Berkshires and Pioneer Valley welcome guests to historic homes and sites

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Memorial Hall Museum

8 Memorial Street Deerfield, MA 01342 Phone: 413-774-3768

Open: May 1-October 30

Occupying a building originally constructed in 1798 for Deerfield Academy, Memorial Hall Museum holds over 31,000 items and includes the Old Deerfield Children's Museum, offering family activities in a reproduction of a 1690s house. Exhibits focus on the life and world of an agricultural economy from the earliest Native Americans to the arrival of Europeans.

Merwin House

14 Main Street Stockbridge, MA Phone: 617-994-6662

Open seasonally. Visit HistoricNewEngland.org for hours and admission.

William and Elizabeth Doane purchased this handsome house in 1875 as their summer retreat. They named it Tranquility because it overlooks a peaceful bend in the Housatonic River. The Doanes and their daughter, Vipont Merwin, traveled extensively, collecting European and American furnishings and objects to decorate their home.

Mission House

19 Main St. Stockbridge, MA 01262 Phone: 413-298-3239

Built in 1739 and originally located atop Prospect Hill, this National Historic Landmark was disassembled, moved, and restored between 1926 and 1927. Landscape architect Fletcher Steele designed the Colonial Revival garden, which features a colonial-style dooryard garden of circular brick paths enclosed by a tidewater cypress fence. A replica of an old cobbler shop serves as the entrance to the property; a grape arbor in the Well Courtyard behind the house leads to a small Native American museum.
Hours: Memorial Day weekend to Columbus Day, daily, 10 a.m.- to 5 p.m. Fee charged.

Naumkeag

Prospect Hill Road Stockbridge, MA 01262 Phone: 413-298-3239 Fax: 413-298-5239

Eight acres of terraced gardens

This 44-room house was the summer cottage of the Choate family, and features original furniture, ceramics, and artwork collected from America, Europe, and the Far East. Famous for its eight acres of terraced gardens and landscaped grounds, transformed from 1926 to 1956 into separate garden rooms such as the afternoon garden, rose garden, evergreen garden, Chinese garden, arborvitae walk, and linden walk. The most famous feature of the landscape is Steele’s Blue Steps, a series of deep blue fountain pools flanked by four flights of stairs overhung by birch trees.
Hours: Memorial Day to Columbus Day, daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission fee for non-members.

Old Greenfield Village

Route 2, along the Mohawk Trail Greenfield, MA Phone: 413-774-7138

The museum offers visitors a variety of shops, offices, and exhibits recreating a New England town as it appeared in 1895. Open seasonally. There is an admission fee.

Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum

130 River Drive Hadley, MA 01035 Phone: 413-584-4699

Open: May 15-October 15, Saturday through Wednesday, 1-4:30 p.m.; closed Thursdays and Fridays. Open mornings by appointment.

Historic house museum preserving the material possessions and papers of six generations of one of Hadley's founding families. Tours and interpretations of the house and its contents. Concert series and afternoon teas. There is an admission fee.
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Shrine of Divine Mercy

Eden Hill Stockbridge, MA Phone: 413-298-3931

Site of the first Christian mission to the Native Americans in the area. The structure is set on 350 acres, featuring stained class, murals, and wood carvings.

Springfield Armory National Historic Site

1 Armory Square Springfield, MA Phone: 413-734-8551

This National Historic Landmark houses the world’s largest collection of American military firearms dating from colonial times and offers year-round public programs, exhibits, and special events.

Stone House Museum

20 Maple Street Belchertown, MA 01007 Phone: 413-323-6573

Open: Guided tours mid-May-October, on Wednesday and Saturday, 2-5 p.m.

Rogers Group sculpture; Early American furnishings; carriage shed, mid-1800s carriages and sleighs. Textiles, 20th century print shop, living history programs. Admission charge.

Storrowton Village Museum

1305 Memorial Avenue West Springfield, MA 01089 Phone: 413-205-5051

Open: June 19-August 24, Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; group tours by appointment year-round.

Historic Storrowton Village Museum offers an authentic 19th- century American experience. Traditional village green, gift shop, and meetinghouse and gazebo. Storrowton Tavern, a full-service restaurant Educational programs for children, special events, and guided tours. Located on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition. Admission charge.

The Mount - Edith Wharton Restoration

Plunkett Street Lenox, MA Phone: 413-551-5111

The Mount is a historic site and a center for culture inspired by the achievements of Edith Wharton. Designed by Wharton in 1902, the house embodies the principles outlined in her influential book, The Decoration of Houses (1897). The property includes three acres of formal gardens surrounded by extensive woodlands. Programming at The Mount reflects Wharton’s core interests in the literary arts, interior design and decoration, garden and landscape design, and the art of living. The Mount is open daily, May through October. Information: www.EdithWharton.org.

William Cullen Bryant Homestead

207 Bryant Road Cummington, MA 01027 Phone: 413-634-2244 Fax: 413-634-2244

Boyhood home of one of America's foremost 19th-century poets, the William Cullen Bryant Homestead is a National Historic Landmark. Purchased in 1789 by Ebenezer Snell, Bryant's grandfather, the Homestead and surrounding countryside inspired much of Bryant's poetry such as "The Rivulet" and "To A Waterfowl." Though Bryant moved to New York City to become editor and publisher of The New York Evening Post, the Homestead became Bryant’s summer retreat in his later years, and he converted it from a center-stair colonial to a Victorian cottage. The house collection includes extensive colonial and Victorian pieces from his travels to Europe and Asia.

Wistariahurst Museum

238 Cabot Street Holyoke, MA 01040 Phone: 413-322-5660 Fax: 413-534-2344

Open: Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, noon- 4 p.m.

Twenty-six-room Beaux Arts mansion of silk manufacturer William Skinner featuring many outstanding architectural details and a house tour that weaves the tale of the people who lived and worked there. Dinosaur footprints and gardens. Admission charge.
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Amherst History Museum

The Strong House, 67 Amity Street Amherst, MA 01002 Phone: 413-256-0678

Open: May 17– October 28, Wednesday through Saturday noon-4 p.m. Call ahead for seasonal changes in hours.

Exhibits of 18th- and 19th-century art and furniture. Admission charge.

Arrowhead

780 Holmes Road Pittsfield, MA Phone: 413-442-1793

Truly a literary historic site, Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick and several other works in this house. Tours are available. Open seasonally.

Berkshire Athenaeum

1 Wendell Avenue Pittsfield, MA Phone: 413-499-9480

The featured exhibit of this library is the Herman Melville Memorial Room.

Bidwell House

Art School Road Monterey, MA 01245 Phone: 413-528-6888

The Bidwell House was built circa 1750 as the parsonage for the first minister to the the present-day towns of Monterey and Tyringham. Surrounding the house are terraced stone walls brimming with perennial beds. these provide a fabulous setting for this gem of a Georgian saltbox. The remaining acreage is woodlands laced with hiking trails and foot paths leading to historical landmarks throughout the property.
Beautiful in all seasons, the grounds and gardens ARE a pleasant adjunct to a visit to the museum. Additionally, The Kitchen Garden demonstrates the early colonial style and variety of plants and 19th-century Shaker vegetable gardening. Near it is an heirloom herb garden. There is also the remains of an old orchard.
Hours: Late May to mid-October, Thursday through Monday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Chesterwood

Williamsville Road, one mile south of Routes 183 and 102 Stockbridge, MA 01262 Phone: 413-298-3579

Chesterwood is the country home, studio, and gardens of America’s foremost sculptor of public monuments, Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), creator of the Minute Man and Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial. It is situated on 122 acres in the idyllic hamlet of Glendale near Stockbridge. Each year, during the month of May, French left his permanent home and studio in New York for six months and moved with his family to Chesterwood, where he worked on 201 commissions. Many of French’s plaster sketches, including models of his Abraham Lincoln for the Lincoln Memorial, are on view today in his studio as well as in the permanent exhibit in Barn Gallery. Visitors to Chesterwood are invited to explore a self-guided tour of the beautiful formal gardens and woodland paths created by French himself.
Hours: Late May-early October, daily, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Admission: Adults, $16; children age 13-17, $8

Colonel John Ashley House

Cooper Hill Road Ashley Falls, MA 01222 Phone: 413-298-3239 Fax: 413-298-5239

Built In 1735 by Colonel John Ashley, the Ashley House – now the oldest in Berkshire County - was the center of social, economic, and political life in south Berkshire County in the eighteenth century. The famous Sheffield Declaration, a petition against British tyranny and a manifesto for individual rights, was drafted in the upstairs study of the house in 1773. The cause for abolishing slavery in America was strengthened in the celebrated 1781 Massachusetts court battle that freed the Ashleys' slave, Elizabeth Freeman (nicknamed "Mumbet") under the new state constitution. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Ashley House exemplifies early 18th century architecture.

Crane Museum of Papermaking

Housatonic Street Dalton, MA 01226 Phone: 413-684-6481

Open: June to mid-October, Monday-Friday, 1-5 p.m.

Situated in Crane's historic 1845 old stone mill. Exhibits and displays of nearly 200 years of papermaking in Dalton.
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Emily Dickinson House

280 Main Street Amherst, MA Phone: 413-542-8161

The birthplace and home of Emily Dickinson. Tours are offered. Open seasonally. There is an admission charge.

Folly at Field Farm

554 Sloan Road Williamstown, MA 01267 Phone: 413-458-3135 Fax: 413-458-3135

Once the guest house for the main residence of modern art aficionados Lawrence and Eleanor Bloedel, the Folly exemplifies an era of form and function. A three-bedroom, pinwheel-shaped shingled structure, designed in 1965 by noted modernist architect Ulrich Franzen, the Folly overlooks the pond and still contains unique furnishings designed by Franzen.

Forbes Library

20 West Street Northampton, MA Phone: 413-587-1011

Visitors to the library will enjoy the Calvin Coolidge room, featuring Coolidge memorabilia.
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Hadley Farm Museum

208 Middle Street Hadley, MA 01035 Phone: 413-586-1160

Open: May-October, Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, 1-4 p.m.

Early New England farm equipment in restored 1782 barn: blacksmith tools, ox cart, stage coach, plows, early domestic appliances.

Historic Deerfield

88 Old Main Street Deerfield, MA 01342 Phone: 413-775-7214

Open: Daily, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.; call for seasonal changes.

Historic Deerfield is “New England as you hope to find it!” Located in western Massachusetts off Routs 5 and 10 in the 330-year old village of Deerfield, the Museum has been called “the gem of rural New England,” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This Museum of New England’s history and art welcomes visitors of all ages from around the world to Deerfield’s mile-long thoroughfare, simply called, “The Street.” The Museum features twelve houses dating to the 18th and 19th centuries and three exhibition galleries within the Flynt Center of Early New England Life. Historic Deerfield’s decorative arts treasures can be viewed on both the guided and self-guided tours. A full calendar of programs, special events, group tours and village walking tours are offered throughout the year. The Museum Store and Bookshop feature gifts for all occasions, museum reproductions and a wide selection of books about early America and the decorative arts. Open Daily, year round, 9:30-4:30 except Thanksgiving, Dec. 24 & 25.

Historic Northampton

46 Bridge Street Northampton, MA Phone: 413-584-6011

This group of historic structures includes the Damon House, the Shephard House and barn, and the Parsons House. Open seasonally.

Jones Library

43 Amity Street Amherst, MA Phone: 413-256-4090

Exhibits focus on Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost, two of Amherst's most distinguished residents.

Joseph Skinner Museum

35 Woodbridge Street South Hadley, MA 01075 Phone: 413-538-2245

Open: May through October, Wednesdays and Sundays, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.

Set in a church built in 1846, this museum features 19th-century glassware, furniture and musical instruments. An exhibit of locally unearthed minerals is also of interest. Admission is free.

Kingman Tavern Historical Museum

41 Main Street Cummington, MA 01026 Phone: 413-634-5527

Open: July and August, Saturday, 2-5 p.m.

Museum features an exhibit of miniature rooms and antique furniture. Open seasonally. Admission fee.
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