The Berkshires · Central Berkshires

Lenox

Tanglewood’s summer home, Edith Wharton’s Mount, and a fine-dining-and-Gilded-Age-mansion walkable downtown.

Lenox is the Berkshires town the Boston Symphony built around — Tanglewood's summer programming runs from late June through early September and reshapes the entire economy of the area for those months. The town itself, though, runs year-round on the strength of its restaurant scene, the Edith Wharton estate (The Mount) just outside the village, and the cluster of Gilded Age cottages that became inns and spas. Walking the village from Church Street through the small commercial blocks gives you the cleanest version of New England-resort-town presentation. Adults 21+ on a Lenox weekend get Tanglewood lawn evenings (no consumption; the lawn is public-event property), pre-Tanglewood dinners at the chefs the town has attracted, and a licensed-retail footprint along the Pittsfield-Lenox corridor.