'Fanny Kemble's Address' Revived at Ventfort Hall

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LENOX - Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum will offer a presentation of "Fanny Kemble's Lenox Address" during Christmas week. This revival of the play, last seen at Ventfort Hall in 2005, will again star Anne Undeland as Fanny Kemble. A leading citizen of the Berkshire town in her day, the play portrays the life of the celebrated 19th-century British actress who helped change the course of American history as an abolitionist. The year is 1849, and the place is Kemble's beloved home, The Perch, in Lenox, where Kemble was in the throes of a scandalous divorce. A Berkshire actress, Undeland first appeared as Fanny during the summer 2003 world premiere of the play at Ventfort. That marked the first of several acclaimed appearances in Ventfort Hall productions, including "Xingu" and "The Belle of Amherst." Other than her aunt, Sarah Siddons, Kemble was considered the most accomplished actress of a famous English theatrical family. As a darling of the British stage, she went on to take America by storm when she first appeared on stage here in 1833 at the age of 24. She left the theater soon after when she married Pierce Butler, a Philadelphia lawyer who was to inherit vast rice and cotton plantations in Georgia, making him the owner of the second-largest number of slaves in the state. Kemble was stunned to witness for the first time the treatment that slaves endured, and she became an uncompromising abolitionist. Whereas Kemble was treated royally by Butler during their engagement, the marriage union was fraught with bitterness and misery. She charged that Butler was rude and unkind and that he expected Kemble to take on an attitude of "gentle submission." An early advocate of women's rights, Kemble was too independent to remain under such one-sided marital conditions. Divorce proceedings ensued and a legal separation was granted in 1849 with much publicity and scandal. Kemble returned to the stage, where she continued to be a phenomenon through the readings of Shakespearean plays. After attending Kemble’s reading of "The Tempest," New York diarist George Templeton Strong later wrote: "Very admirable performance. Vocal resources wonderful. She has a half-dozen voices in her; ... produced a deep, sullen, brute roar and snarl of Caliban that seemed an impossibility from any feminine windpipe. Prospero's tone was grand, and nothing could be more tender and gentle than her Miranda .... No stage performance could be more satisfactory or bring out the beauties of the play ..." Also in 1849, Kemble decided to settle in Lenox, a place that had given her much comfort during previous visits. It was here that she had met such compatriots as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry W. Longfellow, the Samuel Wards and, above all the Sedgwick family - Catherine, Theodore, Charles and Elizabeth - all of whom held views of Kemble's liking. The Berkshires were to become a lifelong passion. From the income she made appearing on stage, Kemble bought The Perch, a Gothic revival cottage on what was then called East Street. Before she died in 1893 (the year Ventfort Hall was built) East Street, which parallels the south lawn of Ventfort Hall, was renamed Kemble Street in her honor. At The Perch she found solace and a place to entertain her close friends and to write such books as "Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation," a powerful antislavery tract that appeared during the Civil War. The book was published in England at that time and was instrumental in reversing the British government's plans to support the Confederacy. "Fanny Kemble's Lenox Address," by Milwaukee playwright John Gardner, will be presented Wednesday, Dec. 26, at 4 p.m.; Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Dec. 27-29, at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday and Monday, Dec. 30 and 31, at 4 p.m. All performances are at Ventfort Hall, 104 Walker St. Tickets are $25; reservations are encouraged because of the limited performance space. For further information and to purchase tickets call 413-637-3206.
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A Boutique Hotel is Bringing Guests a Luxury Stay in Lenox

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

LENOX, Mass. — A new Inn is bringing a boutique-style stay for visitors and locals to enjoy.

Owners, Sullivan Capital LLC, purchased the property, located on 135 Main Street, in 2024. After a year or renovations, Garden Gables Inn is open for business. 

"Garden Gables started off as one of the many Berkshire cottages, 1790 was the date on that, and it's always operated as an inn," said Hospitality Manager Yvonne Walton. "It's just a great gathering place and relaxation spot for people to come and get the feel of Lenox, and just slow down and enjoy the nature and the surrounding area...get culture and art and see some great concerts. I think it'll be a wonderful place, definitely does more of the upper-scale hospitality." 

Owners Niko Giallouis and Eric Sullivan bought the property from the former owner. Sullivan had his eye on Lenox since attending a wedding almost 10 years ago.

"I came to a wedding in Lenox, probably six or seven years ago. Personally, just kind of fell in love with the area, and I guess that's kind of how it got on my radar. So you know from that perspective, as we got into the hotel business out towards an area, it was a place I was kind of monitoring and waiting for the right property to show up."

After purchasing the two underwent a full renovation, a project that cost around $1.5 million. The building, first built in 1780, required some TLC. Sullivan's wife, Jessica, who owns Jessica Sullivan Design, designed the inn.

Sullivan said they installed a new roof, repainted everything, renovated the bathrooms, installed new floors, a new HVAC system, and new plumbing.

"We really touched everything from the outside...I mean, all the aesthetics and layouts changed a bit," he said. "As I said, put about a million and a half into it. All new furniture, fixtures, everything. The design's completely different. It wasn't a full gut, but it was a heavy, heavy renovation."

The two like to collaborate with local businesses, and they make a point to direct visitors to local restaurants, businesses, and attractions.

"If guests are asking for recommendations, our customer service team, our guest services team, will relay that kind of information. Even if we can call and make a reservation for somebody, happy to do it," he said. "We aren't doing breakfast, but what we do is we have partnerships with a lot of the breakfast places downtown. We actually purchase a gift certificates for each person each day, so that they can use that to go downtown."

Sullivan hopes that guests don't see their inn as just a place to sleep and dump their bags, but make it an experience for anyone who stays.

"We really focus on kind of the experience side of things, so again, we want to give you the best experience you can have here...and we want that not just to be the place you put your bag and go do things. It's important to think of everything," he said.

Sullivan said partnerships are important to their business and are a way to connect with locals.

"The local partnerships, I can't stress that enough, because no matter how much and how great the room is, people are still going to want to go do other things," he said. "So, I think it just benefits everybody if we're all working together and so forth, and supporting the community, being neighborly too, because we are surrounded by residential homes...But we really try to put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, a lot of love into the building, all the details, really care about the senses," Sullivan said.

The Inn's check-in and reservations are completely online. When guests arrive, all they have to do is check in online and receive their code that they will use to enter their room. Sullivan hopes this helps create less stress for guests and gets them to their room as fast as possible, especially after a long trip.

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