Hawthorne House

If you have ever attended Tanglewood and parked at the Lion’s Gate you will have undoubtedly seen the “Hawthorne Cottage,” Interestingly, the gentleman who gives his name to the building and a road and street to boot, Nathaniel Hawthorne, was only an occupant of the building for just over a year and a half from March 1850 to November 1851.

This watercolor of the Hawthorne House is dated 1865, done over a decade following his family’s tenure here in Stockbridge. It is humorous to note that Hawthorne could not wait to leave the Berkshires. Despite everything that drew and still draws people here, he could not stomach going through another bleak, cold winter here.

Stockbridge Library Museum & Archives Art Collection 1998.047