Historic Buildings of Massachusetts

The Mount (1902)

by Dan/August 9, 2009June 29, 2013/Colonial Revival, Houses, Lenox, Neoclassical

Edith Wharton‘s first book, The Decoration of Houses (1897), written with Ogden Codman, Jr., was very influential as a guide to interior design. The work was a reaction to the Victorian style of heavily curtained and cluttered rooms, instead emphasizing the style of the harmonious and simply proportioned classical rooms of Europe. The main house of Wharton‘s country estate in the Berkshires, called the Mount and located in Lenox, was built in 1902 and displays the principles she had advocated in her book. The house, designed by Wharton with assistance from Codman, was inspired by the seventeenth century English estate, Belton House, but the Mount‘s design also drew strongly on classical Italian and French architecture. The gardens and grounds were also designed by Wharton, with the kitchen garden and drive being designed by Wharton‘s niece, Beatrix Jones Farrand.

Wharton and her husband, Edward, lived in the Mount from 1902 to 1911. The house was later used as a girls’ dormitory for the Foxhollow School, and the site of Shakespeare & Company. In the 1980s, the property was bought by Edith Wharton Restoration, which has restored the grounds and much of the house. The house was opened to the public in 2001, but in 2008 the institution, which had spent millions to acquire the surviving half of Edith Wharton’s collection of books, defaulted on loans and faced foreclosure. Please help save the Mount by visiting and spending money there! There is an online video available of Bob Villa taking a tour of the Mount. Below are some pictures and descriptions of some of the rooms at the Mount and the gardens: Continue reading “The Mount (1902)”

Arrowhead (1780)

by Dan/August 8, 2009June 29, 2013/Colonial, Houses, Pittsfield

Arrowhead is the house in Pittsfield where Herman Malville wrote Moby Dick and other classic works. The house was built around 1780 by Captain David Bush and operated as an inn by Bush and his son. It originally had a much higher gambrel roof, but this was later removed, resulting in a lower roofline. There is a pdf file available of the house’s National Register of Historic Places Inventory nomination form. In the early nineteenth century, the house was the home of Melville’s Uncle Thomas and the author first visited the property, with its view of Mount Greylock, in 1832. In 1850, following the lead of his friend Hawthorne, who had also settled in nearby Lenox, Melville decided to move his family to the farm and they lived there until 1863. Melville named the house Arrowhead, because many arrowheads were dug up around the property during planting season. Shortly after buying Arrowhead, Melville added a side porch, after which his story “The Piazza” is named. These were productive years for Melville as a writer. During his time at Arrowhead, he wrote Moby Dick (1851), Pierre (1852), Israel Potter (1855), The Piazza Tales (1856), and The Confidence Man (1857). His story, “I and My Chimney,” has a description of the house as it appeared when Melville lived there. Not earning a living from his writing, Melville eventually returned to New York, taking a job as a customs inspector. He sold Arrowhead to his brother Allan and it remained in the Melville family until 1927. In 1975, the house was purchased by the Berkshire County Historical Society and restored to become a museum. Continue reading “Arrowhead (1780)”

Captain Simon Colton House (1734)

by Dan/August 7, 2009September 17, 2016/Colonial, Houses, Longmeadow

The Captain Simon Colton House is a classic saltbox house built on Longmeadow Green in 1734. The house has an ell extending to the south which was built to meet a stipulation of Capt. Colton’s second wife that she would marry him only if he made her a seperate bedroom. The house operated as a tavern around the time of the Revolutionary War. It was owned for a time by the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, but was later sold with the requirement that the facade remain unchanged and that the house, known as the “Old Red House on the Green,” always be painted red. The house is featured on the Town Seal of Longmeadow.

Memorial Hall Museum, Deerfield (1799)

by Dan/August 6, 2009August 6, 2009/Deerfield, Federal, Museums, Schools

Deerfield Academy was founded in 1797 and a brick building, designed by Asher Benjamin, was built to house the school in 1799. The Academy later expanded and the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association purchased the old school building in 1877. The building was renovated and opened in 1880 as the Memorial Hall Museum, displaying a collection of objects gathered by antiquarian George Sheldon. Memorial Hall continues today as a museum of Deerfield history and an adjacent building houses the libraries of the PVMA and Historic Deerfield.

Cordis House (1832)

by Dan/August 5, 2009January 23, 2020/Federal, Houses, Longmeadow

The Cordis House in Longmeadow is a late Federal-style house with Greek Revival elements, built at 715 Longmeadow Street in 1832. It was originally constructed as a parsonage, occupied first by Rev. Jonathan B. Condit, who is described in Proceedings at the Centennial Celebration of the Incorporation of the Town of Longmeadow (1883), as “youthful, singularly winning, ornate, magnetic—for personal attractions most admired of all the occupants of our pastorate, before or since.” The house was then occupied by Condit’s successor, Rev. Hubbard Beebe. In 1845, the house was bought by Thomas Cordis, a Boston merchant, and has ever since been occupied by the Cordis family. The brick house’s elaborate porch ironwork was added in the late nineteenth century.

Loring Parsonage (1700)

by Dan/August 4, 2009January 18, 2020/Colonial, Houses, Sudbury

Built around 1700, the Loring Parsonage in Sudbury Center was later the home of Reverend Israel Loring, who became the first minister to serve west of the Sudbury River, settling there in 1723. The Parsonage was later known as the Wheeler-Haynes House and Walter Haynes kept a tavern there. Today the house, which is located behind the town hall, is owned by the town, having meeting rooms and other space which is rented to a credit union.

Kirkside (1815)

by Dan/August 3, 2009/Federal, Houses, Wayland

When Wayland’s 1725 First Parish meetinghouse was taken down, in 1814-1815, to make way for a new church, materials from the old building were used to construct a house and store just to the east. Originally known as the Old Green Store, it has a hipped roof and a second-floor meeting hall, which was used by the town from 1815 to 1845. This hall was constructed as part of the builders’ deal to get the old meetinghouse’s beams and timbers in exchange for letting the town use the hall for thirty years. In 1825, when the First Parish church was split between Calvinists and Unitarians, Rev. Lyman Beecher held a series of meetings in the hall to denounce the Unitarians. In 1849, choir members used the meeting room to rehearse the new hymn by Rev. Edmund Sears, “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” The house was later converted into a summer residence, named Kirkside, by William Bullard, a wealthy Cambridge banker, in 1889. He expanded and updated the house to the Colonial Revival style and placed elaborate French wallpaper in the meeting hall/ballroom. In 1920, the house was purchased by William C. Loring, an artist who taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, and his wife, Mildred Loring, an antiques dealer, who used the meeting hall as her sales room. The restoration of the house by its current owners, in 1991, was featured on the PBS television program, This Old House.