Historic 18th-Century Inn with Candlelit Restaurant

The Old Inn on the Green, with its whitewashed clapboard façade and front porches overlooking sweeping meadows, was named one of New England's Best Historic Inns by Yankee Magazine in 2011. Once a stagecoach relay, the main building has occupied its quiet spot in the Berkshire Hills since 1760. Honey-colored wooden floorboards, antiques, and period pieces nod to the building’s early days. More recent upgrades have included the addition of an intimate restaurant, which earned a Best in the Berkshires rating from Zagat and was called "one of the finest dining destinations in the area" by Travel + Leisure.

Candles and brick-lined fireplaces are the only sources of light in the dining room, where chef and innkeeper Peter Platt prepares seasonal American fare using ingredients procured from area farmers. In a four-course dinner for two served at the on-site restaurant, you can sample dishes such as slow-braised Angus short ribs and seared Maine diver scallops. In the morning, cooks craft omelets made from local barnyard eggs and Vermont cob-smoked ham served alongside buttermilk pancakes sweetened by local maple syrup, while lunch is served at The Southfield Store.

Eleven bedrooms are available between the main building and the separate Thayer House, and all of them have been faithfully restored. The Thayer House contains a little library and two large shared living rooms. The décor varies from room to room—most have fireplaces and some have claw-foot tubs, but all feature authentic antiques arranged to evoke the 1800s.

New Marlborough, Massachusetts: Cultural History in the Midst of the Berkshire Hills

New Marlborough is a peaceful, rural town in the lower Berkshire Hills about 10 miles from Great Barrington and 120 miles from Boston. It’s surrounded on all sides by state forests—including Beartown and Sandisfield—which feature hiking trails and lakes full of fish.

This area has served as a place of peaceful solitude for some famous artists and writers. It’s worth checking out Herman Melville's Arrowhead, the home where he penned Moby Dick. Melville's study, piazza, and original fireplace are on display, as is the barn where he and The Scarlet Letter author Nathaniel Hawthorne met to discuss their writings and a shared love for Doritos. In nearby Stockbridge, the Norman Rockwell Museum displays a massive collection of paintings and drawings from the famous Saturday Evening Post artist, including the well-known Christmas Homecoming and Girl Reading the Post.

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