discretion of President Theodore Roosevelt.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
This house was built for Miss Mary DePeyster Carey. In 1917, it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Strong and in 1931 to Miss Anna R. Alexandre, daughter of John Alexandre builder of Spring Lawn. In 1994 Miss Alexandre sold the house to Dr. and Mrs. Milos Krofta. In 2004 it was acquired by Barbara Crosby.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
Valuation of the Property, Lenox Library
Wood David, Lenox: Shire Town, P193.
Book of Berkshire P144
Lenox Assessor’s database
[1] Berkshire Athenaeum/Pittsfield Library, History Department, Architects file.
[2] Henry F. Withey, AIA and Elsie Rathburn Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased)(Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1970) p 264.
[3] Massachusetts Cultural Resource Inventory System (MACRIS) online at: <http://mhc-macris.net>
[4] Berkshire Athenaeum/Pittsfield Library, History Department, Architects file.
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This house displays a transitional architectural style from Gothic Revival to Queen Anne. The wood-framed building originally had an upright and wing form with cross-gable roof. Verge boards have scroll sawn ends, and there are exposed rafter ends. A broken-eave front gabled dormer is at the center of the roof. There is an exposed brick side wall chimney on the right facade. Cladding is wood clapboard on the first floor, wood shingle on the second. The front gabled right bay has an oculus in the gable, tall, narrow paired windows on the second floor over a canted bay window on the first. Modillions and a scroll sawn bracket ornament the underside of this second floor overhang. The foundation is constructed of large rough-faced cut stones and there is a basement-level entry under the porch. In addition to this being converted to a dwelling, the front gabled section on the left side has been added above the exposed basement. It has a 1-story extension off its left side at the first floor level that is supported by piers/pillars. The front porch, with a front gable entry feature and millwork railing, is another addition or reconstruction. Although it is complementary in style to the original building, the architectural details are larger in scale and the fenestration slightly different in this addition. Windows and doors are all likely replacements.
A 1.5-story barn is located southeast of the house. It has a cross-gable roof that extends over a rear ell. A broken-eave dormer with 6-light window is located on the street facade of the rear ell. Wood clapboard siding is on the first floor and vertical board and batten siding is above with a scalloped lower edge. There are three vehicle bays oriented to the north (facing the dwelling) and a 1-story, 1-stall garage has been added to its right side. It has a fieldstone foundation. An in-ground swimming pool is located behind the barn, south of the house. A semi-circular driveway has two access points on Yokun Avenue. A stream runs through the property south of the buildings.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
This building was originally one of a group of three dependencies (accessory buildings) on the Stonover estate. It may have served as a caretaker’s dwelling, as well as other utilitarian needs such as a greenhouse on the basement level. This set of buildings predates the elaborate Stonover Farm, located in the far western part of the estate. The Stonover Mansion was located northeast of the site of this property; it was demolished in 1940. The 1876 Beers and 1904 Barnes and Farnham maps illustrate a group of three outbuildings as a part of the John E. Parson’s Estate.
Mr and Mrs. Ronald Woodger acquired the property in 1942. It was acquired by Mark Liponis in 1995.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
1876 Beers, 1894 Barnes and Jenks, 1904 Barnes and Farnham Maps, 1894 Barnes and Jenks Map
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This 2-story Tudor Revival style house is constructed with a masonry first floor and wood frame second story; cladding is stone, brick, stucco, and timber. The roof is hipped, clad with slate shingles, and has four shed dormers, two each on the front and rear, one on the left side. In addition there are three hipped dormers. There are four massive chimneystacks and one small brick center chimney. The first floor is finished with random ashlar stonework; half timbering on the upper stories is infilled with either stucco or brick laid up in a crazy course fashion. The window and door lintels are limestone. The house has an asymmetrical massing and articulated front facade. An L-shaped building footprint provides for a courtyard entrance on its north side. A 2-story, 4-bay, hipped roof, projecting service wing with garages creates the second side of the courtyard. Two arched vehicle bays are in its north side. The main section of the house has a 3-bay front facade plus a small pavilion on its left that extends forward, not only of the front facade, but also of the right side of the house. This pavilion has a steeply pitched front gable roof that extends down to the first floor on the right side with a half-timbered hipped dormer on it, and has a large exposed chimney stack of both stone (in the lower section) and brick (upper) on its front. The entrance vestibule has a steeply pitched front gable roof with flared eaves and wide verge board. There is half-timbering in its gable and in the upper portion of the door surround. Small kneewalls of timber and basket-weave brickwork complete the door surround. The intact front door is arched with a 1-light window, decorative faux nail-head band, and large decorative strap hinges. Decorative lead drainage pipes flank the front vestibule. To the right of the entrance is an arched window at mid-floor level (indicative of an interior stair landing). A recessed, 4-bay wide, right side ell with hipped roof and half-timbered hipped-roof dormer extends from the right rear (southwest) corner of the house. It contains a rear entrance. On the rear facade a 1-story ell provides for a south-facing balcony; a canted bay window at the second floor projects into it. A raised terrace extends along the remaining portion of the rear facade. The windows appear to be intact, mostly pairs of 6-light or 12-light casements and some single 8-light casements.
A detached, cross-gabled, 3-stall garage is located west of the house. It has half-timbered siding to match the style of the house. An original 2-story carriage house, also matching the Tudor Revival style of the house, is located in the western section of the property. It has had several major additions. Other minor outbuildings surround it, as do large parking areas.
A long curvilinear paved driveway extends off Yokun Avenue where it bends southward from its east-west connection to Cliffwood Street. The driveway runs along the north side of the property, connecting to the courtyard, and a large parking area west of the house, east of the detached garage. It continues past the garage to provide access to the carriage barn complex farther west. A fountain is located in the front yard. There are many mature coniferous and deciduous trees scattered throughout the grounds, and extensive open lawn areas.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
NOTE: “Holstead [sic] Lindsley” labeled on 1939 Sanborn Map.
The original Ethelwynde was built on this site by Henry Braem in 1875. Ethelwynde was demolished in 1928. In 1929 Halstead Lindsley bought the property, razed the old house, and built the present one. Mr. Lindsley lived here until his death in 1948, when it was sold to Mrs. Gordon Dexter of New York. The property changed hands several more times and on May 10, 1976 it was sold to Krofta Engineering for use as offices. On December 24, 1999 it was transferred to the founder of Krofta Engineering, Milos Krofta and on March 3, 2003 it was purchased by Jamie and Ethan Berg (Ethylwynde LLC).
The following is taken from a Rural Intelligence article (The Winthrop Estate: New Life for a Gilded Age Mansion) posted on the internet by Dan Shaw on August 19, 2009.
Like so many of the gilded age mansions, the Tudor house was dying a slow death. It had been barely touched for decades and was about to be foreclosed even though it was being used improbably as a corporate headquarters. “There were fluorescent lights and office carpeting, but it seemed to have beautiful bones,” says Ethan, who recalls all the people who worked there wore heavy coats because the thermostat was kept low since it was so expensive to heat. In 2003, the Bergs moved into the house and camped out in the paneled library because it was the coziest room and had a working fireplace. After six months, they moved next door to a modest 1950s house that is also part of the 45 acre estate, where they live with their children. “I would sit in the empty mansion and try to take cues from it,” says Ethan. “I thought, let’s lead with quality and the rest will take care of itself.”
He envisioned the house filled with music and interesting people—and now it is. The Bergs have developed parallel missions for the mansion, which is known as both the Lenox Athenaeum and the Winthrop Estate. As the Athenaeum, it hosts readings (by authors such as Simon Winchester), chocolate and wine tastings, and chamber music concerts (with superstars like Emanuel Ax or Yehuda Hanani, who stores his piano in their music room) for charities like the Lenox Library or Charley’s Fund. As the Winthrop Estate, it can be rented out in its entirety for family reunions or weddings.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
1939 Sanborn Map
Rural Intelligence article (The Winthrop Estate: New Life for a Gilded Age Mansion)
Lenox-Massachusetts Shire Town. David Wood, 1969 P. 192
111 Yokun Ave., Richard C. Greenleaf House – c.1870
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This 2.5-story, wood-framed house with wood siding and corner boards is an excellent example of the Stick Style of architecture. It has a complex roof form with multiple gables and dormers that are clad with asphalt shingles and have exposed rafter ends. A jerkin-head roof detail on the east side extends down to provide a hood for a set of three attic windows. Two gabled dormers are on the front and one is on the rear. There are seven brick chimneys. The Stick Styling is evidenced by the wood banding at level of the window sills and high on the second floor, cross members in the large gables, exposed rafter ends, angled braces for the wide overhanging eaves and porch roof, cross bracing in porch railing, and watertable. These detail express on the exterior of the building its interior structure, which is the essence of the style. Above the high second floor banding the cladding is board and batten, below it is clapboard. The south side is the front facade and it has 2-story canted bay window on its west end, and a canted second floor bay window over the porch near its east end, which has a jerkin-head roof. The house has a porch that extends along the entire front (south) side and wraps around to the right side. Its roof is supported by chamfered pillars with collars. A right (east) side pavilion has a front gable roof features a Palladian window with four pilasters on the second floor; it has a peaked attic window above, and a projecting first floor beneath. On the first floor is a 3-part picture window with pilasters and a leaded fanlight in the upper sash over two lights flanked by double hung windows with diamond panes in the upper sashes. To the left of this pavilion is a triangular bay window on the second floor over the porch roof. There is a 2-story hipped roof rear ell with rear wall brick chimney. The foundation is stone. Some original tall, narrow windows arranged in pairs are extant, but many of the windows have been replaced or altered—such as a 3-part picture window to the left of that on the first floor of the right side pavilion with replaced glazing. Another change to the building is the removal of a projecting porch entry that angled 45 degrees out from its southeast corner. A balcony with exterior stair to grade has been added to the right of the right side pavilion. An open deck has replaced an original polygonal section of the porch at the southwest corner of the house.
A small wood-framed barn/garage built c.1875 is located behind the house. It has a steeply pitched front gable roof with large gable-roofed cupola. It has board and batten siding and its sliding doors for the vehicle bays are intact. Stone piers flank the driveway entrance off Yokun Avenue. The long driveway terminates in a circular section on the east side of the house in front of the barn. There are many mature coniferous and deciduous trees throughout the property and a more heavily wooded area behind the house.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
Dr. Richard C. Greenleaf of Boston built Windyside, presumably as a summer home, although by the mid-1880’s he had made Lenox his permanent residence. An 1886 guidebook called it “one of the notable houses of the town”, and remarked on its interior “furnished in exquisite taste”. A large music room, added on to the house for his daughter’s wedding, contained a Roosevelt organ.
Greenleaf sold the house in 1921 to the Lenox Club, which relocated here from its Walker Street clubhouse. The Lenox Club has occupied the building ever since.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
Lenox – Massachusetts Shire Town. David Wood, 1969 p.203
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This small 1-story, wood-frame building was converted from a carriage house to a dwelling, year unknown. Since it has been adapted for residential use, with a few added features, it could be categorized as “Colonial Revival. It is sided with stucco, which may or may not be its original cladding. It has a hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves and a vent cupola. Roofing consists of asphalt shingles and standing seam metal. There is a brick interior chimney. The front facade, facing Yokun Avenue on the north, has five bays asymmetrically organized. A front gabled entrance porch is located at the far left edge. It has a standing seam metal roof with barrel-vaulted ceiling and is supported by two simple pillars. Metal side railings have been added. Beneath the porch roof and to the right of the front door is a set of two casement windows. The front door looks to have been replaced. Farther to the right on the front facade are two sets of three casement windows and two sets of two casement windows, from left to right. The rear facade is distinguished by two canted pavilions with hipped roofs. Between them is a gabled wall dormer. A broken-eave dormer with eave returns and a set of three casement windows is centered on the right side. The left (east) side has a small bump-out that has a hipped standing seam metal roof. The foundation is constructed of large rough-faced cut stones. Skylights have been added to the roof. Decorative window blinds are additions. A wood privacy fence runs along the east property line/Cliffwood Street right-of-way and turns the corner to run along Yokun Avenue up to the driveway entrance off Yokun. Another section of privacy fencing extends right from the right front corner of the building. Coniferous and deciduous shrubs also provide screening from the roadways. And there are specimen and ornamental trees in the small yard.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
This carriage house was part of the original estate The Homestead. After the fire at Homestead, the property was divided into two sections. The carriage house became the property of Miss Annie May Hegeman. The house and carriage house stayed in the family until William and Aleid Channing sold the house in 1973. The Channing’s converted the carriage house in 1970. From 1973 until 1982 Evelyn C. Clarkson owned the converted carriage house. Dr. Norman Solomon acquired the property in 1982.
45 West St., William Ellery Sedgewick House – 1855
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This stone edifice is designed in the style of an English Manor, but with eclectic architectural elements. The house is two stories in height, has a hipped roof with slate shingles, and seven bays on its symmetrically organized front facade. In addition there are 3-bay wings on each side, with hipped roofs. There are seven brick chimneys, two of which are on the front wall of the right wing. One-story turrets are near the outer edges of the main section. The center entrance pavilion has a front gable roof having exposed rafter ends. The entrance door surround is marble with a Roman- or round-arched opening, a broken pediment, two engaged Doric columns and flanking pilasters. Other architectural features of the building are more Gothic in style, with peaked windows and steeply pitched broken-eave dormers. The left wing is deeper than the right and has a much more recent 1-story, gable roofed, rear extension off of it. There are some intact pairs of 6-light metal-framed casement windows with 4-light transoms, but a good number of the windows have been replaced. The foundation is stone. A wide terrace is located behind the house extending between the outer wings.
A small 1-story octagonal garden building with dressed marble walls and copper clad dome is located southeast of the house. It has dentils at its cornice and bas-relief panels in a vase and floral design are above the wall openings. It has lost its original garden setting to newer surrounding facilities. Behind this structure is a wood-framed dormitory, built c.1970, with concrete block first floor and vertical T-1-11-type siding on the second. It has a hipped roof. A c.1950 wood-framed garage with front gable roof and wood novelty siding is sited directly east of the house. Its single-car vehicle bay has been in-filled with a door and flanking windows. Marble piers flank the entry to a long driveway off West Street that curves back a circular drive centered on the front entrance to the house. This circular section has a low stone wall encircling it. A driveway branches off the long drive northeast of the house to provide access to the rear portions of the property, which includes outdoor tennis and basketball courts. A stone wall runs along the front property line/West Street right-of-way from the marble entry piers.
Architects Carrere and Hastings
John Merven Carrère was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the son of John Merven Carrère, a Baltimore native and Anna Louisa Maxwell, a Scots/Brazilian native of Rio who was the daughter of Joseph Maxwell, a prosperous coffee trader. The architect’s father entered Maxwell’s coffee business and later developed other business interests of his own in Brazil. As a boy Carrère was sent to Switzerland for his education until 1880, when he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, where he was in the atelier of Leon Ginian until 1882. He returned to New York where his family had resettled after leaving Brazil and worked as draughtsmen for the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White. He and his Paris acquaintance, Thomas Hastings, worked there together before striking out on their own in 1885. During this period Carrère independently designed several circular panorama buildings in New York and Chicago. After he married Marion Dell in 1886 they lived in Staten Island and had three daughters, one of whom died as an infant. In 1901 they moved to East 65th Street in Manhattan, and built a country house in Harrison, NY.
Thomas S. Hastings was born in New York City on March 11, 1860. His father, also Thomas S. Hastings (1827–1911), was a noted Presbyterian minister, homiletics professor, and dean of the Union Theological Seminary. His grandfather, Thomas Samuel Hastings (1784–1872), was one of America’s leading church musicians of the 19th century: he composed hymns, including ‘Rock of Ages,’ and published the first musical treatise by a native-born composer in 1822. Hastings was educated in private schools in New York, and began his architectural apprenticeship at Herter Brothers, the premier New York furnishers and decorators. He attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris from 1880–1883 as a student in the atelier of Jules André. There he met his future partner, and both maintained ties to Europe throughout their lives (Hastings earning the French Legion of Honor as well as the Gold Medal of the RIBA).
The architects were noted for their contributions to the country house and garden movement of the early 1900s, where they introduced both stylistic and compositional ideas that shaped domestic architecture for decades to come. Their garden designs were extensively published, and they created a comprehensive staff to handle interior design in large houses, one of the first offices to offer these services. Their largest and most notable country houses included Blairsden (1898) in Peapack, New Jersey, Bellefontaine (1897, altered) in Lenox, Massachusetts, Arden (1905–09) in Harriman, New York, and Nemours (1910) in Wilmington, Delaware.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
A ‘gentleman’s estate’ was established on this land in 1855 by William Ellery Sedgwick, a member of the locally prominent family. The original house was a substantial stone farmhouse rather than a mansion of any kind. The house was subsequently purchased by Professor Salisbury of Yale, who in turn sold it to William R. Robeson in 1872. Robeson, a wealthy Boston banker, enlarged and remodeled the house and named it “The Elms”. In 1901-02 Grenville Winthrop purchased the property and had the existing house substantially enlarged and remodeled according to plans by Carrere and Hastings. Winthrop, a direct descendent of the first governor of Massachusetts, filled the house with art and sculpture, most of which he bequeathed to Harvard’s Fogg Museum. He was the President of the Lenox Library Association for 26 years, and with the gift of Bald Head Mountain established the Pleasant Valley Bird and Wild Life Sanctuary. He was an amateur gardener and horticulturalist, and was awarded a silver medal by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1914 for “harmonious lawn and woodland effect”, and the Hunnewell gold medal for the same organization in 1934 for the care and treatment given the property, (with the help of a large staff). Winthrop’s estate “represented the last word in landscape architecture”, with some 40 varieties of trees and 65 acres of lawn, over which exotic birds such as peacocks and pheasants roamed. Even rarer ornithological specimens were kept in a 10-acre, 8 foot high wire enclosure. An aquarium was also located in a building on the grounds. After Winthrop’s death in 1943, the property was acquired by the Windsor Mountain School. It was acquired by Boston University in 1980.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
Lenox – Massachusetts Shire Town. David H. Wood, 1969
The Berkshire Cottages – A Vanishing Era. Carole Owens, 1984
The Berkshire Eagle 7/17/44, 7/18/44 (Berkshire Athenaeum clipping file)
From Surveys Completed 2011-2012 by the Lenox Historical Commission
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This expansive 2-story Colonial Revival house exhibits the symmetrically organized 3-bay front facade with center entrance characteristic of the style. It has a hipped roof, with slate shingles and modillions ornamenting its eaves. Two large brick interior chimneys reinforce the symmetry of the architectural composition. The house is clad with wood clapboard. Two 2-story turrets with conical roofs embellished with garlands, distinguish the outer bays. Extending between and projecting slightly in front of them is the front porch, which has four pairs of Ionic columns and a balustrade atop with turned balusters. A set of three double hung windows on the second floor center bay has pilasters between and flanking them and arcaded headers with shell decoration. The entrance door surround is fairly simple, with ¾-length sidelights above panels; there are double doors. Aligned above the center entrance are two front-gabled dormers with scrolled pediments that are connected by a shed-roofed dormer with standing seam metal roof. A matching set of dormers is located on the left side of the roof, while two dormers on the right side have hipped roofs and lack notable decoration. A recessed 2-story right side ell has a brick endwall chimney and a 1-story sunporch/conservatory fronting it with a cupola. Most of the windows appear to be replaced and have decorative window blinds.
A 2-story, wood-framed carriage house is located behind the house, separated from it by a stand of trees and the access driveways. It has an L-shaped building footprint, two large front gabled wall dormers with a cupola between. There are two right-side extensions—one with a shed roof, the other with a gable roof. The front-projecting garage wing has a hipped roof and two vehicle stalls. A pool house located south of the house provides the terminus for an axis from the house through formal gardens, in which the in-ground swimming pool is sited. Box hedges surround the swimming pool along with required fencing. This accessory building has a hipped roof and clapboard siding. Stone entry piers flank the western entrance to a long curvilinear driveway that runs behind the house (with a drive branching off to the carriage house) and back out to an eastern entry that has a wooden gate. A stone wall extends along the front property line/Walker Street right-of-way with a mature hedge and trees behind it.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
Since August, 1988, the property has been sold to Steven Rufo in 1990, then to the Thistlewood Nominee Trust in 2002. Mr. and Mrs. Lee Munder acquired the property in 2003.
This house was built in 1887 for Mr. and Mrs. David Lydig. After Mrs. Lydig’s death in 1930 the house was rented, then sold to the Paxton family, then sold to Mr. John Gillies who then sold it in 1957 to Mr. and Mrs. W.E.D. Stokes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
Wood, David Lenox: Massachusetts Shire Town, P. 201.
