Kelly Scofield and her husband, Alan, are preparing for their first full season operating the Wigwam on the Western Summit. Last year, the Scofields purchased the four-acre property with its gift shop, house, cabins, and commanding view. Wiggy the bear is ready to greet customers on May 9. The gift shop offers merchandise, food and beverages.
The Wigwam has offered hospitality to travelers on the Mohawk Trail for nearly a century. Prior owners Lea King and Wayne Gelinas refurbished the dormant cabins and turned the two-story house into a lodge. The Scofields are eyeing some updates of their own.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The new owners of the Wigwam Western Summit are gearing up to open for their first full season.
Kelly and Alan Scofield, who purchased the gift shop and cabins will be opening May 9.
"What we're looking to create here is not just a gift shop for people to come in and get a cup of coffee and a pastry, but we're really looking to create a destination for people to stop," said Kelly Scofield.
"There's so many people that stop in here and say, 'I used to drive here when I was little with my parents or I had my first kiss in the parking lot or something like that so we really want to create memories.'"
The Scofield's bought the business from Lea King and Wayne Gelinas, who invested heavily in renovating and updating the century-old tourist stop during their seven years of ownership. King helped them learn the ropes the first couple months and Scofield says she still reaches out to King for advice and wants to make them proud.
"We actually closed [the sale] the end of Sept. 24, so right in the middle of our busy season here on the Mohawk Trail, we jumped right in, didn't close at all and stayed open through the end of October," Scofield said.
"They live right in the area here and I message her all the time if I have a question. She is a huge supporter and she put a lot of blood, sweat and tears to bring it back."
The Scofields are no stranger to the hospitality business. They both work for Marriott hotels for more than 20 years; Alan works full time and Kelly part time as director of finance.
They both travelled to the Berkshires for the last 20 years, camping not far from Wigwam, and last year noticed it was for sale.
"We were actually up here camping last May and we heard through the grapevine that Lea was putting this for sale," said Scofield. "So we sat around the campfire joking, oh you know, we could run that. Let's do it, and just thinking it was our dream and decided to really do it."
The two hope to keep the Wigwam tradition alive but say they are open to suggestions.
"Everyone that's comes in here has a story to tell and if they don't, hopefully down the road, they'll have a story to tell someone and they keep coming back," Scofield said.
The two will also start to expand some of their hours to stay open for customers to enjoy the sunset and also add more food options to their kitchen.
"This is a very special spot ... when we were leaving at night, sometimes at 5 o'clock, people would be sitting out there in their cars waiting for the sunset," she said. "So we decided why not capture that and they can come in here and see that as well."
They have been approved a liquor license by the city and are currently awaiting final approval from the state.
The shop also is famous for its pour-over coffee that King started. The coffee is from No. 6 Depot, which created a custom blend that will be for sale in the gift shop.
The Scofields have some future goals and hopes for the Wigwam as well.
"You'll notice there's a door that leads to nowhere," Scofield said, pointing to the door behind "Wiggy the bear," "One of our long-term goals is to actually put a deck on the outside here, that might mean doing smaller events here."
The four cabins, a lodge, and an apartment overlooking the view are available for short-term rent. One of the most popular is the Mohican Cabin. The Wigwam is located near several trails for people to hike.
The gift shop will be open Friday through Monday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with the expectation of expanding hours and days in the summertime.
"The community support last year was amazing so we're really just looking forward to building that for the next few months that we're open here through the fall," said Scofield.
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Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.
Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.
"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.
The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.
The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar.
Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.
She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.
"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."
The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.
"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."
They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.
"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.
As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen.
Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.
"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."
Jake Eberwein showed the committee sections of the nbess.org website, including the resources page, which will be key to keeping residents informed about the study’s findings and collecting information from those residents. click for more
The planes were paper, the buildings cardboard and Main Street was a hallway at Colegrove Park Elementary School, but the setup represented nearly two weeks of creative research and design by the pupils in the public schools' 21st Century Summer Program.
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