LENOX - Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum continues its "A Home for the Holidays" theme with programming for all ages Christmas week, Dec. 26 to 31.
Two marionette performances of "Beauty and the Beast" will be presented, as well as a weeklong run of the play "Fanny Kemble's Lenox Address." Also, the mansion is decorated for the holidays, and daily guided tours have been added for that week in addition to the daily self-guided tours and weekend guided tours.
Puppeteer Carl Sprague returns with the classic fable "Beauty and the Beast" on Thursday, Dec. 27, and Saturday, Dec. 29, at 3 p.m. Sprague has been a puppeteer since childhood and inherited a collection of 60 Czech marionettes made by his great-grandfather. Each is about eight inches tall with handmade costumes and intricately carved heads, as well as an accompanying antique puppet theater.
Sprague was the art director for such motion pictures as "The Royal Tennenbaums," for which he received an Art Director’s Guild nomination, and Martin Scorcese's "The Age of Innocence," "Mona Lisa Smile" and "Amistad." He has created numerous theater sets for many of the region's best-known theater companies, including Shakespeare and Company. Sprague also created the sets for the Ventfort Hall productions of "Morgan O'Yuki: A Geisha of the Gilded Age" and "Dancing with the Czar."
John Gardner's acclaimed one-woman play "Fanny Kemble's Lenox Address" stars Anne Undeland. One of America's most celebrated actresses of the 19th century, Kemble became an ardent abolitionist who helped change the course of the Civil War and became embroiled in a public scandal in a divorce from her slave-owning husband. Performances are Dec. 26 at 4 p.m., Dec. 27, 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m. and Dec. 30 and 31 at 4 p.m.
The 1893 mansion has also been decorated by a team of 14 volunteers, including members of the Lenox Garden Club, under the direction of Chairwomen Lorraine Becker and Birgit Vetromile. Program Committee member Thomas Hayes of Country Dining Room Antiques in Great Barrington has provided table settings that evoke an 1890s Christmas dinner with owners George and Sarah Morgan. Original Morgan table linens, recently acquired from descendant Margaret Morgan, are part of the display.
The exhibit of 59 "Les Petites Dames de Mode" (The Little Ladies of Fashion) representing the history of women's styles from 1855 to 1914 continues. The 29-inch scale-model mannequins, wearing detailed costumes, are the creations of John R. Burbidge, retired senior designer for the famed bridal house of Priscilla of Boston.
The museum is open daily, except for Christmas and New Year's Day, and the additional guided tours are available hourly from 10 to 3, with the last beginning at 2. Self-guided tours are available daily year round.
Tickets for the marionette shows, including a holiday tea and refreshments, are $15 for adults in advance ($12 members), $18 at the door ($15 members) and $5 for children. Tickets for "Fanny Kemble" are $25 with group discounts for 10 or more. Admission to the museum is $12 ($6 members) with discounts available to seniors, college students, children and groups.
For further information or reservations (recommended for all events) call 413-637-3206 or visit www.GildedAge.org. Ventfort Hall is located at 104 Walker St.
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Former Harry's Supermarket Under Construction for Restaurant
Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building.
"It's a substantial renovation that's currently underway here," Brent White of White Engineering said, speaking on behalf of the applicant and owner, Huajie Zhu.
A fire gutted the longtime Wahconah Street supermarket in 2023, and the following year, Zhu purchased the property for $460,000 two years ago to build a restaurant with hibachi in the existing footprint of the more than 100-year-old building.
White explained that the project has been ongoing for over a year, and the Community Development Board granted the property a waiver to reduce the minimum required number of parking spaces so that additional spaces aren't needed.
He noted that, looking at the site plan, there is very little room to do so. A mirror will be installed near the sharp turn on Bel Air Avenue to alleviate traffic concerns.
Pruning will be done on trees in the southeast corner of the existing paved parking lot, as a number of branches are hanging over. The new owners also intend to patch, sealcoat, and re-stripe the parking lot.
A fire tore through the building less than an hour after the supermarket closed for the day three years ago. An automatic sprinkler system is required for the new use.
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