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Wendy Healey takes over leadership of Lenox’s Ventfort Hall

Ventfort Hall in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Chrissypan
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Wikipedia
Ventfort Hall in Lenox, Massachusetts.

A new executive director has been named for Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum in Lenox, Massachusetts.

The 28,000-square foot Jacobean-style mansion designed by architects Rotch & Tilden lies just steps from the heart of Lenox. It was constructed in 1893 for J.P. Morgan’s sister Sarah, and had fallen into disrepair by the 1990s when the Ventfort Hall Association nonprofit took it over.

“I'm the first full time executive director that the organization has had. Although the organization has been around since 1995, their original mandate was to do a lot of restoration and renovation work. That work is ongoing. But we are also doing a lot of programming," said Wendy Healey, who took over the role in December. “My previous background is actually in banking. But I was an English major with a great interest in art history and medieval studies, so. I also have had a lot of experience with nonprofit organizations through the years and was most recently the board president at WAM Theatre here in the Berkshires.”

In addition to securing grants for the ongoing restoration and stabilization of the building’s infrastructure, Healey says she’s working on communicating Ventfort’s story to the wider Berkshire community.

“There's a really rich history of the place of these cottages in the Berkshires," she told WAMC. "The phenomenon of the Berkshire country cottage is something that has shaped the socio-economic landscape of the Berkshires to this day. There were approximately 80 of these houses built during the Gilded Age, which is the period between the end of the Civil War and prior to World War I, approximately, and these large architectural remains have really dictated the use of our geography in the Berkshires. So, many of them have become spas and resorts. Many of them are still in private hands, several of them have succumbed to demolition or fire. But there are just four left that are available for the public to tour. So, there's the Mount, there's Naumkeag, there's Chesterwood, and there is Ventfort Hall. So, Ventfort Hall really has the opportunity to serve as an educational center and in a place where the community can come and understand how this phenomenon helped to shape our current culture.”

After its role as a residence, Ventfort Hall was used for a variety of different purposes.

“It was called Festival House during the 50s when Bruno Aron was hired by the Jewish Community Center to come and work there," said Healey. "He realized that there was no accommodation for Jewish people in Lenox or at the Curtis House or the Red Lion, and so he bought Ventfort Hall and created Festival House and it was open for people of all races and denominations and it became a cultural center. It had arts and culture and music. Dizzy Gillespie came through here, Odetta, Pete Seeger performed. Bruno Aron had fine artists teaching painting and sculpture out on the veranda.”

Healey offered a rundown of the building’s physical needs and the estimated costs attached to addressing them.

“Most of the first floor is complete," she said. "Most of the second floor, but not all of the second floor is complete. The third floor is not complete at all. So up on the third floor, we have more guest bedrooms, and the servants’ quarters are up on the third floor. The basement which contains the kitchen, which is, if your listeners have watched ‘Downton Abbey,’ which I'm sure they have, it is that type of a kitchen. We would love to restore that area. You know, we're talking about millions of dollars that would need to go into the restoration. The fundraising plan that I have put into place that we're hoping to raise for 2023 is about $400,000. So obviously, this master plan is one that is going to be a multiyear if not into decades-long plan. So certainly, it is an ongoing preservation and restoration effort.”

The Hall boasts year-round programming, unlike many of the Berkshires’ cultural offerings that cater to summer visitors. Healey hopes she can work to further bolster the mansion and museum’s place in the county and secure its financial security.

“We are in good shape, but we are not in great shape," she told WAMC. "We're in the black, we did get some money from the various pandemic relief programs. But as I noted earlier, it is my top priority to do fundraising, grant applications, and private donations, and to boost our event attendance and just our attendance at tours that we provide year-round, because that is what we depend on for our ongoing restoration efforts.”

Josh Landes has been WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief since February 2018, following stints at WBGO Newark and WFMU East Orange. A passionate advocate for Western Massachusetts, Landes was raised in Pittsfield and attended Hampshire College in Amherst, receiving his bachelor's in Ethnomusicology and Radio Production. His free time is spent with his cat Harry, experimental electronic music, and exploring the woods.
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