Where to Stay
Blantyre has nine rooms, eleven suites and four cottages. Double rooms from $500 to $750, suites from $650 to $950, cottages from $800 to $1,600. 16 Blantyre Rd., Lenox; 413-637-3556; fax: 413-637-4282; blantyre.com.
Wheatleigh has ten rooms and nine suites. Double rooms from $645 to $1,045, suites from $1,050 to $1,750. Hawthorne Rd., Lenox; 413-637-0610; fax: 413-637-4507; wheatleigh.com.
What to See
Lenox and Stockbridge are full of historic houses. One of the finest is Chesterwood, the estate of American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931). Take a tour of his studio to view the plaster casts of Abraham Lincoln used for French's most famous commission: the nineteen-foot-high marble statue at the Lincoln Memorial. Open daily from 10 to 5 from May 22 through October 15. 4 Williamsville Rd., Stockbridge; 413-298-3579; chesterwood.org.
For an intimate view of privileged life a century ago, visit Naumkeag, the former summer residence of Joseph Hodges Choate, a New York City attorney. The forty-four-room, shingle-style house, designed by Stanford White in 1885, has been preserved with everything intact, down to the monogrammed linens stacked in a closet. This gives you the delightful sense that you're snooping. The gardens, in large part the work of landscape architect Fletcher Steele, are remarkable. Don't miss the Art Deco Blue Steps, which descend through a grove of birch trees. Parking is extremely limited, so it's best to arrive early. Open daily from 10 to 5 from Memorial Day through Columbus Day. 5 Prospect Hill Rd., Stockbridge; 413-298-3239.
Edith Wharton's estate, the Mount, recently underwent a dazzling $15 million restoration. Wharton herself designed both the forty-two-room house, built in 1902, and the three acres of formal gardens. For the grounds, she collaborated with her niece, the celebrated landscape architect Beatrix Farrand, to create a series of outdoor "rooms," including a walled sanctuary. Open daily from 9 to 5 from May 6 through October 29. 2 Plunkett St., Lenox; 413-637-1899; edithwharton.org.
Two museums in the northern Berkshires are musts for art lovers. The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, in Williamstown, is a marvel. Its collection of Impressionist art—with works by Monet, Degas and Renoir—is well known, but equally impressive are the paintings and drawings by such artists as John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, George Inness and Mary Cassatt. It's worth the forty-five-minute drive from Lenox just to see Sargent's mysterious and haunting painting Smoke of Ambergris (1880). Open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 to 5. 225 South St., Williamstown; 413-458-2303; clarkart.edu.
Only fifteen minutes away, at Mass MoCA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), in North Adams, a group of old warehouses has been transformed into a startling tableau for oversized installations. While the Clark institute is all beauty, peace and harmony, Mass MoCA is an assault on the senses; you have to steel yourself to face some of the more provocative exhibits. Open Wednesday through Monday from 11 to 5. 87 Marshall St., N. Adams; 413-664-4481; massmoca.org.
On your way back to Lenox, you may want to stop at the Bradley Farm Stand, on Route 7 a bit north of Lanesborough, to purchase bags of fresh local mushrooms and just-picked apples. (This being the Berkshires, of course, the farm was established in 1762.)
In Stockbridge, the collection at the Norman Rockwell Museum features the painting Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas, a quintessential piece of Americana. (Rockwell lived in the town twenty-five years.) Open weekdays from 10 to 4, weekends from 10 to 5. 6 Glendale Rd., Stockbridge; 413-298-4100; nrm.org.
Situated on 1,200 bucolic acres, the Hancock Shaker Village encompasses twenty historic buildings; the Round Stone Barn is a treasure. There are also 22,200 objects on display: furniture, tools, textiles, artwork and household items. Open daily from 9:30 to 5. Rte. 20, Pittsfield; 800-817-1137; hancockshakervillage.org.
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