The Berkshires, a.k.a. Berkshire Hills and Berkshire Mountains, have been a popular destination since the middle of the 19th century, when wealthy Bostonians established large estates, built cottages, and invited their notable friends to visit. William Aspinwall Tappan and Samuel Gray Ward built the first summer estates in Lenox; in 1850 Tappan rented a cabin on his property to Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose year and a half residency was critical in the establishment of the Berkshires as an arts colony.
Generally speaking, the original artists in the Berkshires were Catharine Sedgwick and Fanny Kemble. Herman Melville decided to take up permanent residency on the family farm in Pittsfield because of Hawthorne. Fifty years later Edith Wharton built The Mount, her celebrated house and gardens in Lenox.
Boston Symphony comes to Lenox
Tappan’s granddaughter donated the family property to the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1938, where they established the Tanglewood Music Center, which they enlarged fifty years later by acquiring the Ward family’s Highwood estate, now site of Seiji Ozawa Hall and the Leonard Bernstein campus.
Berkshires towns and cities
Berkshires theatres and performing arts venues and organizations
Peter Pan and Bonanza Bus and Amtrak train depots in the Berkshires
Follow the link for locations and contact information for all Peter Pan Bus, Bonanza Bus, and Amtrak train depots in the Berkshires.
