Edith Wharton's "The Mount"
(413) 637-1899
2 Plunkett Street - Box 974, Lenox, Massachusetts 01240-0974

The Mount was Edith Wharton's "first real home. Wharton designed and built The Mount in 1902, based on the principles outlined in her influential book, The Decoration of Houses (1897), co-authored with architect Ogden Codman Jr. This classical revival house represents the only full expression we have of Wharton's architectural interests.

Hancock Shaker Village
Intersection routes 20 & 41, Pittsfield, MA 01201
Phones: (413) 443-0188 fax: (413) 447-9357
Email: info@hancockshakervillage.org

Hancock Shaker Village is an outdoor history museum of Shaker life on 1,200 acres in the scenic Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. Its twenty original buildings and historic working farm and gardens preserve and interpret the life of America’s most successful communitarian society. The third of 19 Shaker communities established in New England, New York, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Hancock was home to members of the communal, religious society from 1783 to 1960. It became an outdoor history museum in 1960. Today its buildings, collections and programs interpret three centuries of Shaker life and work, with activities which appeal to visitors of all ages.

Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio
92 Hawthorne Street
PO Box 2256
Lenox, MA 01240
Telephone: (413) 637-0166
Fax: (413) 637-9790

Visit the home of American Abstract Artists George L.K. Morris and Suzy Frelinghuysen, set on a 46 acre estate in the heart of Lenox, Massachusetts. View their paintings, frescoes, and sculpture; experience their exquisite collection of American and European Cubist Art. Where "the 19th century gives way to the 20th, nature takes a backseat to culture and abstraction, and white stucco and the glass block prevail*".

* Roberta Smith, Art Critic for The New York Times

Mass MoCA
1040 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA 01247
Tel. (413) 662-2111

International in scope, MASS MoCA is an open platform, a welcoming place that encourages dynamic interchange between making and presenting art, between the visual and performing arts and between the extraordinary historic factory campus and the patrons, workers and tenants who inhabit it. Rehearsals, art fabrication shops, a hardware store and production studios are open to public view, and the lines between “backlot” work and front-of-the house are deliberately blurred. The history of MASS MoCA’s site spans more than 200 years of economic, industrial and architectural development. MASS MoCA is open year-round. 90 minutes from Lakeville.

On-line at: www.massmoca.org

Chesterwood Estate & Museum
Williamsville Road
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Tel. (413) 298-3579

For more than 30 summers, Daniel Chester French lived and worked in this serene corner of the Berkshires. The focal point of the Chesterwood Tour is, of course, the artist's Studio, and the beautiful formal gardens and grounds where time seems to stand still. Throughout his career, French created more than 100 public monuments, including two of our nation's most powerful symbols: the Minute Man in Concord and the seated Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

The Museum is open from May to October. 45 minutes to Lakeville.

On-line at: www.chesterwood.org

Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site
4097 Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, NY 12538
Tel. (845) 229-9115

This 300-acre site contains "Springwood," the life-long home of America's only four-term President. Also on the site is the Presidential Library and Museum, operated by the National Archives. Visitors may enjoy a guided tour of FDR's home, take a self-guided tour of the Museum, or stroll the grounds, gardens and trails. The site is open year-round, except for major holidays. 75 minutes from Lakeville.

On-line at: www.nps.gov/hofr

The Vanderbilt Estate
519 Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, NY 12538
Tel. (845) 229-9115

The Vanderbilt Estate in Hyde Park, New York, is perhaps the best, most intact example of “Guilded Age” estates constructed by wealthy industrialists in the 19th century. It was the home of Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt, and was constructed between 1896 and 1898. The fully-furnished, 54-room mansion is placed in a wondrous landscape with breathtaking views of the Hudson River and distant Catskill Mountains. With Trails and formal gardens, it offers a glimpse into a past world known by only an elite few. The estate is open year-round. 75 minutes from Lakeville.

On-line at: www.nps.gov/vama