Again the Gilded Age

Lenox café

 Tuesday, August 12, 2014

We explored the quite twee towns from Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Lenox, Massachusetts yesterday.  They are lovely little places which show what tons of money over 125 years with no working class, save tradesmen and servants, can make of a beautiful natural setting.  Grand old homes, smaller summer cottages, and smart shops make the little towns places to strolls, and yes, find coffee.   Two places yesterday:  Rudi’s in Great Barrington, where we had been before, and where a cappuccino with a heart on top for Ben was a treat from the barista, and Shots in Lenox.

Edith Wharton's home:  The Mount

The Library at the Mount

The highlight was the Ogden Codman-designed home of Edith Wharton, the Mount, now a museum. http://www.edithwharton.org   She was the first woman to win a Pulitzer prize around the turn of the last century.   She was also a noted interior designed, wrote 40-some other novels and when she divorced her mad husband, decamped for France in 1912 where she lived till her death in 1937.    She was a bit of a gadget freak, too, with electricity in 1902 provided by George Westinghouse himself, and an elevator for moving guest baggage up and down the stories.   She did not, however, have electric refrigeration like William Vanderbilt’s Biltmore in North Carolina, nor was there an electric stove for her cook.

Sculpture Gardebn:  The Globe

The house is surrounded by a sculpture garden, set amongst the trees along the winding lane from the entrance off the main road.   Some of the pieces were absolutely outstanding, while others did nothing for us.  These two were among the winners of praises.  

Sculpture Garden:  Walls

The Codman house brought back memories of Nid and Pat Pibulsonggram when Nid was Thai ambassador to the US.  The Thai Ambassador’s residence was also designed by Ogden Codman.  The interior arrangement of rooms and the design of the house, to the column on the verandah were virtually identical to their Residence.   A trip back in time.

We finished up the day with scampi at Andy and David’s and a bottle of Millbrook Winery’s tocai friulano, a Dutchess county wine from the next county south of Columbia county where we are staying.  An enjoyable quaff.  

We leave this morning for Rhode Island.   More to come.