From Form B’s Completed by Lenox Historical Commission 2012-2013
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
This Shingle style building has two stories with an asphalt shingle roof, and has been minimally altered. It has 3-bays and is oriented with the front facade facing the rear of church. It has an irregular bldg footprint with wood frame & stone construction. There are multiple hipped roof sections with double-bracketed eaves. The hipped dormers, 2 on the front and 1 in the rear, all have paired 4-over-1 windows & brackets at the outer corners of cornice. There are 2 stone chimneys,1 front wall and 1 interior in the recessed Left-side ell. There is stone and wood shingle cladding. The Left side of house has shingle cladding on 1st floor as well as the 2nd floor. The lower edge of the upper story flares out over 1st floor. There is a 2-story polygonal hipped-roof tower on the Right (South) side with Roman-arched window openings on 1st floor. The arches spring from short engaged columns. There are matching paired arched windows on 1st floor Right facade behind the tower. There is a large front porch with a stone kneewall along the front supporting 2 Doric columns. The sides have large Roman-arched entrances accessed by stairways on either side, and a balcony with millwork railing atop. There is a hipped porch roof supported by a single Doric column behind and Left of the main porch. A rear entry porch is recessed into rear Left corner of the house. There is an Arts & Crafts pane pattern in a leaded glass window, with 7-over-1 upper sashes with 4 small square panes above a larger pane, and flanked by 2 vertical panes. Other windows have 9-light casements with 8 small panes over 1 large pane. There is a stone foundation.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE:
In 1892, the Parish constructed the Rectory for $31,586.72 with donations given by many of the same wealthy summer residents who contributed to the construction of the Church. The new Rectory was dedicated by the new Bishop of Massachusetts, the Right Reverend Phillips Brooks (1835-1893), who visited Lenox in the summers. Brooks, author of “O Little town of Bethlehem”, was the best known Bishop of Massachusetts and was rector of Trinity Church, Boston, when that was constructed by Richardson in the 1870s.
Listed on National Register of Historic Places February 26, 1996, together with Church and Parish Hall.
Excerpt from Trinity Church Lenox; John Allen Gable, 1966: “On November 12, 1892 a new rectory had been dedicated next to Trinity Church by frequent summer visitor Phillips Brooks, the Bishop of Massachusetts, author of “0 Little Town of Bethlehem”, and one of the most beloved Christian preachers of the era. The spacious Victorian mansion, complete with servants quarters (which have not seen domestics for many a year now), was built at a cost of $31,586.72. The funds were largely given by the same parishioners who donated to the building of Trinity Church. The largest donors were Mr. and Mrs. John S. Barnes, David W. Bishop, Mrs. C.G. Haven, Mr. and Mrs. George H. Morgan, Charles Lanier, Mr. and Mrs. John E. Parsons, Mrs. William Douglass Sloane, Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes, and Mrs. Matilda White. Furniture for the rectory was given by a number of donors including Mrs. Stokes, Mrs. Haven and Mrs. Lanier. This building, of course, still serves the rector and his family…it boasts the largest bathroom in the Diocese…”
(Trinity Church, Lenox, Gable 1966)
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES:
The National Register of Historic Places
Gable, John Allen. The Goodness that Doth Crown Our Days, A History of Trinity Parish, 1993.
Palmer, C.J. History of Trinity Church, 1763-1895 , Cambridge,1895.
Tucker, G.H. History of Lenox, 1936, Republished by Lenox Library, 1992.
Trinity Church Lenox; John Allen Gable, 1966.
New England Magazine, October 1900, vol. 23, pp. 192-211.
Assessors Data Base.
