Mission House (Stockbridge, Massachusetts)
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The Mission House is an
historic house A historic house generally meets several criteria before being listed by an official body as "historic." Generally the building is at least a certain age, depending on the rules for the individual list. A second factor is that the building be in ...
located at 19 Main Street,
Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridge is h ...
. It was built between 1739 and 1742 by a
Christian missionary A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...
to the local
Mahican The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, who ...
s. It is a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
, designated in 1968 as a rare surviving example of a colonial mission house. It is now owned and operated as a nonprofit museum by the
Trustees of Reservations The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit orga ...
. The town of Stockbridge was established in the late 1730s as a mission community to the Mahicans. John Sergeant was the first missionary, formally beginning his service in 1735. His first house, built in the valley where the Indians lived, has not survived; this house was built in the white community on the hill above the town following his marriage in 1739. It remained in the Sergeant family until the 1870s, and survived
Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...
developments of the late 19th century. In the 1920s the house was purchased by
Mabel Choate Mabel Choate (December 26, 1870 – December 11, 1958) was an American gardener, collector and philanthropist. Biography Born on December 26, 1870, in New York City, Mabel Choate was the fourth of five children of Joseph Choate and Caroline ...
, owner of the nearby
Naumkeag Naumkeag is the former country estate of noted New York City lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate and Caroline Dutcher Sterling Choate, located at 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The estate's centerpiece is a 44-room, Shingle Style ...
estate, and moved down into the valley. She and landscape designer
Fletcher Steele John Fletcher Steele (June 7, 1885 – July 16, 1971) was an American landscape architect credited with designing and creating over 700 gardens from 1915 to the time of his death. Early life Steele was born in Rochester, New York, United Sta ...
restored the building, furnished it with 18th century pieces, and designed gardens to Steele's vision of what a colonial landscape might have been. Choate opened the house as a museum in 1930, and donated it (and eventually Naumkeag as well) to the Trustees of Reservations, who operate both properties as museums.


Background

Before the arrival of British colonists, the area that is now southern
Berkshire County, Massachusetts Berkshire County (pronounced ) is a county on the western edge of the U.S. state of Massachusetts. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,026. Its largest city and traditional county seat is Pittsfield. The county was founded in ...
was inhabited by communities of the
Mahican The Mohican ( or , alternate spelling: Mahican) are an Eastern Algonquian Native American tribe that historically spoke an Algonquian language. As part of the Eastern Algonquian family of tribes, they are related to the neighboring Lenape, who ...
tribal confederation. The population of these communities changed over the 17th century as war (sometimes with European colonists and sometimes with the neighboring
Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
), disease, and migration made them smaller and more diverse. By the 1720s they had sold off most of their tribal lands, and lived in relative peace in two remaining tracts of land on the
Housatonic River The Housatonic River ( ) is a river, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 in western Massachusetts and western Connecticut in the United S ...
. Beginning in the late 1720s the Mahicans became a point of interest to British missionary organizations, because they were seen as potential conversion targets and to counter the possibility of influence on them from Roman Catholic
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...
. This effort was managed in New England by a commission headed by the
governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
of the
Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in British America which became one of the Thirteen Colonies, thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III of England, William III and Mary II ...
,
Jonathan Belcher Jonathan Belcher (8 January 1681/8231 August 1757) was a merchant, politician, and slave trader from colonial Massachusetts who served as both governor of Massachusetts Bay and governor of New Hampshire from 1730 to 1741 and governor of New J ...
. Belcher suggested in 1730 that the province lay out a town in the Mahican lands, and that London missionary groups pay for a
mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...
there. Funds were allocated for this effort in 1733. In 1734 Massachusetts residents in the
Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...
area met to organize the mission. John Sergeant, a recent graduate of
Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
, agreed to take on the task, and spent some time that fall among the Mahicans. After negotiations involving Governor Belcher and Mahican leaders, it was agreed in 1735 that a mission would be established, and Sergeant was ordained to serve as a minister among them. He immediately moved to the Mahican lands and began preaching to and baptizing them. In 1736 a township of six square miles (16 km2) was formally granted to the Mahicans by the Province of Massachusetts Bay, which would be incorporated in 1739 as Stockbridge. Included in the grant were provisions that the minister and schoolteacher receive land grants, and that four English families settle the area, in part to set an example of Christian living for the natives.Frazier, pp. 40–41 John Sergeant built a modest frontier house in the township,Sweeney, p. 179 and the Indian village grew around this area, which included a meeting house used as a church and school.


House history

In 1739 Sergeant married Abigail Williams, the seventeen-year-old daughter of one of Stockbridge's English colonists. She wanted to live outside the village, so Sergeant had a new house, the subject of this article, built on Prospect Hill, overlooking the village. The date of its construction is uncertain: Sergeant received the land in 1739 after Stockbridge's incorporation, and the house is known to have been built by 1742. The Sergeants lived there until his death in 1749. Abigail remarried and eventually moved out of the house, but it remained in the family. She returned to it after her second husband's death, living with her son's family until her own death in 1791. Jonathan Edwards, a minister who rose to fame during the
First Great Awakening The First Great Awakening (sometimes Great Awakening) or the Evangelical Revival was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affecte ...
, succeeded Sergeant as missionary to the Mahicans (who also became known as "Stockbridge Indians" and "Mohicans"), but occupied the first house Sergeant built. That house has not survived, but its site is now marked by a
sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
near 23 Main Street. Sergeant's second house remained in the family until 1879, when the property was sold to David Dudley Field, Jr., a
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
lawyer. Field amassed an estate of some , on which he built a large summer house; the mission house he rented out for several summers to friends. It subsequently fell into disrepair, and was rescued in the 1920s by Mabel Choate, the daughter of New York lawyer
Joseph Hodges Choate Joseph Hodges Choate (January 24, 1832 – May 14, 1917) was an American lawyer and diplomat. Choate was associated with many of the most famous litigations in American legal history, including the Kansas prohibition cases, the Chinese exclusi ...
and owner of the nearby
Naumkeag Naumkeag is the former country estate of noted New York City lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate and Caroline Dutcher Sterling Choate, located at 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The estate's centerpiece is a 44-room, Shingle Style ...
estate, who sought to establish it as a museum in memory of her parents. Sometime around 1926, Choate purchased the mission house. The house was then disassembled, and its pieces carefully numbered. In 1927 she purchased the lot at 19 Main Street where the house now stands, formerly the site of the Stockbridge Casino; the casino building she sold for $1, and it was moved to its present location east of town, where it serves as the home of the
Berkshire Theatre Festival The Berkshire Theatre Festival is one of the oldest professional performing arts venues in the Berkshires, celebrating its 80th anniversary season in 2008. History The main building of the Berkshire Theatre Festival was originally the Stockbridge ...
. In 1928 the house was reconstructed at its present location under the guidance of landscape designer
Fletcher Steele John Fletcher Steele (June 7, 1885 – July 16, 1971) was an American landscape architect credited with designing and creating over 700 gardens from 1915 to the time of his death. Early life Steele was born in Rochester, New York, United Sta ...
. The property on which it originally stood is now the site of the Roman Catholic
National Shrine of The Divine Mercy The National Shrine of The Divine Mercy is a Catholic shrine located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The priests and Catholic and brothers of the Congregation of Marian Fathers of the Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary have resided on Ed ...
. The house's gardens were created between 1928 and 1932 by Steele (who was also responsible for significant work on Naumkeag's gardens). The house was furnished under Choate's guidance with pieces appropriate to the Sergeant period, and opened as a museum in 1930. She donated the house and surrounding property to the
Trustees of Reservations The Trustees of Reservations is a non-profit land conservation and historic preservation organization dedicated to preserving natural and historical places in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is the oldest land conservation nonprofit orga ...
in 1948, and bequeathed it part of her collection. Included in Choate's bequest to the museum was a two-volume Bible that had been given to the Mahicans in 1745 by
Francis Ayscough Francis Ayscough (1701–1763) was a tutor to George III and Clerk of the Closet to his father Frederick, Prince of Wales
. Choate had in the 1930s convinced the elders of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe (successors to the Mahicans) to sell her the Bible for display in the museum. Tribe members objected to the sale after it took place, but no action was taken, and the Bible's location was lost to the tribe until it was spotted by tribal members in the museum in 1975. Following negotiations, the Trustees of Reservations returned the Bible to the tribe in 1991.


House and gardens

The mission house now stands on a lot approximately in size. The layout of the house is a standard Georgian center-hall plan, with fireplaced rooms (a parlor to the left, and kitchen to the right) on either side of a central hall, which has a stairway to the second floor. Behind the parlor is an office space where Sergeant would have met with Indians. A diversion from the typical Georgian plan is the presence of a second entrance on the right side of the house, and a narrow hallway running from that entrance to the office. This made it possible for Sergeant's Indian visitors to reach his office without passing through the front of the house. The front door is adorned with a remarkably well-preserved specimen of a Connecticut River valley front door
pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...
. The property features several outbuildings, generally dating from the time of the restoration. A small one-room frame building in the southwest corner serves as a visitor center. Behind the house is a long one-story building that houses museum exhibits, as well as a storage and utility area. It is connected to the house itself by a grape arbor. Northeast of the house is a large barn-like building housing function facilities and a caretaker's apartment. The gardens and outbuildings of the property were designed to Fletcher Steele's vision of what colonial garden should be. He drew on ideas seen in the gardens of
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
's estate at
Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...
to design a property where "a hundred forms of industry were carried on".Karson, p. 117 Rows of vegetables, fruit trees, and bushes, were lined with flowers for aesthetic appeal, and spaces for carved out that he envisioned would have been used for performing outdoor work such as chopping wood, churning butter, and preparing
preserves Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the method ...
. Echoing statements made in his ''Design of a Little Garden'', published just a few years earlier, Steele laid out the outbuildings in such a way to provide the homeowners a private retreat.Karson, p. 119 The house was declared a
National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1968, and listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. It contains a collection of eighteenth-century American furniture and decorative arts. It is open to the public on summer weekends or by appointment.


See also

*
List of historic houses in Massachusetts This is a list of historic houses in Massachusetts. Western Massachusetts Berkshire County * Lenox ** The Mount ( Lenox) – author Edith Wharton's estate; 1902 ** Ventfort Hall ( Lenox) – Jacobean style mansion, built 1893 – George & ...
*
List of National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a total of 191 National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) within its borders. This is the second highest statewide total in the United States after New York, which has more than 250. Of the Massachusetts NHLs, 57 ar ...
*
National Register of Historic Places listings in Berkshire County, Massachusetts __NOTOC__ This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire Co ...


Notes


References

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External links


The Mission House
The Trustees of Reservations {{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Houses completed in 1742 The Trustees of Reservations National Historic Landmarks in Massachusetts Historic house museums in Massachusetts Museums in Stockbridge, Massachusetts Houses in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Historic district contributing properties in Massachusetts 1742 establishments in Massachusetts Museums established in 1930 1930 establishments in Massachusetts