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6. When your busy schedule allows, what other local performance venues do you attend?
Theater, Ventfort Hall, Jacob’s Pillow,Bidwell House lectures.

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Photo: syfy.com

On to Lenox, Mass., where the 28,000 square foot Ventfort Hall boasts sprits touching people, doors opening, a female face descending a staircase and a whispering female voice.  The home once belonged to George and Sarah Morgan, and the employees want to know which of them is haunting the home.

The third floor where doors open on their own, Jason and Grant wonder if New England’s temperature fluctuations might be to blame, but then they hear voices and start chasing a scream to the basement!

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About 20 years ago, during a very fluid period in my career, a girl I knew suggested we rent a mansion together in Stockbridge, Mass. Either a single or a double homicide — depending on whether or which of us escaped — would surely have ensued, so it was a lucky thing we dropped the plan.

One of the places we looked at was a fantastically decrepit pile in nearby Lenox called Ventfort Hall. Where I live now didn’t look a lot different than Ventfort when I moved in. However, Ventfort is about 14,000 square feet bigger.

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Mr. & Mrs. I.N. Phelps Stokes of Shadowbrook painted by John Singer Sargent, August 28

New Tea and Talk Series 

Front and Center

Whereas its past summer lectures took place on Wednesdays, the weekly Summer 2012 Tea and Talk Series at Ventfort Hall are now scheduled mainly on Tuesdays at 4:00pm. All talks throughout the year at Ventfort Hall now come under the catchy Tea and Talk title and include the museum’s extraordinarily popular (“May I serve you?”) Victorian Teas. The summer series of ten talks offers a wide range of delectable subjects:

June 19, Donald W. Linebaugh, associate professor, School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at the University of Maryland, will turn up the jets on “The Springfield Gas Machine: Illuminating Industry and Leisure” developed after the Civil War as a gas lighting system marketed for use in homes and businesses located beyond the reaches of city gas works. Ventfort Hall was illuminated by such a system.

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The exhibit features the reality depicted in glass-plate photographs taken by Evelyn Cameron highlighting pioneer life in the Montana Territory at the turn-of-the-20th century, juxtaposed against the historically-based, yet romantic oil paintings of 20th-century artist Alfred G. Vetromile that portray American Indian life and culture.

Although the Gilded Age (approximately 1865 to 1914) was synonymous with the industrialization of America and the subsequent growth of enormous wealth for a select few, it also was the period when the dramatic story of the final settlement of the American West occurred. Vast tracks of land were settled by waves of homesteaders, ranchers and entrepreneurs pursuing their dreams.

The west was made more accessible with the expansion of the railroads. J.P. Morgan, the brother of Ventfort Hall’s Sarah Morgan, assisted in the financing of the construction of the railroads that transported settlers west and freight east. Yet, with this economic development came the subjugation of the Native American peoples, by 1890 their collective population had dwindled to fewer than 250,000.

The year before, British honeymooners Evelyn and Ewen Cameron arrived in the remote badlands of eastern Montana Territory. An unlikely couple in an unlikely place, Evelyn had married Ewen despite her wealthy family’s objections to this naturalist, who was 14 years her senior with few financial prospects. The harsh life of frontier Montana depicted in Evelyn’s photographs was an extreme contrast to upper class English gentility, yet both Evelyn and Ewen thrilled at the outdoors life.

The first of several of Ewen’s failed financial schemes was to raise horses for European polo players. But Evelyn began a pursuit of photography. Although the age of the Kodak “snapshot” had begun,Evelyn chose the older and more exacting techniques of dry-plate glass photography. Despite the demands of her daily round of chores,in time she mastered her art, becoming one of the most sought after photographers in Montana. She continued to chronicle the lives of the people and the harsh realities of daily existence, the variety of wildlife and the dramatic landscape of her adopted homeland until her death in 1928.

These nearly-forgotten photos came to light through Donna Lucey, an award-winning writer and photo editor who lectured at Ventfort Hall last summer. In the late 1970’s, while researching a book on women pioneers in the west, Lucey heard about a cache of glass-plate negatives belonging to Janet Williams, a 95-year-old farm woman in eastern Montana. One of the original homesteaders in the area, Williams had been Evelyn’s best friend and surrogate daughter. On Evelyn’s death, Williams stored all of her friend’s 1,800’s negatives, 2,500 prints and private papers, resisting all efforts to make them public. Consequently, Evelyn’s work and name was almost entirely unknown.

After much persuasion, Williams finally allowed Lucey access to this historical prize. The result was the unveiling of the almost secret treasures in Lucey’s book, Photographing Montana 1894-1928: The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron. This will be the topic of Lucey’s lecture when she returns to Ventfort Hall on Wednesday, September 1, at 4:00pm at the conclusion of its Summer Lecture Series.

At the same time that Evelyn’s photographs portrayed the reality of the west; the grand American tradition of nostalgia for the bygone days in the west was beginning, resulting in an outpouring of art and entertainment. Frederick Remington captured cowboy life in the west in his paintings and sculptures; Buffalo Bill regaled audiences here and aboard with his popular Wild West Show; photographer Edward S. Curtis, with the financial assistance of J.P. Morgan, documented American Indian life in a twenty-volume set of books and last, but not least, decades of films and live entertainment have portrayed the Old West.

Later in the 20th century, the artist Alfred G. Vetromile (1917-2006) continued to honor the rich, indigenous culture of the Native Americans through his meticulously researched yet romantic oil paintings. Twenty-eight of his works will be on view in “Dreaming of the West: Reality and Romance” – a collection of works gathered from private collectors from several states.

Vetromile was born in Congers, New York and grew up in Tuckahoe, New York. Though he had a degree in aeronautical engineering from New York University, he also attended the Art Students League where his painting skill developed under the instruction of Robert Brackman and Elmore Brown, a leading illustrator at Colliers Magazine.

After World War II, during which Vetromile served as a highly decorated 1st Lieutenant Navigator in the U.S. Air Force, he worked extensively in art direction for television and advertising in New York. He was the creator of the famous Lucky Strike marching cigarette commercials, now archived in NewYork’s Museum of Modern Art. Later in his career he depicted his Air Force experiences in several paintings, which hang in the Strategic Air Command headquarters of the Pentagon.

Although his career included both military service and advertising, Vetromile’s passion was exploring the history of the American West through detailed research and vividly imagined painting. His sensitive depictions of American Indian culture and way of life comprise his greatest body of works. He began every painting with weeks of careful research in order to ensure historical accuracy.

Vetromile did not work from photographs or with live models. Instead, he would draw a series of thumbnail sketches, followed by a small study in oil to prepare for the final piece. Spending months every year on location in Arizona, New Mexico and California, Vetromile was able to capture the color and atmosphere of the western landscape. His representational paintings each tell a story of a moment in time as he imagined it.

The Preview Opening will take place from 5:00 to 7:30pm with a champagne reception. Tickets are $35. The exhibit opens officially on Sunday May 30th and will be on view through January 15, 2011. Admission is included with the price of regular tour admission to Ventfort Hall which is $16 for adults, $5 for children and free for members. For hours and other information, or to make a reservation for the Preview Opening Reception, contact Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum at 413-637-3206 or visit www.GildedAge.org. Ventfort Hall is located at 104 Walker Street in Lenox.
The Exhibit and Special Events committees would like to express their sincere appreciation to the following for making the exhibit possible: Birgit Vetromile, widow of Alfred; Lena: Hermine Wind; Patrick Wind; Jeremy Bean; Charles Hall; Glenn Baer; Montana Historical Society Research Center – Photograph Archives, Helena, MT; Donna M. Lucey; Studio Two and the Ventfort Hall Exhibit/Events Committees.

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With Tobey Maguire as the orphan Homer Wells, Michael Caine as Dr. Wilbur Larch, Charlize Theron as Candy, Ventfort Hall became St. Cloud’s Orphanage under the direction of Lasse Holstrom. David Gropman was the production designer and his crew of carpenters, landscape workers and electricians took over the property in August 1998 to prepare for the filming.

Ventfort Hall benefited from their activities. The film replaced the ugly safety glass in the porch door with a beautiful stained glass window that matches the old ones on either side. The rotting porch columns and missing railings were rebuilt with new wood and then painted and aged to match the original weather stained and weather-beaten porch. When, during a summer rainstorm, it was discovered that the porch roof leaked like a sieve, carpenters were sent immediately to rebuild the roof.

Finally, on a cold November day, hundreds of massive trucks arrived. Filming had begun. Snow was manufactured one day. Two days later it was washed away and green grass and summer flowers sprouted all over the garden. Trees came and went as they were needed to screen unwanted views… Lights burned deep into the night… What a great adventure! Three weeks later it was all a memory. The movie was released to great acclaim in 2000.

The movie The Cider House Rules is out on video. This Oscar-winning film features the mansion as “St. Cloud’s Orphanage” in the John Irving Story. The acting is great! Wonderful music.VHA is thrilled to have been a part of this fine film. The video and CD are available for purchase in the Ventfort Hall Gift Shop.

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These and other creative schemes by top Berkshire interior designers, antique dealers, artists and artisans have been realized for the Berkshire Designer Showcase at Ventfort Hall. The Showcase is open daily until January 15, 2012, weekdays from 10am to 5pm, on Fridays until 7pm and weekends from 10am to 3pm.

Fourteen restored rooms and halls on the second floor of Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum have been transformed by the skill and artistic flair of Valerie J. Winig, Wingate Ltd.; Vivian Kimmelman, Berkshire Home & Antiques; Allison B. Crane, Places + Spaces, and Carol Newton Rumph, The Comfortable Home Interior; Barry Webber, Marlborough Cottage Arts and Interiors and The Source Collection, Inc.; Kate Morris, Morris House Antiques & Interiors, LLC; set designer Carl Sprague; Evan Hughes, Evan Hughes Design, LLC; Cecil Pollen, Designers Furniture Showcase, Ltd. DBA Kitchens & Interiors; Karen Beckwith, Karen Beckwith Arts & Interiors; Thomas and Kathleen Tetro, Corner House Antiques; Karen Cedar, Interior Design, Decoration & Display; Eric Hilton, Eric Hilton Ltd.; and the Lenox Garden Club 100th Anniversary Display Exhibit “Then and Now”.

Ventfort Hall is one of Lenox’s largest Gilded Age mansions, a 28,000-square-foot summer cottage built in 1893 for George and Sarah Morgan, the sister of legendary financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Nearly demolished in the mid 1990s, Ventfort Hall has undergone massive restoration at the same time that it has become one of the county’s major cultural venues offering tours, lectures, theater, exhibitions, concerts, children’s programs, dances, a gift shop, Picnics on the Porch…and now a Berkshire Designer Showcase.

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An extraordinary exhibit the likes of which the Berkshires has never seen, featuring 59 stunningly beautiful miniature “fashion models” that portray the history of women’s fashion from 1855 to 1914. John R. Burbidge, retired Senior Designer of the famed Priscilla of Boston, began the painstaking work of creating his 29-inch tall “ladies” almost 40 years ago, and each is a masterwork. The outfits, exquisite in every detail, are all completely original designs by Burbidge.

Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum has announced the indefinite extension of the extremely popular exhibit “Les Petites Dames de Mode”(The Little Ladies of Fashion.)  Les Petites Dames de Mode has been a phenomenal success and promises to become a significant attraction in the Berkshires. It seems that nothing quite like this exists in the world – our visitors have been declaring this exhibit worthy of any major museum anywhere!”

The 1893 mansion provides the perfect backdrop for the exhibit of sixty, almost half-life size “Ladies” in their hand-made costumes, each a work of art. They portray the history of women’s fashion from 1855 to 1914 in exquisite detail. After extensive historical research, John R. Burbidge, designer and creator and retired Senior Designer for the famed bridal house of Priscilla of Boston, imagined himself working as a designer in a bygone era. The assemblage represents the culmination of almost 40 years of exacting effort.

Ventfort Hall also features the work of his wife, Mrs. Cile Bellefleur Burbidge.  The award-winning Mrs. Burbidge, one of the top wedding cake-makers in the world, contributes a spectacular wedding cake for display. Her $10,000 to $20,000 cakes have appeared in the Smithsonian, Tiffany’s, weddings for heads of state, etc. and another is currently part of the Peabody Essex Museum’s “Wedded Bliss” display in Salem, Massachusetts.

Mr. Burbidge is author of the book, “Les Petites Dames de Mode – An Adventure in Design” published by Reverie, which is available for purchase at the Ventfort Hall Museum Shop.

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