Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum’s “A Home for the Holidays”

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LENOX, Mass. - Sunday, December 7, from 2 pm to 5 pm, marks the opening of Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum’s “A Home for the Holidays” festivities that evoke a Victorian holiday celebration. The manor house will be beautifully decorated and will host a number of special events to enliven the season.

A “mini” adaptation of the Nutcracker Ballet will be performed by the American Dance Institute of Pittsfield.

Now that more rooms of the mansion are restored, more will be elaborately decorated. The library, for example, will become the scene of a special Christmas tree decorated with charming Gilded Style ornaments handmade by Ventfort Hall’s American Girl participants. Fabulous railroad trains from the collection of Roger Rochelo, including a gleaming 10-foot Polar Express engine, will be on display.

The dining room will be the setting of a Christmas dinner party circa 1893, as if the owners, George and Sarah Morgan with family members, will enter at any minute. Country Dining Room Antiques of Great Barrington will provide the Victorian table settings.

The decorating team of the Ventfort Hall Flower Ladies will provide glorious holiday decorations throughout the mansion.

Visitors are also encouraged to view Les Petites Dames de Mode (The Little Ladies of Fashion), 60 exquisite, 29-inch tall mannequins dressed in the fashions of the Victorian and Edwardian era, each a work of art created by John Burbidge, retired senior designer of Priscilla of Boston.


And there will be more: A Victorian Tea, cocoa, hot mulled cider and lots of other goodies. Holiday shoppers will have the opportunity to take advantage of a 10% discount in the Museum Shop.

“A Home for the Holidays” at the mansion will continue through mid-January of 200, with all the exhibits and decorations open for viewing throughout the period.

Admission is $15 for members, $18 for non-members and $7 for children under 12. For reservations call Ventfort Hall at 413-637-3206. The mansion is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.

Ventfort Hall will continue its winter tour hours, weekdays 10 am to 5 pm for self-guided tours and weekends for guided tours from 10 am to 3 pm. For weekends and weekdays during Christmas week from December 26 to December 31, there will be fully guided tours also from 10 am to 3 pm. The last tour begins at 2 pm.  

An Official Project of Save America’s Treasures, Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum offers tours of the historic mansion, as well as lectures, concerts, teas, theater and other programs. This elegant Elizabethan-Revival Berkshire “cottage,” listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is open to the public year-around and is available for private rental. Built in 1893 for George and Sarah Morgan (sister of the financier, J. P. Morgan), Ventfort Hall has undergone substantial restoration, which continues.
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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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