Naumkeag
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Location: | 5 Prospect Hill Rd Stockbridge, Massachusetts |
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Built: | 1886 |
Architect: | Stanford White; Fletcher Steele |
Architectural style: | Queen Anne |
Governing body: | Private |
NRHP Reference#: | 75000264 [1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP: | November 3, 1975 |
Designated NHL: | March 29, 2007 |
Naumkeag is a 44 room, shingle-style country house located at 5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA in the Berkshires. It is now operated by The Trustees of Reservations as a nonprofit museum.
Naumkeag was designed by noted architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead & White in 1885 as the summer estate for Joseph Hodges Choate (1832–1917), a prominent New York City attorney and American ambassador to England 1899 to 1905, and then his daughter, Mabel Choate. The house is built in the Shingle Style with a wood-shingled exterior featuring brick and stone towers, prominent gables and large porch, and interiors with fine woodwork. It contains the Choate family's furniture, Chinese porcelain, and artwork collected from America, Europe, and the Far East.
The house sits within 8 acres (32,000 m²) of terraced gardens (including The Rose Garden, The Afternoon Garden, and The Chinese Garden) and landscaped grounds surrounded by 40 acres (162,000 m²) of woodland, meadow, and pasture. Its grounds were first designed in the late 1880s by Nathan Barrett, then replanned and expanded between 1926 and 1956 by the noted landscape designer Fletcher Steele. Barrett's original designs included two terraces, perennial beds (now the Chinese Garden), and an evergreen topiary. Steele's additions include the Afternoon Garden (1926); arguably his most famous design, the Blue Steps (1938); and the Chinese Garden (1936–1955).
The U.S. Department of the Interior designated Naumkeag a National Historic Landmark on March 29, 2007 [1]
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