What, When Where: Naumkeag Gardens Restored

By Kyle Hoepner

Way back in 2007 we ran in New England Home a story about Naumkeag, the late-nineteenth-century summer home of the Choate clan, located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. In that story we concentrated largely on the eclectic, playful residence noted architect Stanford White created for Joseph Hodges Choate and his family; the estate, however, is now equally noteworthy for the house’s setting.

The house’s east elevation. All photos courtesy of the Trustees of Reservations

After first rejecting a scheme devised by the Brookline, Massachusetts–based firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, the family hired Boston landscape architect Nathan Barrett to create a topiary walk and a series of grass terraces, lawns, and formal flower beds that still form the basic structure of the Naumkeag grounds.

An aerial view of Naumkeag in 1957

But it was Choate’s daughter, Mabel, who after inheriting the property teamed up with Fletcher Steele to turn the gardens into something really new and special. Steele is sometimes billed as the first “modern” landscape architect, and the pair eventually created some eight acres of outdoor rooms in which they experimented with introducing stylized forms into the landscape.

The Peony Terrace, circa 1947

The Chinese Garden Temple

On Mabel Choate’s death in 1958 the house became one of the many New England properties of historic and scenic interest managed by the Trustees of Reservations. And, I’m happy to say, the Trustees have now embarked on an ambitious three-year, multi-stage restoration of Naumkeag’s gardens. The first phase, in fact—renovation of the famed Blue Steps in their seventy-fifth anniversary year—is already complete, and you have until October 15 to go take a look before the property closes for the season.

The Linden Allée, as now restored

The restored Chinese Pagoda on the South Lawn

The Blue Steps, as you can now see them

For added atmosphere, you might want to consider one of the Naumkeag at Night evenings with live music. There are two more this month: September 19 and 26. Please RSVP at least one day in advance of your preferred event by calling (413) 298-8138 or emailing naumkeag@ttor.org. For more information about the property in general—not to mention all the other sites available for a visit—see the Trustees of Reservations website.

Finally, my own favorite feature at Naumkeag, which inexplicably seems to get much less attention than other parts of the gardens, is a small water rill, set into a brick path and steps, that leads down behind the house. Not grand, but quite charming.

Rill leading down toward the Blue Steps. Photo from Karl Gercens’s photostream at flickr.com