Photo: By Kevin Sprague, Studio Two. All images are copyright 2005 Edith Wharton Restorations, Inc.
The Mount could be considered an autobiographical house and garden that embodies the spirit and principles of Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Edith Wharton.
Edith Wharton (1862-1937), the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction (“The Age of Innocence”), was an authority on architecture, interior design and European landscape gardening. Wharton designed and built The Mount, her 42-room country house and its gardens, in 1902 based on principles outlined in her book, “The Decoration of Houses.”
Located in the Berkshires, the Mount is a National Historic Landmark. Wanting her garden to possess “a charm independent of the seasons,” Warton divided the three acres of formal gardens into rooms to harmonize with the house.
The estate includes the mansion, a Georgian Revival stable, woodlands and three acres of formal gardens – including the Italian walled garden, formal flower garden, lime walk, and alpine rock garden with grass steps. The 3,000 flowering annuals and perennials in the flower beds have been described by a Wharton friend as “an oriental carpet floating in the sun.”
“Ah, good conversation – there’s nothing like it, is there? The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.” — Edith Wharton (“The Age of Innocence“)
Visiting: Open May – October.
The Mount
2 Plunkett Street
Lenox, MA 01240
413-551-5111
info@edithwharton.org
