LENOX - Veteran Ventfort Hall guide and University of St. Andrews graduate Nannina Gilder will give a visual presentation on “Ventfort Hall: English or American Country House?” on Friday, August 22, at 4 p.m. She will present her lecture at Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum and a Victorian Tea will accompany it.
Gilder will show evidence that during the 19th century Britain brought about a revival of the Tudor and Jacobean manor houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Their rambling asymmetrical plans were more convenient to the Victorians than the strict symmetry that had been favored in the 18th century.
Gilder has guided at the Lenox mansion since it first opened for tours in December, 2000. She recently graduated from the University of St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland, with a first class degree in art history, and received the O.E. Saunders Memorial Prize for her dissertation, “Ventfort Hall: A Synthesis of British and American Architecture.” She is the daughter of George and Cornelia Brooke Gilder.
Reservations may be made for the lecture by calling Ventfort Hall at 413-637-3206. Admission is $15 for nonmembers and $12 for members. The mansion is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.
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A more complete summary of what the talk will be.
The 19th century in Britain brought about a revival of the Tudor and Jacobean manor houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries. Their rambling asymmetrical plans were more convenient to the Victorians than the strict symmetry which had been favored in the previous century. So the aristocrat began building the style of his ancestors, and the plutocrat in the style that he wished his ancestors had been capable of. The trend made its way across the ocean, and in the last few decades of the century manor houses in the British style were being built in the American countryside. In 1891 the Morgan family, whose matriarch was Sarah Spencer Morgan, the sister of the juggernaut banker J. Pierpont Morgan, began a summer “cottage†in this tradition, Ventfort Hall in Lenox.
But are revivals able to cross space as well as time and remain intact, or does a style fundamentally change when it has been carried across oceans? Americans are often faulted for lacking our own culture, for taking wholesale the artistic and architectural innovations of others, but is that true? Ventfort Hall was built in a British tradition, but it also in many ways it exemplifies the American country house of its day. What are the differences between a British manor house and an American summer cottage, and how does Ventfort Hall manage in many ways to be both?
An Englishman may find [American villas] mere copies of his own designs … We must, however, remember that for a style to be progressive it must be modified according to its own requirements, and not by wholesale borrowing from others. – Arthur Rotch, Architect of Ventfort Hall
Community Meeting Addresses Prejudice in Pittsfield Schools
By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
Johanna Lenski, a special education surrogate parent and advocate, says there's a 'deeply troubling' professional culture at Herberg that lets discriminatory actions and language slip by.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Around 60 community members gathered at Conte Community School on Monday night to discuss issues with prejudice in the district.
The event was hosted by the Pittsfield Public Schools in partnership with the Berkshire NAACP and the Westside Legends. It began with breaking bread in the school's cafeteria, and caregivers then expressed fears about children's safety due to bullying, a lack of support for children who need it the most, and teachers using discriminatory and racist language.
"One thing I've learned is that as we try to improve, things look really bad because we're being open about ways that we're trying to improve, and I think it's really important that we acknowledge that," interim Superintendent Latifah Phillips said, reflecting on her work in several other districts before coming to PPS last summer.
"It is very easy to stay at the surface and try to look really good, and it may look like others are better than us, when they're really just doing a better job of just kind of maintaining the status quo and sweeping things under the carpet."
Brett Random, the executive director of Berkshire County Head Start, wrote on her personal Facebook page that her daughter reported her math teacher, "used extremely offensive language including both a racial slur (n-word) and a homophobic slur (f-word) and then reportedly tried to push other students to repeat those words later in the day when students were questioning her on her behavior."
The Berkshire Eagle, which first reported on the incident, identified the teacher as Rebecca Nitsche, and the teacher told the paper over the phone, "All I can tell you is it's not how it appears." Nitsche told the paper she repeated the words a student used while reporting the incident to another teacher because officials needed to know it happened.
Johanna Lenski, speaking as a special education surrogate parent and parent advocate, on Monday said there is a "deeply troubling" professional culture at Herberg that has allowed discriminatory, racist, non-inclusive, and ableist treatment of students.
She said a Black transgender student was called a "piss poor, punk, puke of a kid," and repeatedly and intentionally misgendered by one of the school's teachers, and then wrongfully accused of physically assaulting that teacher, which resulted in a 10-day suspension.
Another Herberg student with disabilities said the same staff member disclosed to an entire classroom that they lived in a group home and were in state Department of Children and Families' custody. When the teacher was asked to come to an individualized education program meeting for that student, Lenski said he "spent approximately 20 minutes attacking this child's character and portraying her as a problem, rather than a student in need of services and protection and support."
Mount Greylock Regional School seventh-grader Scarlett Foley Sunday beat two opponents from Division 2 Longmeadow to capture the Western Mass Tennis Individuals Championship. click for more
Qwanell Bradley scored 33 points, and Adan Wicks added 29 as the Hoosac Valley boys basketball team won a Division 5 State Championship on Sunday. click for more
Adan Wicks scored 38 points, and the eighth-seeded Hoosac Valley basketball team Saturday rallied from a nine-point first-half deficit to earn a 76-67 win over top-seeded Drury in the Division 5 State Quarter-Finals. click for more
Caprese Conyers scored 22 points, and Kyana Summers had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds to go with eight assists as Pittsfield got back to the state semi-finals for the second year in a row. click for more
