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LENOX

During the late-19th-century Gilded Age, the Berkshires were the inland equivalent of Newport, Rhode Island, with dozens of opulent “cottages” constructed here by newly rich titans of American industry. Built for an era in which “society” was a respectable, full-time occupation for folks with names like Carnegie and Westinghouse, some 75 of these giant mansions still stand, especially around the genteel town of Lenox (pop. 5,100). Many of the houses have been converted to palatial B&B inns, full-service health spas, or private schools; others are home to organizations whose presence has made Lenox a seasonal mecca for the performing arts.

  The lives and times of the Gilded Age elite were well chronicled by Edith Wharton, who lived in Lenox for many years in a 42-room house she designed and built for herself called The Mount (daily in summer only; $16; 413/637-6900). Recently restored, and set in 3 acres of Italianate gardens, The Mount is just south of central Lenox, well-signed off Plunkett Street. Wharton, who considered herself better at gardening than writing, was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize (for her 1920 novel The Age of Innocence). She drew upon local people and incidents in many of her works, including two of her most famous: House of Mirth and Ethan Frome.

  Lenox is also connected with another great American writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived here with his family around 1850 and wrote The House of Seven Gables at what is now the summer home of the Boston Symphony and many visiting performers, Tanglewood (tickets $20 and up; 888/266-2100). Besides Tanglewood, the Lenox area also hosts the Jacob’s Pillow dance festival in Becket (413/243-0745) and the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge (413/298-5576), so you can understand why such a small town is such a big magnet for East Coast culture vultures.