National Register of Historic Places

Lenox Academy

Lenox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts
Listed
September 29, 1982
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
82001895

About this property

Lenox Academy is a historic school building at 65 Main Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. Built in 1802-03 as a private academy, it was the first secondary school to open in Berkshire County. It was subsequently used as the town's high school, and now houses offices. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The former Lenox Academy building stands on the western edge of the commercial center of Lenox, on the west side of Main Street between Sunset and Cliffwood Streets. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, with a hip roof and clapboarded exterior. The hip roof is truncated and topped at the center by a two-stage belfry. The main facade is five bays wide, with sash windows in the outer bays. The center bay has the main entrance on the ground floor, flanked by wide sidelight windows, with pilasters between windows and door, and on the outside of the entry surround. The pilasters rise to an entablature and projecting cornice with a gable peak at the center. Above the entrance is a Palladian window, its side windows also articulated by pilasters and crowned by a corniced entablature. The Federal style building was constructed in 1803 and the school incorporated the same year. The structure house a private academy until 1866. It served as the town's public high school from 1869 to 1879, at which time it was closed for repairs and renovations. In 1888 it again began to serve as the high school, a role it fulfilled until 1908. A private school, the Trinity School, used the property from 1911 until the 1920s, when that school failed. The building then sat vacant and deteriorated, until the defunct academy, under threat of demolition, was turned over to the town for preservation. It now serves as an office building for local civic groups. William H. Dillingham, Pennsylvania state politician and lawyer National Register of Historic Places listings in Berkshire County, Massachusetts

Location

75 Main St.
Lenox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts
42.35902, -73.28427

Categories

EDUCATIONARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Lenox Library
Industrial
0.1 mi
Lenox High School
Industrial
0.2 mi
Trinity Episcopal Church
Industrial
0.3 mi
Church on the Hill
Industrial
0.3 mi
Ventfort Hall
Listed
0.5 mi

Questions about this property

When was Lenox Academy listed on the National Register?

Lenox Academy was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 29, 1982.

What type of historic resource is Lenox Academy?

Lenox Academy is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Lenox Academy?

The period of significance for Lenox Academy is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Lenox Academy?

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