A Modernist Bed and Breakfast in Williamstown
Posted by: Dan Shaw
Posted on: Thursday, July 31, 2008
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When a top-notch innkeeper rhapsodizes about a bed-and-breakfast other than his own, you pay attention. Ira Goldspiel, a design aficionado who runs the Inn at Kent Falls, recently stayed at the Guest House at Field Farm in Williamstown and he raved about experiencing authentic 1940s modernist architecture and decor in a bucolic Berkshires setting. Owned by the Trustees of Reservations, the oldest land trust in the United States, the inn was originally designed and built right after World War II as a house for Lawrence Bloedel, the onetime Williams College librarian, and his wife, Eleanor Palmedo Bloedel, who would become important art collectors and bequeath their collection to the Williams College and Whitney museums. (The Whitney received more than sixty works, including important canvases by Milton Avery, William Baziotes, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Fairfield Porter.)
“They asked Frank Lloyd Wright to build the house but he wanted to do the furniture too and Mr. Bloedel’s hobby was building furniture so they hired Edwin Goodell instead,“ says innkeeper Ole Retlev. The International Style house (which looks like something you might find in a Sao Paulo suburb) was turned into a bed and breakfast twenty years ago, and Retlev is vigilant about maintaining its integrity. “When we redid the kitchen floor, we used real linoleum,“ he says, pointing out an Eames chair and Vladimir Kagan sofa that are original to the house as well as the bookshelves that Mr. Bloedel built himself. “All the colors of the walls are original. When we need to repaint, we call the hardware store in Pownell, Vermont, and they mix it for us.“
The Guest House at Field Farm attracts people who are uncomfortable at classic bed and breakfasts. “If I see another teddy bear or dried flower arrangement I’ll kill myself,“ says Retlev. While the inn has an established summer clientele drawn to the Berkshires by Tanglewood, Jacob’s Pillow and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, a new wave of visitors descend during the winter. “They’re almost exclusively young couples who want to see Mass MoCA,“ says Retlev. “Many of them have hairstyles like you’ve never seen before and rings and piercings in places you’d never imagine.“
Field Farm also has an award-winning architectural folly (right) designed in 1966 by Ulrich Franzen that is a shingled pastiche that references Victorian architecture, silos and propellers. It is open by appointment only. But the rest of the 316-acre property, which is a mini sculpture park (with pieces lent back to the property by Williams) is open free all year long for hikes, picnics and cross country skiing. The inn’s de facto gift shop is a short walk up the road. “I send everyone who comes here to visit Amy and Jason at Cricket Creek Farm before they leave,“ says Retlev. “So everyone stocks up on the most wonderful cheese before driving home.“
The Guest House at Field Farm
Williamstown, MA; 413.458.3155
