Trustees of Reservations

Old Sharon Sanatorium – Former Kendall Whaling Museum // 1891

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The old Sharon Sanatorium was built on former farmland in Sharon, Massachusetts, as a medical facility for the cure of pulmonary infectious diseases. The rural medical institution was designed in 1890 by the architectural firm of Longfellow, Alden and Harlow and completed a year later. The Sharon Sanatorium for Pulmonary Diseases opened formally in February 1891 with the purpose to provide affordable care for patients suffering from Tuberculosis and other pulmonary diseases. At the time, tuberculosis was a major health concern and treatment often included fresh air, so facilities such as this were designed with access to open air sleeping porches and forested surroundings. The Sharon Sanatorium was sited to catch the prevailing breezes on the side of Moose Hill, the second highest ascent between Boston and Providence. In 1916, the Sanatorium opened a Children’s Pavilion, which was reserved for children less than fourteen years of age suffering from tuberculosis. By 1938, the threat of tuberculosis was under control, and the Sanatorium began admitting patients suffering from arthritis and rheumatic fever until the facility closed in 1947. The Sanatorium integrated with the Boston Children’s Hospital in 1949 and soon after, the property was bought by Henry Plimpton Kendall (1878-1959), a wealthy entrepreneur and industrialist, for use as the Kendall Whaling Museum, showcasing his personal collection of paintings, prints, and tools of the whaling industry in New England. In 2001, the museum merged with the New Bedford Whaling Museum and today, the property is managed by the Trustees of Reservations as their Archives and Research Center.

Mission House // c.1739

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The Mission House, erected by the Reverend John Sergeant in 1739 on Prospect Hill in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is an excellent and little-altered example of Georgian architecture as constructed on the New
England frontier. The home is a lasting remnant of early missionary efforts toward the local Mohican tribe. Reverend John Sergeant, the first missionary to the Housatonic Indians, moved to Stockbridge and preached to the native people here and at the Congregational Church. Sergeant and his wife Abigail moved to town, but she had made it clear that she wished to live on the hill, away from the village and the native people. Sergeant then built this home, a spacious and distinguished house for its frontier location. Though covered in part by a grant from the General Court, the cost of constructing such a house must have been a severe strain on Sergeant’s slender financial resources, as his salary at that time was 100 pounds per year. The home remained in the family until the 19th century. In 1928, long unoccupied and badly in need of repair, the house was purchased by Miss Mabel Choate, daughter of noted lawyer and former Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph H. Choate. The house was taken down piece by piece, moved and reconstructed, on Main Street, in its current location. The Mission House was furnished with pieces appropriate to Sergeant’s economic status and his wife’s taste, many of them dating from the 1750’s or earlier. Since 1948, the home has been owned by the Trustees of Reservations.