House^Garden 
V o 1 . II 
JANUARY, 1902 
No. 1 
BELLE FONTAINE 
AT LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS. 
Designed by Carr ere £5? Hastings , Architects. 
~T~ 
U PON the hills which surround the old 
village of Lenox are modern homes of 
a most extensive type. Beyond the elm 
shaded common, along excellent roads fairlv 
ringing under the foot, one finds the 
country - side in 
possession of city 
folk bearing well- 
known names of 
Manhattan. 
These new places 
differ from the old 
homes of the 
neighborhood as 
new needs of do¬ 
mestic architec¬ 
ture have parted 
from the New 
England ideal of a 
rectangular dwell¬ 
ing of wood with 
perhaps a pedi¬ 
ment and pilas¬ 
ters. The severe 
simplicity of old 
landmarks has lit¬ 
tle influence upon 
the new, and in 
picturesque mass¬ 
ing and coloring 
the recent build¬ 
ings surpass each 
other toward the 
goal of variety. 
The tranquillity 
of a New England village has given way to 
modern splendor. During the last century 
Lenox was a centre of life sufficient to itself and 
not the summer suburb of a great city. It was 
then that a circle of literary people made its 
home here and impressed with dignity and re¬ 
finement the little focus of Berkshire activity. 
Hawthorne wrote his “ House of the Seven 
Gables ” here and 
Lenox history 
bears the names of 
Frederika Bremer 
and Mrs. Kemble. 
Many of the 
new houses are 
placed close to 
the road where 
spacious entrance 
drives swing 
through their 
porte- cocheres, 
suiting the for¬ 
mality of first ap¬ 
proach. But the 
other sides of the 
houses, where liv- 
i n g rooms are 
removed from 
public view, have 
always a delight¬ 
ful outlook over 
descending hill¬ 
sides to streams 
and to distant 
woods. It is these 
views of a country 
lying wellbetween 
the extreme of 
dull flatness and abrupt severity which are 
the attraction of a Berkshire home, which 
welcome with quiet refreshment those who 
STEPS TO THE TERRACE 
I 
