Inside the Incredible Berkshires Cottage the Morgan Family Calls Home (Ventfort Hall)

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  • Опубликовано: 17 ноя 2024

Комментарии • 87

  • @monkeygraborange
    @monkeygraborange 2 года назад +31

    What a beauty! It’s a shame it was allowed to almost collapse before anyone took care of it, but I’m certainly glad people stepped in to preserve it. Craftsmanship of that caliber is rapidly disappearing.

  • @lawrenceflynn2447
    @lawrenceflynn2447 2 года назад +5

    Hi Ken….because of your informative video on this property I visited it today. It was a beautiful Fall day in New England and this property was very scenic. There was no access to the third floor (servants quarters) and renovations are ongoing but thanks so much! No favorite room - they were all nice.

  • @tomevans9681
    @tomevans9681 2 года назад +3

    I live fifteen minutes from the house. It's a wonderful old mansion and deserves even more TLC. It's set in such a beautiful place.

  • @firecracker3911
    @firecracker3911 2 года назад +10

    Love a veranda!

  • @thedollbabys1073
    @thedollbabys1073 2 года назад +5

    I couldn't leave without adding a very important quote that was said in this mansion circa 2020."YOU DONT TOUCH THE MORGAN LETTERS!" - Sonja Tremont Morgan (owner of the SONJA MORGAN HOME FOR WAYWARD GIRLS and former wife of John Adams Morgan, Great Grandson of J.P. Morgan.

  • @christopherkraft1327
    @christopherkraft1327 2 года назад +15

    It's so nice to see that concerned people stepped in & saved this lovely old mansion, it truly is stunning!!! Thanks for sharing another exciting video!!! 👍👍🎃

  • @ropeburnsrussell
    @ropeburnsrussell 2 года назад +9

    So glad this one was saved.
    I think the main stairs might have been the best feature.

  • @rebeccablakey2637
    @rebeccablakey2637 Год назад

    Such a beautiful home that was built with such amazing details. I absolutely love that older homes because they are so unique. Thankfully this home was saved.

  • @pegasus5287
    @pegasus5287 2 года назад +6

    What a beautiful home. I love those grand wooden staircases, like in Scottish hunting lodges

  • @rikkibrazie8859
    @rikkibrazie8859 2 года назад +1

    This is right behind my Grandma's house. I've never been inside because it was after the roof had caved in. But we played outside of it when I was little.

  • @LJB103
    @LJB103 2 года назад +27

    Lenox, MA was called the inland Newport. While this was not the largest cottage in Lenox (Shadow-Brook was), it was the most elaborate. When I first visited, Ventfort was in total disrepair, and you couldn't even step on the grand staircase: there was trouble when an inspector popped in and caught actors in The Cider House Rules being filmed on the stairs. So much of the house had been dismantled to be sold that the staff joked about it being a jigsaw puzzle (cherry pieces go in the library, mahogany in the billiards room, etc.). At one point, someone in the basement could look up through the dining room - then through a bedroom - then the attic and out through the roof! There were also problems in the original construction: the photo showing the wall of the drawing room and library covered by tarps was because all the bricks on that wall were never attached to the building and it was about to collapse; some of the Jacobean brickwork on the dormers created large ice dams in winter. My favorite things were the gas nightlights set in the bathroom walls: the gas was man made - literally. It was the methane created in the septic system for those bathrooms! The original house was moved across the street before this was built. BTW, in MA we say it as Berk-sheers. Excellent video

    • @grantsimsq8348
      @grantsimsq8348 2 года назад +1

      Wow. Thanks for all that info!

    • @LJB103
      @LJB103 2 года назад +3

      @@grantsimsq8348 You're welcome. I would go out to Lenox once a summer to see this house as it was being renovated (and hear the Boston Symphony down the street at Tanglewood).

    • @j1st633
      @j1st633 2 года назад

      Wonderful detail. Thanks.

    • @tammybeauregard7467
      @tammybeauregard7467 2 года назад

      Thank you for all the info, especially how it is pronounced! It was like nails on a chalkboard hearing how it was pronounced in the video ( no insult to the producers), love their videos and insights.

  • @MsCutiepet
    @MsCutiepet 2 года назад +26

    I’m from the area and we pronounce it burk-sheers

    • @brandyjean7015
      @brandyjean7015 2 года назад +2

      I'm from the West Coast & even I know that pronunciation.

    • @robyndavis3043
      @robyndavis3043 2 года назад

      I’m from NYC, and I also pronounce the “latter”

    • @samanthab1923
      @samanthab1923 2 года назад

      Love that you were the first comment

    • @jenniferzennifer6949
      @jenniferzennifer6949 2 года назад

      I was going to write the same thing lol

    • @NelsonClick
      @NelsonClick 2 года назад +4

      Can you guys just let him get away with this one? I mean, he made this video entirely for free for our education and amusement only. It'd be a grateful gesture on our part. It doesn't cost us anything to do it.

  • @DPK99ATown
    @DPK99ATown 2 года назад +2

    As a Berkshire County resident the way the narrator says Berkshires kills me lol

  • @cathypalus4006
    @cathypalus4006 2 года назад +7

    Thank you for sharing this information.

  • @andysdestination8671
    @andysdestination8671 2 года назад +7

    That mansion is Stunning 😎😎😎🔥🔥🔥

  • @megfuchs9425
    @megfuchs9425 2 года назад +4

    What a critical audience we have today!! Thank you for doing what you do!

  • @lesahenderson7365
    @lesahenderson7365 2 года назад

    I wish that I could express my awe of this beauty❗️Thank you💙💙💙

  • @jaynareynolds3684
    @jaynareynolds3684 2 года назад +3

    So glad to hear this house was saved

  • @cathyreardon8979
    @cathyreardon8979 2 года назад

    So glad this house didn't get demolished. Thank you for this video.

  • @gmdelemeester
    @gmdelemeester 2 года назад +12

    JP Morgan had a great camp in the Adirondacks named Uncas. It’s still there. The neighboring estate Grear Camp Sagamore belonged to Alfred and Margaret Vanderbilt. After Alfred’s tragic death Margaret rented Ventfort Hall while she had a new place built in Lenox. She later bought Uncas from the Morgan family so she could accommodate spillover guests from Sagamore.

    • @samanthab1923
      @samanthab1923 2 года назад

      Thanks for more info. Love those great camps. Saw a doc on A&E years ago. Lovely part of the world

    • @LJB103
      @LJB103 2 года назад

      Sarah Morgan was J Pierpont Morgan's sister. Her husband George Morgan was a 7th cousin

  • @honestmom1958
    @honestmom1958 2 года назад +2

    Another great video! Thank you. So glad this grand house was saved.

  • @bonnehausman2253
    @bonnehausman2253 2 года назад +2

    A friend & employee and I were on buying trip to New York. Before starting home, I asked where would you like to visit? We stopped at Westport, Ct., Salem, Ma., Mystic Seaport, and I remembered the Berkshires, vine covered mansions, Boston Pops, charming area. We saw this mansion. I remember beautiful bronze statues in front and around the grounds! I believe the gardens and maybe tennis courts off to the left. I hope the home does get restored, magnificent structure! We have lost too many to wrecking balls across the country! I do remember tarps on one whole end of the house.

    • @tammybeauregard7467
      @tammybeauregard7467 2 года назад

      Wow! I have been on many buying trips to NYC in the past, all I got to see were Logan Airport in Boston and LaGuardia Marine Airport in NY. You must be an amazing employer! Your stops were all phenomenal choices!

    • @bonnehausman2253
      @bonnehausman2253 2 года назад +1

      @@tammybeauregard7467 hi Tammy. .. I had a very good life for many, many years! I owned 11 businesses over 45 years. Many of my employees became friends or were friends and worked with me, 12-14-16-18 years and one for about 22 years! Always took 1 person on buying trips. When Chicago, Kansas City or Minneapolis, sometimes two. Always someone else's input or someone to bounce ideas off. I was good to everyone, I couldn't have done it all alone! Gave me a good life. One gal worked last of high school and all thru college, knew she would stay on. She had a pen pal in England since 5th grade. Her college graduation gift was a ticket to England to meet her pen pal. My mother got a very rare cancer....I cared for her 11 years! Got her great care at Mayo Clinic in Rochester and MD Anderson in
      Houston. I worked 80 hours a week for all those years, but I was blessed and loved what I did!! It is all gone now. We would be gone to Houston 2 monthes, home 2 weeks, back to Houston 2 monthes, home 2 week's. That went on for 9 years! I would do it all again for my mother. So now, I work a job full time and live week to week like too many people. Now I care for animals!

    • @tammybeauregard7467
      @tammybeauregard7467 2 года назад

      Hi Bonnie, my goodness it sounds like you have had a full life! I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact you sent your employee to England!! Wow!!! You sound like your employee's with great kindness and generosity!!! I wish there were more small business owners would think like you. Even if you were not financially in the position to be extravagantly generous, kindness is free. I am so sorry about your Mom! My Mom had Alzheimer's for more then a decade, I just lost her this past April. I know how devasting it is to see them suffer. I thought I was prepared for her passing, but the sadness is no less. I hope life treats you well, you have earned it!

  • @jimwiskus8862
    @jimwiskus8862 2 года назад +3

    So glad it was saved. Too bad someone didn’t look after it sooner.

  • @heatherjones6647
    @heatherjones6647 2 года назад +9

    I hope the assisted living facility got built, too. Heritage and community needs shouldn't clash.

  • @pmn2821
    @pmn2821 2 года назад +1

    Thank goodness they saved one.

  • @carolechetwynd-bryant534
    @carolechetwynd-bryant534 2 года назад +1

    I would love to know some information about the people who built and maintained - cleaning, ground’s keepers, repairmen, etc. at that time, the unsung heroes who kept these people living happily in these beautiful homes. Seeing all the carpets and furniture to be kept clean I can’t help but wonder how many of them dropped dead on the job.

  • @williamevans9426
    @williamevans9426 Год назад

    I live in Oxford, UK, and visited The Berkshires in 1999, being based in Lenox. Ventford Hall had recently been the exterior location used in the film 'The Cider House Rules'. The building was, at that time, in the very early stages of restoration. When I visited, there were even vestages of paper pulp-based artificial sprayed grass, used by the film production company to disguise the bare earth and mud which, at that time, lay to both sides of the driveway. Lenox and the area immediately surrounding the town still has many 'cottages' that were owned by families with names still familiar to us, such as 'The Mount' (owned by Edith Wharton), 'Naumkeag' (built for lawyer JH Choate), 'Chesterwood' (owned by sculptor Daniel Chester French), Elm Court (formerly a Vanderbilt property), a restored 'Bellefontaine' (original owner: Giraud Foster), 'Ethelwynde' (built for Cunard heir, Henri Braem), 'Spring Lawn', 'Blantyre', 'Groton Place', 'Kemble Inn' (originally 'Frehlinghuysen Cottage'), 'Spring Lawn', and 'Clipstone Grange', among others!

  • @bradyjcunningham
    @bradyjcunningham 2 года назад

    I stumbled upon this beauty this summer on a weekend when the museum was closed. 🥺

  • @jefflawrentz1624
    @jefflawrentz1624 2 года назад +1

    I’m glad to learn about this house. I’d like to visit .

  • @StamperWendy
    @StamperWendy 2 года назад +1

    I'm glad they saved it...

  • @lawrenceflynn2447
    @lawrenceflynn2447 2 года назад

    Thanks Ken……very interesting as always!

  • @janetcarey6954
    @janetcarey6954 2 года назад

    This was the former home of a cousin of mine (generations removed) on my Mother's side who was a Morgan.

  • @andrewaway
    @andrewaway 2 года назад

    Hi Ken,
    This is fascinating. Thank you. I’m so glad it survived.

  • @MsShabriaGxo
    @MsShabriaGxo 2 года назад

    What a beautiful house! 😍

  • @christ6012
    @christ6012 2 года назад

    Thank you for a lovely presentation of the history of this mansion. I applaud your efforts. With regard to your pronunciation, I think we all understood what you were referring to. The abrupt and sometimes caustic corrections are unacceptable. Please readers, have kindness. Isn't there enough anger and criticism around today?

  • @jeff_costello
    @jeff_costello 5 месяцев назад

    The cider house rules❤

  • @QueenBee-gx4rp
    @QueenBee-gx4rp 2 года назад +4

    Now the furniture is arranged in front of the large TV…..

  • @bludeetu321
    @bludeetu321 Год назад

    Spotted an interesting entry in Wikipedia regarding a hobo nicknamed 'the Leatherman.' He lived in a series of caves in Connecticut. Don't know if caves count as houses, but it might be fun to do a deep dive....

  • @GetReady4LiftOff
    @GetReady4LiftOff 2 года назад +4

    ppl be turning over, over in graves if torn down.

  • @ediebeale5773
    @ediebeale5773 2 года назад

    We pronounce it..Berk sheas.. 🤪. Love your channel. 👍

  • @KarenRose70
    @KarenRose70 2 года назад

    This house reminds me of Rutherford B Hayes house.

  • @samanthab1923
    @samanthab1923 2 года назад +3

    Showed it on Real Housewives of NY. Sonja Morgan flipped out a bit lol

  • @gailkusek8546
    @gailkusek8546 2 года назад +1

    Sarah's money was inherited from her father, Junius. 3 million dollars for her and 3 million for her sisters. JP got the rest.
    Each floor has a full fire hydrant in the back stairs and the first floor had an alarm system on all the windows. The house was built with gas fixtures, but was also wired as they new Westinghouse was building a generator for Lenox. It just needed to be hooked up when ready. The bathroom shown is on the second floor.
    Sarah only lived there for a short time, she died in Germany a few years after being built. George remarried another woman named Sarah Learnard. George and Sarah Morgan were 6th and 7th cousins. Meaning you have to go back 6 generations on George's side and 7 generations on Sarah's side to find a common ancestor.

  • @EastOrlandoFlorida
    @EastOrlandoFlorida 2 года назад

    Whatever you do, do not touch the Morgan letters (RHONY) 🤣

  • @francinebarr1204
    @francinebarr1204 2 года назад

    Cool ❤

  • @kristinbrown2270
    @kristinbrown2270 2 года назад

    I would venture the greenhouses were for production and propagation for gardens both vegetable and flowers . That photo almost appears as if there were espelliered trees ? Thank you for sharing this as it isn't too far from Rhode Island here. I would love to do more research and plan a trip!

  • @Tiersmoke92555
    @Tiersmoke92555 2 года назад

    100k!!!

  • @rubychew6535
    @rubychew6535 2 года назад +2

    I understand why rich don't marry poor. This is the way they sustain their wealth.

  • @ShirleeKnott
    @ShirleeKnott 2 года назад +3

    this comment for the algorithm so close to 100K.....

  • @baystated
    @baystated 2 года назад +2

    Berk shurz.

  • @PLuMUK54
    @PLuMUK54 2 года назад +3

    I really enjoy watching these videos, but your pronunciation of Jacobean grates to my English ears. Here we pronounce it Ja-co-be-an.

  • @mom_im_losing_it
    @mom_im_losing_it Год назад

    Why is Milwaukee being left out. The city is nearly original.

  • @74sampson
    @74sampson 2 года назад

    I rent.

  • @michaelserviss9278
    @michaelserviss9278 2 года назад

    J.P. Morgan died in 1913 not 1911.

    • @crazynamehere6701
      @crazynamehere6701 2 года назад

      I don't think any part of the video spoke of j p morgans death.
      George Morgan died in 1911.

    • @michaelserviss9278
      @michaelserviss9278 2 года назад

      @@crazynamehere6701 No. He died in1913. Right after the Titanic sinking in 1912.

    • @crazynamehere6701
      @crazynamehere6701 2 года назад

      @@michaelserviss9278 Once again. You are thinking about J P MORGAN. This video is talking about GEORGE MORGAN.

  • @reginageorge8080
    @reginageorge8080 9 месяцев назад

    YOU DONT TOUCH THE MORGAN LETTERS!!!

  • @SamBanasProductions
    @SamBanasProductions 2 года назад

    Pronounce Berkshires like “Berkshears” in the future.

  • @echocheck
    @echocheck 2 года назад

    Please pronounce Jacobean correctly. It is pronounced jacko BEE un.

  • @Froehlich1991
    @Froehlich1991 Год назад

    Completly diffrent and not so beautiful like the other mansions from Vanderbilt or Carnegie etc.
    It looks like the Mansions in Manhatten are older then we thought

  • @amandab.recondwith8006
    @amandab.recondwith8006 2 года назад

    Not damASK. It's DAMusk

    • @crazynamehere6701
      @crazynamehere6701 2 года назад +2

      i have literally NEVER heard anyone pronounce it DAMusk.

    • @pegasus5287
      @pegasus5287 2 года назад

      @@crazynamehere6701 I think it is a regional pronunciation

  • @amandab.recondwith8006
    @amandab.recondwith8006 2 года назад

    You pronounce Jacobean wrong. It's not JacObean. It's JacoBEEan. Correct your grammer!

    • @crazynamehere6701
      @crazynamehere6701 2 года назад +8

      grammar*
      When correcting someone you may want to make sure you have no errors yourself.

    • @sharksport01
      @sharksport01 2 года назад

      @@crazynamehere6701
      When correcting someone, ....
      😉

  • @robyndavis3043
    @robyndavis3043 2 года назад +1

    Dude-Mr. Narrator!, learn to pronounce the names of locations CORRECTLY!!!!

  • @scrapiron1952
    @scrapiron1952 2 года назад

    Now, that's a Cottage.🤔😏🇺🇸

  • @maxbear215
    @maxbear215 2 года назад

    Berkshire is pronounced like "berk sheer". Yes, I'm a native and that is the correct pronunciation.