Lenox

To summer visitors Lenox, 130 miles (209 km) west of Boston, 42 miles (68 km) southeast of Albany NY and 144 miles (232 km) north of New York City (map), is synonymous with Tanglewood, the spacious estate on the town's outskirts that for decades has been the summer performance center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the site of the renowned Tanglewood Music Festival.

A Bit of History

At first the colonial settlement at Lenox was called Yokuntown, after a Native American chief, but the name was later changed to honor an English lord—Charles Lenox, Duke of Richmond—who was sympathetic to the American Revolutionary cause.

Although small industries have at times appeared in the town, it has been predominantly rural and agricultural, and has remained unspoiled.

In the 19th century business tycoons (including Andrew Carnegie) came to admire the tidy farms and streets of Lenox as the perfect place for a summer's retreat, and many of them bought up farms for this purpose, transforming the simple farms into splendid estates complete with huge summer mansions.

Many of the mansions are still standing for visitors to admire, and even stay in, as lots have been converted to beautiful—even palatial—inns and resort hotels.

Tanglewood Concerts

Inside the Koussevitsky Music Shed at Tanglewood, ready for a concert.

Each weekend Lenox fills to capacity with music lovers from Albany, Boston, Hartford, Montréal, New York City and beyond.

The main concert venue is the amusingly-named Koussevitsky Music Shed, a simple but spacious hall capable of holding an entire Mahler-sized symphony orchestra and 5,700 concert-goers—some "shed!"

Many chamber music and ensemble performances and solo recitals are held in the award-winning Seiji Ozawa Hall on the Tanglewood campus.

In addition to the seasoned musicians from the BSO, there are performances by the young and extremely promising musicians who attend the Tanglewood Music Center for study and advanced training.

Maestros Seiji Ozawa, former music director of the BSO, and the late Leonard Bernstein of the New York Philharmonic, were once among this young up-and-coming elite.

For the full schedule, see the BSO website. Also, buy your tickets ONLY on the BSO website! Other websites may sell you bogus tickets at inflated prices. Be sure you're buying directly from the orchestra! More...

Plan Your Tanglewood Visit!

A Boston Symphony Orchestra concert at Tanglewood is among New England's prime summer cultural activities, which is why up to 15,000 people may arrive along with you to enjoy the concert. With such a crowd, and thousands of cars and buses, planning is essential. Here's the information you need to plan your visit to Tanglewood: tickets, timing, traffic, picnics, where to sit. More...

The crowded lawn outside the Music Shed just before the concert.

Lenox Mansions

Besides Tanglewood, visitors come to enjoy Lenox's refined ambience, to stay at inns that were built as summer mansions, to tour the Berkshire Hills, and to enjoy other cultural diversions in nearby towns such as Lee, Pittsfield and Stockbridge.

Walk or drive around Lenox, Massachusetts to see sumptuous mansions, even small castles, nestled in fine parks and copses of trees.

Once occupied for a few months in summer by commercial and industrial magnates and their families, many of Lenox's mansions are still in private hands, enjoyed by an ever-widening circle of the descendants of the original builders.

Most of Lenox's fine houses are not open to the public, so you must settle for tantalizing looks from the sidewalk.

Ventfort Hall

Built in 1893 for Sarah Morgan, sister of financier J P Morgan, later used as the exterior set for the movie The Cider House Rules, this brick-castle Gilded Age mansion at 104 Walker Street was saved from demolition and restored to become a museum of the era when the income tax was nonexistant and financial fortunes were huge. Located only a half mile (800 meters, 10-minute walk; map) from Veterans Memorial Park (with the obelisk) in the center of Lenox, it's an easy way to have a glimpse of Lenox in its Gilded Age. Programs, performances and special exhibits add to its attraction. More...

The Mount

The Mount is a grand house and gardens planned by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edith Wharton (1862-1937). You can tour the house and watch a salon drama based on Ms Wharton's life and works, June through October, Tuesday through Friday. The Mount is located just south of Lenox, at the junction of US 7 and MA 7A. More...

Shakespeare & Company

For more than four decades, Shakespeare & Company, 70 Kemble Street, has brought to life the Bard's best in the Berkshires, with memorable performances in several playhouses and outdoor venues by a company of more than 150 artists. The playbill is not exclusively Shakespearean, however. Look here for a wide range of theatrical comedy and drama. More...

Church on the Hill

Walk to the top of the hill on Main Street (US 7), north of the town center to see the Church on the Hill, a very fine New England Congregational meetinghouse (church) built in 1805.

Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary

For a beautiful hike through a thousand acres of Berkshire countryside, find your way to the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, northwest of Lenox. Follow the signs, or take MA 7A north to West Dugway Road, then to 472 West Mountain Road (map). Pay the admission fee (dawn to dusk daily, closed Monday), and set out on the 7 miles of nature trails to explore native Berkshire flora and fauna.

Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum

At 10 Willow Creek Road in Lenox (map) you can find out about local railroad lore, poke around in a New Haven Railroad caboose, watch a complex model railroad run, and see railroading videos. Nostalgic excursion trains run from the museum on a 15-mile route connecting Lenox, Lee, Stockbridge, and Great Barrington. The museum is open weekends and federal holidays only from late May through late October. More...

Inns in Lenox

Inns right in the center of Lenox, walking distance to everything, include the 4-star, 13-room Kemble Inn and Restaurant, in a former mansion only a mile from Tanglewood. The 4-star, 19-room Rookwood Inn is equally convenient, as is the 4-star, 14-room Hampton Terrace Bed and Breakfast Inn.

Want to go way upscale? That would be Wheatleigh, the 5-star, 19-room super-luxury estate on 22 acres (9 hectares) a mile and a half (2.4 km) from the town center. More...

Lee

Memorial Hall and Main Street, Lee MA.

Gateway to the Berkshires, Lee is where most visitors leave the Massachusetts Turnpike, follow smaller roads, and explore the county. The Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, based in neighboring Becket, draws visitors to Lee as well.

For many visitors driving to the Berkshire Hills along the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90), Lee, Massachusetts, 125 miles (201 km) west of Boston, 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Albany, NY, and 4.3 miles (7 km) south of Lenox, is the gateway to the Berkshires (map), located just north of I-90 Exit 2. Head north along US Route 20, and within a mile you're at the center of Lee on Park Place.

Here you'll find a small park, the Visitor Center for tourist information, the nice bright-red-brick Memorial Hall, the white New England high-steeple First Congregational Church.

In the center and in the verdant countryside surrounding Lee are several historic inns and B&Bs and comfortable hotels and motels, and the usual collection of shops and businesses.

Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival

This premier American summer dance program, founded in a delapidated barn in the Berkshire Hills in 1933, is now among the most important summer dance programs in the USA. It takes place at 358 George Carter Road (map) in the neighboring town of Becket, 8 miles (13 km) east of Lee, off US 20.

Bought by Ted Shawn and renovated for performances, the barn and the festival grew larger and more important over the years, enlisting the talents of Martha Graham, Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, and similar lights.

The historic Ted Shawn Theater at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket MA.

The 10-week Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival season begins in late June and runs through August.

Santarella Gardens

In the tiny village of Tyringham, 5 miles south of Lee along the Tyringham Road at 75-77 Main Road, is Santarella, a curious thatched cottage built by sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson (1863-1947), who studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, then emigrated to the USA and set up house 5 miles (8 km) SE of Lee MA in the tiny village of Tyringham (map), once the site of a Shaker community. Kitson crafted The Minuteman statue which stands on Battle Green in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Pilgrim Maiden statue in Plymouth MA.

Santarella, the fantasy-cottage studio of sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson in Tyringham MA, near Lee.

Santarella was Kitson's obsession and life's-work project. It is among the most unusual buildings in the USA.

Although Kitson made landmark statues and bas-reliefs of Civil War leaders (now in Vicksburg National Military Park), his Gingerbread House studio in Tyringham mwas his obsession. He spent much of the last 25 years of his life—and most of his money—working on it.

With a 45-foot (14-meter) ceiling, stained glass windows, a goldfish pond, and an 80-ton (73 metric ton) concrete-and-asphalt-shingle roof, Santarella is a unique fantasy structure that looks much smaller and simpler than it is. The 20th-century construction incorporates several much older farm structures, including two silos and parts of a barn.

In need of expensive restorations, Santarella has appealed for financial support, but its future is still not certain. For now, you can visit it from the outside.

October Mountain State Forest

October Mountain is Massachusetts' largest state forest at 16,500 acres (67 square kilometers). Once the estate of President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of the Navy, the forest now has 47 campsites just outside of Lee, and hiking trails for all levels of skill and mobility. The Appalachian Trail passes through the forest. More...