FAQ's
Fact Sheet
| Location |
Lenox, Massachusetts, above Laurel Lake |
| House Designer |
Edith Wharton |
| Associated Architects |
Ogden Codman, Jr.
Francis L.V. Hoppin (Hoppin & Koen) |
| Builder |
R.W. Curry |
| Landscape & Garden Designer |
Edith Wharton |
| Associated Landscape Architect |
Beatrix Jones Farrand |
| Principal Buildings |
Main house, inspired by Belton House (17th-century English
country house in the Palladian manner), and by neo-classical
Italian and French models; two-story superintendent’s
lodge, in Georgian Revival style; two-story stable in Georgian
Revival style; greenhouse and potting shed |
| Principal Gardens |
Walled garden in the Italian style; flower garden reflecting
French and English design influences; rock garden; lime walk;
grass terraces; kitchen garden |
| Land Parcel |
Original farm plot of 113 acres bought from Georgiana Sargent
for $40,600; additional 15 acres purchased at a later date;
plot owned currently by EWR is 49.5 acres |
| Construction |
July 1901 – Autumn 1902 |
| Cost |
Main house: $57,619
Stable: $20,354
Lodge: $5,356
Landscaping: $50,000+ |
| Main House Dimensions |
Footprint: approximately 138 ft
x 65 ft
Height: By virtue
of Wharton’s decision to site the house on a hillside,
with its principal rooms opening onto views of the gardens,
Laurel Lake and the Berkshire hills, the west elevation (entrance
side) is 3_ stories high, and the east elevation (garden side)
is 2_ stories. |
| Main House Plan |
Ground Floor
Walled forecourt (approximately 64 ft x 78 ft.)
Entrance hall (34.5 ft x 12.5 ft)
Staircase hall (11 ft x 18 ft)
First Floor (piano
nobile)
Gallery (38 ft x 12 ft) with barrel-arch ceiling and three
tall, arched windows along west façade
Dining room (20.5 ft x 25.5 ft) with two pairs of doors
opening onto terrace
Drawing room (36 ft x 20 ft) with ornamental plaster ceiling
and three pairs of French doors opening onto terrace
Edith Wharton’s library (20 ft x 25 ft) with four
doors opening in from terrace
Teddy Wharton’s den (15 ft x 18 ft)
Terrace (125 ft x approximately 24 ft along eastern façade,
wrapping around to north façade), leading to Palladian
staircase and gardens
Second Floor (Bedroom Floor)
Edith Wharton’s boudoir, bath and bedroom on north
end
Two guest bedrooms and bath (known as the marital suite)
on west side
Teddy Wharton’s bedroom, bath and dressing room on
east side
Largest guest bedroom and bath (known as the Henry James
suite) on east side
Interior hallway |
Service Wing
(South Wing) |
Ground Floor
Servants’ dining room, kitchen, serving room and scullery,
laundry room, wine cellar, coal-storage room and furnace
room
First Floor
Servants’ hallway, butler’s room, cook’s
room, butler’s pantry, houskeeper’s room
Second Floor
Linen closet, housemaid’s closet, maid’s room,
sewing room, dress closet, bath, stairs to attic floor
Attic Floor
Servants’ bedrooms (8) and servants’ bath |
| Subsequent Owners and Occupants |
Mary and Albert R. Shattuck and family, 1912-38
Louise and Carr V. Van Anda, 1938-42
The Foxhollow School, 1942-76
The Center Incorporated, 1977-80
Shakespeare & Company, resident theater company, 1978-2001
Edith Wharton Restoration, 1980-present |
Background
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born
into “Old New York,” a tightly-controlled society
that positively discouraged women from achieving anything beyond
a proper marriage. Author of The Age of Innocence,
Ethan Frome, and The House of Mirth, she wrote over 40
books in 40 years, including authoritative works on architecture
and gardens. Essentially self-educated, she was the first woman
to receive the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1921); an honorary
Doctorate from Yale University (1923); and full membership in
the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1930). In addition to
being a prodigious author, she was a master house builder and
gardener.
The Mount is the turn-of-the-century
home that Edith Wharton designed and built based on the precepts
outlined in her groundbreaking 1897 book, The
Decoration of Houses, co-authored with architect Ogden
Codman, Jr. A perfect example of the newly dawned American Renaissance,
the classical revival house and its formal gardens represent the
only full expression of Wharton’s architectural and landscape
architectural theories.
Wharton believed that the design of a house should be treated
architecturally and should honor the principles of proportion,
harmony, simplicity, and suitability. Gardens, too, she elaborated
in Italian Villas and Their Gardens
(1904), should be architectural compositions, divided into rooms,
and planned in concert with the house and the natural landscape.
Recognized as an authority on these subjects, Wharton’s
influence on American residential design is considerable.
Only 5 percent of National Historic Landmarks are dedicated to
women, and The Mount is one of them. Like Jefferson’s Monticello,
it is an autobiographical house, one that definitively embodies
its creator’s spirit. When the restoration of the estate
began in 1997 – after years of hard use and deferred maintenance
– most of the buildings (mansion, stable, gatehouse, and
greenhouse) were severely deteriorated and the gardens were lost
to overgrowth.
