The previous Berkshire Document constructing will home Jennifer Bianco’s modern design middle. Picture: Terry Cowgill
GREAT BARRINGTON — One in every of downtown’s signature buildings is being repurposed after shutting its doorways two years in the past as a sufferer of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The previous Berkshire Document constructing at 21 Elm Road was bought simply after the brand new yr by Nice Barrington developer Robert Beusman — higher referred to as Bobby Houston — for $450,000, according to town property records.
In an Edge interview, Houston mentioned the constructing, traditionally referred to as the George Briggs Home, is being reworked into a recent design middle that can home the brand new places of work of Jennifer Bianco, a famous interior designer in the Berkshires who as soon as labored as artistic director for the now-defunct Nation Curtains and was a purchaser for Martha Stewart Residing.
Houston characterised the brand new house as a “division retailer” with completely different rooms, every that includes objects peculiar to that room: to wit, a library the place books are offered; a eating room that includes objects one may discover in a well-designed eating room.
“I felt there was a necessity for a extra modern design middle,” Houston mentioned. “The youthful people who find themselves coming as much as stay listed here are used to extra trendy and mid-century furnishings which we don’t have a number of right here.”
“Jennifer has a design enterprise that’s been going now for 15 years, so it’s the headquarters for her design enterprise, and it’s a showroom and retail retailer,” Houston continued.
The constructing was stripped right down to the studs. Some partitions that had been added have been eliminated. Two ranges of drop ceilings have been taken out. Houston mentioned six rooms that had been cobbled in have been opened again up and the ceilings at the moment are as excessive as they have been initially. Houston’s contractors additionally opened up a number of doorways that had been closed up over time.
Bianco instructed The Edge she had collaborated beforehand with Houston and his accomplice Eric Shamie, each seasoned renovators with a ardour for historic preservation. Bianco had been understanding of her Nice Barrington residence and talked about to Houston that she was on the lookout for a bigger house for her enterprise in a higher-traffic space.
“Then he got here again to me and mentioned, ‘Hey, I’m interested by shopping for this constructing. Do you need to put your house there?’” Bianco recalled. “It simply sort of morphed into, ‘Let’s simply take the entire constructing and produce one thing attention-grabbing to Nice Barrington.”
Bianco’s focus is on textiles, window therapy and tender items. Her workplace at 21 Elm Road is upstairs. Bianco is satisfied that she has the best area of interest to reach downtown Nice Barrington.
“I feel we’re a bit of completely different than the opposite designers and residential shops as a result of we now have a fairly large deal with mid-century vintage items,” she mentioned. “Our focus just isn’t on brand-new furnishings, so I feel that sort of units us aside from the opposite retailers.”
Not lengthy after the Berkshire Document formally shut its doorways on Could 1, 2020, the property was placed on the market for $650,000. The 4,600-square-foot Italian Revival-style constructing, which is claimed to be historic, sits on one-tenth of an acre behind Carr {Hardware}. It was inbuilt 1875 or thereabouts.
The Edge reached out to Anthony and Donna Prisendorf, who owned the Document’s dad or mum firm, Limestone Communications, for some historical past of the property. The Document started publishing in 1989 out of a storefront that when housed the Fort Road Cafe (now the house of Number 10), finally buying 21 Elm Road from Monterey resident Jane Carpenter, who had beforehand transformed the constructing to 4 residences. The Document moved operations to that location in 1993.
Tony Prisendorf mentioned that originally, the home with its 10-foot ceilings and ornate trim was illuminated by gasoline. Whereas electricians have been rewiring components of the constructing just lately, they discovered a sealed gasoline line that fed the ceiling lamp hanging within the entrance entrance hallway.
“Judging by the huge forged iron radiators, the home was in all probability heated by a coal (or later gasoline) furnace within the basement, augmented by cast-iron parlor stoves at the very least on the primary flooring,” Tony Prisendorf defined. “The constructing has two chimneys however I may by no means discover proof of a fireside. I did discover what should have been sealed flue holes in every chimney for the parlor stoves.”
Houston mentioned 21 Elm was initially a “grand residence after which, through the years, it was every little thing else. It was residences. It was places of work.” For good measure, Houston renamed the constructing. It’s now known as “Scout Home,” after the extremely smart tomboyish younger daughter of Atticus Finch in “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
Bianco mentioned she plans to be open by the primary week of Could in time for Moms’ Day. The retail enterprise might be open six days per week from 11 a.m. to six p.m. It is going to be closed on Tuesdays.
“We really feel it represents a terrific image of nineteenth century life in a small New England city,” Donna Prisendorf mentioned of 21 Elm Road. “We liked that constructing and are very completely happy that we offered it to somebody who will respect it in its subsequent reincarnation.”
