His Studios

Sherwood Building

Fernbrook

Fernbrook was located in Lenox, Massachusetts. The estate comprised more than three hundred acres of farm and forest land on Yokun Mountain. The cottage was built between 1902 (when the land was purchased) and 1904.The name was taken from a brook that ran through the land.

The house was designed by Wilson Wyre. A description taken from the excellent book "The Berkshire Cottages-A Vanishing Era," by Carole Owens writes: "According to Mr. Clarke's wishes, Fernbrook was rustic. Steps were rough-hewn stone leading from the patio to the terrace, the grounds were left wild rather than cleared for parks and informal gardens. Inside the walls were of oak and the hardwood floors were stained dark. Walls were covered with tapestries and a collection of ancient arms. Where more conventional cottages were divided into rooms, at Fernbrook, an informal central hall doubled as the main living room in the old English style."

Fernbrook was his summer home. He occupied it from May til October. There were six fireplaces, two made of fieldstone. The house itself was of stucco with a red tile roof, in its' Gothic Tyrolean villa architecture. There was one enclosed porch on the north side, and another on the south side. His studio occupied the northeast wing. It was 30x42 feet (9x13 meters) and designed as a replica of a room in an ancient Sicilian monastery in Ragusa, Sicily. It had a large fireplace and a balcony built to allow visitors to watch Mr. Clarke work.

Other rooms on the main floor were a washroom (off of the central hall); a library featuring a Tudor ceiling with a large bronze candelabra, and a fireplace of Moravian and Welsh tile; a dining room of quartered oak; and the kitchen. Walls on the second floor were covered with lunacresta, a combination of cloth and paper material. One of the master bedrooms had a parquet floor and a fireplace with a mantel of Carrara marble. There were seven bedrooms and three bathrooms. And the third floor consisted of six bedrooms and two baths.

He had a greenhouse and garage on the estate. He employed a gardener, and others to care for the cottage and property.

I had an email exchange with the grandson of his gardener. That was a thrill for me. He sent me a copy of a letter of reference that Mr. Clarke wrote for his grandfather highly complimenting the service he gave while employed by him.

After Mr. Clarke's death, Fernbrook was sold. Dr. Metz bought the property in 1922 for a summer home, it was a 400-acre property. Then, in 1956, Mrs. Florence S. Davis of New York City bought it for about $30,000. In the late 1950's Mrs. Doris Barden bought the cottage and converted it into an inn, "High Point Art Gallery and Inn", through the 1960's. By the 1970's it was purchased by the Avalon School, later becoming Hillcrest Educational Center, Inc., which is still its' current occupant. The school is a residential school for students with behavioral problems.

More images of Fernbrook, taken by TSC himself in 1910, are available at the following link. Many thanks to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' Manager of Imaging Services, Barbara Katus. HERE.