At a Glance
This stately hotel in Lenox transports guests back to the early 20th century, when days were filled with croquet and lawn tennis and evenings were black tie affairs complete with multi-course dinners and piano music by candlelight.
Indagare Loves
- Wintertime hot chocolate tasting in the lobby, sure to warm you up after an afternoon of ice skating, snow shoeing or cross country skiing
- The extensive wine cellar, where guests are encouraged to browse and choose a bottle to enjoy with dinner
- Thoughtful touches in guestrooms (that are best left as surprises)
Review
As the 19th century was becoming the 20th, Lenox, Massachusetts was a countryside vacation retreat for New England's robber barons and aristocrats. Robert Paterson bought a parcel of land and built a manor home modeled after his mother's family's stately pile in Scotland, named Blantyre. Eighty years later, after multiple generations enjoyed cozy autumns and sunny summers on the property, the property was transformed into a luxury hotel that celebrated the estate's heyday, the Gilded Age.
The twenty-one guest rooms each have names like the Crimson Suite and Ribbon Room and boast antique furnishings including four-poster beds, toile wallpaper and lush silk curtains. Some rooms have wood-burning fireplaces while others have terraces overlooking the grounds. (Note that the rooms in the Carriage House and The Cottages are not as stylish or historic.)
Meals are elaborate affairs at Blantyre with the highlight undoubtedly being sterling silver–service dinner in the Main House complete with live piano music. Lunch can be taken as a picnic or in the sunlight-drenched dining room and evening wine tastings are commonplace in the house's grand cellars.
The grounds of the hotel and surrounding land are home to lush landscape ideal for golfing and hiking in the summer and snow shoeing and cross country skiing in the winter. On property, guests can play tennis, croquet, bocce, go for a swim, or simply lounge in the hammocks. Cold weather pursuits include ice-skating on the property's own rink or cozying up in the adjacent warming hut. The excellent spa is located in former potting shed, one of the original buildings that predates even Robert Paterson's time.
Who Should Stay
Couples or groups of friends who appreciate an old-fashioned respite.
Read Indagare’s tips on where to dine and shop and what to see and do in the Berkshires.
Written by Amelia Osborne Scott