Susanne After snapping some photos on Stockbridge’s picturesque main street I picked up my husband and we drove to another historic hospitality establishment: the Cranwell Resort, Spa and Golf Club. In the late 1880s, during the Gilded Age, the Berkshires were a popular resort destination for many of the wealthy industrialists and financiers of the era. Families like the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers and Carnegies built lavish mansions that were simply called “cottages”, although they had dozens of bedrooms and luxurious amenities.
One of these cottages, actually a gorgeous chateau-like stone mansion, is today’s Cranwell Resort, and over the years it has played host to notable guests like Harriet Beecher Stowe, the Vanderbilt family and President William McKinley. Construction on today’s mansion was completed in 1894. Norma Probst from the resort gave me a tour through this venerable property which also features cottage suites and town homes in addition to the luxuriously appointed suites in the mansion. Cranwell Resort is the only Small Luxury Hotels of the World resort in Massachusetts and a member of the Historic Hotels of America. After the hotel tour we played a round of golf on the 18-hole championship golf course that was built in 1926 by golf course designers Wayne Styles and John Van Kleek. We could not have picked a better day for an enjoyable round of golf in the beautiful rolling hills of the Berkshires.
In the evening we settled in for dinner in the nearby town of Lenox, location of Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home. Many ultra-rich families built summer estates here during the Gilded Aged from 1880 to 1920 and real estate prices skyrocketed in the area. Many of these mansions have today been converted into vacation condominiums, yoga centers, theater companies or museums. Lenox boasts numerous upscale eateries and galleries.
A glorious day of sunshine was followed by two days of continuous rain where we did not even venture outside our comfortable vacation home at the Vacation Village in the Berkshires. Our day of departure, however, greeted us with brilliant sunshine again. So we drove about 90 minutes southeast from Hancock to Springfield, Western Massachusetts’ largest city. Springfield has some wonderfully preserved 19th century architecture, including the Quadrangle, an impressive grouping of history, art and science museums that is also home to the Dr. Seuss National Memorial. As the place where basketball was invented, Springfield’s streets are embellished by huge and colourful basketball sneakers, each one a unique piece of art.
Our last stop on our way back to Toronto was in Schenectady, New York, where we strolled up and down a beautifully revitalized main street. In 1892 Schenectady became the headquarters of the General Electric Company, and together with it being the location for the American Locomotive Company, this city was once known as “the city that lights and hauls the world”. Schenectady’s industrial prowess has faded over the years, but the downtown area, anchored by the 1926 Proctor’s Theatre, has recently experienced a revival. Then we started our leisurely drive back to Toronto through the picturesque Mohawk Valley. Despite less than perfect weather our fall vacation in the Berkshires had turned out to be a fabulous getaway.
- Fall in Massachusetts