1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (17 page)

Living the High Life at a Gilded Age Estate

Lenox and the Berkshires, Massachusetts

The Berkshires have long promised to nourish the mind, body, and spirit. Visitors flock to western Massachusetts in search of renewal at cultural venues, spas and retreats, and at the exquisite mansions that dot the
landscape. Beginning in the mid-19th century, Gilded Age tycoons from New York and Boston turned their attention to Lenox and the vicinity, touching off a building boom of country estates that peaked in 1885. The resulting concentration of magnificent homes led the author and animal-rights activist Cleveland Amory to dub the Lenox area “the Switzerland of America.”

Thanks to the same false modesty once common to Newport, Rhode Island, the mammoth country houses were known as “cottages”; more than 70 of them survive, many as luxurious lodgings for visitors with gilded budgets. Sitting like a Scottish castle at the end of a regal drive on 100 acres of painstakingly tended grounds, Blantyre offers elaborately decorated guest rooms, rich with subtle floral fabrics and sumptuous draperies. The accommodations echo the formality of the rest of the property (men are asked to wear jackets and ties in the dining room). Tennis courts and croquet lawns join more modern amenities such as a small but lovely spa.

The other sumptuous sanctuary in town is Wheatleigh, an 1893 confection that aspires to be an Italian palazzo. Equally luxurious, but sleek and sophisticated where Blantyre is formal and ornate, the extensively restored hotel occupies a parklike setting on 22 acres originally designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect most famous for his design of New York City’s Central Park. Contemporary art complements the antique and custom furnishings, creating a refined atmosphere in the tranquil guest rooms and dramatic public spaces. The inn overlooks a
scenic lake, just part of the bucolic views enjoyed from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining room. Chef J. Bryce Whittlesey draws on French, Latin American, and Caribbean traditions in creating his thoroughly American cuisine, a celebrated combination of delicate flavors and local ingredients. His regularly changing menu might include a dish as simple as pea soup or as elaborate as antelope loin with couscous and huckleberry sauce.

Less baronial but no less comfortable lodgings can be found at the Old Inn on the Green in New Marlborough. Dating to around 1760 and over the years serving as a trading post, stagecoach stop, tavern, general store, and even a post office, it is done up in sophisticated country style with candlelit dining rooms and a summer terrace as the dramatic backdrop for owner-chef Peter Platt’s seasonal New England cuisine.

W
HERE:
Lenox is 130 miles west of Boston.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-237-5747 or 413-743-4500;
www.berkshires.org.
B
LANTYRE:
Tel 413-637-3556;
www.blantyre.com.
Cost:
from $500.
W
HEATLEIGH:
Tel 413-637-0610;
www.wheatleigh.com
.
Cost:
from $645; dinner $95.
T
HE
O
LD
I
NN ON THE
G
REEN:
New Marlborough. Tel 413-229-7924;
www.oldinn.com
.
Cost:
from $205 (off-peak), from $225 (peak); dinner $65.
B
EST TIMES:
June–Aug for greatest variety of cultural offerings; late June–early Sept for Tanglewood Music Festival; mid-Sept–mid-Oct for foliage.

When the World Is Too Much with You

Lenox, Massachusetts

Berkshire country grows lovelier with each season, passing from tranquil snow white to velvety green to raucous reds and golds. The lack of large cities nearby means relatively little light pollution; on a clear night
, a canopy of stars brightens the ink-black sky. All this forms an inspiring backdrop for destinations that promise to renew the spirit and reinvigorate the body.

Cranwell Resort, Spa & Golf Club is such a retreat, a luxurious estate with staff who satisfy guests’ every need while insulating them from the tumult of the outside world. A cornucopia of recreational offerings complement the old-fashioned atmosphere: Imagine yourself a Gilded Age tycoon on a well-deserved getaway, wandering the resort’s 380 gorgeous acres. The property centers on a restored 1894 mansion, an architectural showpiece that evokes a Tudor-style English country house, rich with carved woodwork, wood paneling, and antique Oriental carpets. Cranwell is the retreat of choice for spa aficionados, who gravitate to the 35,000-square-foot spa, with 16 treatment rooms and an extensive fitness center as well as a relaxation lounge complete with fireplace in each locker room. Golfers are equally pampered here: After a morning on the 18-hole championship course (with GPS-equipped carts), a host of treatments await at the spa, many designed specifically for sore duffers.

The arrival of Canyon Ranch, the eastern outpost of the legendary Arizona spa (see p. 700), has given Cranwell a run for its money. Headquartered in Bellefontaine (said to be designed after Le Petit Trianon at Versailles), it offers the same magical combination of amenities and atmosphere that has earned the original
Canyon Ranch an unrivaled international reputation. Its location sits on 120 acres with extensive outdoor fitness options—hiking, biking, swimming, kayaking, tennis, skiing, and much more. Indoors, the 100,000-square-foot spa complex incorporates a gorgeous pool, tennis and squash courts, exercise and weight rooms, a jogging track, and numerous treatment rooms. The cuisine, which famously balances nutrition and flavor, is so appealing that cooking classes are now available. The emphasis is on activity rather than relaxation: Canyon Ranch schedules more than 30 classes a day from which to pick and choose, and the staff includes medical professionals to help get you on track and on your way to your personal goals, especially once you’re back home.

Dramatically different from all the physical activity and indulgence, the Kripalu Center promises a simple experience befitting this spiritual sanctuary. Overlooking a lake from a hilltop that affords spectacular views of the 350-acre estate, Kripalu is the country’s largest yoga education center. Guests wander the beautiful grounds, relax in a whirlpool or sauna, and experience an environment designed to be a nurturing retreat from the madding crowd. Suitably simple accommodations in the four-story redbrick building range from dorm rooms with bunk beds to private doubles. The friendships forged amid a delightful milieu of a fresh-air camp for adults with a higher mission are an inherent part of its specialness. Guests eat at long communal tables and chat at lunch and dinner but not at breakfast, which is a silent meal. The Retreat & Renewal package is the most popular, with all the basics covered: room and board, yoga, meditation, and other activities. But more extensive programs incorporate options such as workshops that focus on fitness, personal growth, weight loss, Ayurvedic cleansing, and countless other subjects.

“Lenox has had its usual tonic effect on me, and I feel like a new edition, revised and corrected … in the very best type.”—Edith Wharton

W
HERE:
130 miles west of Boston.
Visitor info:
Tel 800-237-5747 or 413-743-4500;
www.berkshires.org.
C
RANWELL
R
ESORT:
Tel 800-272-6935 or 413-637-1364;
www.cranwell.com
.
Cost:
from $175 (off-peak), from $275 (peak).
C
ANYON
R
ANCH:
Tel 800-742-9000 or 413-637-4100;
www.canyonranch.com
.
Cost:
3-night packages from $1,630 per person (off-peak), from $2,250 per person (peak), includes meals.
K
RIPALU
C
ENTER:
Tel 800-741-7353 or 413-448-3152;
www.kripalu.org.
Cost:
Retreat & Renewal package from $134 per person, 2-night minimum, includes meals.
B
EST TIMES:
June–Aug for cultural offerings in the area; July–Aug for weather, mid-Sept–mid-Oct for foliage.

Revolution, Literature, and Walden Pond

Massachusetts

Reminders of the Revolutionary War abound throughout eastern Massachusetts, but nowhere more significantly than in Lexington and Concord. The first skirmish of the war took place just a couple of blocks
from downtown Lexington on April 19, 1775. Tensions between the colonists and the British government had been building for years, and the local militia, or minutemen, would gather at Buckman Tavern to discuss the situation. Learning that British troops were on the march from Boston, Paul Revere and his fellow riders rode into the countryside to sound the alarm. They roused the militia for miles around, and the Lexington minutemen confronted the redcoats on the Battle Green.

This affluent suburb of Boston looks nothing like a battlefield today, the historic site now a broad, peaceful lawn. Spend a moment at the visitor center, where a diorama illustrates the battle when the first shot was fired. If your visit coincides with the local tradition of waking before dawn on Patriots Day, join the sleepy-eyed crowd to witness convincing battle reenactments followed by hearty community pancake breakfasts and a day full of family events.

The 900-acre Minute Man National Historical Park preserves sites and structures associated with the Revolution, most of them found along the 5-mile Battle Road Trail connecting Lexington and Concord. One of the trail’s principal sites is Concord’s North Bridge, where 500 colonial soldiers surprised the British redcoats. A replica of the trestle bridge over the narrow Concord River is part of the park, which also preserves the Wayside, home of Nathaniel Hawthorne, built in 1688.

The Wayside is but a glimpse of Concord’s great literary legacy. The Orchard House, inspiration of
Little Women
and home of its author, Louisa May Alcott, and the prosperous-looking home of philosopher-poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, are, like Hawthorne’s, open for tours (many of the town’s literary and revolutionary artifacts have been gathered at the impressive Concord Museum across the way). At the height of their fame in the mid-19th century, Concord was a center of Transcendentalism, a philosophical movement that looked to the simplicity of the natural world for guidance. Under the shade of ancient trees in this writers’ neighborhood is the late 19th-century Hawthorne Inn, a welcoming and romantic B&B with just seven guest rooms. Classic country decor of handmade quilts and antique four-poster beds mixes seamlessly with contemporary and traditional art, while everywhere a literary atmosphere prevails.

Watch the colonists and the British fight it out on Patriots Day, the state holiday in April that commemorates the outbreak of the American Revolution.

Longfellow’s Wayside Inn in nearby Sudbury is perhaps the area’s most well-known destination for accommodations and dining. Licensed in 1716 and reputedly the oldest operating inn in the country, it was immortalized in Longfellow’s
Tales of a Wayside Inn.
With just ten antiques-filled guest rooms decorated in comfortable country style, it once belonged to auto magnate Henry Ford, who amassed a number of historic structures on the leafy 130-acre property. The 1929 gristmill-cum-water-wheel still supplies all the flour used in the inn’s baking, and an extensive kitchen garden helps supply the restaurant, where Sunday dinner in the Yankee style is a venerable local tradition. Linger afterward with a colonial-recipe rum concoction in the old bar.

Even with such tough competition, Concord native Henry David Thoreau is arguably the author most closely associated with the town, and lovely Walden Pond is the place most closely associated with the author. Thoreau lived on these sylvan shores from 1845 to 1847 in a one-room house he built on property owned by his friend Emerson. His objective? To escape a society in which “the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
He captured the experience in his 1854 essay
Walden,
inspiring the modern-day conservation movement while encouraging man’s appreciation of solitude in untrammeled nature. The Walden Pond State Reservation preserves the site of the long-gone house (a replica stands nearby), surrounded by some 4,000 acres of largely undeveloped land where you can still find that moment of peace and quiet that changed Thoreau’s life.