The History of Maplewood

1812 – During the War of 1812, The U.S. Government bought The Maplewood land and established a Civil War Military Site. The camp was used as a base for troops and eventually as a military prison for captured enemy troops and supporters.

1826 – The government sold the land at auction for $760 to Lemuel Pomeroy, whose son-in-law, Professor Chester Dewey, established a boys’ prep school called the Berkshire Gymnasium. The school was associated with Williams College. Mark Hopkins taught at the Berkshire Gymnasium and later became the President of Williams College.

1826 – During this transitional time when the grounds were taken from military camp to collegiate campus, grand landscaping was planted to beautify the property. A four-acre garden complete with fountains and columns graced the grounds. Military barracks were torn down and replaced with glorious brick buildings in the architecture of the time.

1832 – N.S. Dodge purchased the site and started a boarding school for girls. The school was closed after a fire and remained closed until the next decade.

1841 – Reverend William [Wellington] Hart Tyler leased and later purchased the property. He established one of the countries first “Higher Education Schools in the Country” the Pittsfield Young Ladies Institute, later to become the Maplewood Institute. The school attracted young women of prominence from throughout the nation. Local students, from Pittsfield and surrounding towns, received reduced tuition consideration so that the school and its educational advantages would remain a viable option.

1851 – Under Tyler’s leadership, many buildings were added to the campus and the landscaping was dramatically improved. The 1793 Bulfinch Church was moved from its home on Park Square to The Maplewood grounds.

1854 – Tyler sold the school to his partner, J.H. Agnew. Agnew sold it to faculty member Reverend Charles Spear shortly thereafter. Spear established an extensive music program at the school. The music program was later moved to Northampton, and is the basis for the Music program at Smith College.

1887 – Typhoid fever and a declining national economic climate throughout the 1870s began the school’s own decline. Reverend Spear gave the school property to Oberlin College in Ohio, whereupon The Maplewood lied vacant and ready for its next journey.

1887 – Arthur Plumb, while working for his uncle at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, opened The Maplewood as a successful Berkshire resort. Plumb’s vision was executed until his death in the 1930s.

He added a new stable and livery behind the original institute buildings, which were converted to hotel guest space. A billiard room, bowling alley, tennis courts, and croquet grounds and symphony pipe organ, all for the entertainment of and for use by Maplewood guests were added. The Bulfinch Church was used as the hotel’s elegant ballroom. The local community used The Maplewood services and facilities for banquets and other functions.

1936 - The Berkshire County Savings Bank purchased the building in a bankruptcy auction following the death of Arthur Plumb. Just one building of all the original buildings was salvaged when the bank began to subdivide and develop the land.

1939 - The bank had solicited organizations with the ability to preserve the Bulfinch church building for which to donate the structure. No offers were made until a Berkshire weekender, Mrs. Elizabeth Miller, purchased the property, in efforts to establish a base for her religion, the New Thought Movement, but that project was never able to get off the ground. Miller sold the North Street frontage to a Hartford, CT development firm. Much of the rest of the property was subdivided and redeveloped.

1940 – During redevelopment, the ionic Columns were preserved by Eugene Bowen, an old alumnus (class of 1876) of Tufts University. He donated the columns to Tufts University during the razing of the old Maplewood Hotel. These columns were used at Tufts in the construction of as of part of the Library Porch. The “Bowen Porch” was dedicated on October 28th 1939. The elegant fountains from the gardens were melted down and used as scrap metal for the war effort.