Ventfort Hall Announces New Board Members

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Appointed to the board were Joanna Case, Lucy Kennedy, Polly Roston, and Christina Wagner.
LENOX, Mass.— Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum announces the appointment of four new members to its board of directors. 
 
Appointed to the board were Joanna Case, Lucy Kennedy, Polly Roston, and Christina Wagner.
 
Joanna (Jo) Case is a resident of Lee and is the Development Manager at Hancock Shaker Village. She holds an MA in Public History and an MS in Information Science with a specialization in archives and records management from SUNY Albany, and a BA in History from Siena University. Originally from Central New York, Jo brings experience across museum and public history roles, including curation, collections management, research, and public programming.
 
According to a press release: 
 
Lucy Kennedy has a BA in English from the University of Michigan and an MA in English at Stanford. She planned to teach high school English but found herself doing corporate training at a bank instead. From there she went on to get an MBA from Harvard Business School. She began her post business school career in advertising but soon moved on to product development and market research, primarily for banks and insurance companies.  Although, through her education and career she lived all over the US, she was born in Massachusetts and was happy to retire to Lenox in 2010. In retirement she has been able to pursue two great interests: travel photography and local history. In pursuit of the latter she has served previously on the Ventfort Hall Board, on the Berkshire Historical Society Board, the Lenox Historical Commission, and the Lenox Historical Society Board.  She has compiled a history of Lenox at www.lenoxhistory.org and written an ebook "Lenox at 250."                                                                  Polly Roston relocated permanently from New York City to Stephentown, NY in 2023. She was Director of Development at small independent school and has been involved in a myriad of non profits as a volunteer and board member, focusing primarily on coordination, fundraising, and volunteerism. Polly is married with two children. Her passions include travel, cooking, and languages. At Ventfort Hall, in addition to joining the board, she is a Tea and Talk volunteer and serves on the fundraising committee.
 
Christina Wagner is a graduate of Wesleyan University whose career spans finance, fashion, and the creative arts. After early roles in investment banking and equity research with Lehman Brothers in New York and London, she built roots in Los Angeles where she helped to establish the Community Association at the Westside Waldorf School and guided buying and operations for a luxury boutique in Malibu. She later co-founded Bau-Da Design Lab, Inc., producing music videos for artists including Prince, My Chemical Romance, Seal, John Mayer, Motley Crüe, Slipknot, and many others. These projects took her across the country, where she managed large crews, coordinated complex locations, and built trusted client relationships. Christina continues to serve as Executive Producer at Bau-Da, helping to facilitate creative work for major corporations such as Pepsi and other global brands. Known for her clarity, organization, and vision, she excels at turning ambitious ideas into impactful results.
 
 
 
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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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