America's Gilded Age, the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, from 1865 to 1901 saw unprecedented economic and industrial prosperity. As a result of this prosperity, the nation's wealthiest families were able to construct monumental country estates in the Berkshires in Massachusetts.

History Although most uses of 'cottage' imply a small house, the use of the word in this context refers to an alternative definition, "a summer residence (often on a large and sumptuous scale)".

Cottages Approximately seventy-six estates were built in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts, including:

Allen Winden Ashintully Beaupré Bellefontaine Belvoir Terrace Summer Camp Blantyre Bluestone Manor Bonnie Brae Breezy Corners Brookhurst Brookside Cherry Hill Chesterwood Clipston Grange Coldbrook Deepdene Eastover Edgewood Elm Court Erskine Park Groton Place Gusty Gables High Lawn Holmesdale Kellogg Terrace Lakeside Merrywood Naumkeag Nestledown Norwood Oakwood Orleton Oronoque Overlee Pine Acre Pine Needles Rock Ridge Searles Castle Shadowbrook Spring Lawn Stonover Summerwood Sunnyridge Tanglewood The Homestead The Mount Valleyhead Ventfort Hall Villa Virginia Wheatleigh Windyside Wyndhurst

See also List of Gilded Age mansions

References

External links The Museum of the Gilded Age at Ventfort Hall Bob Vila tour of Berkshire cottages