THE MOUNT
Courtesy of The Mount
2 Plunkett Street
Lenox, MA 01240
Phone: 413-551-5111
www.edithwharton.org
“On a slope over-looking the dark waters and densely-wooded shore of Laurel Lake we built a spacious and dignified house, to which we gave the name of my great-grandfather’s place, the Mount . . . there for ten years I lived and gardened and wrote contentedly . . .”
— EDITH WHARTON
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of fifteen novels, seven novellas, eighty-five short stories, poems, books on subjects as diverse as travel and design, and a memoir. Some of her best known works are The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome, and The Buccaneers. In 1897 she and Ogden Codman Jr. (1863–1951) coauthored The Decoration of Houses. Most Victorian house interiors were dark, cluttered, and heavily draped. Wharton and Codman instead advocated eighteenth-century French design: less clutter and more light.
Edith designed her house in 1902 with the help of Codman and Francis L. V. Hoppin (1867–1941). The model for the exterior was the seventeenth-century Belton House in England. The interior, however, is a blend of Italian, English, and French prototypes.
Mounted on a fieldstone foundation and terrace, the mansion stands three stories tall and is white stucco, its windows framed by green shutters. The roof is pierced with dormers and tall white chimneys, and it is topped by a cupola surrounded by a balustrade.
Edith and her husband Edward Wharton lived here until 1911. The building was sold and remained a residence for a while. It then became a school dormitory and later a performance space for the theatrical company Shakespeare & Co. In 1976 The Mount was bought by Edith Wharton Restoration.
The property originally consisted of 128 acres and now has 49.5. There are restored gardens to explore and enjoy: an Alpine rock garden, an Italian walled garden, a formal flower garden, grass terraces, a lime walk, and trails through the surrounding woods. The grounds also contain a greenhouse and a Georgian Revival gatehouse and stable.
Special note: Another house museum in Lenox is Ventfort Hall and Gilded Age Museum. It was built in 1893 for Sarah Morgan, the sister of J. P. Morgan. For information visit http://gildedage.org/.