Chesterwood (Massachusetts)

Chesterwood is the former summer estate and studio of the American sculptor Daniel Chester French, at 4 Williamsville Road in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. French bought the 150 acre farm from Marshall Warner in 1896, and the architect Henry Bacon designed both French's studio, built soon after, and the Georgian Revival house that replaced the farmhouse, completed in 1901; Bacon also designed a reception room fountain for the garden. The studio has doors thirty feet high on its west side and a peaked, north facing skylight, and outdoor tracks let French roll finished sculptures outside to view them in natural daylight. After French's death in 1931 the property passed to his daughter, Margaret French Cresson, and it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The National Trust for Historic Preservation now owns and operates most of the 129 acre estate as a museum and sculpture garden, open to visitors from late May through mid October.