The Mount Welcomes 8 New Board Members

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LENOX, Mass. — The Mount, the former estate of Edith Wharton, has turned a promising corner in its journey to achieving long-term financial stability. On the heels of a successful 2010 summer season, eight new members have joined the board of trustees. The new members are: Gale H. Arnold, Lila Berle, Frank Delaney, Neil E. Ellenoff, Anne G. Fredericks, Inge Heckel, B. Carter White and Gigi Wilmers.

The new board members — who represent the Berkshire region as well as major metropolitan areas, including New York City and Washington D.C. — bring to The Mount collective expertise in finance, literature, design, historic preservation, media and art history, along with a strong commitment to ensuring the continued vibrancy of The Mount. These highly accomplished business executives, professionals, and community leaders will be actively involved in laying the groundwork to sustain The Mount for years to come.

“The Mount is one of the most beautiful and historically important properties not only in the Berkshires, but in the entire country,” said Lila Berle, who organized The Mount’s first board of trustees in the 1970s and was the first board chairman. Berle said she decided to rejoin the board to help preserve The Mount for future generations. “Edith Wharton was a groundbreaker and pioneer, and the home she designed is an inspirational place,” she said. “We need to keep it going.”

“It’s a great group of new people who have become involved,” Berle continued. “And we hope to inspire other people.”

“We are thrilled to add to our board these new members who are so eminently qualified and richly experienced,” said Susan Wissler, The Mount’s executive director.


Under the leadership of board chairman Gordon Travers, The Mount has made steady strides towards recovery since the launch of its “Save The Mount” campaign in 2008. “We are deeply grateful to the community, to our donors, and to our lenders, including Berkshire Bank, for their support over the recent years,” said Wissler. “But it is still an upward climb.” Like many of its cultural counterparts, The Mount must continually raise money to cover general operating costs. In addition, it is due to make a $1,000,000 principal repayment to its lenders in May 2011.

This month, The Mount is launching “Our Future Starts Now,” a fundraising campaign with a $300,000 year-end goal. The trustees have collectively committed to giving half, or $150,000. “These funds will allow planning to continue for the 2011 and 2012 seasons,” said Wissler. “We are carefully directing our resources to ensure we have maximum impact on the cultural landscape, and can provide stimulating, satisfying programs for our wide range of visitors.” Recent and planned programming underscores The Mount’s emergence as a nationally recognized literary center. Planning is already underway for the second annual Berkshire WordFest, a literary festival whose inaugural event in 2010 was enthusiastically embraced by participants, the community and the media.

For more information about Edith Wharton and The Mount, visit www.EdithWharton.org.
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.

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