Elm Court

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Elm Court
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location: Stockbridge St
Lenox, Massachusetts
Architect: Peabody & Stearns
Added to NRHP: December 30, 1985
NRHP Reference#: 85003184

Elm Court is a Vanderbilt mansion located on Old Stockbridge Road, straddling the town line between Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It listed on the National Register of Historic Places[1] and is now owned and operated as a hotel by descendants of the original builders.

Elm Court was built as the Berkshire summer home of William Douglas Sloane and Emily Thorn Vanderbilt, a member of the wealthy United States Vanderbilt family. Designed by premier architectural firm Peabody and Stearns and gardens and landscape design by Frederick Law Olmsted, Elm Court is the largest American Shingle Style House in the United States, with 106 rooms.[2]

Contents

[edit] Commercial use, Decline and Restoration

Owners Colonel Helm George Wilde[3] and his wife Marjorie Field Wilde [great-great-granddaughter of William H. Vanderbilt[4]] opened Elm Court in 1948 as an Inn ('Elm Court Club, Inc.) with an accommodation for up to 60 people. Dancing and dinner open to the public Saturday nights made for a popular spot for many years. Knott Hotels Corporation were retained as the operators of the Inn.

The Wildes - who also owned the neighboring 1,300 acre High Lawn manor (designed by Delano and Aldrich) and farm [5] - pursued the Inn concept in order to preserve the estate and provide summer employment for the area's many teachers. The Inn eventually faltered and due to overwhelming operational costs the house shuttered in 1957.

While some fine furnishings were removed the house was largely left merely locked up but intact as it had been in the 1950's. Unoccupied, secluded, and only lightly patrolled it fell prey over the years to massive vandalism, outright looting, some arson, and a general derelict state by the end of the 20th century. The massive elm tree on the grounds for which the property was named died in the early 1960's of disease.

Upon the death of George Wilde in 1998 the Elm Court passed to his daughter Lila Wilde Berle[6] of Stockbridge. Lila's husband, Peter A. A. Berle (1937 - 2007), was a highly respected environmentalist, New York State assemblyman, commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Conservation and president of the National Audubon Society [7]She in turn sold the estate in 1999 to her son, Robert Berle, great-great-grandson of the Sloanes, and his wife, Sonya, for just under $1 million. They undertook a major restoration effort, repairing original details and adding new wiring, plumbing, heating, and opened the property as a luxury Inn while portions of the home remained a work in progress with restoration.

In August 2005 the estate - with the manor house, greenhouse, carriage house and cottage - was placed on the market for sale for an asking price of $21,500,000 on 90-acres.[8] By comparison the highest price for any Berkshire County property sold was recorded January, 2007 for Southmayd Farm for $6.9 million [9]

The property was reduced to an asking price of $17.5 million in July 2006 and a contract was signed for sale to a Florida-based hotel business ('The Kessler Collection') however that deal fell through and was mutually terminated by both parties[10]. Taken off the market at the end of 2006 it has remained a private venue for weddings, receptions, and suite accommodations. Robert and Sonya Berle now reside in Charleston, South Carolina.

[edit] External Media: Video

In 2004 Bob Villa's television show 'Home Again' did a multi-segment visit to Elm Court with the Berle family.

BVTV - Home Again 'Introducing Elm Court' 3 min 46 sec

[edit] References

  1. ^ Register of Historical Places - MASSACHUSETTS (MA), Berkshire County
  2. ^ The History of Elm Court Estate
  3. ^ hgwilde
  4. ^ hgwilde
  5. ^ Highlawn Farm - About Us, a historical sketch
  6. ^ To The Manor Born
  7. ^ Peter A. A. Berle, Lawmaker and Conservationist, Dies at 69 - New York Times
  8. ^ Lavish Lenox Estate - Forbes.com
  9. ^ Stockbridge estate fetches $3.2M - Berkshire Eagle Online
  10. ^ Home - Berkshire Eagle Online

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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