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Berkshire Botanical Garden

The Berkshire Botanical Garden in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 1934 as the Berkshire Garden Center, and its public display gardens are among the oldest in the United States. Guest Gardener during 2010 at Berkshire Botanical Garden will be Anthony Archer-Wills, the author, broadcaster and lecturer, who has pioneered water-gardening techniques in Europe and South America, as well as the US, with more than 2,000 projects to his name over some 50 years.
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Berkshire Botanical Garden – schedule and news

Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual plant sale schedule is: May 7, 2010 –
8 a.m. – 11 a.m., members only; 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., general public. May 8, 2010 – 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., general public. Gardeners can choose from thousands of plants, shrubs and bulbs, many of which are grown right at Berkshire Botanical. New this year is a Garden Tag Sale offering pre-owned tools, pots and treasures. Friday May 7; 1 pm will feature a special event talk and sale of rare plants with Adam Wheeler of Broken Arrow Nursery at 1pm on Friday; $30, reservations required.

Berkshire Botanical Garden – directions and information

Berkshire Botanical Garden
413-298-3926
Rtes 102 & 183, Box 826
Stockbridge, MA 01262

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Berkshires cottages

Jan. 02, 2015 Article by Dave Read

News item: Elm Court, the Sloane-Vanderbilt estate, built in 1886 on Old Stockbridge Rd. in Lenox, 55,000 sq. ft. on 44 acres, the largest shingle style residence in the country, was sold by its 4th generation owners to developers in Colorado for a little less than ten million dollars. (See Bob Villa video about fixing-up Elm Court.) With that transaction, the Berkshire Cottage era has come to an end. Speaking of rapacious developers, the best of the lot today would be hard-pressed to match the me-my-mine meme that was the defining characteristic of the bluestockings who inspired Mark Twain to coin the “Gilded Age,” whence the Berkshire cottage had its day in the sun.

Lenox and Stockbridge Gilded Age mansions

Some of America’s wealthiest families built mansions in and around Lenox and Stockbridge during the Gilded Age, which came to be known as Berkshire cottages. One hundred fifty years later, some of them remain standing, if re-purposed, such as Bellefontaine, current site of Canyon Ranch, and Belvoir Terrace, now a summer camp for girls. Only one remains in the hands of its original family, Elm Court, recently reclaimed by the Vanderbilt family and now available for private functions and overnight accommodations.

Shadowbrook – Kripalu Yoga Center

Shadowbrook was built in 1893 for Anson Phelps Stokes, with Frederick Law Olmsted designing the 900 acre estate. It was purchased in 1917 by Andrew Carnegie, who died there in 1919; in 1922 Carnegie’s widow sold the estate to the Society of Jesus who operated a Jesuit seminary there until it was destroyed by fire in 1956, killing four Jesuit priests. They built a new structure, which closed due to declining enrollments in 1970 and stood vacant until it was purchased in 1983 for the establishment of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health.
Belvoir Terrace, currently a summer camp for girls, was built in 1888-1890 for Morris K. Jesup, the banker and philanthropist wh was a founder of the Y.M.C.A. Bellefontaine, current site of Canyon Ranch was built in 1897 for Giraud Foster. Hotel Aspinwall, built in 1902 by General Thomas H. Hubbard, burned to the ground in 1931. The site is now Kennedy Park. Ventfort Hall was built in 1893 for George and Sarah Morgan, sister of J. P. Morgan, to designs by architects Rotch & Tilden. The Mount, designed by and residence of Edith Wharton from 1902-11, is open today under the operation of the Edith Wharton Restoration.

Lenox, MA mansions, cottages, and landmarks

Please see our Lenox, Mass. page.

Dave Brubeck and Berkshires Jazz Youth Ensemble

Oct. 17, 2009 performance reviewed by Dave Read.

The Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded the first million-selling jazz album fifty years ago, Time Out, which features Take Five and its unusual 5/4 time signature, and with Mr.Brubeck approaching his 89th birthday, which he’ll celebrate Dec. 6th at the White House while receiving the 2009 Kennedy Center honors, time has prominence in any Brubeck report. Now, and for a long time to come, hundreds of people will be remembering the time they heard the Dave Brubeck Quartet in a sold-out concert at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, including 18 kids who can tell about the time Dave Brubeck sat in with them on “Take the A Train.”

The concert began with a teriffic set of mostly Duke Ellington compostions played by the Berkshires Youth Jazz Ensemble, 17 Berkshire county high schoolers and one Simon’s Rock student. Assembling a student jazz band and giving them the opportunity to perform with jazz masters is a primary function of BerkshiresJazz.org, producers of the Pittsfield CityJazz Festival. The ensemble featured half a dozen wonderful soloists, and at least one double-threat, Jacqueline Doucette of Pittsfield HS, who stepped out from the sax section to sing two songs with more grace and verve than you’d think was available to a teenager.

Youth Ensemble music director Ron Lively of PHS told the audience that he put together the mostly Ellington set because the Duke had been mentor to Dave, and so the number chosen to link the learners to the legend was Take the A Train, with PHS pianist Samuel Landes and Brubeck taking turns at the piano, an 1894 Hamburg Steinway Concert Grand, which this concert’s underwriter, Jim Chervenak, gave to the Colonial in memory of his wife Françoise Nunnallé.

2009 Pittsfield CityJazz Festival opening concert

Pittsfield, MA Oct. 7, 2009 – The 5th Pittsfield CityJazz Festival opened with a performance at the Berkshire Athenaeum by blood drum spirit, led by percussionist royal hartigan, and featuring bassist Wes Brown, saxophonist David Bindman, and pianist Art Hirahara. The group is dedicated to performing original compositions and improvisations connected to world music traditions.

Get the full festival schedule here: BerkshiresJazz.org. This is a video montage from tonight’s performance: