Villa Virginia is a historic country estate situated on Ice Glen Road in

Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridg ...

. Built between 1914 and 1915, it stands as one of the last significant examples of the grand

Berkshire Cottages 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 countr ...

and showcases

Renaissance Revival architecture Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th-century Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival architecture, Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival ar ...

. This estate was added to

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1983.

History

Villa Virginia is located on the east side of Ice Glen Road, between its northern end and the

Ice Glen The Ice Glen is a ravine in the southeast area of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The park is essentially a lush, untended, romantic landscape consisting of piled rocks thick with mosses. Ice Glen derives its name from the fact that ice can persist at ...

trailhead. The property spans over , encompassing the western side of the Ice Glen ravine. In the late nineteenth century, this area was part of an estate owned by John and Isabella Wyman Winthrop, who ran a

gentleman's farm In the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, a gentleman farmer is a landowner who has a farm (gentleman's farm) as part of his estate and who farms as a hobby rather than for profit or sustenance. The Collins English Dictionary defin ...

. The renowned dancer

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877, or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American-born dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance and performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. Bor ...

performed on the lawn of their property. The site was acquired by William H. Clarke, who demolished the existing structures and commissioned the architectural firm

Hiss and Weekes Hiss and Weekes was a notable architectural firm in New York City that was active from 1899 to 1933 and constructed a number of landmark buildings of Beaux-Arts architecture. Run by Philip Hiss and H. Hobart Weekes, the firm was known primarily fo ...

to build a new estate in 1914. It is constructed in the style of a Tuscan

villa A villa is a type of house that was originally an ancient Roman upper class country house that provided an escape from urban life. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the f ...

of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. The estate functioned as a working farm, featuring extensive outbuildings for animals and farm machinery. The estate's architecture is a prime example of the Mediterranean Renaissance Revival style. The landscape was designed by

Ferruccio Vitale Ferruccio Vitale (1875-1933) was a landscape architect. Born in Italy, he became a United States citizen in 1921. The historian Terry R. Schnadelbach considered him to be "America's forgotten landscape architect." Life Vitale was born in Floren ...

, incorporating formal features such as a lily pond, grotto, and walled garden. By the 1970s, many of the Berkshire cottages, including Villa Virginia, were considered "

white elephant A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, ...

" due to their size and maintenance costs. The estate became uninhabited and fell into disrepair. However, from 1979 to 1998, it was owned by Kazys Varnelis who used it as his home and private gallery. Varnelis undertook extensive restoration work to revive both the structure and the grounds.

References

External links

Luxury Villas
{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Houses completed in 1914 Stockbridge, Massachusetts Villas in the United States Italianate architecture in Massachusetts Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Berkshire County, Massachusetts Gilded Age