History |
A Brief History of the Lenox Club
A private club with both resident and non-resident memberships devoted primarily to providing a family atmosphere of gracious gentility.
The Lenox Club was founded in 1864 and later incorporated as a Reading Club (for gentlemen) in 1874. The original clubhouse, with a smaller cottage, was located in the center of the village where the Lenox Community Center now stands and served as a gentlemen’s club in the country similar to those in the city. The Club had a felicitous reputation among the so-called ‘Cottagers’ who owned large estates in the area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Later in the century to increase the popularity of the original club a nine-hole private golf course on the western edge of Lenox belonging to Dr. John C. Greenleaf was leased for use of the members.
The Greenleaf house
(the present clubhouse) was built probably some time in the 1860s and
the Music Room (the main dining room) added in
the 1880s. In 1914, upon Dr. Greenleaf’s death the house, outbuildings
golf course and the entire ninety acres was purchased by the Club.
When the gentlemen found themselves the owners of a rather large house
needing a woman’s touch for furnishing and decorating, it was
decided to open the membership to ladies (a move very advanced for
its time) and thus the ‘Ladies Parlor’ and the ‘Gentlemen’s
Library’ came into being. In 1924 the nine hole golf course was
expanded to eighteen holes and the ‘Lenox Golf Club’ was
formed in association with the Aspinwall and Curtis Hotels both of
which used the course for their guests.
The arrangement lasted until 1932 when the Aspinwall Hotel burned. This event and the difficult financial situation caused by the Great Depression led to abandonment of the golf course which gradually became replaced by a heavily wooded forest. For the next several decades the Club was maintained as a summer residence and clubhouse, also serving the traditional Thursday night buffets and Sunday brunch for the members, primarily during the Tanglewood season
Very active interest in the Club was revived and major improvements to the clubhouse and grounds were initiated in the 1980s. Later the building was brought up to the standard of the Massachusetts Building Code. Two tennis courts and two croquet courts (for the use of the Lenox Croquet Club) were added on the lower lawn in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The house has nine bedrooms, most of them quite spacious, five with private baths, available to members and their guests during the summer months. During the winter, six rooms are open. The Club, with its gracious Music Room lovely veranda and capacious lawns, is a very popular venue for weddings and receptions. Cocktail parties, private dinners and similar functions are welcomed also through member sponsorship.
The Club’s most traditional and enduring activity is the Thursday evening (‘cook’s night out’[) buffet dinner which has been held without interruption since 1914. Sunday brunch is also served. During the months of July and August luncheon is available on the veranda Tuesday through Saturday and for the Tanglewood season pre-concert dinners are served Friday and Saturday. Festive balls are held three to four times a year and very popular family-oriented picnics are enjoyed in the summer months.
