Naumkeag — Attraction in Stockbridge

Just wow. $15 pp entrance fee, paid $60 for my family to attend, what I had hoped would be a fantastic experience. First let me say that we were parked in the middle of a field by attendants working the grounds for the event, but more on that later. $60 entrance fee, no real rhyme or reason to the entrance, people walking up every which way just getting in line where they pleased, saw several people just walk on by the ticket center without even paying because you weren’t given a receipt, or wristband, or even a ticket stub to let anyone know you had actually paid the exorbitant fee to be there.

Second, there were a lot of people, I mean a lot, we felt consistently rushed to just move on, despite having just paid the million dollars we paid to get in, which meant we couldn’t really take our time to really enjoy what we were looking at because of the outrageous flood of people, it seems if there were timed entrances of some sort there maybe wouldn’t have been as much of a “get on with it” atmosphere.

Third, the majority of the pumpkins were styrofoam. That really should have been disclosed somewhere in the description of the event, and should be reflected in the price. And to say you had “thousands” of pumpkins was stretching it. The majority of those pumpkins were not only fake, but tiny and barely visible in the dark. That being said, they WERE carved nicely, despite being fake.

Fourth, it was much shorter than anticipated, I figured for $15 pp we would have at least gotten a couple hours worth of entertainment, with the rush of people just trying to get on to the next thing it was 30-35 minutes, if we were lucky. The hike up to the house from the swamp we had to park in almost took longer than that. There were small shuttles if you wanted to wait a half an hour for them to come and go. Oh! Not to mention the ONE porta potty. That was out of order. You could go ahead and use the bathroom up in the house though. If you felt like another hike.

Five, back to the swamp. Sorry, I mean parking lot. We had to park in a giant field full of large sticks and roots popping out every which way, my kids tripped more often trying to make it to the road than I’ve ever seen. By the time we made it through the display and back to the parking lot things had gone south fast. And by south, I mean my car was sunk four inches into the mud. Everyone’s cars were just sunk. The ground had gone soft and our tires were so depressed and stuck in the mud, we couldn’t get traction no matter how hard we tried. That’s when we saw the skid steer. Towing another car out. And then coming back to tow another car out. Yup. We had to be towed out too, and so did probably half the field by the time they were done. I assure you if my car sustained damage Naumkeag will be hearing from me with a court date. Absolutely absurd!!! I was so aggravated by the time we made it back to driveable terrain I couldn’t see straight.

To wrap it up, not worth the time, money, or aggravation. And I hope you have four wheel drive, because if you don’t you’ll be waiting awhile for that one skid steer to come and...

garden #15 28AUG2025 Naumkeag is both a house and gardens, this review is of the gardens. the driveway leads to the front court, where TOR greets visitors and provides directions - the driveway continues past and left around the side of the house. its one-way, but pedestrian walkway also, so slowly down the hill to the sharp left turn at the yucca bank and another right into the gravel parking lot at the bottom of the hill. my rating is the average of four characteristics: A-Scale: 5. many different gardens, each with its own individual character. nearly all of them have splendid vistas, both distant and immediate. B- Art: 5. the blue staircase is a celebrity for good cause, it has its own lighting. the other gardens and lawns are also delightful - particularly liked the allee and the afternoon garden - each on either end of the house acting as a bridge to other garden rooms. the top lawn and the terraced lawn beneath it have a terrific view of monument mountain with sheep grazing in the field below the orchards...mighty pastoral. the chinese garden seems to me to be nearly as much architecture as it is a garden, pleasing nonetheless. C- Unique Specimens/Collections: 4. tree peonys, magnolia, dawn redwood, etc. mature, well-tended plantings. D- Labels/information: 3. a few trees had dog-tag labels & the cutting garden was labelled, nothing else. but the visitor map had some good information i'd have otherwise...

The Trustees is mainly there to preserve and protect precious land in MA, but as a side hustle it acquires and operates estates of the last century's one percent, now long dead, whose descendants realized they can't sell the thing nor afford to maintain it. Naumkeag is one of them. The gaudy and ostentatious castle and grounds of a rich lawyer who lived a long time ago sit awkwardly on the side of a hill, with very nice views of a cow pasture below, and low mountains beyond. When pondering the messianic porcelain plate collection, I couldn't help but wonder if something better can be done with the space. Yet I can't seem to know what it might be, and neither does the Trustees. Instead, they focus on planting fabulous tulips for their annual festival on location (don't come in May; it's too late and the flowers are done). Walking past the faux Chinese pagoda and garden, I noticed that the Trustees, like me, had wondered, why is this pagoda here and what is its purpose? So instead, it put a strange looking display of pink paper butterflies on everything. Down below, a formal garden with a pool sports white balloons that look like they got left over from a wedding last night. Not very cohesive or quite put together, but like the rest of the place, it's very Instagram worthy, and...