Bascom Lodge to Open Memorial Day Weekend

ADAMS, Mass. — Bascom Lodge will open to overnight guests and visitors on Memorial Day weekend.

Manager Peter Dudek told the the Mount Greylock Advisory Council on Wednesday that the lodge has overnight reservations starting on May 24. Park roads are scheduled to open on May 18 and the War Memorial Tower on May 25.

John Dudek and Brad Parsons retired from the Bascom Lodge Group last year, 13 years into the group's 25-year lease with the state. Peter Dudek, John's brother, is running the operation this season.

"We're opening on Memorial Day weekend and want to have the usual assortment of the cultural programming every Sunday," he said, adding that the historic building is booked for weddings and other events, too.

Built in 1930, the lodge sits atop the state's highest mountain and offers nine rooms for boarding at different privacy levels, dining, and special events. It has accommodations for about 34 people and has hosted popular dinners and an array of programming. 

Dudek said it has full lodging staff but needs additional employees in other areas.

"When we first started it was really easy to find help. They just came to us automatically," he added. "But over the years, you have to advertise more and more and that seems to get very little."

He said the operating hours, as usual, will be just on the weekends to start and then move to five or seven days a week during the summer. It will be closed on most Mondays and Tuesdays but reservations won't be refused on those days, Dudek added, though dinner may not be available.

In the coming week, a program will be added to the Bascom Lodge website. There is Sunday programming starting on opening weekend into early September and some on Wednesdays as well.

Berkshire Museum Donates Cheshire Crown Glass to Town

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
07:15AM / Saturday, March 21, 2026

Historical Commission Chair Jennifer DeGrenier and Jason Vivori, Berkshire Museum collections manager, present the antique glass to the Select Board. 

CHESHIRE, Mass. — A piece of history has found its way back to the town with the donation of a well-preserved pane of bull's-eye glass made at Cheshire Crown Glass Works. 

 

Manufactured in 1814, the artifact was donated by the Berkshire Museum, where it had been since 1910. 

 

The glass will be on display at the town's new museum, located in the old Town Hall at the junction of Church and Depot Streets, alongside research and photographs gathered by the town's local historian Barry Emery.

 

Prior to being housed at the museum, the piece was at the Berkshire Athenaeum prior to the museum's founding, said Jason Vivori, the museum's collections manager. 

 

The glass was originally used in window making. Its distinctive bull's-eye center was formed when the molten glass was spun on a long rod to form large sheets, Vivori said. 

 

The bull's-eye rendered it unsuitable for windows today, but local historians admire the piece for its preservation, making it unique. 

 

There is another piece of Cheshire Glass in the old Reynolds store, Historical Commission Chair Jennifer DeGrenier said.