Naumkeag

In the late 19th century, the Berkshires became a fashionable summer retreat for wealthy families from New York and Boston, who built grand country houses they modestly called cottages. Naumkeag was one of these, built for Joseph Choate, a prominent lawyer and diplomat, and his family, a shingled mansion set on a hillside above Stockbridge with long views over the hills.

The house survives with much of its original character intact, filled with the furniture, art, ceramics, and family collections the Choates gathered, so it reads as a lived-in home rather than a stripped museum. It offers a window into the summer world of the Gilded Age elite, but its lasting fame would come from what the family did with the land around it in the generation that followed.

Naumkeag's gardens are the life's work of a remarkable partnership. Beginning in the 1920s, Mabel Choate, the family's daughter, worked with the landscape architect Fletcher Steele over some thirty years to transform the grounds into a series of designed garden rooms. Steele blended classical ideas with a bold, modern sensibility, and Naumkeag became his masterpiece and one of the landmark American gardens of the 20th century.

Each part of the hillside has its own character: a Chinese-inspired garden with a moon gate, formal terraces, a rose garden, an evergreen walk, and carefully framed views out to the hills. Rather than a single grand vista, the design leads you from one enclosed surprise to the next, a stroll full of turns and discoveries down the slope.

The most famous feature is the Blue Steps, a curving cascade of stairs built into the hillside to help Mabel Choate get down to her cutting garden. Steele turned a practical problem into a work of art: four flights of steps curve around pools and fountains painted a cool blue, flanked by graceful white-barked birches and railed in Art Deco ironwork.

The effect is unforgettable, the pale trunks of the birches rising alongside the blue-tinted fountains as the steps wind down the slope. The Blue Steps have appeared in countless photographs and are studied by garden designers as a small masterpiece of form and imagination. Seeing them in person, especially with the birches in leaf, is the highlight of a visit.

Naumkeag overlooks Stockbridge, a village so archetypal of small-town New England that the artist Norman Rockwell, who lived here, painted its Main Street. The town and the surrounding hills are dense with culture, from the Norman Rockwell Museum and the summer music of Tanglewood to gardens, theaters, and historic homes across the southern Berkshires.

This is the homeland of the Mohican people, and the town's name recalls that heritage; their descendants form the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, a federally recognized nation with deep roots here. Spring and summer bring the gardens into full bloom, while autumn wraps the estate in Berkshire foliage, making Naumkeag a rewarding stop in any warm season.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

Naumkeag is a Gilded Age country estate in Stockbridge, in the Berkshires, celebrated above all for its spectacular gardens. A shingle-style mansion sits amid grounds designed over decades by the influential landscape architect Fletcher Steele, creating a series of imaginative, world-renowned garden rooms. Now cared for by the Trustees of Reservations, it is a magical blend of art, architecture, and horticulture, and one of the finest garden destinations in the Northeast.

The signature feature is the iconic Blue Steps, a cascade of fountains and pools framed by slender white birches and Art Deco railings, one of the most photographed garden designs in America. Other highlights include the tranquil Chinese Garden, the Afternoon Garden, and the rose and other themed plantings, all with sweeping Berkshire views. Each garden room has its own character, making a stroll through the grounds a series of delightful surprises.

The gardens are gloriously at their best from spring through fall, when the plantings bloom in succession and the grounds are lush and colorful. Naumkeag is also famous for its Winterlights holiday illuminations in December, a popular seasonal event that transforms the estate with lights. Because hours, tours, and events are seasonal, checking the current schedule before you go helps you plan around the gardens or the lights.

You can tour the historic mansion to glimpse gilded-age life and the tastes of its owners, complementing the garden experience with a look inside the elegant home. The estate also hosts events and seasonal programming through the year. Between the house, the many distinctive garden rooms, and the Berkshire views, there is plenty to fill a leisurely couple of hours, so wear comfortable shoes for the terraced grounds.

Naumkeag sits in Stockbridge, in the heart of the cultural Berkshires, close to the Norman Rockwell Museum, Edith Wharton's estate The Mount in nearby Lenox, and the summer music of Tanglewood. The charming town of Stockbridge and the region's scenery round things out. Together they make for a wonderful day or weekend combining gardens, art, history, and the natural beauty of the Berkshires.