The Lenox Library and Old Courthouse

This dignified brick building with its tall columns and cupola began life not as a library but as a courthouse. For a time Lenox was the seat of Berkshire County, chosen in seventeen eighty seven, and as the county grew the town needed a larger court. In eighteen fifteen and eighteen sixteen, the architect Isaac Damon designed and built this structure as the second Berkshire County courthouse.

Justice was administered here for decades. Then in the late eighteen sixties the county seat was moved north to the larger town of Pittsfield, and the courthouse fell empty. Rescue came from a wealthy summer resident.

In eighteen seventy one, Adeline Schermerhorn purchased the building and gave it new purpose as a public library and reading room, free to all residents and visitors of Lenox. The Lenox Library Association, which had been incorporated in eighteen fifty six, moved into its new home in eighteen seventy four, and it has served the town from this spot ever since. The building is a fine example of Federal era public architecture, with monumental two story pillars across its front, a balustraded hip roof, and an open belfry crowning the whole.

It stands at the center of the village, a working library housed in one of the region's most historic buildings.