Trustees Set Open Houses at Historic Properties

The gardens at Naumkeag will be open to the public along with other Trustees properties this weekend.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Trustees of Reservations are opening the doors to the historic homes under their care throughout the state this weekend.

First, the Trustees are participating Saturday in Smithsonian Magazine's Museum Day Live!, which offers free access to some 1,400 museums and other cultural venues across the nation. A list of sites and a downloadable admission ticket can be found here. Tickets admit two; one per household.

The Trustees will be showing off the work done in the expansive gardens Naumkeag in Stockbrige. The Gilded Age Berkshire cottage once owned by the Choate family is in the midst of a $2.6 million renovation of its elaborate gardens designed by notable landscape architect Fletcher Steele.

The home and gardens will be open from 10 to 5 on Saturday with free admission with Smithsonian ticket.

Sunday is the Trustees annual "Home Sweet Home" event with free open houses from 1 to 3 at its historic sites, including Naumkeag, Ashley House, Mission House, The Folly at Field Farm, William Cullen Bryant Homestead in Western Massachusetts.

Ashley House

The oldest house in Berkshire County is where the seeds of the American Revolution were planted by former owner Col. John Ashley, who drafted the Sheffield Resolves in his upstairs study and sent them to Boston in 1773 to support the Colonists' struggle against British tyranny. Less than 10 years later, in 1781, Elizabeth Freeman (nicknamed and formerly referred to as "Mum Bett") who was enslaved by the Ashleys, successfully sued for her freedom under the new state constitution, helping to end slavery in Massachusetts.

Cooper Hill Road, Ashley Falls

Naumkeag

A National Historic Landmark, Naumkeag is a rare, surviving example of a Gilded Age Berkshire cottage that still contains all of its original furnishings. Designed and built in 1885 as a summer retreat for the Choate family from New York by architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, Naumkeag features world-famous gardens designed by Fletcher Steele, the father of modern American landscape design, including the famous "Blue Steps."

5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge

Mission House

The National Historic Landmark was built in 1740 by John Sergeant, first missionary to the Stockbridge Mohican Indians. The home was moved from nearby Prospect Hill and restored on its present site in 1928 by Mabel Choate, then owner of nearby Naumkeag, who bequeathed both properties to The Trustees. Mission House contains a collection of 18th-century period furnishings and decorative arts, a small museum that tells the story of the Mohicans, and a Colonial revival garden designed by Steele.

19 Main St., Stockbridge

Folly at Field Farm

Designed in 1965 by noted modernist architect Ulrich Franzen, The Folly at Field Farm is set in a natural landscape of 316 conserved acres surrounded by sculptures, gardens and four miles of hiking trails overlooking Mount Greylock. The Folly is a three-bedroom, pinwheel-shaped guest cottage situated next to the Guest House at Field Farm, which still contains original contemporary furnishings designed by Franzen. Tours of the Folly have been limited to B&B guests.

554 Sloan Road, Williamstown

William Cullen Bryant Homestead

A National Historic Landmark and boyhood home of 19th-century poet and newspaper editor William Cullen Bryant. Bryant, editor and publisher of The New York Evening Post for 50 years, was a passionate abolitionist, conservationist and horticulturalist who used his editorials to rally support for Frederick Law Olmsted's Central Park and help elect President Lincoln. In 1865, Bryant converted the two-story farmhouse into a rambling three-story Victorian cottage. Inside the house are Colonial and Victorian pieces from the poet's family, as well as exotic memorabilia from his extensive European and Asian travels.

207 Bryant Road, Cummington

The Old Manse in Concord, the Old House at Appleton Farms and Paine House at Greenwood Farm, both in Ipswich, and the Stevens-Coolidge Place in North Andover are also part of Sunday's open house.

 

Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Friday, August 21, 2026

 

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director. 

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said.