Ventfort Hall will be decorated for Halloween weekend, Friday, October 29 through Sunday, October 31, 2021. Visit our haunted Hall adorned with the spookiest of decorations!
The mansion, the perfect atmosphere for Halloween, will be open from 10am – 3pm on Friday and Saturday for regular self-guided tours. After dark extended hours for regular self-guided tours will be from 5pm-8pm on Friday! On Sunday, the house will be open from 10am-4pm for regular self-guided tours.
Ventfort Hall will also welcome families to visit the house at no charge on Friday and Saturday from 3pm – 5pm. Entry will be every 15 minutes as space allows. The first floor of the house will be open, with a Halloween scavenger hunt for children. Wear your Halloween costume and have the perfect photo opportunity for memories for years to come!
Two special ticketed events are planned for the weekend. Each requires reservations. Masks that cover both the mouth and nose are required and social distancing will be practiced during each event.
David Raby returns Saturday night, October 30, for a ghost hunt from 7 pm to midnight. Non-refundable tickets are $38 per person with a reduced rate of $20 for ages 12 – 18 and 19-23 with student ID. Space is limited.
On Sunday, October 31, Robert Oakes will conduct a special ghost tour from 5 to 7 pm. Non-refundable tickets are $30 per person.
Please note that all tickets for the Saturday, October 30th ghost hunt and the Sunday, October 31st ghost tour are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. Payment is required to make a reservation for either event and space is limited. For reservations call Ventfort Hall at (413) 637-3206
David Raby returns for another paranormal investigation as part of Ventfort Hall’s Halloween Weekend at the Haunted Hall. Join him on Saturday evening, October 30, from 7 pm to midnight.
A non-fiction author and paranormal investigator, Raby has always been intrigued by history. Undaunted, he enters haunted locations that would terrify others with hopes of contacting lingering spirits to discover why they remain.
Raby is the author of four published books and countless online articles. With his passion for the paranormal field, he has accumulated over a decade of experience, founded a paranormal group and has helped many people (and spirits) that ranged between the curious and those seeking urgent advice.
His interest in the paranormal was shaped by the fact that spirits seem to be attracted to his compassion and openness. He has a knack for storytelling that fuels his intensive historical research and fact finding.
He believes that by bringing people’s stories out of the shadows and into the light of our awareness, they may find eternal rest and peace.
Before the investigation, Raby will give a brief history of the lives that once graced the hallways – and possibly still reside within. He will also share some of his favorite evidence from previous investigations and will be happy to answer any questions about paranormal investigations. This event is perfect for everyone; from someone who has never been on a paranormal investigation to the seasoned investigator.
Masks that cover both the mouth and nose are required during this event. Social distancing will be practiced. Tickets for this exciting event are $38 per person with a reduced rate of $20 for ages 12 – 18 and 19-23 with student ID and are limited. Reservations are required. Payment is required to make a reservation for an event. Please note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. For reservations please call 413-637-3206.
Ventfort Hall will be decorated for Halloween weekend, Friday, October 29 through Sunday, October 31, 2021. Visit our haunted Hall adorned with the spookiest of decorations!
The mansion, the perfect atmosphere for Halloween, will be open from 10am – 3pm on Friday and Saturday for regular self-guided tours. After dark extended hours for regular self-guided tours will be from 5pm-8pm on Friday! On Sunday, the house will be open from 10am-4pm for regular self-guided tours.
Ventfort Hall will also welcome families to visit the house at no charge on Friday and Saturday from 3pm – 5pm. Entry will be every 15 minutes as space allows. The first floor of the house will be open, with a Halloween scavenger hunt for children. Wear your Halloween costume and have the perfect photo opportunity for memories for years to come!
Two special ticketed events are planned for the weekend. Each requires reservations. Masks that cover both the mouth and nose are required and social distancing will be practiced during each event.
David Raby returns Saturday night, October 30, for a ghost hunt from 7 pm to midnight. Non-refundable tickets are $38 per person with a reduced rate of $20 for ages 12 – 18 and 19-23 with student ID. Space is limited.
On Sunday, October 31, Robert Oakes will conduct a special ghost tour from 5 to 7 pm. Non-refundable tickets are $30 per person.
Please note that all tickets for the Saturday, October 30th ghost hunt and the Sunday, October 31st ghost tour are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. Payment is required to make a reservation for either event and space is limited. For reservations call Ventfort Hall at (413) 637-3206
Join us as Robert Oakes, author of Ghosts of the Berkshires, leads you through the rooms and halls of this historic estate sharing tales of its hauntings. Stand in the places where the eerie encounters occurred, listen to the first-hand accounts of those who experienced them, and maybe even experience something unusual yourself. The mansion will be decorated for Halloween.
Robert Oakes is an author, teacher, storyteller, and singer/songwriter originally from northern New Jersey and currently residing in the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. Since 2010 Robert has led the ghost tours at Edith Wharton’s The Mount in Lenox, MA, and has appeared on Syfy’s Ghost Hunters, Jeff Belanger’s New England Legends series on PBS, and The Apple Seed show on BY radio. In 2020 Robert’s debut book, Ghosts of the Berkshires, was published by Arcadia Publishing.
The tour will take place on Halloween, October 31 at 5 pm as part of Ventfort Hall’s Halloween Weekend at the Haunted Hall. Admission is $30 and minimum age to attend is age 12. Reservations are required. Payment is required to make a reservation for an event. Please note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. For reservations please call 413-637-3206.
Cornelia Brooke Gilder returns to Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum to give a talk on “The Brushwood Farm Story.” Her lecture is scheduled for Saturday, November 6 at 3:30 pm.
As the Town of Lenox considers a new housing proposal for the long-underused Brushwood Farm property on Route 7, local historian Cornelia Brooke Gilder will take us back to the days when it was the working farm of the Godwin sisters. Drawing on albums and art portfolios in archives in New York State and Georgia, Gilder will recapture the era of the athletic, creative and public-spirited Elizabeth (Lovie) and Frances (Tiny) Godwin, great, granddaughters of the influential newspaper editor, William Cullen Bryant.
The Godwins renamed the Federal style Lenox farmhouse of the Root family, Brushwood, and from 1915 to 1975 it was a gracious gathering place with extensive flower gardens and rockery behind (now a parking lot for Your Color Connection and Personal Body Precision). Brushwood’s barns sheltered their pedigreed horses and in the studio Frances honed her talent as an equine sculptor.
The Godwin sisters were active in Lenox Horse Shows, parades and flower shows and were founders of “Berkshire Industries” an enterprise based at the Lenox Academy to market locally-made handicrafts, metalwork, pottery and art during the Great Depression.
Gilder has co-authored with Richard S. Jackson, Jr., Houses of the Berkshires, 1870 – 1930, named an honor book by Historic New England; authored Edith Wharton’s Lenox; co-authored with Julia Conklin Peters Hawthorne’s Lenox: The Tanglewood Circle, and with Joan Olshansky A History of Ventfort Hall. Gilder also contributed to the exhibition A Walk in the Country: George Inness and the Berkshires on view at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute.
Tickets for the Gilder talk are $20 per person. $10 tickets for students with a college ID ages 18-23 or children under 18. Reservations for attending the talk are required by calling 413-637-3206. Please note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. Payment is required to make a reservation for an event.
Come join us at Ventfort Hall to celebrate the return of the piano purchased by the Morgans in 1895 for Ventfort Hall. The concert will be played on the beautiful rosewood, six foot Steinway. Join us for some songs from the Bowery, a bit of Ragtime, and of course a bit of audience participation for a musical step back to the Gilded Age, with Amy Renak. A lovely tea shall follow the program.
A few months ago, Ventfort Hall received some amazing news. An offer came from George and Sarah Morgan’s great, great, great grandson to donate the piano that had been purchased by the couple 126 years ago for their new home, Ventfort Hall! He received the piano from his grandmother in 2011 who requested that if he could no longer keep the piano, it be returned to Ventfort Hall.
The piano had left Ventfort Hall when the Morgan children took over the mansion after their parents’ passing and almost all of the original furnishings were auctioned off and thus lost to us. Since 1895 it has travelled from the Steinway factory in Astoria New York to Lenox, Ma to New York City to Portland Oregon and finally back to Lenox, MA, coming full circle.
Although Steinway keeps confidential information about their customers, Ventfort Hall was able to confirm, using the serial number etched into the piano, that the instrument was completed on March 28, 1895, and shipped to a customer at 104 Walker St. in Lenox, Massachusetts, on May 29, 1895.
That a piano purchased in 1895 is still owned by the same family is indeed rare. The piano arrived at Ventfort Hall last month. It is indeed a fitting addition to the museum. It makes the return of the piano even more special. This event is a fundraiser to establish a fund for the maintenance of the piano
Amy Renak has been a piano teacher and choir director in Pittsfield and Great Barrington for many years. She happily teaches piano at the Berkshire Music School and Miss Hall’s School, is the director of music at Zion Lutheran Church in Pittsfield and is the choir director at Hevreh of Southern Berkshire in Great Barrington. Amy enjoys entertaining the occasional gathering, in a ball room, living room, or beautifully appointed drawing room such as the one at Ventfort Hall. Amy is married to Mark Mitchell and lives in Pittsfield.
This event is co-chaired by Board Members Helen Charbonneau and Natalie Johnsonius Neubert.
Tickets to attend the concert and tea are $35 per person. Reservations are required by calling 413-637-3206. Please note that all tickets are nonrefundable and non-exchangeable. Payment is required to make a reservation for an event.
