Mount, Edith Wharton Cultural Center
Lenox · USA
The Mount is the country house that Edith Wharton designed and built in 1902 in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, applying the principles she had set out in her influential treatise The Decoration of Houses. The property — house, formal gardens, and woodland walks — was Wharton's most sustained experiment in architecture and landscape design, and she wrote some of her finest work here, including The House of Mirth.
The house is particularly notable for the clarity of its spatial design and the restoration of the formal gardens, which Wharton planned according to Italian Renaissance principles. The influence of European tradition, filtered through Wharton's exacting intelligence, is evident in every room and garden terrace.
Visiting The Mount rewards both literary pilgrims and lovers of historic houses. The restored interiors and gardens are beautifully maintained, and the setting in the Berkshire hills is itself quite lovely. Allow at least two hours for the house tour and a walk through the gardens.
Reviews
The gardens alone are worth the drive to Lenox. The house is beautifully restored and the guided tour is excellent — you leave understanding both Wharton's design principles and her fiction much better.
One of the most satisfying historic house visits I've made in New England. The interiors are elegant without being cold, and the Berkshire setting in summer is gorgeous.
A wonderful house in a beautiful setting. The connection between Wharton's writing and the spaces she created here is brought out very well in the tour. Well worth a special journey.
The gardens alone are worth the drive to Lenox. The house is beautifully restored and the guided tour is excellent — you leave understanding both Wharton's design principles and her fiction much better.
