Sign up for Scenic Six
Navigate the endless possibilities of New England travel with Boston.com.
‘Nature is the antidote:’ Prospect Berkshires resort is now open in Egremont
Guests can stay in 49 “nature cabins” nestled on 30 lakeside acres.
Even before Prospect Berkshires, a new year-round mountain lake resort with private cabins, opened in Egremont in western Massachusetts, owner and designer Jade Carroll felt a connection to the sprawling 30-acre retreat.
“I grew up literally down the road,” she says of the grounds surrounding the glistening Prospect Lake, which was a private campground at the time. “Me and my sister used to ride our bikes to the lake to go swimming, and I was always so curious about [the property.]”
From curiosity, to eyesore, to its current state as a source of natural serenity, Prospect Berkshires boasts a long history of hospitality. About 150 years ago, the site was first developed into picnic grounds where families gathered along the white oak-shrouded shore. Then, it became a private boys’ camp, eventually changing hands many times until RVs—unmoved for decades—clogged the neglected landscape. Now, after about three years of construction and ecological restoration, the grounds are once again luring guests to retreat into nature.
Advertisement:
Prospect Berkshires offers 49 hand-built “nature cabins” dotted among dogwood trees and red maples, with leaves and wind chimes rustling in the breeze. Cliff House, a 5,000-square-foot stunner of a building that incorporates timber from the original 1876 structure once onsite, is a new hub, including a check-in area, a small store, gathering spaces, and a bar.
The Cliff House Restaurant—a collaboration with Nancy Thomas of Mezze Hospitality Group, an anchor in the Berkshire food scene for three decades—serves up New American bites with sides of pristine lake views. Great Barrington-based design firm Alander (helmed by Prospect’s other owners Roman Montano and Ian Rasch, who is also Carroll’s husband) designed the property’s structures, while Carroll crafted all of the interiors. Elsewhere on the grounds, guests can relax in lakeside saunas, work up a sweat on the tennis and pickleball courts, hit the pool, and wander the wildflower meadow when not swimming and paddling around the lake.
Advertisement:
While each of the cabins make the most of stunning water views, the architectural inspirations harken to distant shores. Alander looked to Scandinavian “hyttas,” or rustic cabins, for design cues, and the low and minimal cedar-clad structures seem to vanish into the lush landscape. Of the 40 larger 400 square-foot cabins, options include cabins for two (perfect for couples looking for a romantic getaway) and kid-friendly spaces meant for families of four, grouped together on a sun-dappled knoll. Cozy 135 square-foot hideaways are two-person bedrooms tucked into the forest. Like a grownup spin on summer camp, guests at each of these petite pads make use of the nearby shared bathhouse for showers and restrooms. “I felt like it was important to offer a more affordable option,” Carroll adds of the hideaways.
While Scandinavian hyttas often lack amenities like electricity, Carroll pulled out all the stops for each individually designed escape, where colors from throw blankets and rugs bloom against the muted earth tones of the interior pine paneling. All of the cabin options feature organic cotton linens by Sister Moons, the local bedding company that Carroll cofounded with her sister Dulcinea Sheffer and their mother Stella DeLuca, plus hypoallergenic down quilts, and electric kettles. The 400 square-foot cabins feature radiant flooring, with marble bathrooms where guests can lather up with botanical bath products by Oneka under the rain showers.
Advertisement:
Notably absent from the cabins and hideaways, though? Televisions and phones (even if the concierge is just a quick text message away, and, yes, there’s wifi if you can’t stand being totally disconnected from the world outside this Berkshire bubble). The floor-to-ceiling windows in each abode draw eyes away from screens, and out into nature. Carroll hopes that the landscape will inspire the next generation of thinkers, artists, and writers—adding to the rich history of the Berkshires, from Great Barrington-born sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois to Herman Melville, who wrote “Moby Dick” in neighboring Pittsfield. Carroll also shouts out Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and wonders if, like the famed Transcendentalists, her guests might find a bit of divinity in nature, here.
“Nature is the antidote,” she says.
If not a permanent cure for the anxiety-addled daily grind, Carroll hopes that a retreat at Prospect encourages guests to make space for themselves. Like she does on vacation, when she brings her watercolors for some quiet reflection, as colors blossom across her pad.
“If somebody could come here and have an experience with nature and they take that away with them, then I would feel like we’ve accomplished what we are setting out to do,” she says.
Advertisement:
Prospect Berkshires, 50 Prospect Lake Rd., Egremont, Massachusetts. Hideaways start at $175 per night, and cabins start at $350.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com