Lost among overgrown vegetation and structural ruins, the grounds surrounding White Pines were once home to magnificent gardens that titillated all of the senses in a beautiful and practical way. Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead cultivated two gardens at…

A counterpart to the Bottega, the Varenka was a one-and-a-half-story building with a garage-like door that was largely used for furniture storage and possibly sales. Although Byrdcliffe furniture was stored and sold at the Varenka, it was also…

The Forge or Metal Shop, built in 1903, was the primary location for metalworking at the Byrdcliffe Art Colony. According to a 1907 brochure, The Forge was a large and accommodating three-room structure for the use of artisans. “The largest room is…

Attached to the Studio was a beautiful library for the use of Byrdcliffe residents. Alvan Sanborn, in Good Housekeeping, noted that the library had about five thousand volumes and was modestly decorated with Byrdcliffe furniture, “sculptures,…

“The community must earn its food and raiment, and to this end will want to sell part of its produce” Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead wrote in Grass of the Desert. “Consider the future of the arts when wood, and wool and brass and leather are worked…

Although now a theater, this was the site of the Byrdcliffe Studio and Library in the early twentieth century. As the purpose of Byrdcliffe was to encourage artistry and handcraftsmanship, it was one of the first buildings erected as a workspace,…

In 1909 Poultney Bigelow, reporting for American Homes and Gardens, described Ralph Radcliffe Whitehead’s Byrdcliffe as “frankly a benevolent despotism. Whitehead is the absolute monarch, and no one is tolerated who is not in sympathy with his…

In the October 1909 issue of American Homes and Gardens Poultney Bigelow wrote, “Ralph Whitehead is a mighty farmer in addition to his other many accomplishments.” While not a “mighty farmer” Whitehead did, however, have “mighty” barns as…

According to keeper of Woodstock history, Anita Smith, if you were invited to Marie Little’s cottage and studio, dubbed The Looms, assuming she did not suddenly cancel the invitation “to savor control over another’s actions,” guests “would…

In the winter of 1902-1903 Bolton Coit Brown stepped into his home, Casa Carnola, which was at that point a construction site. As he descended into the cellar Brown spied a catamount: “I saw its round head, back beyond a beam,” Brown recalled,…