Wheatleigh | |
Location | W. Hawthorne Rd Stockbridge, Massachusetts |
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Coordinates | 42°20′22.1″N73°17′49.4″W / 42.339472°N 73.297056°W |
Area | 22 acres (8.9 ha) |
Built | 1893 |
Architect | Peabody and Stearns |
Architectural style | Italian Villa |
NRHP reference No. | 82004956 [1] |
Added to NRHP | April 6, 1982 |
Wheatleigh is a historic country estate on West Hawthorne Road in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, United States. Built in 1893 to a design by Peabody and Stearns, it is one of the few surviving great Berkshire Cottages of the late 19th century, with grounds landscaped by Frederick Law Olmsted. Its estate now reduced to 22 acres (8.9 ha), Wheatleigh was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. [1] It is now operated as a hotel. [2]
Wheatleigh is located in far northeastern Stockbridge, just south of the Tanglewood facility of the Boston Symphony Orchestra on the east side of West Hawthorne Road. The estate is located atop a knoll from which there are commanding views of Stockbridge Bowl to the west. The remnant portion of the estate includes only the main house and water tower of the formerly 250-acre (100 ha) property, which also included greenhouses, a large garage with apartments above, an icehouse, barn, and three gatehouses. The house is a large 2+1⁄2-story masonry building, with Mediterranean Revival styling. It is organized in a U shape, with a central main block, a bedroom wing to the north, and a loggia and "summer house" to the south. It is built out of buff brick with terra cotta trim. The water tower is 100 feet (30 m) in height, built out brick in three octagonal stages, and was one of the tallest structures in Berkshire County when it was completed. [3]
Henry H. Cook was a New York-based businessman who made his fortune in the railroad and banking businesses. He purchased the undeveloped estate land in 1892, and oversaw construction and landscaping of the property. He named it Wheatleigh, in homage to his family's ancestral home, Wheatley, Oxfordshire. The house, designed by the Boston architectural firm of Peabody and Stearns, received notice in architectural publications, and was described by Charles McKim as one of the best examples of modern Italian Villa architecture. [3]
The property passed to Cook's daughter, Gloria de Heredia, who opened the formal gardens on the grounds for vespers church services in the summer, and was a financial backer behind the establishment of Tanglewood. The estate was sold out of the Cook family in 1946, and the 22-acre (8.9 ha) house grounds were subdivided off soon afterward. The property was owned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra between 1949 and 1957. Since 1976 it has served as a hotel. [3]
The property was acquired in 1983 by L. Linfield and Susan Simon under the holding name of Su Lin Inc. [4] Operations as a hotel were discontinued in the Spring of 2024 and the property listed for sale on 22-acres for $15 million. [5]
Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 census. Lenox is the site of Shakespeare & Company and Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Lenox includes the villages of New Lenox and Lenoxdale, and is a tourist destination during the summer.
Tanglewood is a music venue and festival in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the Tanglewood Music Center, Tanglewood Learning Center, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. Besides classical music, Tanglewood hosts the Festival of Contemporary Music, jazz and popular artists, concerts, and frequent appearances by James Taylor, John Williams, and the Boston Pops.
Peabody & Stearns was a premier architectural firm in the Eastern United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the firm consisted of Robert Swain Peabody (1845–1917) and John Goddard Stearns Jr. (1843–1917). The firm worked on a variety of designs but is closely associated with shingle style.
The Breakers was a Queen Anne style cottage designed by Peabody and Stearns for Pierre Lorillard IV and located along the Cliff Walk on Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, Rhode Island. In 1883, it was referred to as "unquestionably the most magnificent estate in Newport."
Naumkeag is the former country estate of noted New York City lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate and Caroline Dutcher Sterling Choate, located at 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The estate's centerpiece is a 44-room, Shingle Style country house designed principally by Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White, and constructed in 1885 and 1886.
The Lyman Estate, also known as The Vale, is a historic country house located in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is now owned by the nonprofit Historic New England organization. The grounds are open to the public daily for free; an admission fee is required for the house.
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
The Mission House is an historic house located at 19 Main Street, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was built between 1741 and 1742 by a Christian missionary to the local Mahicans. It is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1968 as a rare surviving example of a colonial mission house. It is now owned and operated as a nonprofit museum by the Trustees of Reservations.
John Goddard Stearns Jr. was an American architect and cofounder of the prominent Boston based firm Peabody and Stearns.
Elm Court is a former Vanderbilt mansion located on Old Stockbridge Road, straddling the town line between Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and until July 2012 was owned and operated as a hotel by descendants of the original owners.
Chesterwood was the summer estate and studio of American sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850–1931) located at 4 Williamsville Road in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Most of French's originally 150-acre (61 ha) estate is now owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which operates the property as a museum and sculpture garden. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 in recognition of French's importance in American sculpture.
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Stockbridge and Lenox in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts.
Shadow Brook Farm Historic District is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is a historic district that includes six re-purposed farm buildings related to the former 'Shadowbrook' mansion destroyed by fire in 1956. Designed by architect H. Neill Wilson with landscaping by Frederick Law Olmsted, the mansion and farm buildings were built for Anson Phelps Stokes in 1893. Andrew Carnegie acquired Shadowbrook in 1917 and died there in 1919. It served as a Jesuit novitiate from 1922 until 1970. Following the fire, a non-equivalent structure of the same name took its place and currently is home to the Kripalu Center. Today the historic district primarily encompasses Berkshire Country Day School, which acquired its campus from the Stokes family in 1963. The historic district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Villa Virginia is a historic country estate situated on Ice Glen Road in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Built between 1914 and 1915, it stands as one of the last significant examples of the grand Berkshire Cottages and showcases Renaissance Revival architecture. This estate was added to National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Shepherd Brooks Estate is a historic property at 275 Grove Street in Medford, Massachusetts, United States. The 82-acre (33 ha) property is owned by the city of Medford, and managed by a trust established to preserve the property. Its principal feature is the manor house constructed in 1880 by Shepherd Brooks, a member of a prominent Medford family, and is the only major 19th-century estate to survive relatively undeveloped in the city. The grounds are open to the public daily from dawn to dusk, and tours of the house are available during the summer.
H. (Henry) Neill Wilson was an architect with his father James Keys Wilson in Cincinnati, Ohio; on his own in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and for most of his career in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The buildings he designed include the Rookwood Pottery building in Ohio and several massive summer cottages in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
Stockbridge Bowl, also known as Lake Mahkeenac, is a 372-acre (1.51 km2) artificially impounded body of water that is 2.5 miles (4 km) north of the village of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Above the lake's north side with sweeping views to the south is Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Gertrude Robinson Smith was an arts patron, philanthropist and a founder of the Berkshire Symphonic Festival, which came to be known as Tanglewood. At the height of the Great Depression, Smith gathered the human resources and secured the financial backing that supported the festival's early success. Her leadership from the first concerts in August 1934 through the mid-1950s has been recognized as foundational to assuring the success of one of the world's most celebrated seasonal music festivals.
Oronoque was built as the country home of Birdseye Blakeman, Esq., and is located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The building was designed by William Henry Miller and built by Powers & Sons, Rochester. The house exterior was built to resemble a royal hunting lodge. The 12-acre (4.9 ha) grounds were landscaped by Nathan Franklin Barrett.