Berkshire Landscapes Fall 2022

LisaVollmerPhotography

THE DESTINATIONS ISSUE

Spend the day exploring the Berkshire Wine Trail, Page 25.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS

8 EDITOR’S NOTE

11 SO MUCH TO DO

12 FROM THE STACKS

14 NEWS OF NOTE

16 BERKSHIRE BITES

48 E XECUTIVE Q&A

5 questions for Chris Weld the creator of Berkshire Mountain Distillers

50 LAST WORDS

‘The most beautiful road in New England’

FEATURES

18 FROM THE BERKSHIRES TO THE UNIVERSE

Rick Costello’s astral art delves into our place in the Milky Way galaxy.

25 THE BERKSHIRE WINE TRAIL

Spend an afternoon at one of these 6 Berkshire wineries.

31 ‘A MEMORIAL TO ICE AT THE DEAD DEER DISCO’

In a two-part exhibition, a contemporary artist communes with the Hudson River School founder.

36 WALK IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF 19TH-CENTURY ARTISTS

Spend a day exploring the homes and studios of Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church.

41 HISTORIC ARTISTS’ HOMES & STUDIOS

Visit the Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio, Chesterwood and Norman Rockwell’s studio.

42 SIX HISTORIC TRAILBLAZERS WHO LEFT THEIR MARK HERE

Explore the travels and trails of historic fi gures who stopped in the Berkshires.

45 SIX FUN FALL EVENTS NOT TO MISS

Harvest festivals, parades, corn mazes and more.

Berkshire Landscapes

BERKLANDS.COM

VOL. 1, ISSUE 3 FALL 2022

PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER

Fredric D. Rutberg frutberg@berkshireeagle.com

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Kevin Moran kmoran@berkshireeagle.com

CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER

Gary Lavariere glavariere@berkshireeagle.com

EDITOR

Jennifer Huberdeau jhuberdeau@berkshireeagle.com

DESIGNER

Becky Drees bdrees@berkshireeagle.com

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING SERVICES

Kate Teutsch kteutsch@berkshireeagle.com

DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING SALES

Cheryl Gajewski cmcclusky@berkshireeagle.com

COPY EDITORS

Meggie Baker, Lindsey Hollenbaugh, Jessica Gamari, Kevin Moran, Jimmy Nesbitt, Larry Parnass

C ONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Ben Garver, Jennifer Huberdeau, Gillian Jones, Stephanie Zollshan

C ONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Meggie Baker, Felix Carroll, David Coffey, Bernard Drew, Lindsey Hollenbaugh, Jennifer Huberdeau

Berkshire Landscapes Magazine is a publication of New England Newspapers Inc.

EDITOR’S NOTE

Luckily, we live in the Berkshires and do not have to travel far to enjoy the blanket of fall colors or to have a new experience. Most recently, I’ve been visiting the villages and hamlets of the Hudson Valley, where I’ve walked in the same spaces as a past president and several famous artists.

In this issue, we take you to Catskill, N.Y., to the homes and studios of beloved Hudson River School painters Thomas Cole and Frederic Edwin Church, where you can soak in the views that inspired them. While there, we speak with Marc Swanson about “A Memorial to Ice at The Dead Deer Disco,” a two-part installation at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site and at Mass MoCA in North Adams.

During our travels, we took the time to put together a small tour of wineries and vineyards in the Berkshires and Hudson Valley, where you can sip on reds, whites and roses all day. For fun with the kids, we have a few suggestions that should fill a day or two with fall-themed activities. And for history buffs, historian Bernard Drew has pulled together a few trails that you can retrace, by car and by foot.

Summer’s over, but there’s still plenty to do!

Jennifer Huberdeau, editor

ON THE COVER

Afternoon light catches the fall foliage at the Hairpin Turn in Clarksburg.

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

After a summer jam-packed ..with cultural activities, I’m ready to get out on the road and explore!

Must see, must do in the Berkshires

1

Visit a historic school turned art gallery

You don’t need to travel to a gallery in New York City to view works by the likes of Carrie Mae Weems, Nick Cave, El Anatsui or Yoan Capote — you can see them all at The School in Kinderhook, N.Y. Gallerist Jack Shainman has converted an old neighborhood school into a world-class gallery. View “Stressed World,” a group show featuring 174 works by 30 artists, Saturdays through Dec. 3.

Enjoy a night out at the theater

Summer may be over, but theater is still happening on Berkshire stages. Barrington Stage’s “All of Me” runs through Oct. 9. Berkshire Theatre Group’s production of “Edward Albee’s Seascape” at the Unicorn Stage in Stockbridge is ongoing through Oct. 23. “Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues” at Shakespeare & Company runs through Oct. 30.

Seek out specters in Berkshire haunts

Set the mood this October with a haunted tour. Hear tales of ghostly sightings as you walk through dimly lit halls Han cock Shaker Village. Learn about eerie encounters at Venfort Hall from author Robert Oakes or join him for cemetery stories at the Church on the Hill in Lenox. Search for spirits as you tour The Mount, home of Edith Wharton, after dark. Under 12? The Mount offers a ghost tour just for kids.

Take a walk through Pittsfield’s history

Berkshire historian Joe Durwin has been writing about the county’s dark and spooky happenings for more than two de cades. He’s taken his historical talks on tour through downtown Pitts field. Throughout October, join him for a variety of tours featuring the darker side of the heart of the Berkshires. Tours include Ghosts & Hauntings of Pittsfield, Macabre Pittsfield: Roaring ‘20s, and Macabre Pittsfield: Dark Origins. Want to take the kids for a stroll and a haunted history lesson? Taylor Staubach, of Berkshire Family Hikes, joins the fun with a family-friendly version of the classic ghost tour. Information: mysterioushillsdotcom.wordpress.com

Celebrate the season with festive lights

As soon as the jack-o’-lanterns are put away, the Berk shires will be decked out in holiday lights. Explore Naum keag’s gardens as they shine bright with 150,000 twinkling lights. Stroll through Night Woods, a sound and light experience on the grounds of The Mount. Or immerse yourself in the sights and sounds of Hancock Holiday Nights at Hancock Shaker Village. ■

Gehard Demetz’s sculpture, Mother’s Darling, and Nick Cave’s “Tondo, 2018,” are part of “Stressed World,” on view at The School in Kinderhook, N.Y., through Dec. 3.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY JACK SHAINMAN GALLERY

Berkshire authors, Berkshire books

The Berkshires have long inspired writers, who have set their novels here or found respite while putting pen to paper. Here are a few of the latest authors to have their work published and put on the shelf.

“An Alphabetical Romp Through the Flora of Berkshire Botanical Garden”

By Stewart Edelstein

Which flower has an internal clock that helps it follow the sun as it crosses the sky? How do pitcher plants trap and devour their prey?

How does the milkweed plant help make monarch butterflies toxic to predators?

If you’d like to know the answers to those questions, or would just like to know about some of the flora growing at the Berkshire Botanical Garden — from agave to zinnia, there’s a book for that: “An Alphabetical Romp Through the Flora of the Berkshire Botanical Garden” by Stewart Edelstein.

“As It Turns Out: Thinking About Edie and Andy”

By Alice Sedgwick Wohl

Edie Sedgwick charmed America as she and artist Andy Warhol took over New York City’s social scene. She was an enigma that puzzled her older sister, Alice, not only when she was alive, but for decades after her death. The eldest of eight, Alice sensed there was something dif ferent about the golden-haired Edie, but couldn’t quite grasp what it was that made their parents indulge her every whim, and others give her exactly what she wanted.

It would take Alice until 2019 to begin to under stand her sister. The clarity began with a series of imagined conversations with a deceased brother, evolving into a deep dive into personal and family history that shapes most of the book.

“Connecticut Destinations: An Explorer’s Guide to Waterfalls, Boulders, Vistas and Points of Interest For Connecticut”

By Jan and Christy Butler

Christy Butler is back with his fifth guide book, this time filled with Connecticut destinations.

Joined once again by his wife, Jan, the Cheshire couple has compiled a definitive list of waterfalls, boulders, caves, vistas and other points of interest for readers who are interested in exploring the Constitution state.

Among the 144 destinations are the Hollis ter House Gardens in Washington, Conn.; the giant bronze frog sculptures of the Willi mantic Bridge in Windham, Conn; Route 66’s iconic Eagle Rock (found in Hebron, Conn.); and a Revolutionary War hiding spot for loyalists to the crown, Tory Den, in Burlington, Conn. Each entry includes a photograph, description of the site and GPS coordinates, to help in finding those spots just off the beaten path.

By Allen P. Harris

Will you have enough money to see you through retirement?

That’s probably the biggest concern of soon-to-be retirees, who are considering how they’ll replace their monthly income. For most, it’s a combination of the company 401K, Social Security benefits and other investments. In order to know if you’re ready to retire depends on several factors, including what you want to do with your retirement.

Allen P. Harris, founder, owner and chief investment officer of Berkshire Money Man agement, says in order to plan for retirement you need to start by defining your dreams. Once you know what you want to do, you’ll be able to determine if your current resources and investments are up to the challenge. In “Don’t Run Out of Money in Retirement,” Har ris offers insight into how creative financial planning can make your retirement savings match your retirement goals.

The companion catalog for the exhibition “Lapsed Quaker Ware” at Hancock Shaker Village and Mass MoCA is full of crisp photos of the black basalt ware — a collaboration between James Turrell and Irish ceramicist Nicholas Mosse — against the backdrop of the simple spaces and furniture of the Shakers. Also included are essays by Turrell, Mosse, ceramics historian Jonathan Rickard, HSV curator Linda Johnson and former HSV Director Jennifer Trainer Thompson. ■ — Compiled by Jennifer Huberdeau

“James Turrell and Nicholas Mosse: Lapsed Quaker Ware”

Edited by Jennifer Trainer Thompson and Linda Johnson

“Don’t Run Out of Money in Retirement: How to Increase Income, Avoid Taxes, and Keep More of What Is Yours”

ELIZABETH FREEMAN IMMORTALIZED WITH STATUE

Elizabeth Freeman of Stockbridge was the first enslaved woman to use the Massachusetts Constitution to sue for her freedom. For that, many regard her as the grandmother of the civil rights movement.

More than 241 years later, a bronze statue of her was unveiled this summer at the First Con gregational Church on Main Street in Sheffield. Historians credit her case, Brom & Bett v. John Ashley Esq., as a landmark decision that affected the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s decision to outlaw slavery in the state in 1783.

The statue stands about eight feet tall. In one hand, Freeman holds a small shovel, the same tool that one of her enslavers used in an attack against her — in another, the judgment that gave her freedom from slavery.

— Reporting by Matt Martinez

TWO HOTELS IN LENOX SELL FOR $38 MILLION

Toole Companies, a family business headed by Chairman Joseph Toole, recently sold two of its hotels in Lenox for a combined $38 million to Mission Hill Hospitality, a KSL Capital Compa ny, based in Colorado.

The Courtyard by Marriott sold for $25 million and the Hampton Inn & Suites went for $13 million. The Waterford Hotel Group in Water ford, Conn., will manage the properties.

The Courtyard by Marriott price broke the sales record set in 2017 when Hyatt Hotels’ Miraval brand bought the former Cranwell Resort for $22 million.

The Toole family will continue to own and operate The Yankee Inn on Routes 7 and 20, adjacent to the Hampton Inn.

The Courtyard in Lenox, with 92 rooms, was built in 2017 at Brushwood Farm across from Lenox Commons on Route 7/20 (Pittsfield Road). The cost was $10 million, according to Eagle archives.

The Hampton Inn, with 79 rooms, was built in 2008 at a cost of about $8 million.

— Reporting by Clarence Fanto

A NEW TWIST FOR AN EMPTY SHOPPING MALL

Once the mecca of retail shopping in the Berkshires, the long-empty Berkshire Mall, located between Route 7 and Route 8 in Lanesborough, may find new life as a cannabis grow facility.

JMJ Holdings Corp. paid $8 million for the property and entered talks over the summer with the town of Lanesborough to permit the cultivation, manufacturing and distribution of cannabis. That would take up about half of the mall’s 590,000 square feet, while the rest could include offices, storage and some retail. The company’s plan would invite various cannabis businesses to establish operations at the former mall.

Massachusetts legalized recreational marijua na use in 2016 and retail shops in 2018. Earlier this year, The Berkshire Eagle estimated cannabis to be a $250 million industry in the Berkshires.

— Reporting by Aina de Lapparent Alvarez and Larry Parnass

PHOTO BY SCOTT STAFFORD

The former Berkshire Mall, now empty, could become an indoor cannabis production facility.

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

The Toole Companies sold two of their Lenox hotels: The Courtyard by Marriott, shown above, and the Hampton Inn & Suites.

PHOTO BY GILLIAN JONES

A monument of civil rights pioneer Elizabeth Freeman in front of Sheffield’s Old Parish Church. The monument, which is a bronze, eight-foot-tall statue of Freeman, was sculpted by Brian Hanlon.

LIGHTS. CAMERA. ACTION? $20 MILLION FILM PRODUCTION FACILITY PROPOSED

The group of people who comprise the nonprofit Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative says the Berkshires needs a film and media production facility.

It’s a $20 million proposal for a 20,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art production facility that would be housed at the Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox.

Fundraising is underway, but it would require a major capital campaign and grants to build the facility that would include a full working soundstage.

— Reporting by Clarence Fanto

ADAMS POISED FOR FUTURE

For more than 50 years, ideas for and argu ments against what to do with the Greylock Glen in Adams came and went. The thou sand-plus acre tract of state-owned land at the foot of Mount Greylock (Massachusetts’ tallest mountain) has the scars to prove it: Remnants of former failed developments — like a golf course and a downhill ski facility — linger in the woods.

Now, dirt is moving in the right direction: Con struction of an outdoor center at the Greylock Glen is underway. The $9 million project, led by the town of Adams, emphasizes the out doors as a draw for visitors.

The 10,000-square-foot outdoor center will include a food service and cafe area, a retail space for a retail outfitter and an outdoor education center. Construction of the outdoor center will end later in 2023.

What else is down the road? A 140-site campground on 25 acres, an amphitheater, a boutique hotel and a conference center. ■

— Reporting by Scott Stafford

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

Construction of the outdoor center is underway at the Greylock Glen in Adams.

PHOTO BY PROVIDED BY ROBERT U. TAYLOR

The Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative envisions a film production facility, pictured here in an artist’s rendering, at the Shakespeare & Company campus in Lenox.

THE CHEF’S HAT IN WILLIAMSTOWN CHANGES HANDS BUT KEEPS THE SAME MAINSTAY VIBE

Steve and Monica Lawrence, owners of Spice Root in William stown, recently purchased The Chef’s Hat to add to their restaurant portfolio.

Fans of the The Chef’s Hat needn’t worry about major changes, says Monica Lawrence. “We don’t want to change it because there are so many people with memories of this place, and some of them have been coming here since they were young,” she said.

POPULAR NUDEL RESTAURANT CLOSES AFTER 13 YEARS

Owner Bjorn Somlo announced in late Au gust that his Lenox eatery Nudel would serve its last meals Labor Day weekend.

“A lot of people hear about a restaurant closing and assume it has to do with a sad story,” Somlo said. “And this isn’t a sad story. With that being said, my involvement from the get-go was always because I was going to put as much as I could into what we did, and now I’m turning my attentions elsewhere.”

Somlo also owned The Lantern Bar & Grill in Pittsfield, which he closed in April.

NEW CULINARY OFFERINGS AT HISTORIC SPOT IN ADAMS

Things are heating up on Park Street with the newly opened Firehouse Cafe. Chef and co-owner Xavier Jones (who many will remember for his delicious former spot BiggDaddy’s Philly Steak House) is serving up Mediterranean-infused small plates and a menu that doesn’t box itself in geographically.

“We’re going to serve food from Asia to Europe to Northern Africa,” Jones said. “We’ll also be throwing some American, New England cui sine in there. We’ll be throwing some Caribbean cuisine in there. We’ll be taking food from all over the world and presenting it in a Mediterra nean style.”

PHOTO BY SCOTT STAFFORD

The Lawrence family, owners of Spice Root on Spring Street in Williamstown, bought the well-known Williamstown restaurant The Chef’s Hat.

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Nudel in Lenox closed its doors Labor Day weekend after 13 years in business.

PHOTO BY GILLIAN JONES

Xavier Jones, right, and his business partner Warren Dews opened a new restaurant at the Firehouse Cafe on Park Street in Adams.

“Fruity Pebbles” muffins are among the offerings at Lulu’s Tiny Grocery.

PITTSFIELD GETS A NEW BAGEL, BRUNCH AND BREAKFAST SPOT

Oliver and Joad Bowman, co-owners of pop ular Pittsfield spots Thistle and Mirth and The Flatburger Society, have opened Lulu’s Tiny Grocery in the Crawford Square building on the corner of North and Depot streets. The owners noticed a hole in the market for “a bagel spot” and decided to expand their offerings. Breakfast sandwiches, coffees and specialty baked goods are available alongside a curated selection of grocery items. ■

– Compiled by Lindsey Hollenbaugh

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PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN Thistle & Mirth and Flat Burger Society restaurant co-owner Austin Oliver recently opened LuLu’s Tiny Grocery in Crawford Square in Pittsfield.

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Rick Costello’s astral art delves into

‘Our Place in the Milky Way Galaxy’

BY FELIX CARROLL STOCKBRIDGE

This summer, Rick Costello, a denizen of dark nights, went public in the light of day. With our whole world in his hands, one painstakingly rendered painting at a time, he set about displaying his artwork in Saint Francis Gallery in S outh Lee.

FROM THE BERKSHIRES TO THE UNIVERSE

Left, Rick Costello poses with his MEAD LX90 telescope.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY LEE EVERETT

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

The Milky Way galaxy is seen, in this time-lapse photo, in the night sky over the Berkshires.

Costello — locally famous for educating and blowing the minds of a largely astronomically illiterate population through his public stargazing events — knows his place in the universe. He’s now trying to discover his place in the art world.

In 1998, the year he was told he’d soon be dead, he began painting the first of what has become 32 paintings to date that he calls “Our Place in the Milky Way Galaxy.”

“All of my paintings are astronomically correct,” says Costello, “with every star put on the canvas, one at a time and in its correct location.”

There’s no reason to doubt him. He’s

The works of Rick Costello are showing through the fall at Saint Francis Gallery, 1370 Pleasant St., South Lee.

More information: 413-717-5199

been studying the night sky, star charts and the knowable universe since he was a boy. Binoculars eventually gave way to sophisticated telescopes. Telescopes now vie with paints and brushes for Costello’s time and attention.

NASA commissioned a painting from Costello even before he was prepared to

declare himself an artist. That was many years ago. Taking into account the time he’s put into his artwork and the skill displayed, he now boldly goes where he was reluctant to go before, putting pricetags upon his pieces that range from $9,000 to $75,000.

“No buyers yet,” says Costello, who rents a one-bedroom apartment in Stockbridge, “but I’m working on that.”

A former parcel delivery man, Costello, 62, spends many of his evenings stargazing and many of his days painting.

Throughout the year, he invites the public to take a gander through the lens of his Meade LX 90 telescope at his favorite stargazing spots, including Baldwin

FROM THE BERKSHIRES TO THE UNIVERSE

PHOTO BY FELIX CARROLL

Rick Costello’s latest painting. “In this scene,” he says, “we are looking in the direction of the center of our galaxy. The dark clouds are nebulae, gasses and dust that block our view from the further away stars behind it.”

“Our Place in the Milky Way Galaxy”

Hill, in Egremont; off New Lenox Road (near the railroad tracks), in Lenox; and the Chestnut Preserve, off Route 7 in Stockbridge.

He says he paints with a single set of critics in mind: astronomers. He imagines them gazing at his artwork — at the nebulae, the star clusters, the pockmarks of our moon, the everything — and declaring, “This guy, Rick Costello, knows what he’s talking about.”

In other words, in his artwork, Costello doesn’t seek to create imaginary worlds or beauty for the sake of beauty. His aim is accuracy, providing a true representation of the star-spangled splendor, per-

plexing perturbations and the maddening vastness of space, all of which just so happens to be beautiful.

The God of the Bible took six days to create the earth and stars. By contrast, Costello’s first galaxy painting — which includes about 700,000 stars within a 60-inch by 48-inch span — took him more than two years to complete. It’s relevant to note that absent among the many things Costello holds as truth is belief in the God of the Bible. He gave up on that when he was 9 years old.

“Nope, not for me,” he says.

Still, he jokes, “I know what God went through. It takes a lot to create these paintings.”

Among the things he holds as truth is that the vastness of the known universe — “probably over a trillion galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, and each with trillions of planets,” he says — makes it highly unlikely that we earthlings are alone.

“Not a chance,” he says. “Not a chance.”

The long-anticipated release this summer of the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope only underscores that “the universe is where it’s happening,” Costello says. “But it’s happening here, too.” On earth, that is to say.

When he looks up, he feels both humbled and happy. Why? Because the

When he looks down at the planet 

PHOTO BY FELIX CARROLL

Rick Costello, with his first completed painting of a swatch of the Milky Way galaxy. His artwork has become a natural extension of his lifelong work studying the cosmos. Costello often sets his Meade LX 90 telescope up in the evenings and shares his knowledge about space. His favorite places are Baldwin Hill, in Egremont; off New Lenox Road (near the railroad tracks), in Lenox; and the Chestnut Preserve, off Route 7 in Stockbridge.

FROM THE BERKSHIRES TO THE UNIVERSE

he calls home, he worries that our manhandling ways will lead to the extinction of the human species.

Climate change is “a big threat, especially for our grandchildren,” Costello says. “What we’re leaving them is appalling. People aren’t paying attention, whether it’s for political reasons or religious reasons or whatever.”

Among the things he holds as truth? In the six decades that he’s been looking up, Costello says he has, on eight occasions, seen aircraft that are “not ours” — in Connecticut, in Berkshire County, in Vermont. He has been encouraged that the military has begun to openly discuss its own experiences witnessing aircraft whose maneuvers cannot be explained.

Also, among the things he holds as truth is the fact that the first sky painting he did saved his life.

In the 1990s, he had become a dabbler in the arts, painting nature scenes of the terrestrial variety: sunsets, ocean scenes, mountains. “But I never got any satisfaction when I finished them,” he said. “I was like, ‘OK, whatever.’”

Then, in 1998, he contracted a deadly strain of the flu. He said he became so dehydrated that he lost about 40 pounds within five days. His health spiraled down from there. He lost blood flow into his heart, which led to a heart attack. The damage was so severe, he said, that doctors in a Connecticut hospital told him he would be dead within six months.

After several weeks in the hospital, he went home and didn’t die. Instead, he figured out what he really wanted to paint: the universe, with the earth and moon in the foreground set against a roiled swatch of the Milky Way band. Using a NASA photograph and star charts, he embarked on his journey. After six months, he still wasn’t dead.

“I kept telling myself, ‘You can’t die until you finish this,’” Costello says. “I basically worked eight to 18 hours a day for more than two years. I took off two months in the middle because I was going nuts. I’d close my eyes and only see stars.”

Not that that’s such a bad thing. He’d like more people to see stars, whether through a telescope, through art at Saint Francis Gallery, or through the images beaming back from the James Webb

Space telescope.

“I think, personally, it would just help humanity if people understood the universe,” he says. “I think it’s hard to act really intelligent if you don’t know the place you’re living in. He pauses.

“I just enjoy looking up,” he says. “Of course, now when I look up at the sky, I see my paintings.”

■

This is Rick Costello’s first painting of outer space. It is 60 inches by 48 inches and was done with oil and acrylic. “It is a scene of our Earth and Moon, with a small section of the Milky Way band as the background.” It contains about 700,000 stars, each one “put on the canvas one at a time, taking two-plus years to complete,” he says. He credits this painting for saving his life.

PHOTO BY FELIX CARROLL

4 places to take photographs of the night sky in the Berkshires

Looking for a spot in the Berkshires where you can observe and photograph the night sky?

The first thing you need to do is find a dark location, away from street lights and other light sources. Moonless nights are best for observing the evening sky, so try to go out on nights closest to the new moon or last quarter moon.

To help you get started on your quest to observe or photograph the night sky, here are four places we suggest checking out:

BALDWIN HILL

Baldwin Hill Road, Egremont

Baldwin Hill is a favorite spot for photographers wanting to capture images of the Baldwin Elm or a bounty of fall colors. At night, it’s the perfect spot to look up and find stars, untar nished by the lights of more populous areas of the Berkshires.

CHESTNUT PRESERVE

Route 7, South Street, Stockbridge

One of three locations favored by Rick Costello, the Chestnut Preserve, about a half-mile south of the Red Lion Inn on South Street, is part of the Laurel Hill Associations of Stockbridge. The preserve, according to Costello, is a prime spot for night

sky observations and photography.

EUGENE D. MORAN WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA

Route 8A, Savoy Road, Windsor

Berkshire Eagle photographer Ben Garver says the eastern part of Berkshire County is favorable for night photography, especially the hilltowns where light pollution is less of a prob lem. He suggests pulling off the road into the management area’s parking area to take photos. What makes this location a great spot for photographs? Ben says it faces in the “right direction” for photographing the Milky Way Galaxy.

NOTCHVIEW

The Trustees of Reservations, Route 9, Windsor

You can observe stars, planets, galaxies, nebulae and other deep space phenomena from Notchview. Join the Arunah Hill Natural Science amateur astronomers, 6 p.m., Oct. 22 for an evening of star gazing. Telescopes will be set up on site. Length of observing time will depend on how clear the sky will be and when certain objects appear. Event is $5 for non-members; free for members. More information: thetrust ees.org ■

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

The Milky Way galaxy can be seen, in this time-lapse photo, in the night sky over Hancock Shaker Village

DRINK IN ALL THE BERKSHIRES HAS TO OFFER

Spend a sunny afternoon at one of these 6 Berkshire wineries

Take a tour along the Berkshires wine trail this fall. It’s the perfect time to sip local wines, enjoy breathtaking views and find your new favorite hidden gem along the trail.

Name: Balderdash Cellars

Address: 81 State Road, Richmond

Contact information: balderdashcellars.com, 413-464-4629

The details: Winery owners Christian and Donna Hanson started this winery in 2011, moving from a downtown Pittsfield location to a more rural and bucolic setting overlooking Richmond Pond.

The vibe: Locals spend weekends here, perched on one of the red Adirondack chairs the winery provides, listening to live music with Richmond Pond as a natural backdrop. You’ll be treated like family here, at a winery that knows its regulars and quickly befriends new visitors. In addition to local musicians playing, weekends also mean food trucks on the property. If you don’t like what they’re selling, bringing in your own picnic is encouraged.

Sip worthy: Balderdash lovers like a pour of Giraffa, a bright and fresh Chardonnay, or a medium-bodied Pinot Noir named Joyride. Sold by the glasses or the bottle to enjoy all afternoon. A not-too-sweet Riesling called Tollbooth is perfect for an autumn afternoon. 

PHOTOS BY GILLIAN JONES

Balderdash Cellars in Richmond offers wine tasting with a view for those looking for a bucolic Berkshires experience.

Guests at Balderdash are welcome to bring their own picnics to enjoy while wine tasting, or stop by one of the food trucks often parked on the property on weekends.

Name: Sunset Meadow of Massachu setts

Address: 296 South Main St., Sheffield

Contact information: sunsetmead owvineyards.com, 413-248-1330

The details: Opened in 2022, the Shef field tasting room is the latest expansion of Sunset Meadow Vineyards in Goshen, Conn., just 30 minutes south. The vine yard was originally a working farm, dat ing back to the 1800s, which produced beef cattle and hay. In 2001, the Motel family established the vineyard, using their longstanding farm experience to transition to grape growing. They now grow 15 varieties of grapes on 50 acres of their 160-acre farm.

The vibe: The Sheffield location offers table-side tasting flights of five samples or wine by the glass, as well as small plates of local meats, cheeses, spreads and crackers. On Saturdays, you can sip wine to the tunes of local talent outdoors. While at the tasting room, be sure to pick up a bag of mulled spices or other wine-themed treats. Head south to Goshen to pick up a bottle of the winery’s ice wine.

Sip worthy: Fill a table-side flight with wines other than your typical caber net, chardonnay and rose. Two to try: Shades, a pomegranate-hued sparkling wine bursting with bright berry notes, and Pyrrah’s Decadence, a port-style dessert wine with hints of chocolate and caramel.

SECONDS

ITUATED BEAUTIFULLY againstthebackdrop ofTaconicMountainandoverlookingSchenob Brookbasin,thisfarmhousehasbeenintheBartholomew Familyforsevengenerations.Builtin1804,thistwoand ahalfstoryFederalstylehousewithanendchimney,was builtonlandwhichcamefromagrantinthe1700'sfrom theCrownofEngland.NotableareAmericanVictorian stylefeatures,includinginteriorarches,broaddouble doorsthatrollbackintothewalls,baywindowsandtwo porchesaddedlater,alldesignedtoemphasizetheinterior asacontinuousvolumeofspace.Thehouseisonits originalstonefoundation,haswideboardfloors,marble doorhandlesandmanyoriginalpiecesoffurniture.The upstairsbedroomsareahoneycombofconnectionsasa safeguardforescapingfires.Cornercupboardsserveas storage;someclosetshavebeenadded.Theballroomsize bathroomdoublesasasittingroomandplayareaforthe children.Thewingontheleftservesasalivingquarters forhiredmenwhoworkedthefarm.Historicalartifacts ofthe working farmhave beenintegrated into the decorationofseveralrooms.

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25PittsfieldRoad,Lenox,MA01240413-442-3001 admin@morrisonshomeimprovement.com

Take a tourofour Simply Amazing Showroom at morrisonshomeimprovement.com

PHOTO BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

The Sunset Meadow tasting room in Sheffield is the latest expansion of Sunset Meadow Vineyards in Goshen, Conn.

Name: Hilltop Orchards Home of Furnace Brook Winery

Address: 508 Canaan Road / Route 295, Richmond

Contact information: hilltoporchards.com, 413-344-6817

The details: Part apple orchard and part winery, this fami ly-owned business sits just next to the border of New York State. The 187-acre working farm grows 27 varieties of apples, which are used to produce the property’s artisanal ciders and wines.

The vibe: Grab your flannel shawl and floppy hat, this winery hidden in a picture-perfect apple orchard screams Instagram

opportunities. After strolling through the rows and rows of apple trees, stop by the store where co-owner Wendy Vittori is sure to be there to help you decide which wines or hard ciders you’ll want to try. Also, you may be there for the wine, but trust us, don’t skip the freshly made apple cider doughnuts. Sip worthy: Furnace Brook winery makes wines that range from sweet – like a strawberry rose – to your more traditional varieties like a Chardonnay or Merlot. We know this is a wine trail, but if you happen to be traveling with those who prefer a different drink, try one of the hard ciders in the Johnny Mash Cider collection.

Name: Les Trois Emme Vineyard & Winery

Address: 8 Knight Road, New Marlborough

Contact information: ltewinery.com, 413-528-1015

The details: Owner Wayne Eline spent 19 of his 34 years in education as a chemistry teacher. These days, he’s traded his classroom for his family’s quaint winery, where they produce 13 types of wines.

The vibe: Patrons sip wines on the front lawn of the winery as local musicians play most weekends. During the summer, wine slushies are popular with locals. If it’s rainy when you stop, don’t skip the fun, vibrant tasting room.

Sip worthy: Pumpkin spice lovers have found their next favorite spice vice: Stingy Jack’s Pumpkin wine is the winery’s award-winning Cayuga White infused with pumpkin and spices. Don’t worry, for those pumpkin-spice averse, Stingy Jack also has a red blend or a sweet white.

PHOTO BY NINA COCHRAN

Les Trois Emme Vineyard & Winery in New Marlborough is operated by Wayne Eline, who spent 19 of his 34 years in education as a chemistry teacher.

strawberry rose – to your more traditional varieties like a Chardonnay or Merlot. We

PHOTOT BY GILLIAN JONES

At Hilltop Orchards Home of Furnace Brook Winery, guests can sip wines, pick apples or enjoy a freshly made apple cider doughnut.

BERKSHIRES WINE TRAIL

Name: Home Range Winery

Address: 146 Flints Crossing Road, Canaan, N.Y.

Contact information: homerangewinery. com, 518-610-6821

The details: Just over the New York border, this winery’s roots are firmly planted in the heritage of four gener ations of the Bartlett family and the family farm. Raspberries, blueberries and grapes grown on the farm are used in the wines, and all products used are New York grown.

The vibe: This hidden gem is part out door music venue on the weekends and always part working farm. The old barn now houses the tasting room, where an tiques are on display. And there’s always a farm animal nearby for the perfect photo opp. There are tables outside and visitors are encouraged to bring their own picnics.

Sip worthy: This is a small-batch winery which offers samplers of four options for $12, glasses for $10 and bottles between $23-$25.

Name: Hudson Chatham Winery

Address: 1900 NY-66, Ghent, N.Y.

Contact information: hudsonchatham winery.com, 518-392-9463

The details: Wine enthusiasts of the Berkshires have been making the short trek to the Hudson Valley for this small, yet utterly charming, winery since it opened in 2016. In 2020, the winery was purchased by Steven Rosario and Justen Nickell, both graduates of The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park.

The vibe: Come taste some wines, or book an experience for a guided wine tasting with a curated menu. You’ll love spending an afternoon under the swaying trees on the property perfectly lit with bistro lights. And, the wine labels are just as pretty as the setting.

Sip worthy: Fall is here but there’s still time to enjoy some of their pink and orange wines, including a Rose Cider made with Ghent-grown apples. ■

– Lindsey Hollenbaugh and Jennifer Huberdeau

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A LOVE OF NATURE,across the centuries

BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

CATSKILL, N.Y.

How do you walk through grief?

How do you survive a melancholy that ebbs and flows, like waves beating on the shores of a distant future?

Artist Marc Swanson does not have all the answers. Those answers he does have are shared in a futuristic frozen landscape of catastrophic beauty — an exhibition in two parts; connected by subject and theme, yet distinct in space and conversation.

“Being an artist can be hard because you’re always questioning, ‘Why does anyone want to know what I think?’ But it’s what you do as an artist. For me, this is it. This is what I do. It’s the only thing I know how to do — respond,” Swanson said during a tour of “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

There, in the second half of the two-part exhibition, his work exists in conversation with that of artist Thomas Cole, father of the Hudson River School art movement.

Cole, an early environmentalist, used his artwork and writing to spark con versations about the devastation he saw happening in the Hudson Valley, as the industrial revolution moved in, replac ing bucolic landscapes filled with trees and fresh water with railroad tracks, tanneries and quarries.

“Cole is known for his romantic paint

ings,” Swanson said. “He used them in an allegorical way. He was painting not what was, but what had been.”

Swanson’s connection with Cole began shortly after moving to Catskill from New York City. He was feeling “stuck” in his life, in his work. He and his partner had purchased a house near the Cole site and attended an exhibit showcasing the works of Cole and his student, Frederic Edwin Church. It was then Swanson noticed a painting that

seemed similar to a spot on his property. After confirming that it was indeed his backyard, he learned it happened to be one of Cole’s favorite painting locations.

Swanson would go on to dig deep er into Cole’s writing and paintings, finding more and more similarities, such as worries about the environment. For Cole, the concern was about deforesta tion and land destruction being done under the watch of President Andrew Jackson’s White House. Swanson 

In ‘A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco,’ an exhibition in two parts, a contemporary artist communes with the Hudson River School founder

PHOTO PROVIDED BY PETER AARON/OTTO Installation view at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

Left, two sequin-covered deer stand guard on the lower floor of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, N.Y. The piece is part of the installation “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” by artist Marc Swanson. PHOTO BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

likened Jackson’s favoring of business over the environment to that of Pres ident Donald Trump dismissing the impact of climate change on the world.

And yet, Swanson’s work is not asking for political action or even political opin ion. He only asks the viewer to contem plate how actions impact the world as a whole and how ignoring a pandemic can cause unspeakable loss.

The irony of his situation was not lost on him, he says, acknowledging that as he was “working on a show about AIDS,

a pandemic that was ignored [by Presi dent Ronald Reagan], a pandemic came along and the president ignored it.”

DEAD DEER AT MASS MOCA

In the first part of “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco” — which opened in March at Mass MoCA in North Adams — the high-ceiling second-floor gallery spaces are filled with motionless, stiff white curtains, reminiscent of the 30-foot icicles at Kaaterskill Falls in Catskill, which Cole described as “giant

towers of ice that are as silent as death.”

There are collections of photos, of those lost to AIDS, clustered in memori als among the frozen spaces — each its own diorama filled with broken mirrors, chains, plaster bandages and taxider my mannequins of cats, snakes and, of course, deer.

There, a stage floats above the me morials, candles lighting the way to a performance space. In a corner, deer — stark white taxidermy models with rhinestone antlers — are frozen in 

Part of Marc Swanson’s installation piece, “A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco,” in Thomas Cole’s “Old Studio.”

A diorama, filled with photographs, part of Marc Swanson’s installation piece, can be found in a second-floor bedroom at the Thomas Cole house.

SURROUNDED BYCOLOR

moments of celebration and repose under nightclub-like lighting.

Over 70 miles away, at the Thom as Cole site, Swanson’s work is more subdued in scale, but not in detail or meaning.

DEAD DEER IN CATSKILL

At Mass MoCA, he says, the challenge was not to have the exhibition over whelmed by the show. At the Cole site, the challenge was not to overwhelm the space with the exhibition.

Here, the bedazzled and sequined deer glitter in a corner in a first-floor room, out of place but a natural part of the room, re-created to appear as it did when Cole occupied the house in the 1840s. In an upstairs bedroom, a memorial of picture frames sits on a heavy wooden dresser, as part of a diorama. The shrine, while strikingly beautiful and poignant, blends seamlessly with the decor.

In the master bedroom, in an inten tionally blocked-off entrance to a sleep ing porch, a black sequined deer head hangs, illuminated and slowly spinning, a disco ball of another era.

Most haunting is a series of sculptures and wall hangings displayed in tandem with Cole’s works in a second-floor gallery. White plastic taxidermy deer heads crane their necks toward Cole’s paintings, straining to see the work of places no longer expected to exist as they had. On the walls, frames draped in plaster bandages, in beads and in fringe and dried flowers, are silent memorials to those we have lost. There is sadness, loss and grief in the air, but there is also hope. There is hope in the paintings of Cole, lush and green and overflowing with abundance, a promise that from the ruins will spring new life. ■

PHOTO BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

A diorama, filled with photographs, part of Marc Swanson’s installation piece, can be found in a second-floor bedroom at the Thomas Cole house.

If You Go …

What: “Marc Swanson: A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco”

Where: Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 218 Spring St., Catskill, N.Y.

When: On view through Nov. 27.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Tuesday. Closed Wednesdays. Guided house tours for up to 12 people on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Fri day. Self-guided tours, up to 25 people, on Saturday and Sunday.

Admission: $20, adults; $18, 62 and over, students with ID, active military and veterans with ID; free for children 15 and under. Advanced registration is suggest ed. Last tour begins at 4 p.m.

Tickets: 518-943-7465, thomascole.org

What: “Marc Swanson: A Memorial to Ice at the Dead Deer Disco”

Where: Mass MoCA, 1080 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams

When: On view through Jan, 1, 2023

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Monday. Closed Tuesday.

Admission: $20, adults; $18, seniors and veterans; $12, students with ID; $8, ages 6 to 16.

Tickets: 413-662-2111, tickets.massmo ca.org

In a second-floor gallery, Swanson’s installation is juxtaposed with Cole’s paintings, which hang on the two walls opposite the sculptures.

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

Swanson uses a variety of materials in his installation pieces including plaster bandages and taxidermy mannequins.

These acclaimed 19th-century artists painted landscapes to preserve them.

You can walk in their footsteps today

Spend a day exploring the homes and studios of Thomas Cole, father of the Hudson River School, and of his student, Frederic Edwin Church, once the most famous American artist

ART

PHOTOS BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

Cedar Grove, now known as the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, in Catskill, N.Y., was the residence and studio of artist Thomas Cole from 1833 to 1848.

BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

Cole had seen it happen before, in England, where the Industrial Revo lution had swallowed the countryside with factories and pollution. His family, decorative artists, had fled to America to start over in 1818. But the machines and factories soon followed, even as he found his way into New York’s Hudson Valley. His journals reflect his anger at the development along Catskill Creek — ice houses, gristmills, railroads, hotels, tanneries and quarries. He painted the land as a way to preserve it for future generations.

In 1833, the artist rented a cottage from John Thomson to use as a studio at Cedar Grove, a working farm in Catskill, N.Y. In 1836, he became part of the fami ly, marrying Thomson’s niece Maria Bar tow, and moved into the main house.

Although Cole would buy 2 1/2 acres from Thomson, intending to build a home, he eventually took over the main house, where he and Maria raised their five children. Cole never formally owned the house or the 110-acre farm, as it was passed on to Emily Bartow, Maria’s sis ter, following their uncle’s death in 1846.

“We discovered that [Thomas Cole] redecorated the inside of the house when he moved in. He painted directly on the walls. He did all of this interior design in the house because he was a working art ist and he wanted to show his paintings in the best light,” said Kate Menconeri, the site’s chief curator and director of curatorial affairs, contemporary art and fellowship, during a recent tour.

“In interpreting the site, as a historic artist’s home and studio, we did both a historic re-creation of the site and a historic restoration. We wanted to show the borders and the walls that he painted and we restored all of that.

“On the first floor, we re-created 

On view in the New Studio through Oct. 30, “Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration,” curated by Franklin Kelly, senior curator and curator of American paintings at the National Gallery of Art, reassembles the studio, with artifacts and significant works of art, to appear as it would have been in 1848 at the time of Coles’ death.

In the 1830s, Thomas Cole began painting the Catskill Mountains as a way to preserve the beauty of a land he was sure would disappear, never to be seen again.

the scene of what paintings you would have seen and what would have been here because, in Cole’s time, this is where people came to see the latest in contemporary art and contemporary landscape painting.”

On the second floor, in addition to re-creating the family’s living spaces, there are original paintings — works by Cole and two other Cole family artists — his sister, Sarah Cole, who also painted landscapes, and his daughter, Emily Cole.

From 1839 to 1846, Cole used part of a barn as his studio, where he painted many of his major works, including the series, “The Voyage of Life,” until build ing the New Studio in 1846. He would use the studio until his death in 1848.

As part of honoring Cole’s legacy of showing contemporary art in the main house, the National Historic Site hosts “Open House: Contemporary Art in Con versation with Cole,” featuring the work of a contemporary artist whose work is made in response to Cole’s work and the historic home and studio. Catskill-based artist Marc Swanson’s “A Memorial To Ice At The Dead Deer Disco” is on view through Nov. 27. (To read more, see page 32.) A companion piece of the same name is on view at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams through Jan. 1, 2023.

“One of the things we’re always think ing about is ‘Why do Cole and his work matter now?’ Time and time again the answer is his connection to the natural world. That still feels urgent today,” Menconeri said. “We’re really lucky because not only did he paint but he also wrote about the natural environment.”

In addition to the main house, visitors are able to tour both of his studios. The New Studio, torn down in the 1970s, was reconstructed in 2015 according to plans and photographs and is used for rotating exhibitions. Now on view, through Oct. 30, is “Thomas Cole’s Studio: Memory and Inspiration,” curated by Franklin Kelly, senior curator and curator of

American paintings at the National Gallery of Art.

“It’s really extraordinary because it’s looking at what Cole’s studio would look like in 1848. While Cole was painting here, he died very suddenly and they left his studio as a shrine. Franklin Kelly has reimagined what the studio looked like upon his passing,” Menconeri said.

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH AND OLANA

In 1844, Cole took on a student, Frederic Edwin Church, the son of a wealthy businessman in Hartford, Conn. Church’s father agreed to pay $300 per year for his son’s instruction, which lasted until 1846.

Church began his career as an artist associated with the Hudson River School, creating idealized natural land scapes of the Hudson Valley. But he soon developed his own style, still focusing on nature, but with a wider lens, eventually becoming known as a travel painter.

He was an artist, but he was also a savvy businessman, painting his most famous work, “Niagara,” with a plan for exhibition in mind. He sold the work for $4,500, including $2,000 in reproduction rights, to New York art dealers and printers Williams, Stevens & Williams. He then took the painting on tour. From May 1-29, 1857, tens of thousands of people paid 25 cents to view the painting in a dark New York City gallery, where only the painting was illuminated. He then took the painting on the road, to London and later Glasglow, Scotland, adding the ability to buy prints of it, in color — $30 for an artist’s proof and $15 for a print. He would later repeat this strategy.

Church created his paintings in his studio, based on sketches from his travels to the White Mountains; western Massachusetts; the Catskills; Hartford, Conn.; Niagara; Virginia; Kentucky, and Maine. He made two trips to South America in 1853 and 1857, the first of which was financed by Cyrus W. Field, of Stockbridge.

Not only was Church a successful contemporary artist, with a fortune thought to be $1 million at the time of his death in 1900, but he was also the most successful and famous artist in America of his lifetime. In 1876, when “Niagara” was bought at auction by Wil liam Wilson Corcoran for $12,500, it set a record for money paid for a painting by an American artist.

In 1860, a few months before his marriage to Isabel Carnes, Church pur chased a 126-acre farm on a south-facing slope in Columbia County — one he had painted while a student at Cole’s farm, just three miles away on the other side of the Hudson River. There, they added a cottage believed to be designed by Richard Morris Hunt. Church designed gardens, planted an orchard, dredged a marsh to create a lake and built a studio. In 1867, the couple acquired the top of the hill, where after an 18-month trip to Europe and the Middle East, Church and architect Calvert Vaux designed the mansion named Olana.

Inspired by the architecture they had seen on their travels in Beirut, Jeru salem and Damascus in 1868, Church designed a house that incorporates an unusual mixture of Victorian structural elements and Middle Eastern decorative motifs.

Today, Olana is part of the New York State Parks system, which grants free access to the historic site’s 250 acres, daily from 8 a.m. to sunset. Exploration of Church’s designed landscape, which includes five miles of carriage roads, is encouraged. Guided walking tours and guided EV driving tours of the grounds are offered, as well as guided tours and self-guided tours of the first and second floors of the mansion, where the interior remains much as it was during Church’s lifetime, exotically furnished and decorated with objects from his global travels, and with some 40 paintings by Church and his contemporaries.

Left, Olana, home of Frederic Edwin Church, is connected to Thomas Cole’s house by the Hudson River Skywalk, a six-mile out-and-back scenic pedestrian walkway that travels over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

ART HOUSE TOUR

If You Go …

Both sites are just an hour’s drive from Pittsfield.

Thomas Cole National Historic Site

Where: 218 Spring St., Catskill, N.Y.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Tuesday. Closed Wednesdays. Guided house tours for up to 12 people on Mon day, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Self-guided tours for up to 25 people on Saturday and Sunday.

Admission: $20, adults; $18, 62 and over, students with ID, active military and veterans with ID; free for children 15 and under. Advanced registration is suggested. Last tour begins at 4 p.m.

Tickets for the New Studio exhibition-only are available at the visitors center.

Tickets: 518-943-7465, thomascole.org

HISTORIC ARTISTS’ HOMES AND STUDIOS

Olana State Historic Site and the Thom as Cole National Historic Site, are both members of the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program, a coalition of 48 museums that were the homes and work ing studios of American artists. Member

Olana State Historic Site

Where: 5720 State Route 9G, Hudson, N.Y

Hours: 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Friday through Wednesday, for house and landscape tours. House closes at 4:30 p.m. Grounds are open daily, 8 a.m. to sunset.

Admission: Free to explore the grounds. Guided tours: $20, adults, guided tour of the first floor of the house (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday): $10, adults, guided tour of the second floor of the house (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday); $30, adults, self-guided tour, Friday through Saturday only. Children 12 and under are free. $12, adults; 60-minute walking landscape tour; $20, ages 8 and up, 30-minute EV driving landscape tour; $40, 60-minute EV driving landscape tour.

Tickets: 518-751-0344, olana.org

organizations in the Berkshires include the Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio, Chesterwood and Norman Rockwell’s Studio at the Norman Rockwell Museum. Learn more at: artistshomes.org

TAKE A WALK

Situated just three miles apart, the

Thomas Cole National Historic Site and Fredric Church’s Olana are connected by the Hudson River Skywalk. The sixmile out-and-back scenic walkway takes visitors over the scenic Rip Van Winkle Bridge, featuring breathtaking views that inspired both artists.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

The Catskill Mountains as seen from the porch of Thomas Cole’s house in Catskill, N.Y.

3

HISTORIC ARTISTS’ HOMES & STUDIOS TO VISIT IN THE BERKSHIRES

You need not travel far to view these three historic artists’ homes and studios, all of which can be found in the Berkshires.

Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio

92 Hawthorne St., Lenox 413-637-0166, frelinghuysen.org

Artists: Abstract artists George L. K. Morris and Suzy Frelinghuysen.

What you’ll see: Abstract artist George L.K. Morris, with the help of Boston architect and Yale classmate George Sanderson, built the Bauhaus-style stu dio on his family’s estate, Brookhurst, in 1931. It was the first modern structure in New England. The house, added in 1941, was designed by John Butler Swann. Tours are self-guided but knowledgeable staff is on hand to answer questions and provide information.

The house remains as it was during George and Suzy’s lifetimes. In the foyer, the bright colors of the fresco painted by the couple welcomes visitors. Guests can see rooms filled with modernist furniture crafted by Gilbert Rhode, Donald Deskey and Alvar Aalto — names just as important as those attached to the paintings hanging on the walls – Picasso, Henri Matisse, Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Frescoes by George and Suzy can also be seen in the dining room and living room, which has a leather floor.

Tours end in the studio, where a special exhibit about Suzy’s dual careers as an artist and an opera singer is on display.

When to visit: Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 10.

Norman Rockwell’s Studio

Norman Rockwell Museum

9 Glendale Road/Route 183, Stockbridge 413-298-4100, nrm.org

Artist: Norman Rockwell

What you’ll see: Originally located in the backyard of Rockwell’s home on South Street in Stockbridge, the studio was cut in two and moved to the museum grounds in 1986. Although the famed illustrator created art in some 20 studios over the course of his career, this one — his last — is the one he called his “best studio yet.“

The studio is designed to appear as if Rockwell had just stepped out for a moment.

When to visit: Rockwell’s Studio is open during museum hours, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday through Tuesday, through early November.

Important to know: Advanced timed tickets are required. The studio tour, which lasts 20 minutes, is not included in the price of the museum ticket. An additional ticket is required.

Chesterwood

4 Williamsville Road, Stockbridge 413-298-2023, chesterwood.org

Artist: Sculptor Daniel Chester French

What you’ll see: Chesterwood’s 26-foothigh white stucco studio and white stucco Colonial Revival house were designed by architect Henry Bacon, who would go on to design the Lincoln Memorial, which houses French’s sculpture of the 16th president.

Although French only lived on the estate from May through October, it’s where he did a majority of his studio work, including the design work for the Lincoln Memorial’s statue. A small exhibit in the museum’s welcome center elaborates on French‘s process.

Visitors are able to take a guided or a self-guided tour of the studio or a self-guided grounds-only tour to view a contemporary sculpture show. The main house is not available for tours, as it is being updated to meet ADA and safety building codes to accommodate an artist-in-residency program. Of note is that the grounds were landscaped and designed by French himself.

When to visit: Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday through Monday through Oct. 24.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

Daniel Chester French’s Stockbridge estate, Chesterwood, is home to his summer cottage and his studio, where visitors can view his model for the Lincoln Memorial.

PHOTO BY JENNIFER HUBERDEAU

The Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio was home to abstract artists George L.K. Morris and Suzy Frelinghuysen.

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

Norman Rockwell’s studio at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge.

6 historic trailblazers who left their mark on the Berkshires

You may already be following in their footsteps (or tire tracks)

BY BERNARD A. DREW

Add a dimension to autumn leaf peeping this year by tracing routes traveled by intriguing folks of the past — by foot, by canoe or by automobile.

You already know some of Berkshire County’s historical travelers: Elizabeth Freeman on her freedom quest in Shef field; Henry David Thoreau on his nature pilgrimage on Greylock; Benton MacKaye pacing the Appalachian trail and Arlo Guthrie motoring the Garbage Trail. But there are others.

This handful of legacy suggestions cov ers the breadth of the Berkshires. Ponder them at the breakfast table, muse about them while driving to work or shopping for groceries, or seek them out on an afternoon meander through the colorful countryside.

1758, GEN. AMHERST BUILDS A WAR ROAD ROUTE 23: Blandford to Alford

British Gen. Jeffery Amherst and his troops, fresh from defeating the French at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, traipsed through South Berkshire in late 1758. The fighters were on their way from Boston to Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga) during the North American campaign in the Seven Years’ War (1754-1763), which pitted Britain and Prussia against Austria and France.

Route 23, from Blandford to Great Bar rington, more or less follows the war road reshaped by Maj. James Clephane’s 200 “Hatchet Men,” who hacked and shoveled to widen, straighten and flatten a Native American path to military standards sufficient for supply wagons. It was the largest troop movement ever through the Berkshires.

Amherst’s army, some 4,000 strong and including Simon Fraser of Lavat’s kilted 78th Regiment of Foot (Scottish Highland ers), camped for a day near Green River

in Great Barrington in order to entertain Stockbridge Mohicans, two of whom peti tioned to re-enlist with the famed Roger’s Rangers. The campsite is now a cornfield. The British ultimately took Quebec and won control of North America.

In 1776: American Gen. Henry Knox and a fleet of ox-drawn sledges navigat ed the trail’s reverse to deliver cannon, cohorns and mortars from Ticonderoga to Patriot forces to impress the British army to give up Boston — and ultimately North America.

1781: MOTHER ANN LEE ON A MISSION Watervliet, N.Y., to Mount Washington

Mother Ann Lee, founder of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, more commonly known as the Shakers, made a mission tour of three New England states beginning in May 1781. Her pretzel-looped trip lasted two years.

She beelined from Watervliet, N.Y., to Benjamin Osborn’s homestead in Mount

Washington, passing Bash-Bish cascade as she climbed from Copake Falls. Most of the mountaintop community had broken away from Robert Livingston’s Hudson River patroonship in New York state. Lee, who stayed with Osborn for 10 days, reported she was “joyously received.”

The Mother Ann Lee Cottage, as the Osborn house was often called, survived on West Street in Mount Washington State Forest until 2019, when it was destroyed by fire.

On heading back to Watervliet in 1783, Lee traveled through Cheshire and Pittsfield and made a side trip to Great Barrington to comfort adherents who had been imprisoned there. (Great Barrington was the county seat and county lockup un til 1792.) The men were ultimately released with a fine.

A probable map of Mother Ann Lee’s route may be seen at the Shaker Museum’s website, shakermusem.us.

IMAGE PROVIDED BY BERNARD DREW

A postcard from the 1930s shows one of the most dramatic views on the Mohawk Trail is Hairpin Turn in Clarksburg.

1883: PADDLING ON THE HOUSATONIC RIVER Pittsfield South

Boston attorney Henry Parker Fellows, author of the 1884 “Boating Trips on New England Rivers,” described how after a meal at the American House in Pittsfield, he and a companion launched a skiff from below the Pomeroy Woolen Mill on West Housatonic Street, getting a late afternoon start. They encountered an unexpected barrier: “a brand new wire fence which extended directly across our path and looked like a very troublesome obstacle, as the wires were full of sharp projections.

Driving to it, however, stern foremost, my passenger lifted the lowest strand over his head … I carried the thorny burden precariously over my own, and we passed under without a scratch.”

They made it to Lenox Station as dark set in. The Boston Evening Transcript in 1884 hailed Fellows’ book as showing “the excursionist need not necessarily betake himself to the wilds of Maine or to the forest vastnesses of the Adirondacks in search of picturesque scenery or isolation from the hurly-burly of business life.”

Many recreationists have canoed the same distance in the decades since.

1893: TORCHLIT PARADES FOLLOWED PATHS THROUGH ANCIENT HEMLOCKS Ice Glen, Stockbridge

Ice Glen in Stockbridge is a wondrous natural landmark, recently inducted into the national Old-Growth Forest Network. The path through the ancient hemlocks and pines has been a popular destination since the time of early Americans.

David Dudley Field Jr. owned the crevice in the late 19th century. Then living at Laurel Cottage on Main Street (where the tennis court is today in Stockbridge village), Field built a footbridge across the Housatonic River and created a bridle path to the summit above Ice Glen. He encour aged autumn torchlit parades, which were held frequently until the 1930s, sometimes on Halloween. Field gave the 43-acre mountain gash to the town in 1891. He was widely greeted in September 1893 as he 

HISTORIC TOURS

reviewed a line of costumed hikers. Today, Ice Glen is maintained by the Laurel Hill Association and may be reached from a small parking area at the end of Park Street — traversing the ledges in daylight is recommended over the use of candlelight.

Field instigated the famous 1850 hike to Monument Mountain that brought to gether scribes Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Peeskawso Peak, the destination at the top of the climb, affords a broad Berkshire view. The trailhead is on Route 7 south of Stockbridge. The Trustees of Reservations maintain those mountain trails.

1905: GLIDDEN AUTO TOUR STOPS AT ASPINWALL HOTEL

Aspinwall Hotel ruins, Kennedy Park, Lenox Telephone pioneer Charles Jasper Glidden was an early automobilist. He donated the Glidden Touring Trophy to the National Reliability Run, an automobile endurance competition run by AAA. The reliability runs, which became known as the Glidden Tours, ran from 1904 to 1913.

In its second year, the first to be named for Glidden, drivers and mechanics over nighted at the Aspinwall Hotel in Lenox in July 21-22 — among them Ransom E. Olds (Oldsmobile), Percy O. Pierce (Pierce Great-Arrow), J.D. Maxwell (Max well-Briscoe), R.M. Owen (Owen Magnetic), Albert L. Pope (Pope Hartford), E.H. Cutler (Knox) and Walter White (White). There was one woman driver, Joan Newton Cuneo (White steamer). Glidden drove a Napier.

With Knox and Packard trucks provid ing sweep, they came from Worcester via West Becket and Lee into the village. A 50-horsepower Panhard et Levassor, the heaviest car in the run, had motor trouble. A Pope-Hartford had tire punctures and a Pierce needed a coil vibrator. Nevertheless, Percy Pierce won the contest with a score of 996 out of a possible 1,000. (The tour concluded in New York City with a vote of all the motorists.)

Motor Age noted: “No more peacefully picturesque run could be picked out than that of today. The route carried one into the Berkshires at historic old Stockbridge, where Jonathan Edwards preached to the Indians and wrote his famous philosoph ical essay on ‘The Freedom of the Will.’

Then came a ride down the Housatonic valley, widely famed for its scenery. Jacob’s

Name That Trail

Many historic roads in the Berkshires were given colorful names as our system of highways was widened, flattened and paved more than a century ago. The Com monwealth of Massachusetts named particular east-west roads and other nick names came over the years:

• Route 9 through Windsor: Berkshire Trail

• Route 8 from Becket to Dalton: Crane Trail

• The road east from Route 8 in Hinsdale: Skyline Trail

• Route 143 from Hinsdale to Worthington: Lafayette Trail

• Route 20 from Lee to Westfield: Jacob’s Ladder (That’s only a section of the longest highway in the United States, which stretches 3,365 miles from Boston to Newport, Ore.

• The old Boston-Albany Road (Route 20) west from Pittsfield over the mountain into New York: Lebanon Trail

• Route 23 from Great Barrington to Blandford: Knox Trail.

• Route 2 (originally New England Interstate Route 7) from North Adams to Shelburne: the Mohawk Trail on the east, Taconic Trail on the west.

These roads sprung from indigenous hunting and trading paths, though only one makes that acknowledgment.

North-south routes weren’t so blessed. The entire Route 8 has no special name for its 67 miles in Massachusetts, though it was known to Nutmeg Staters as Strat ford-Waterbury-North Adams Route.

And the 54-four-mile Route 7 in Massachusetts, once designated Interstate Route 4, was for a time seriously known as New York-Berkshire-Burlington Way, less seri ously at the southern end as Antiques Alley.

Ladder was coasted, or more properly bumped down ….”

There were no electric vehicles in the competition, but Lenox garage owner Thomas S. Morse rented Waverly Electrics to guests and kept a charging station on the hotel grounds in 1905. The Aspinwall burned in 1931. Trails at John Drummond Kennedy Park in Lenox lead walkers to the inn’s footprint and, elsewhere, to the walls of the hotel garage.

1914: TRAILBLAZERS CREATE AN AUTOMOBILE ROUTE FROM A MOHAWK PATH

The Mohawk Trail, Route 2, Charlemont to Williamstown

Four horse-drawn wagons took laborers under the direction of foreman Oreste Ben escarito to the summit of Florida Moun tain in August 1913 to improve a section of the 16-mile road to Charlemont.

By that December, Cortlandt Field Bishop, of Lenox, was the first automo bilist to navigate the road, declaring it a “scenic wonderland.” He was accompanied by contractor Michael L. Camarco. Bishop came back in January 1914 to be the first to motor the 310-foot bridge over the Deerfield River with Camarco and Kelton B. Miller

of The Berkshire Eagle as passengers. The first woman to drive the route was Mrs. W.H. Pritchard, of North Adams, in September 1914 the a month before the highway was officially dedicated.

“In 1753 the first road across Hoosac Mountain was built by Captain Elisha Hawley, who previously commanded Fort Massachusetts [in North Adams] and was given a grant by the General Court to lay out and build a road from Fort Massa chusetts to Charlemont. It was completed in 1765,” according to David L. Costello, a Massachusetts Department of Public Works engineer who in 1975 mapped the original Mohawk Trail.

European travelers on foot or horseback took the Native American path to reach Fort Massachusetts in North Adams from Deerfield. The Mahican-Mohawk Trail Council of Franklin County created a foot trail that approximates sections of the old Native American path on the east side of the mountain, for anyone who wants to step into the past. Jake Swamp, a white pine, at 173 feet, is believed to be the tallest tree in New England; it stands in the Mo hawk Trail State Forest. ■

6 fun fall events not to miss in the Berkshires

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Fun for young (and old!)

Berkshire Botanical Garden’s annual Harvest Festival is back this year, Oct. 8-9, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Bring the kids to enjoy a hayride, pony rides, a haunted house, pumpkin tossing, a hay maze, music and entertainment. Children under 12 admitted free. Information: berkshirebotanical.org

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

Strut your stuff

The 66th annual Northern Berkshire Fall Foliage kicks off at 1 p.m., Oct. 2, following the traditional parade route beginning at the intersection of State and Old State roads in North Adams, winding its way north along State, Main and Ashland streets. This year, the parade is celebrating the theme “Holidays on Parade.”

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RambleFest is for the whole family

Live music, local craft beer and wine, craft exhibitors and more are on display from noon to 5 p.m. Oct. 9, with plenty going on for the kids as well. Roast a marshmallow, decorate your own pumpkin, take a historic train ride with Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum, outdoors at the Adams Visitors Center, 3 Hoosac St.

Information: exploreadams.com/event/ramblefest

The Incredible Naumkeag Pumpkin Show is back

Explore the famous gardens as Naumkeag transforms into a celebration of autumn with over 1,500 jack-o’lanterns, hundreds of mums, pumpkins and countless gourds – most of which were grown right at Naumkeag. Wednesday-Sunday, Sept. 30 to Oct. 30. Open on Mon day, Oct. 31.

Information: thetrustees.org/halloween

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

PHOTO BY GILLIAN JONES

Bigger and scarier than ever

Experience terror as you descend into the depths of Jiminy Peak’s past as a haunted hold out in Hancock.

Information: 13nightsatjiminy.com

Visit a local farm

Pick up pumpkins and enjoy seasonal family programs at Ioka Valley in Hancock or Whitney’s Farm Market in Cheshire, visit an area corn maze, and keep on coming back for those cider doughnuts. ■

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE ZOLLSHAN

PHOTO BY GILLIAN JONES

5 Questions for Chris Weld

BY DAVID COFFEY

Eventually, he’d ditch brandy for, well, nearly every other spirit — gin, vodka, rum, rye, bourbon. He would also relocate the operation to Route 7, upgrading the truck bed to a storefront. As the endeavor that became Berkshire Mountain Distillers grew over the last 15 years, though, its ethos remained the same. Weld calls it “grain to glass”: a focus on sustainability, locally sourced ingredients and rugged authenticity.

With that energy firing the stills, Berk shire Mountain Distillers produces unique ly Berkshire-inspired, small-batch liquors that make big splashes in the world of craft spirits. In 2012, The New York Times named Greylock Gin the No. 1 craft gin in America. Last year, a sprawling and ambitious collab orative project with a dozen New England craft breweries netted a gold medal at the U.S. Open Whiskey & Spirits Grand Nation al Championship. Not too shabby for an eight-employee small business in the heart of South County.

B

ack when “craft spirits” wasn’t a phrase familiar to most people’s palates, Chris Weld was distilling brandy in his barn from apples grown on his Sheffield farm and selling it from his truck.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY BERKSHIRE MOUNTAIN DISTILLERS

Chris Weld started Berkshire Mountain Distillers 15 years ago from his Sheffield farm.

For Berkshire Mountain Distillers’ 15th birthday, here are five questions answered by owner and distiller Chris Weld, edited for length and clarity.

QWhat is the origin story of Berk shire Mountain Distillers?

ASeventeen years ago, my family and I moved back to the East Coast from California. I’d been working in ERs as a physician’s assistant. My wife’s an archi tect. We were ready for change.

For multiple reasons, we ended up here in the Berkshires, and we bought this great barn in Sheffield. The main thing on it was an apple farm that was set on a piece of property at the base of East Mountain. There’s a lot of hydrostatic pressure com ing down off it, so it has springs that come up, which we used for a water source.

The farm had hundreds of apple trees on it that we brought back to fruition. … I quickly realized that I’d lose my shirt try ing to sell just apple brandy because no one in this country really drinks much apple brandy. So we jumped in with the rum, vodka, gin. The nice thing about gin and vodka is you don’t have to age them.

The line just kind of burgeoned after that. Naturally, the whiskeys came on. The great thing about where we are is there are a ton of local grains, large grains, corn par ticularly. Back then, it was really impossi ble to get small grains, but now we get our small grains locally as well. It’s wonderful to use the local economy and local agricul ture. The other stuff we grow — a lot of the botanicals for the gins and everything we use to augment the ones we buy.

QWas there a moment when you saw it start clicking?

AAt first, nobody really knew craft spirits. There was a push of “Hey, this is a craft distillery product,” and people were like “what’s that?” It was just a battle of educating people on it.

I remember one of the first restaurants I walked into was Pearl’s, which used to be on the top of Railroad Street in Great Bar rington. Somehow I got an appointment with the bartender, so I went in there for

the tasting. He tasted two of them and he gave me this funny look.

I said, “It’s good, right?” He goes, “Yeah, I didn’t think it would be good.”

So he brought it on. I’ve always wanted people to be able to support local without sacrificing quality.

In the beginning, I could go to Boston and say “I have a local craft gin,” and there just weren’t any. Now they’re like, “Yeah, there are six or 10 that are made in Bos ton.” It’s a different game.

Fortunately, we’ve been around. We’ve got good street cred. Despite the fact that there’s 26 or so craft distillers in Massachusetts, we’re still playing that educational game and trying to get people to try things, so it’s like any brand. You just have to go for it.

QWhat does the distiller like to drink?

AIt’s somewhat whimsical for me. I’m a sucker for a gin and tonic in the sum mertime. It’s hard to beat a nice neat whis key when you’re grilling a good steak on the coals or something like that.

I love rum, which is why the first spirit I made was rum. For me, I’m an every thing-in-moderation guy. I’ve got 24 spirits, so you have to be careful. I always joke that we quit drinking here at 9 in the morning. We do our tasting in the morning, and we’re done with it for the day. For me, the exciting thing is the nuances of different spirits, whether it’s our spirits or some body else’s. Finding the differences in a bourbon that has the same mash bill. Or, for us, we just did 12 whiskeys in a year.

QWh at’s going on at Berkshire Mountain Distillers in its 15th year?

We hired a Culinary Institute of Ameri ca student who’s going to run the cocktail program on Saturdays. It’s been interesting the last two years, because COVID coupled with cannabis tourism brought a lot more traffic through here, and it’s getting busier.

Last year, we just had picnic tables on the grass, and then we put in this whole gravel area and we put in the pavilion here. We’ll have live music and we’re gonna have the cocktail wagon functioning, so we ex panded the outdoor seating areas threefold.

QWhat’s on tap for Berkshire Moun tain Distillers’ next 15 years?

AI always get asked, “So what do you have coming out?” And I’m like, “We just did 12 whiskeys this year. Nobody in the world has ever done that!”

But the blessing and curse to being a small craft distillery is “what’s coming out?”

Jack Daniels, in 150 years, has done about two whiskeys. We did 12 last year. Nobody’s saying, “Hey, what do you have new coming out, Jack?”

We’ve got some new hires who are really fun to work with and bring some new stuff to the table. We’re in the process of putting in another still, which is exciting.

Eight years ago, we started doing these gin and vodka ready-to-go drinks that we made with our homemade tonics. That was just before its time, so we shelved it. All of a sudden, everyone’s doing canned gin and tonic. We did that before it was hip, so we’re actually going to start with a few more recipes for that.

A

We just re-upped the craft brewers whiskey project with some other beers, so that’s been a really wonderful thing.

I love growing stuff, so we’re expanding the garden program here, more herbs and botanicals that we’ll use here and in cock tails. We just built a farmstand that’s going to feature stuff that we grow here.

I’ve always wanted to make an herbal liqueur — something like a Chartreuse, which uses like 130 herbs and botanicals. There’s a bunch of stuff we grow that we ought to try and start making stuff with it. I love Chartreuse, so I want to make a Berkshire version of that.

One of the advantages of being small is we can make decisions pretty quickly. When things come up, we can kinda jump through hoops and get it done pretty quickly.

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‘The most beautiful road in New England’

“Blessed by nature, with her richest gifts, favored with the notice of history, praised and appreci ated by those who have seen its beauty and tasted its joys, the Mohawk Trail, today, [was] formally dedicated to the convenience and pleasure of the people for all time.”

North Adams Transcript’s report on the Mohawk Trail’s opening ceremony at the Whitcomb Summit, Oct. 22, 1914. ■

PHOTO BY BEN GARVER

The Mohawk Trail, the first official scenic tour road in New England, stretches 69 miles from Williamstown, east, to Millers Falls. Nearly 110 years after its opening, the Mohawk Trail, with its famed Hairpin Turn in Clarksburg, remains a go-to destination for fall leaf peepers.