Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum is a historic, Jacobean-style mansion and museum located at 104 Walker Street,

Lenox, Massachusetts Lenox is a town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. The town is based in Western Massachusetts and part of the Pittsfield Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,095 at the 2020 census. Lenox is the site of Shakespeare & Company and T ...

. It is 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 ...

. Visitors can tour the mansion and learn about the changes that occurred in American life, industry, and society during the late 19th-century period known as the

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 ...

History

The house was built in

1893 Events January–March * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson. * January 6 – Th ...

for George and Sarah Morgan, sister of

J. P. Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

, to designs by architects

Rotch & Tilden Rotch & Tilden was an American architectural firm active in Boston, Massachusetts from 1880 through 1895. The firm was organized by partners Arthur Rotch and George Thomas Tilden. Both had studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology an ...

. Its exterior is brick with brownstone trim, containing approximately 50 rooms in a total of of living space, including 9 main bedrooms and 10 servant's bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, and 17 fireplaces. The house was set within a large landscaped garden of 26 acres (since reduced to 11.7 acres). A smaller home was moved off of the property and across the street prior to the construction of Ventfort Hall. This home was owned by the Haggerty family and known as Vent Fort. The colonel of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry and civil war hero,

Robert Gould Shaw Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent Boston abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (the 54th Mas ...

, spent his brief honeymoon here with his wife, Annie Kneeland Haggerty. After Robert's death, Annie moved to Europe. She did not return to Vent Fort until her last two summers, when she rented the memory-filled home from the Morgan family. After the Morgans' deaths, the house was rented for several years to Margaret Vanderbilt, then purchased in 1925 by W. Roscoe and Mary Minturn Bonsal who in turn sold the house in 1945, after which it served as a dormitory for

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

music students, a summer hotel, the

Michel Fokine Michael Fokine, ''Mikhail Mikhaylovich Fokin'', group=lower-alpha ( – 22 August 1942) was a groundbreaking Imperial Russian choreographer and dancer. Career Early years Fokine was born in Saint Petersburg to a prosperous merchant and a ...

Ballet Summer Camp, and community housing for the religious organization The Bible Speaks (now known as

Greater Grace World Outreach Greater Grace World Outreach (GGWO) is a nondenominational evangelical Christian churches that emphasize grace, the finished work, and missions. The headquarters of Greater Grace World Outreach is currently located at its megachurch (locally name ...

). In 1991, a nursing home developer planned to demolish the building. Over the following years, the house sustained significant damage, the paneling was stripped from the walls, and part of the roof collapsed. In June 1997 it was rescued by the Ventfort Hall Association. The non-profit has been repairing the damage, as well as trying to establish a national museum of the

within its walls.

''The Cider House Rules''

Shortly after the Ventfort Hall Association purchased the house in 1997, the exterior of the building was used as St. Cloud's Orphanage in the Academy Award-winning 1999 film ''

The Cider House Rules ''The Cider House Rules'' (1985) is a novel by American writer John Irving, a ''Bildungsroman'' that was later adapted into a 1999 film and a stage play by Peter Parnell. The story, set in the pre– and post–World War II era, tells of a youn ...

''. Long time location managers Charlie Harrington and Mark Fitzgerald photographed the mansion even though director

Lasse Hallstrom Lasse is a common masculine given name in Nordic countries. It is also often a nickname for people named Lars or Lauri. People Notable people named Lasse include: * Lasse Aasland (1926–2001), Norwegian politician * Lasse Åberg (born 1940), ...

had specified a wooden structure. Although only the outside of the house was meant to be used in the filming, several scenes were shot on the magnificent staircase in the Great Hall that can be seen in the movie. With this exception, all other interior scenes were filmed in

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; ...

References

External links

Ventfort Hall: The Museum of the Gilded Age
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventfort Hall Mansion And Gilded Age Museum Historic house museums in Massachusetts Museums in Lenox, Massachusetts History museums in Massachusetts Houses completed in 1893 Buildings and structures in Lenox, Massachusetts Houses in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Gilded Age mansions Museums on the National Register of Historic Places

History

''The Cider House Rules''

See also

References

External links