Ventfort Hall Mansion And Gilded Age Museum Announces 2008 Summer Season

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LENOX - Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum announces a varied season filled with lectures, concerts, theater, exhibits, tours, Picnics on the Porch and much more!

According to Executive Director Jeffrey Folmer, “We have been astonished by the success of the past couple of years! Our attendance in 2007 was up a remarkable 125% and being open year-round, the trend has continued all through the winter. This May right through the fall and on into Christmas is jam-packed with events, programs and more.”

Among the exciting announcements is that due to overwhelming demand, and the success of “Les Petites Dames de Mode,” this exhibit of sixty, almost half-life size “Ladies” and their exquisite costumes created by John R. Burbidge, will be calling Ventfort Hall home indefinitely with no closing date in site! This stunning display, which took over 30 years to create, has generated a consensus among the museum’s thousands of visitors that it is “worthy of any major museum in the world!”

In a related partnership, the talented Mr. Burbidge and his equally talented wife Mrs. Cile Bellefleur Burbidge are enhancing Ventfort’s “In Celebration of Weddings” exhibit with: an additional Lady dressed in a replica of the Duchess of York’s wedding dress; photos and memorabilia of Mr. Burbidge’s wedding dresses designed by him for President’s Johnson and Nixon’s daughters; and a spectacular wedding cake by Mrs. Burbidge. A national awarding-winning cakemaker, her cakes have been displayed in the Smithsonian, Tiffany’s, currently on view at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, as well as gracing the odd $4million wedding and weddings for heads of state. The Burbidges will both be on hand this summer for lectures and “meet and greet” opportunities.

On May 24th, Ventfort Hall will open it’s mostly restored library for the first time in decades with a Sneak Preview and Ribbon-Cutting. This impressive space will be used for summer events, tours, private affairs, etc. Our special guest will be Margaret Morgan, a direct descendant of George and Sarah Morgan, who will do the ribbon-cutting honors.


Although many other topics will be featured, Ventfort Hall’s summer theme is “Civil War:  Birth of the Gilded Age.” Tying the wedding and Civil War themes together will be an authentic Civil War wedding on June 7th. Then opening June 22nd, Ventfort Hall continues its run of successful summer plays with a reprisal of “Colors of War: A Story of Love and Courage,” (produced by Ventfort Hall in cooperation with Shakespeare & Company.) First presented back in 2002, when Ventfort Hall was only newly opened, the play was lauded by enthusiastic but relatively small audiences who were lucky enough to learn of the newly opened building. Now with the phenomenal success of the last several summers, the time is ripe to bring back this beautifully-crafted work with a direct connection to Ventfort Hall. Civil War hero Col. Robert Gould Shaw, who led the first African-American regiment in the North (subject of the film “Glory”) married Annie Haggerty of the original Vent Fort. They shared quite a lot of time at Vent Fort and honeymooned here – three months later he was killed along with over 250 men of his regiment in a heroic battle. Ventfort Hall will present a moving one-woman, one-hour show featuring Susannah Melone returning as Annie Haggerty, relating the remarkable story of Colonel Shaw’s personal and professional struggles through correspondence to her. Among the other highlights of the Civil War related activities, is the Civil War Weekend on Aug 2 and 3 featuring an encampment by re-enactors of the Massachussetts 54th, the men of Colonel Shaw’s regiment.

On July 8, Cornelia Brooke Gilder will launch her new book “Hawthorne’s Lenox: The Tanglewood Circle”with two lectures. Her book “Houses of the Berkshires 1870-1930” co-authored by Richard Jackson has been a hit here in the Berkshires and beyond, and her popular lectures are a delight for all.

Picnics on the Porch continues in its second season. Picnics were a popular pastime in the Gilded Age and visitors can share in that experience, enjoying a gourmet boxed lunch on the Verandah overlooking the South Lawn. Using Ventfort Hall’s new Tree Guide brochure one can follow up with a stroll of the 12-acre grounds and it’s many interesting trees.

These of course, are only highlights. Ventfort Hall is open daily year-round and located at 104 Walker Street, Lenox. For more information call 413-637-3206 or visit www.GildedAge.org
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A Boutique Hotel is Bringing Guests a Luxury Stay in Lenox

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

LENOX, Mass. — A new Inn is bringing a boutique-style stay for visitors and locals to enjoy.

Owners, Sullivan Capital LLC, purchased the property, located on 135 Main Street, in 2024. After a year or renovations, Garden Gables Inn is open for business. 

"Garden Gables started off as one of the many Berkshire cottages, 1790 was the date on that, and it's always operated as an inn," said Hospitality Manager Yvonne Walton. "It's just a great gathering place and relaxation spot for people to come and get the feel of Lenox, and just slow down and enjoy the nature and the surrounding area...get culture and art and see some great concerts. I think it'll be a wonderful place, definitely does more of the upper-scale hospitality." 

Owners Niko Giallouis and Eric Sullivan bought the property from the former owner. Sullivan had his eye on Lenox since attending a wedding almost 10 years ago.

"I came to a wedding in Lenox, probably six or seven years ago. Personally, just kind of fell in love with the area, and I guess that's kind of how it got on my radar. So you know from that perspective, as we got into the hotel business out towards an area, it was a place I was kind of monitoring and waiting for the right property to show up."

After purchasing the two underwent a full renovation, a project that cost around $1.5 million. The building, first built in 1780, required some TLC. Sullivan's wife, Jessica, who owns Jessica Sullivan Design, designed the inn.

Sullivan said they installed a new roof, repainted everything, renovated the bathrooms, installed new floors, a new HVAC system, and new plumbing.

"We really touched everything from the outside...I mean, all the aesthetics and layouts changed a bit," he said. "As I said, put about a million and a half into it. All new furniture, fixtures, everything. The design's completely different. It wasn't a full gut, but it was a heavy, heavy renovation."

The two like to collaborate with local businesses, and they make a point to direct visitors to local restaurants, businesses, and attractions.

"If guests are asking for recommendations, our customer service team, our guest services team, will relay that kind of information. Even if we can call and make a reservation for somebody, happy to do it," he said. "We aren't doing breakfast, but what we do is we have partnerships with a lot of the breakfast places downtown. We actually purchase a gift certificates for each person each day, so that they can use that to go downtown."

Sullivan hopes that guests don't see their inn as just a place to sleep and dump their bags, but make it an experience for anyone who stays.

"We really focus on kind of the experience side of things, so again, we want to give you the best experience you can have here...and we want that not just to be the place you put your bag and go do things. It's important to think of everything," he said.

Sullivan said partnerships are important to their business and are a way to connect with locals.

"The local partnerships, I can't stress that enough, because no matter how much and how great the room is, people are still going to want to go do other things," he said. "So, I think it just benefits everybody if we're all working together and so forth, and supporting the community, being neighborly too, because we are surrounded by residential homes...But we really try to put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of love into the building, all the details, really care about the senses," Sullivan said.

The Inn's check-in and reservations are completely online. When guests arrive, all they have to do is check in online and receive their code that they will use to enter their room. Sullivan hopes this helps create less stress for guests and gets them to their room as fast as possible, especially after a long trip.

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