The Mount- Lenox, MA

We all have our personal pilgrimages; places you just have to visit, regardless how impractical. Places that need to be experienced as well as seen, for which you feel a deep connection. Beyond bucket list, if one were inclined to use that ridiculously trite term. For me, my love of Edith Wharton brought me to The Mount. It was every bit as fabulous as her novels.

Completed in 1902, The Mount was designed by Edith Wharton herself, with architectural assistance from Ogden Codman, Jr. and Francis L.V. Hoppin. Although inspired by the English Country Estate Belton House, Edith’s design also incorporates classic Italian and French architectural details. In the spirit of true eclecticism, she even threw in a Georgian Revival stable.

Set atop a hill, overlooking Laurel Lake, the dramatic white stucco house was built upon a rustic stone foundation, with two stories facing the rear garden, three in the front. Rising above the roof line is a central copula with balustrade. Reflecting Edith’s love for order in design, The Mount is a grand and striking study in symmetry.

The Mount’s landscape design was also heavily influenced by the Belton House, with formal gardens and forest follies. Edith, along with her niece Beatrix Jones Farrand, the only female founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, surrounded the house with all manner of fountains, flowers and walled gardens. Although long abandoned, they were recently revived and restored to their former grandeur. They are every bit as magnificent as the house, and just as fun to explore.

Edith actually only ended up living at The Mount for about a decade, selling the property in 1911. In all likelihood, her time spent there was probably not that pleasant; her husband suffered from several mental illnesses during this period, while simultaneously engaging in several very public affairs. By all accounts they were an incompatible couple, so it should be no surprise they divorced in 1913. Indeed, her own marriage was very much like those found in her novels- tragic and ill-conceived.

However, her time spent at The Mount was very productive. It is during this time that she wrote Ethan Frome, as well as the House of Mirth. While The Age of Innocence is my personal favorite, The House of Mirth is a close second, so it was beyond exciting to gaze into the library where the novel was written. Truth be told, it is said the author preferred to write in bed, and in her boudoir, but nevertheless, I am sure she at least occasionally wrote at her downstairs desk, or reviewed her manuscripts in the lovely library. Which, at the very least, does house over 2600 books owned by Wharton.

After selling the property, Edith moved permanently to France, where she continued to write, established organizations for war refugees, and carried on with Walter Berry. Edith had met Berry at 21, and remained friends with him throughout her marriage to Edward Wharton; Berry even lived with the Wharton’s for awhile, during one of Edward’s manic periods. While they would never marry, Edith and Walter were companions for much of her life, and indeed, they are even buried in adjacent plots in Paris. Which also sounds straight out of the pages of one of her novels.

As for the house, in 1942 it was turned into a girl’s dormitory for the Foxhollow School, which was located on the old Westinghouse estate next door. When the school closed in 1976, it became the home for a theater company. While occupied, deferred maintenance plagued the property during this time. Fortunately, the estate is now owned by a conservation group, who have done an excellent job of returning the house and gardens to their former grandeur.

Even if you are not a fan of Edith’s work, the mansion is well worth a visit. You could easily spend several hours exploring the house and gardens, which truly are exceptional. There do offer guided tours, but you may well just want to strike out on your own; it was very crowded on the random fall weekday morning when I visited, and I ditched the tour after two rooms. It was much more pleasant wandering around without a group of 30 in tow.

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