Price$499,000
Est. Mortgage: $/month
MLS Number 218957
- Single Family
- Year Built 1842
- Bedrooms 3
- Bathroom 3
- Total Full Baths 1
Historic treasure designed by a master carpenter who transformed an existing school (circa 1842) into a Scandinavian-style, warm and inviting home. The property has 3 bedrooms, 2.5baths, a loft, library, foyer, kitchen and spacious living room. Features include built-in cabinetry; radiant heat in the slate flooring; wood floors & ceilings in the Loft; insulated doors and windows; solar panels; copper counter-tops in the modernized kitchen and much more. A short drive to The Clark Art Institute, Williams College, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts or The Williamstown Summer Theater Festival. Other exciting venues include the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra known as Tanglewood in Lenox MA. For Dance enthusiasts visit Jacobs Pillow in the Berkshires. Hiking, snow skiing, and nature activities communing with the outdoors and all the Berkshires offer makes living in Western Massachusetts delightful!
OWNER HISTORY PROVIDED: Welcoming you to travel through history as your enter 2325 Hancock Road.... In 1997, we made the decision to expand our building and design business. We needed a location that was easily visible and easily accessible for lumber truck deliveries. Shortly after this decision, this wee house had a For Sale sign on it. Because of our was still in elementary school, it seemed like kismet. We bought it immediately. Realizing how difficult it is to design for yourselves, we took our backgrounds and passions to create an "imaginary" client for ourselves. So, the owners became a Finnish explorer (born on the Russian border) and his Scottish, artist wife. We also love utilitarian buildings, particularly late 19th century carriage barns. The vision was born! The house would be a converted carriage barn and tack shop for the Berkshires, summer home of our clients.
The main house has the ambiance of a Scandinavian/Russian "dacha". And, how we laughed when we realized these clients were, of course, close friends of the Russian painter, Marc Chagall---hence the "Chagall" range hood. Our daughter took a studio course in college that focused on copying old masters. She is our "Chagall."
When the original house was gutted, it was apparent that it had once been a one room school house. I went to the Registry of Deeds and found that it was Hancock School No. 4 and built in 1842. We also learned from a local historian, that it had also served as a stage coach stop and tavern. This explained the layers of "treasures" we found while excavating. Form the 1950's "Bubble Up" soda bottles to dozens of horseshoes in various sizes and old liquor/medicine bottles to thick, glass inkwells and iron toys.
Of course, our imaginary clients would want to preserve as much of this history as possible.
When it came to the 2nd floor, we decided to have the house "time-travel", as though the original owners had handed down the property to children and grandchildren. Most old homes have this evolution. So, we kept the utilitarian doors of the tack shop and surrounded them with glass to access light and views.
The story of this house is a time continuum of a circa 1900's "dacha" to an 1880's Library to an 1842 tack shop and a millennium studio and office. All with the loving touch of the Finn and the Scotswoman. Lynn and Ed.
Immaculately maintained and well loved. This gorgeous home in Hancock offers the lowest property taxes in the Berkshires. Once upon a time it was a local school house. Now with additions tastefully added the home offers both the rustic ambience and the modern conveniences you have come to expect in the Berkshires.
Courtesy of HARSCH ASSOCIATES
