Category Archives: Stockbridge

Butler House/Swann Cottage (1894)

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Daniel

Butler House/Swan Cottage (1894)

At 25 Main Street in Stockbridge is a mansion built in 1894 for Charles E. Butler (1818-1897). It was designed by Robert S. Stephenson and Stanford White. After 1904, it was known as “Swann Cottage” and was home to Mrs. John Butler Swann. Later an inn, the house was acquired by the Austin Riggs Center in the 1950s (it is now the Center‘s Medical Office Building). The wings were added for medical offices and the building was painted white in 1957.

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Brown Caldwell House (1890)

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Daniel

Brown Caldwell House (1890)

Built circa 1890 and designed by Delano & Aldrich, the Brown Caldwell House is located at 23 Main Street in Stockbridge. In 1930, the house was sold to the Austin Riggs Center. In 1907, while recuperating from tuberculosis in Stockbridge, New York internist Dr. Austen Fox Riggs began to expand his interest in psychiatry and psychology, developing a new and innovative treatment program. He founded The Stockbridge Institute for the Study and Treatment of the Psychoneuroses, which was incorporated in 1919 as the Austen Riggs Foundation. The house was remodeled (its pedimented portico was removed) to become Foundation Inn, one of several historic buildings that comprise the campus of the Austin Riggs Center.

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Children’s Chime Tower (1878)

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Daniel

The Children’s Chime Tower (or Chimes Tower) is a memorial tower in Stockbridge. It was built in 1878 and was a gift to the town by David Dudley Field, a wealthy New York lawyer and son of Rev. D.D. Fields of Stockbridge. Field gave the tower in memory of his grandchildren and, in accordance with his instructions, its chimes are rung at 5:30 every evening between “apple blossom time and the first frost on the pumpkin.” The tower is believed to have been built on the site of Stockbridge’s original meeting house of 1739. The wooden portion at the top of the tower represents the Stick style of architecture. Clocks are mounted in the central gables on all four sides of the roof.

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Citizens’ Hall (1870)

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Daniel

Citizens’ Hall is a mansard-roofed Second Empire building located in the former industrial village of Curtisville, now called Interlaken, in the town of Stockbridge. Designed by Charles T. Rathburn, Citizens’ Hall was built in 1870 as a district schoolhouse, with a public meeting hall on the second floor. Used less frequently as a meeting place after the town’s district schools were consolidated, the building was restored in the 1970s by Old Curtisville, Inc. (pdf). IS183, a non-profit community art school founded in 1991, leased Citizens’ Hall before merging with Old Curtisville, Inc. in 2005. As the building‘s new owners, IS183 completed exterior repairs in May, 2009.

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Nathaniel Seymour House (1814)

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Daniel

The Nathaniel Seymour House in Stockbridge was built in 1814 by a tailor and later owned by the Seymour family of storekeepers. Later owned by William Seymour, after his death it was sold in 1923 to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and moved to be set back from the street in front of the Parish House (the former George Seymour House), to become St. Paul’s Rectory.

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Merwin House (1825)

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Daniel

The Merwin House in Stockbridge was constructed around 1825 by Francis and Clarissa Dresser. It remained in the Dresser family until 1875, when they sold it to William and Elizabeth Doane of New York City. The couple named the house “Tranquility” and used it as a summer home. They substantially renovated the house in 1900, remodeling the interior and doubling the home’s by adding a shingle-style ell. The house was later the year-round home of the Doanes’ daughter, Vipont Merwin (1878-1965), and her third husband Edward Merwin, who died in 1932. She wanted the house, which was acquired by Historic New England in 1966, to become a museum and it is now open to the public several times a year. (more…)

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Mission House (1739)

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Daniel

Rev. John Sergeant was the first missionary to the Mohicans of Western Massachusetts. He came to Stockbridge in the mid-1730s and lived at first in a small cabin. In 1739, he married Abigail Williams and by 1742 had built what is now known as the Mission House. In 1751, Jonathan Edwards succeeded Rev. Sergeant as missionary. The Sergeant family continued to occupy the house until 1867. The elaborate front doorway was added in the 1760s. The house originally stood on Prospect Hill, but between 1926 and 1930, it was moved to its current location at 19 Main Street and was restored by Miss Mabel Choate, the owner of nearby Naumkeag. The Mission House’s gardens were designed from 1928 to 1933 by Fletcher Steele. The Mission House is now a property of the Trustees of Reservations. (more…)

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