Naumkeag Gardens Getting $2.6M Restoration

	The Blue Steps at Naumkeag are being restored, left, as part of a $2.6 million make over of its historic gardens.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — The first phase of a $2.6-million five-phase restoration effort began last month on the gardens of the hillside estate of Naumkeag.

Visited by thousands of garden, landscape and history enthusiasts each year, the gardens are considered a masterpiece of 30 years of collaborative, creative work between former owner Mabel Choate and America's first modern landscape architect, Fletcher Steele.

The restoration effort is being supported in part by an anonymous donor who has pledged to match up to $1 million in donations.

The initial work includes removal of damaged and overgrown trees, including along the Linden Allee, a pathway modeled after the wooded walks of Germany. Following the removal of the older trees, more than 250 trees of various shapes and sizes will be planted amongst the gardens, following Steele's original tactic of overplanting to create a fuller, richer g gardenscape.

All of the trees and plants are being removed by Mayer Tree Service, processed on site and delivered to recycling facilities and timber mills in the area.

The 125-year-old Naumkeag — a National Historic Landmark owned by The Trustees of Reservations — is a 44-room estate designed by McKim, Mead & White as the summer home of New York attorney Joseph Hodges Choate, an ambassador to the Court of St. James, and his wife, Caroline Sterling Choate, an artist and co-founder of Barnard College. Their daughter Mabel inherited the 46-acre estate in 1929.

A recent video created by the Library of American Landscape History (below) described Naumkeag's gardens as "a playground for the imagination which boasts some of the most vibrant, original and luminous gardens on the North American continent."

Perhaps the most dramatic restoration to occur this spring will be that of Steele's renowned Blue Steps, one of the most famous and photographed garden features in 20th-century American landscape design and a true expression of Steele's belief that garden design should be considered one of the fine arts. The steps be repointed, repainted and re-grouted, and the iconic white birch trees that frame them will be replaced and supplemented with the planting of 40 additional trees.

Phase one is expected to be completed in time for a summer party to officially kick off the restoration project and celebrate the Blue Steps' 75th anniversary.

Other structural, cultural and natural garden and landscape features located throughout Naumkeag will also be restored, replicated and reinvigorated through a total of 16 projects, most of which will include rebuilding, and in some cases reproducing, foundational elements such as fountains and waters systems, masonry, decorative arts and original plantings. The restorations are being based on the original plans, historic photos and other documents.

"Like our recent landscape restoration of the Grand Allée at Castle Hill, we take our responsibility as caretakers of these magnificent National Historic Landmarks very seriously," said Trustees President Barbara Erickson. "The iconic gardens at Naumkeag are one of only a few Fletcher Steele-designed gardens viewable to the public and we want people to be able to experience them in their full and original brilliance."

Social Service Organizations Highlight Challenges, Successes at Poverty Talk

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
08:04AM / Sunday, April 05, 2026

Dr. Jennifer Michaels of the Brien Center demonstrates how to use Narcan. Easy access to the drug has cut overdose deaths in the county by nearly half. 

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Recent actions at the federal level are making it harder for people to climb out of poverty.

Brad Gordon, executive director of Upside413, said he felt like he was doing a disservice by not recognizing national challenges and how they draw a direct line from choices being made by the Trump administration and the challenges the United States is facing. 

"They more generally impact people's ability to work their way out of poverty, and that's really, that's really the overarching dynamic," he said. 

"Poverty is incredibly corrosive, and it impacts all the topics that we'll talk about today." 

His comments came during a conversation on poverty hosted by Berkshire Community Action Council. Eight local service agency leaders detailed how they are supporting people during the current housing and affordability crisis, and the Berkshire state delegation spoke to their own efforts.

The event held on March 27 at the Berkshire Athenaeum included a working lunch and encouraged public feedback. 

"All of this information that we're going to gather today from both you and the panelists is going to drive our next three-year strategic plan," explained Deborah Leonczyk, BCAC's executive director. 

The conversation ranged from health care and housing production to financial literacy and child care.  Participating agencies included Upside 413, The Brien Center, The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, MassHire Berkshire Career Center, Berkshire Regional Transit Authority, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Child Care of the Berkshires. 

The federal choices Gordon spoke about included allocating $140 billion for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investing $38 billion to convert warehouses into detention centers, cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years, a proposed 50 percent increase in the defense budget, and cutting federal funding for supportive housing programs. 

Gordon pointed to past comments about how the region can't build its way out of the housing crisis because of money. He withdrew that statement, explaining, "You know what? That's bullshit, actually."

"I'm going to be honest with you, that is absolute bullshit. I have just observed over the last year or so how we're spending our money and the amount of money that we're spending on the federal side, and I'm no longer saying in good conscience that we can't build our way out of this," he said. 

Upside 413 provided a "Housing Demand in Western Massachusetts" report that was done in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's Donahue Institute of Economic and Public Policy Research. It states that around 23,400 units are needed to meet current housing demand in Western Mass; 1,900 in Berkshire County in 2025.