Lenox

Lenox, town (1990 pop. 5,069), Berkshire co., W Mass., in the Berkshire Mts., 7 mi (11 km) south of Pittsfield. It is primarily a summer resort. The Berkshire Festival, one of the country's premier music festivals, is held annually on the Tanglewood estate, which spans Lenox and adjoining Stockbridge. Numerous other elegant estates are found in Lenox; many have been transformed into resorts or schools. The Mount (1902) was home to Edith Wharton and is now open to the public, and Ventfort Hall (1893), an Elizabethan Revival mansion, houses the Museum of the Gilded Age. The town was settled c.1750 and named Yokuntown; in 1767 it was set off from Richmond and renamed for Charles Lennox, 3d duke of Richmond and Lennox, who championed the colonists. A 19th-century literary hub, Lenox was once home to Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose cottage here burned (1890) and was rebuilt (1948).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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