Posted September 15, 2017
By Margaret D. Kerswill
Looking for a festive way to celebrate Halloween with your family? Stockbridge offers a few opportunities to scare up some fun and frights for all ages.
About three quarters of a mile from downtown Stockbridge you’ll find Naumkeag, a Trustees of Reservations property and the former country estate of noted New York City lawyer Joseph Hodges Choate, located at 5 Prospect Hill Road. Creep through the woods at night during the annual Pumpkin Trail on October 13 & 14 as 200 carved jack-o-lanterns light your way. Listen for the woodland creatures on the trail who will greet you and regale you with funny and informative stories of their nocturnal activities. Ideal for kids under 12.
Feeling a little more daring? Ready to be frightened in grand Berkshire style? Visit Naumkeag October 20 & 21 and 27 & 28 for their recently resurrected Annual Halloween Haunted House. Be prepared to be scared as you stroll the gardens and tour all three floors of the Gilded Age “cottage” where ghosts and ghoulish creatures await you. Recommended for ages 12+ (parental discretion). You can contact Naumkeag at 413-298-3239 to learn more about house tours and events.
For more traditional fun, the Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce will host the annual Halloween Parade & Party on October 27. Those looking to participate in the parade should gather in costume at Main & Pine Streets prior to 6 p.m. ready to march up Main Street to the Town Offices where cider and donuts will be served. This event is open to area children and their families. In case of rain, all activities will take place at the library.
Immediately following the Halloween Parade, the Stockbridge Library Association will host the 7th Annual Pumpkin Walk-About in the Stockbridge Library gardens. If you are carving a jack-o-lantern, drop it off at the Library between 5:00 & 6:00 p.m. When you come back after the parade the path will be lit by all the pumpkins carved by local businesses, your neighbors, and you! There will also be some spooky stories and a Halloween treat.
Come out and join in the traditions, both old and new in this quintessential New England town!
Nearby, in the postcard-pretty town of Stockbridge — birthplace of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” — the Norman Rockwell Museum is marking its centenary of the artist’s first Saturday Evening Post cover. From 1916’s “Boy with Baby Carriage” comes “Build a Better Baby Carriage,” a kicky show of contemporary sculpture on its lush grounds. Then duck inside “the room where it happened”: Rockwell’s own, perfectly preserved studio.
Hike in the footsteps of literary giants like Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who spent time on the summit of Monument Mountain’s 1,642-foot Squaw Peak outside Great Barringtonin the Berkshires. From the top of cliffs, gaze upon a glorious landscape, including Mount Greylock and New York’s Catskills. Using the Hickey, Squaw Peak and Indian Monument trails from the Route 7 trailhead, hikers can navigate a nearly 3-mile loop along a former carriage road, by a jumbled boulder field and under cliffs. There are some abrupt pitches, but those Housatonic River Valley vistas are worth it. (thetrustees.org)
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Award winning – Ranked top 3% of HGI’s. Centrally located to all that the Berkshires has to offer. 95 rooms with microwave, refrigerator, Keurig coffee maker. Complimentary Wi-Fi. Indoor heated pool/hot tub, fitness center. Home of Jae’s Restaurant, open to the public.
1032 South Street, Route 7
Pittsfield, MA 01201
(413) 448-2222
This Federal style houseThey and their daughter, Vipont Merwin, traveled extensively collecting European and American furnishings and objects to decorate their home. Merwin House today is a museum of the family’s collection and the location of the Berkshires office of the Housatonic Valley Association, preserversof the Housatonic watershed.
14 Main Street
Stockbridge, MA 01262
(617)994-6662
MerwinHouse@
36-38 Main Street
Stockbridge, MA 01262
(413) 298-7137
HVA is the only conservation organization working across the entire 2,000 square–mile Housatonic Watershed. As a tri-state nonprofit citizen’s environmental group, HVA works to conserve the natural character, environmental health and the economies of our region by protecting and restoring its land and waters for today and for future generations.
With a professional team of conservationists, interns, and volunteers, and strong network of community and conservation partners, we restore and protect vital watershed lands and waters. We have a long track record- 80 years and counting! – of successfully conserving and defending this river valley.
But as our climate shifts, our actions in the next decade will profoundly affect the long-term environmental health of this place we cherish. Today we are working in two vital ways to establish a healthy and climate-ready watershed by 2040:
Follow the Forest: Conserving a 50,000-acre woodland and wildlife climate corridor across our region for wildlife habitat, clean water, and carbon and temperature moderation.
Clean, Cold and Connected: Restoring and protecting 500 miles of rivers and streams along with the groundwater that recharges these waterways and our local drinking water.
Our common-sense solutions balance important economic and environmental needs allowing for smart growth that protects water quality and encourages open space, wetland habitats, recreation areas and scenic vistas.
150 Kent Rd
Cornwall Bridge, CT 06754
(860) 672-6678
Stroll down Main Street in Stockbridge this Sunday, and you’ll feel as if you stepped into a Norman Rockwell painting. Literally.
The picturesque town in the Berkshires will recreate Rockwell’s 1967 painting, “Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas (Home for Christmas)” during the 28th Annual Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas celebration Dec. 1-3. The weekend-long event attracts thousands of visitors each year, and about 2,500 visitors alone during Sunday’s recreation, said Barbara Zanetti, executive director of the Stockbridge Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the event. The portion of the street in the painting will close to automobile traffic on Sunday between noon and 2 p.m. so guests can enjoy the scene.