The Gilded Age kitchen and pantry of Elm Court has been updated but retains all of its original character.

At the time of this post Elm Court, a gilded age mansion in the Berkshires, is for sale for $12.5 million. This shingle style mansion was designed by Peabody & Stearns and built in 1885 for Emily Thorn Vanderbilt Sloane White and her husband at that time William D. Sloane (he died in 1915 and she remarried, to Henry White, in 1920).

Elm Court was built as a seasonal summer house and its primary purpose at the time was so its owners could host lavish house parties.

“As usual, Mrs. Henry White, then whom there is no more exclusive hostess in New York, is among the particularly active matrons in Lenox life. This month and next she is having her customary week-end house parties at Elm Court. Meanwhile, Mrs. White’s annual musicale, at which Ruth Deyo appeared before some two hundred guests, was an outstanding event at this hospitable country home in the Berkshires,” excerpted from The Spur, Volume 32, 1923.

During the first World War, Elm Court contributed to the war effort by turning part of the estate grounds to farming according to an article in Country life from 1918 (page 54).

In 1919 Elm Court was the site of meetings (with ambassador Henry White, Emily’s soon to be husband that she married in 1920) that resulted in the eventual League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles.

Emily survived her second husband and died in 1946 at Elm Court. Elm Court became an Inn in 1948 and then closed in 1957. Its namesake elm tree died in the 1960’s.

The house remained empty and shut up until 1998 or 1999 when a renovation and restoration undertaken by descendants Robert and Sonya Berle began. In 2012 the property, in the same family for over one hundred years, was sold and no longer in the family. It is now again for sale.

Elm Court pantry and kitchen

Pictures of the pantry and kitchen below via and more information available through Berkshire Property Agents.

Bob Vila worked some family descendants to update the house and gave a tour of pantry

And a tour of more of the house:

Elm Court has a unique history and a wonderful gilded age pantry and kitchen now restored for modern use. Hopefully it finds itself in good hands for the next one hundred years.

For more information contact Berkshire Property agents.