Lee, Massachusetts
Lee is famous for its Jacob's Pillow summer dance festival, and many people pass through the town on their way to the Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox.
Memorial Hall and
Main Street, Lee MA.
For many visitors driving to the Berkshire Hills along the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90), Lee, Massachusetts, 125 miles (201 km) west of Boston, 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Albany, NY, and 4.3 miles (7 km) south of Lenox, is the gateway to the Berkshires (map).
Transportation
Located just north of the Massachusetts Turnpike (Interstate 90), Lee is easy to reach by road. (The hamlet named South Lee is on MA 102 south of the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) and Lee proper.)
By Car
The Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) passes by Lee, where you exit. From Williamstown, follow US Route 7 south. See below for driving distances.
By Intercity Bus
Bonanza Bus has daily routes between New York City and Williamstown MA stopping at Great Barrington, Lee, Lenox and Pittsfield MA; and between Albany NY and Springfield MA stopping at the same Berkshire towns. Springfield has bus connections to Worcester, Boston, Hyannis (Cape Cod MA) and Providence RI. More...
By Local Bus
Local buses run by the Berkshire
Regional Transit Authority connect
Berkshire County towns and resorts with
one another. More...
By Train
Amtrak trains between Boston MA and Albany-Rensselaer NY stop at Pittsfield, from whence you must take a local bus or taxi to Lee. Trains between Montreal QC and New York City also stop at Albany-Rensselaer NY. More...
By Plane
The nearest airports with regular service are Albany International Airport at Albany NY and Bradley International Airport, Windsor Locks CT (north of Hartford). Boston's Logan International Airport is 125 miles (201 km) east of Lee, a little over 2 hours' drive.
Distances from Lee MA to:
Albany NY: 45 miles (72 km) W, 1 hour
Boston MA: 125 miles (201 km) E, 2.25 hours
Hartford CT: 71 miles (114 km) SE, 1.4 hours
Lenox MA: 5 miles (8 km) NW, 10 minutes
New York City: 155 miles (250 km) S, 3 hours
PittsfieldMA: 11 miles (18 km) N, 22 minutes
WilliamstownMA: 31 miles (50 km) N, 1 hour
Worcester MA: 87 miles (140 km) E, 1.55 hours
What to See & Do
Leave the highway at I-90 Exit 2, head north along US Route 20, and within a mile you're at the center of Lee on Park Place.
Here you'll find a small park, the Visitor Center for tourist information, the nice bright-red-brick Memorial Hall, the white New England high-steeple First Congregational Church.
In the center and in the verdant countryside surrounding Lee are several historic inns and B&Bs and comfortable hotels and motels, and the usual collection of shops and businesses.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
This premier American summer dance program, founded in a delapidated barn in the Berkshire Hills in 1932, is now among the most important summer dance programs in the USA. It takes place in neighboring Becket, only a few miles from Lee.
Bought by Ted Shawn and renovated for performances, the barn and the festival grew larger and more important over the years, enlisting the talents of Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, and similar lights.
The Ted Shawn Theater at
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Becket MA—true
to its barn heritage.
The 10-week Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival season begins in late June and runs through August, with many perforances now held in the modern Ted Shawn Theater.
The Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival performance center is in the countryside 8 miles (13 km) east of Lee, off US 20 (map). Follow the signs.
Performing groups change weekly.
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival
358 George Carter Road (map)
Becket MA 01223
info@jacobspillow.org
Tel: 413-243-0745 (Box Office)
Santarella Gardens
In the tiny village of Tyringham, 5 miles south of Lee along the Tyringham Road is Santarella, a curious thatched cottage built by sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson, who crafted The Minuteman statue in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Pilgrim Maiden statue in Plymouth. Santarella was Kitson's obsession and life's-work project. It is among the most unusual buildings in the USA.
Santarella, the fantasy-cottage
studio of sculptor Henry Hudson Kitson in
Tyringham MA, near Lee.
English-born sculptor Sir Henry Hudson Kitson (1863-1947) studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, then emigrated to the USA and set up house 5 miles (8 km) SE of Lee MA in the tiny village of Tyringham (map), once the site of a Shaker community.
Although Kitson made such landmark works as The Minuteman in Lexington MA, The Pilgrim Maiden in Plymouth MA, and many bas-reliefs of Civil War leaders (now in Vicksburg National Military Park), his Gingerbread House studio in Tyringham may be his most famous work. He spent much of the last 25 years of his life—and most of his money—working on it.
With a 45-foot (14-meter) ceiling, stained glass windows, a goldfish pond, and an 80-ton (73 metric ton) concrete-and-asphalt-shingle roof, Santarella is a unique fantasy structure that looks much smaller and simpler than it is. The 20th-century construction incorporates several much older farm structures, including two silos and parts of a barn.
Behind the studio are elaborate gardens, which you can visit in summer.
Today Santarella Gardens offers short-term rentals. See the Santarella website for more.
Chesterwood, the summer home and studio of the great American sculptor Daniel Chester French, is not far away in Stockbridge MA.
Santarella Gardens
75-77 Main Road
Tyringham MA 01264
santarellagardens@gmail.com
October Mountain State Forest
October Mountain is Massachusetts' largest state forest at 16,500 acres (67 square kilometers). Once the estate of President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of the Navy, the forest now has 47 campsites just outside of Lee, and hiking trails for all levels of skill and mobility. The Appalachian Trail passes through the forest. More...
Other State Forests, Parks & Ponds
The Berkshire Hills are rich in Massachusetts state forests, parks and ponds, some of them only a shor distance from Lee. More...
Where to Stay
Lee, the gateway to the Berkshires from the Massachusetts Turnpike, has a variety of lodgings in all price ranges.
Inns
The upscale lodging in Lee is the 4-star, 10-room Devonfield Inn, set on 30 acres (12 hectares) a mile (1.6 km) west of the center of Lee on the way to Stockbridge, (3 miles/ 5 km SW), and 6 miles from Tanglewood.
Also nice is the 3-star, 9-room Federal House Inn, 3 miles (5 km) southwest of the center of Lee, where complimentary wine and cheese is served in late afternoon.
The 3-star, 9-room Chambery Inn, a B&B only a few minutes' walk north of the center of Lee, was a 19th-century schoolhouse, and you may even see a blackboard in your room but, more likely, you'll enjoy a fireplace, canopy bed, or spa tub.
The 11-room Applegate Inn B&B, only a few minutes' walk west of the town center, has an outdoor swimming pool.
Motels
As for motels, two are located on US Route 20 conveniently just north of I-90 (Massachusetts Turnpike) Exit 2. The 2-star, 49-room Super 8 Lee/Berkshires/Outlet Area has a seasonal outdoor swimming pool. The 2-star, 35-room Pilgrim Inn nearby also has an outdoor pool.
Southwest from the cente 2.6 miles (4 km)r, is the 2-star, 26-room America's Best Value Inn Lee, perhaps Lee's thriftiest lodging choice.
Here are more choices in and near Lee:
More Information...
The Lee Chamber of Commerce maintains an Information Office right on US Route 20 (Main Street) in the center of town by the park (officially ).
Lee
Chamber of Commerce
3 Park
Place
Lee MA 01238
Tel:
413-243-0852
info@leechamber.org