Mission House (Stockbridge, Massachusetts) facts for kids
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Mission House
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U.S. Historic district
Contributing property |
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 Location in Massachusetts
Location in the United States
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| Location | Stockbridge, Massachusetts |
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| Built | c. 1742 |
| Architect | John Sergeant |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| Part of | Main Street Historic District |
| NRHP reference No. | 68000038 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | November 24, 1968 |
| Designated NHL | November 24, 1968 |
| Designated CP | January 17, 2002 |
The Mission House is a very old house in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was built around 1741-1742 by John Sergeant. He was a Christian missionary who worked with the local Mahican people.
This house is a special place called a National Historic Landmark. It got this title in 1968 because it's one of the few mission houses left from colonial times. Today, the Trustees of Reservations own and run it as a museum. You can visit it to learn about its history!
The town of Stockbridge started in the late 1730s. It was a community for the Mahican people and missionaries. John Sergeant began his work there in 1735. His first house is gone, but this house was built after he got married in 1739. It was in the part of town where the English settlers lived. The Sergeant family lived in this house until the 1870s. It survived many changes in the late 1800s.
In the 1920s, a woman named Mabel Choate bought the house. She owned the nearby Naumkeag estate. She moved the Mission House to its current spot in the valley. Mabel Choate and a garden designer named Fletcher Steele fixed up the house. They filled it with furniture from the 1700s. They also designed gardens that looked like colonial gardens. Choate opened the house as a museum in 1930. Later, she gave it to the Trustees of Reservations. They still run it as a museum today.
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The Mahican People and the Mission
Before European settlers arrived, the area of southern Berkshire County, Massachusetts was home to the Mahican people. Their communities changed over time due to wars and diseases. By the 1720s, they had sold most of their land. They lived peacefully on two pieces of land near the Housatonic River.
In the late 1720s, British missionary groups became interested in the Mahicans. They wanted to teach them about Christianity. This was also to prevent influence from the French, who were Catholic. The governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Jonathan Belcher, helped with this effort. In 1730, he suggested creating a town on Mahican land for a mission. Money was set aside for this in 1733.
In 1734, people from Northampton organized the mission. John Sergeant, a new graduate from Yale College, agreed to lead it. He spent time with the Mahicans that fall. After talks with Governor Belcher and Mahican leaders, a mission was started in 1735. Sergeant became a minister there. He moved to the Mahican lands and began preaching and baptizing people.
In 1736, the Mahicans were given a six-square-mile area of land. This area became the town of Stockbridge in 1739. The plan included land for the minister and schoolteacher. Four English families also settled there. They were meant to show a Christian way of life to the Mahicans. John Sergeant built a simple house in the town. The Mahican village grew around this area, which had a meeting house for church and school.
The House's Journey Through Time
In 1739, John Sergeant married Abigail Williams. She was 17 and the daughter of an English colonist in Stockbridge. Abigail wanted to live outside the village. So, Sergeant had this new house built on Prospect Hill. It overlooked the village. We don't know the exact year it was built, but it was finished by 1742.
The Sergeants lived there until John died in 1749. Abigail remarried and moved out for a while. But the house stayed in the family. She returned later and lived there with her son's family until she died in 1791. Another minister, Jonathan Edwards, took over Sergeant's work. He lived in Sergeant's first house, which is no longer standing.
Sergeant's second house stayed with his family until 1879. Then, David Dudley Field, Jr., a lawyer from New York City, bought it. He owned a large property and built a big summer house. He rented the Mission House to friends for several summers. Over time, the house fell apart. In the 1920s, Mabel Choate saved it. She wanted to make it a museum to honor her parents.
Around 1926, Mabel Choate bought the Mission House. The house was taken apart, and each piece was carefully numbered. In 1927, she bought the land at 19 Main Street, where the house is now. This spot used to be where the Stockbridge Casino stood. She sold the casino building, and it was moved to a new location. It is now home to the Berkshire Theatre Festival. In 1928, the Mission House was rebuilt at its current spot. Fletcher Steele, a landscape designer, helped guide the work. The land where the house first stood is now the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.
The gardens were designed by Fletcher Steele between 1928 and 1932. He also did a lot of work on the gardens at Naumkeag. Mabel Choate furnished the house with items from the 1700s. It opened as a museum in 1930. She gave the house and land to the Trustees of Reservations in 1948. She also gave them some of her collections.
One special item Mabel Choate gave to the museum was a two-volume Bible. It had been given to the Mahicans in 1745. In the 1930s, Choate convinced the elders of the Stockbridge-Munsee tribe (the Mahicans' descendants) to sell her the Bible for the museum. Some tribe members were unhappy with the sale later. The tribe lost track of the Bible until members saw it in the museum in 1975. After discussions, the Trustees of Reservations returned the Bible to the tribe in 1991.
The House and Its Gardens
The Mission House sits on a property about 0.4 acres in size. The house has a common design from the Georgian period. It has a central hallway with rooms on either side. To the left is a parlor, and to the right is the kitchen. A stairway in the hall leads to the second floor. Behind the parlor is an office where Sergeant would meet with the Mahican people.
One unique part of the house is a second entrance on the right side. A narrow hallway leads from this entrance to the office. This allowed Sergeant's Mahican visitors to go directly to his office without walking through the main part of the house. The front door has a beautiful, well-preserved pediment (a triangular decoration above the door).
The property also has several smaller buildings. These were mostly built during the restoration. A small, one-room building in the southwest corner is now a visitor center. Behind the house is a long, one-story building. It holds museum exhibits, storage, and utility areas. A 25-foot grape arbor connects it to the main house. To the northeast, there's a large barn-like building. It has space for events and an apartment for a caretaker.
Fletcher Steele designed the gardens and outbuildings to look like a colonial garden. He got ideas from George Washington's estate at Mount Vernon. He wanted the property to show "a hundred forms of industry." There are rows of vegetables, fruit trees, and bushes. Flowers are planted for beauty. There are also spaces for outdoor work like chopping wood or making butter. Steele designed the outbuildings to give the homeowners a private space.
The Mission House was named a National Historic Landmark in 1968. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside, you can see furniture and art from the 1700s. The museum is open to the public on summer weekends or by appointment.
See also
