A Retrospective
Perhaps the saddest word that can be uttered between friends is “goodbye.” But after 14 years of bringing the at once elegant and casual, sophisticated and pastoral highlights of Berkshire living to our readers, we are, indeed, saying goodbye with this final issue.
It has been 14 years—almost a decade and a half—of highlighting what is beautiful and enlightening about this most extraordinary part of our country and we are grateful that we have had the opportunity to do so for so long.
In 2012, Toni Tucker, founder and publisher of BerkshireStyle, had an idea for a new online magazine that would be “a celebration of this glorious area … famous for a breathtaking beauty that has inspired a tradition of gracious living.”
She believed her past experiences in life and work would contribute to the success of her new endeavor. Her father was a newspaper publisher, so she had a nose for the new and the novel and her first career had been as an interior decorator. She then went on to work in television news and went on to become an accomplished photographer.
But there was much more to learn. She was joined in her endeavor by her great friend, canine photographer Paul Coughlin, who became her “guru” as she found her way into the world of online publishing.
“I am learning and exploring every day,” she said at the time. “There are so many parts of business about which I knew nothing. Business plans. Social media. Advertising sales. The challenge was to understand and incorporate it all.”
Coughlin set the pace with an initial feature on renowned interior designer Bunny Williams and the home she has created in Falls Village. Williams would be a recurrent theme in BerkshireStyle features as she became a lynchpin for the annual Trade Secret event, opening her ever-more-sumptuous gardens to the public each year to raise money for Project SAGE (formerly Women’s Support Services).
Coughlin would remain behind the scenes for the first seven years, helping Tucker design and develop what soon became an award-winning online publication. In January 2019, Tucker released the sad news of his passing.
She wrote, “Through the years Paul was my professional guide, my teacher and my friend, whether it was helping me learn to use PhotoShop when the manuals failed or an introduction to the value of YouTube.”
Over the years of its existence, BerkshireStyle has breasted the waves of change in the publishing world and the world-wide calamity of Covid. The global pandemic shut down the vibrant cultural life of the Berkshires and locked us all away for months on end. It was a slow, tentative return to a new normalcy, but undaunted Tucker continued to produce her magazine week by week, following emerging trends and tried-and-true traditions.
Time passes so quickly it is difficult to grasp the breadth of the experiences we have enjoyed as BerkshireStyle grew and solidified. Here is a far-from-complete look at the remarkable people and events that have appeared within our online “pages.”
MARCH 2012: Coughlin opened with his interview with Williams. “There are decorators who design rooms that make great pictures but Bunny Williams designs rooms that invite living,” he wrote. “Her interiors have a relaxed elegance with a hint of understated wealth. They burst with textures, patterns, fabrics, antiques along with a touch of modernity.”
He set the pattern and by the end of 2012, Tucker was delighted to report, “Thanks to all our new and faithful viewers, we are now an award-winning online magazine! LinkedIn rated the magazine one of the top 5 percent most viewed profiles for 2012—not bad for our first year! We are also proud winners of the 2012 Constant Contact All Star Award, which commends our exemplary efforts to reach and engage with our customers.”
A Talk with Bunny Williams
NOVEMBER 2013: In its second year, BerkshireStyle continued to chronicle style icons such as Salisbury’s Ann Scoville, a diminutive woman who for decades molded steel to make her elegant sculptures. “It is hard to imagine this small woman wielding a huge piece of metal,” Joseph Montebello wrote but Scoville said, “Actually, it’s quite easy. I have a very strong vise in my studio. I cut the metal to the size I want and then get it into the vise. I then heat it and bend it into the shape I want.”
Ann Scoville
AUGUST 2014: The Berkshires have long been a haven for writers and in 2014 we turned our attention to two of best. Edith Wharton historian Roxanna Robinson, hailed as “one of the best writers of our time” by the Washington Post, appeared at The Mount, the Lenox home designed and occupied by Wharton. Robinson told BerkshireStyle that she developed her passion for Wharton when introduced to the author by “a very glamorous aunt who lived in New York.”
Looking through her aunt’s library, she came upon House of Mirth. “She said I must read it,” she reported and the foundation for Robinson’s career was laid.
Roxana Robinson
FEBRUARY 2015: Turning our attention back to the visual arts, we visited well-known Salisbury painter Allen Blagen, who was then compiling a book of his work. Blagden recounted his early training by his father, an art teacher at Hotchkiss School. “There was a long bench in the living room of our house,” explained Blagden, “and it was full of paper, crayons, watercolors—all the essentials for creating art. So, my two sisters, my younger brother and I sat down and drew whenever we wanted to.”
All that encouragement sealed his fate. Majoring in art at Cornell, Blagden went on to a long career in painting in watercolors, capturing people, landscapes, animals and birds.
Allen Blagden
MAY 2016—Culture was not always our focus, however, and sometimes our attention wandered to other newsmakers. Who could overlook the Arethusa phenomena of Litchfield where very pampered cows produced the finest of dairy products. Arethusa, was conceived by George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgaitis, top executives at the iconic shoe company Manolo Blahnik USA.
Building on their Litchfield empire, the partners opened a dairy store and the chic restaurant, Arethusa al Tavolo Wine Bar & Restaurant in Bantam before complementing them in 2016 with the Arethusa Café across the street.
Arethusa Cafe
AUGUST 2017: Stories about places to stay, to eat or to visit are ever popular with our readers and in 2017 we introduced them to an old favorite made new. Troutbeck in Amenia NY underwent a complete renovation that year and reopened as a luxurious Inn and Conference Center.
“We acquired Troutbeck last summer,” explained Antony Champalimaud, a partner in the firm D.R. Horne & Company. “It had been operating as an inn and conference center since 2007 but had been closed for the past 10 years. A friend suggested I have a look at it, knowing my interest in historic places and being in the hospitality business. There is no property like this between here and the Hudson River.”
Troutbeck Reimagined
MAY 2018: Visitors to the Berkshires soon discover the patina that history has bestowed on the region. Events consequential to the nation’s story have occurred here, some well-known, others more obscure. In 2018, we took note of the Hitchcock Chair Company in Riverton, a pioneering manufacturer of the Early Republic then attempting to make a comeback in the 21st century.
Hitchcock Chairs, founded by Lambert Hitchcock in 1818, was the Ikea of its day, perfecting not only piecework manufacture of handsome and affordable furniture but also shipping it unassembled along the Eastern Seaboard.
Hitchcock was no businessman, however, and his company went bankrupt, only to be resurrected in 1946, nearly a century later, by admirer John Tarrant Kenney and later by Rick Swenson who continues the company’s reputation for quality.
Back to the Future
FEBRUARY 2019: Americans are mad for their pets and in 2019 we paused to look at the luxurious lifestyles of our animal companions. We found that in 2017, Americans spent a total of $69.51 billion on their pets, up a whopping $3 billion in just one year. In 2025 that figure escalated to $157 billion. What won’t we do for our beloved companions?
Our story showed that there is not much we won’t do—indeed, people now spend as much time worrying about their pet’s vacation accommodations as they do their own. We surveyed a plethora of inns and B&B’s that allowed pets as well as “pet resorts” offering luxury accommodations that sounded very much like those of their human counterparts.
“All rooms have radiant-heated floors and a private outside patio,” the one facility assured pet lovers. Pet owners even had a choice of three different levels of luxury—The Classic, a large standard enclosure with a stainless bar front; The Premium, a large enclosure with a glass front “for a cozier feel,” and The Luxury, “suites” that are “perfect for the spoiled pooch.” A “serenity wing” catered to anxious or elderly canines who preferred a quieter setting.
Animal Spas
FEBRUARY 2020: The “New Energy” series that focuses on towns that are revitalizing their centers contributed some of the most popular stories we printed in the past decade. For instance, in 2020, just before the whole world shut down, we surveyed the business district in a rejuvenated Hillsdale NY. There we found a cluster of upmarket businesses, restaurants and a spa, all catering to a growing cadre of second-home owners. Only a month later, Covid struck and all that energy had to be bottled up for a year.
New Energy in Hillsdale
MAY 2021: 2021 challenged 2020 as to which would be the grimmest year but there were bright spots. One of the brightest came in March 2020 when we recounted the poignant story of a marble funerary dog that had rested on its mistress’ grave for nearly a century and a half before being stolen.
Years after it went missing—an event mourned by many who had celebrated the faithful creature’s vigil—the statue was discovered in a New York antiques dealer’s studio and was returned through the efforts of Bunny Williams and her friends to its former site—this time anchored by a heavy subterranean block to ensure its safet
Love Conquers All
SEPTEMBER 2021: By September 2021, people were emerging from their caves and the Cornwall Library featured a retrospective on Cornwall artist Curt Hanson. Hanson, a native of Washington State, was a latecomer to the rich artistic tradition of the Berkshire Hills, not having arrived in western Connecticut until 1979, but he soon took his place among its best pastoral artists.
He had no further to look for inspiration than out the 16-foot windows of the vacant church he purchased in 2001 as his Cornwall Hollow studio. There, the landscape stretched before his eye much as it had for generations past.
Cornwall Seasons
APRIL 2022: The region continued to revive and contributing writer Joseph Montebello reported on the transformation of the former Litchfield jail into a unique shopping Mecca. In that year, the jail, the first part of which was built in 1812 and which had once confined debtors and petty criminals, embarked on a glittering new chapter thanks to the vision and perseverance of developer Russell Barton.
The former jailhouse was transformed into a multipurpose building, featuring three apartments—including a spacious penthouse—offices, a restaurant and a complex of unique shops.
Jailhouse Rocks
OCTOBER 2023: Fall was in the air and the World Season on the horizon when we reported on Blass from the Past, the story of Steve Blass of Falls Village, who in 1971 pitched two games in the 1971 World Series, propelling the Pittsburgh Pirates to an unexpected championship. His return to Canaan was a scene right out of a Disney movie with the plaza in front of the Canaan Union Depot crammed with people and an overflow crowd spreading across the lawn of the Episcopal church across the road. Bands played and flags fluttered in the fall breeze as a parade made its way toward the plaza.
Blass from the Past
APRIL 2024: Many residents of the Berkshire Hills have escaped the pressures of urban life, only to find whole new dimensions to their existence. In Ruminating on Ruminants we reported one such awakening when we told the story of award-winning filmmaker Michel Negroponte whose world was broadened when a herd of shaggy Belted Galloway cattle was moved onto a farm neighboring his property in Livingston Manor NY.
At a crossroads in his career, Negroponte turned his camera’s lens on the cattle, following them through a calendar year and recording the “personhood” of the animals as they revealed themselves to him. The effort resulted in his video “essay,” a 60-minute-long award-winning film titled Herd.
Ruminating Ruminants
JANUARY 2025: Americans have “stuff”—more stuff than we can conceivably need or use. Some 38 percent of Americans have more material possessions than they can fit in their homes even if they have access to a garage, attic or basement.
We took a look at this excess—and why it is so hard to let go of it—in our first story of the year. Regional businesses who help people divest of their treasures described how they assist people trying to clean out.
“Some people can’t throw away anything without permission,” said Laura Gratz of Berkshire Organizing told us. “When I was starting out and talking to other professional organizers, I said I would reach out through realtors. One of them said, ‘No, you need to reach out to therapists.’ I have realized she is right. There is so much guilt about keeping things and it became clear it is more emotional than organizational. It’s helping them with something they can’t do.”
Fresh Start
FEBRUARY 2026: Here we are at the beginning of our final year. Again, our eyes turned to a perennial favorite, Trade Secrets, the annual event that helps Project SAGE, which educates people about relationship violence and helps its victims. We end where we began, with the redoubtable Bunny Williams’ again opening her garden to help fuel an event that has generated more than $5 million for the social service agency.
Trade Secrets 2026
So this is the end. It has been a wonderful ride. We will not be telling it but the story of the Berkshires and its inimitable style will continue to flourish. All our best to the wonderful, creative people and businesses that make it such a vibrant culture.
