Architectural Historian and Author Lecturing at Ventfort Hall

Print Story | Email Story
LENOX, Mass. — Architectural historian and author/speaker Cornelia Brooke Gilder will lecture at Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum on "Architects in Albany – The Berkshire Connections."

Gilder will present her visual talk on Saturday, March 20 at 3 p.m. followed by a Victorian Tea, and will sign copies of the new book "Architects in Albany," for which she is the major contributing writer. Among other work, Gilder is best known as co-author (with Richard S. Jackson Jr.) of "Houses of the Berkshires: 1870-1930, named an honor book by Historic New England." 

"Architects in Albany" contains some 36 entries on architects and architectural firms that were commissioned to design Albany buildings from one of the nation’s most imposing state capitols to churches, schools, banks and row houses dating from the 19th and 20th centuries. Gilder will focus specifically on those architects whose work is found  both in the Empire State’s capital and in the Berkshires.

Among these are McKim, Mead and White, the firm that designed the Georgian-style Benjamin Arnold House in Albany and in Stockbridge, the Casino, now the home of the Berkshire Theatre Festival, as well as Naumkeag.  The Albany County Courthouse, found on Capitol Hill, was designed by the firm of Hoppin and Koen, the architects for The Mount, Eastover, and Ashintully, all in the Berkshires. Patrick C. Keely designed two St. Joseph churches, one in Albany and the other in Pittsfield. J. Cleveland Cady’s style can be seen in the First Presbyterian Church of Albany and in his Morgan Hall at Williams College. William Appleton Potter was the architect for Albany’s U.S. Post Office and Federal Building and Pittsfield’s County Registry of Deeds building, formerly the city’s Atheneum.

The new book is an expansion of the 1978 booklet "Albany Architects: Yesterday Versus Today," for which Gilder was editor. Educated at Vassar College and Cambridge University, Gilder,  a lifelong Berkshire resident,  also wrote "Hawthorne’s Lenox," "The Tanglewood Circle" and "A History of Ventfort Hall" with the late Joan Olshansky. In 2005, she co-curated "A Walk in the Country: Inness and the Berkshires" at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.

Tickets for the lecture and tea are $16 per person for nonmembers and $14 for members. Reservations are highly recommended as seating is limited. For information or reservations call Ventfort Hall at 413-637-3206. The historical mansion is located at 104 Walker St.
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

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.

View Full Story

More Lenox Stories