Small Towns: Stockbridge MA

Sorry, this hangs crookedly at the Rockwell Museum

         

 Because we live an hour from the Berkshires, most visits are day trips. Recently, though, we purchased nighttime tickets for Winter Lights on the grounds of Naumkeag, an 1886 mansion built for ambassador Joseph Choate and family. That event was canceled due to rain, but since Emily and I booked an overnight stay on Expedia and it's easier to avoid death than cancel one of their reservations, we made our way to the Red Lion Inn. We ended up with a beautiful room that would have otherwise been a budget-breaker. (Still, never book a room through a third-party service; it's not worth the hassle!)

 

Main Street at night 

Prepping for the hols!

The Red Lion at night

 Stockbridge conjures two 20^th century occurrences, Arlo Guthrie's 1965 littering arrest—immortalized on his 1967 album Alice's Restaurant­––and Norman Rockwell's painting “Home for Christmas,” also from 1967. Rockwell’s depiction is how even those who've never been to Stockbridge imagine it. They're not entirely wrong; shops change ownership, but Main Street looks remarkably similar to what it was back then. Alice's Restaurant (which was actually called The Back Room) still serves food as the Main Street Cafe, a breakfast/lunch nook, though Alice Brock left a half century ago.  

 

The irony of Guthrie's arrest by William Obenheim (“Officer Obie” in the song) is that it and Rockwell's painting, left two outdated impressions of Stockbridge, that it’s either a hippie enclave or a snowy Currier & Ives-like slice of nostalgia. Forget the counterculture or quaintness; Stockbridge exudes wealth.

 

History buffs know that Stockbridge, settled in 1734, was the first English settlement in the southern Berkshires. The Rev. John Sergeant forged a treaty with local Mohican peoples that was better than most of his day. They became so-called “praying Indians” and were Christianized at the local Mission House. It can still be visited today and does a decent job of treating Native history with dignity. Sergeant had a famous successor: the Rev. Jonathan Edwards.

 

  Stockbridge's pioneer, rural, and blue-collar character—there’s still a paper mill still just outside the village—transformed into a summer playground for well-heeled New Yorkers after railroads arrived in 1850. Today, Empire State license plates often outnumber those from Massachusetts. It makes sense; Albany is just 45 miles away and Boston is over 130 miles distant. It’s also easier to get there from New York City (145 miles distant) by public transportation than to Boston.

 

 

Inside the Red Lion pub

             

 

Naumkeag

 

 

 

Naumkeag's famed tiered fountain

 

The Red Lion Inn, which began life as a tavern in 1773, exudes invented colonial charm and can (over-)charge Manhattan prices because of its New York connections. You could spend north of $400 a night for a room in a village of just 2,018 residents. Why? There are a surprising number of cultural opportunities in the immediate area: summer stock theatre, music at Tanglewood, yoga at Kripalu, and blossoming delights at the Berkshire Botanical Gardens. Plus, Stockbridge and neighboring Lenox are littered (Guthrie pun intended) with homes of American aristocracy. Andrew Carnegie summered in Stockbridge and the Choates' Naumkeag is a Stanford White-designed splendor. Artists thrived nearby; you can tour the Rockwell Museum and the studio and home of sculptor Daniel Chester French. Catholics flock to the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy, families enjoy the chimes of the Children's Tower, and if you have the dosh, you can even treat your neuroses at the posh Austen Riggs psychiatric center.   

 

Not the Catholic shrine

 

Gumball fa la la!

            

Stockbridge has dump-out-your-wallet food offerings such as Michael's, Once Upon a Table, and the Lion's Den. We opted to head up to West Stockbridge for a more reasonable dinner tab at Amici, then enjoyed a glass of wine in the Red Lion's pub, which we polished off in two wing chairs by the fireplace in the lobby. Cheaper daytime food options include the Elm Street Market and Stockbridge Coffee, but don't miss the pastries at The Lost Lamb across the street from the Red Lion.

 

 We topped off our two-day getaway by visiting the Rockwell Museum and headed north to the Clark Institute of Art in Williamstown, both of which were free on our North America museum roaming pass. Despite the rain-out at Naumkeag, we enjoyed our excursion though I'm not sure we could afford too many village outings like this. Maybe we'll try something cheaper, like New York City!

Rob Weir