An evening at the Porches Inn
Road-weary travelers on a 7-hour drive back from Northern New York State to Salem, MA with a 10-week old, my wife and I decided to stretch out the trip and stop in the Berkshires for the night. She had worked at the Porches Inn in North Adams one summer and we thought it’d be fun to be a guest instead of a staff member. A last-minute phone call got us a Junior Suite for the rate of a Standard room.
Self-described as “a North Adams inn where real history meets contemporary culture in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts,” its location was determined by proximity to MASS MoCA - the Museum of Contemporary Art.
I’m not sure that it lived up to the reputation that preceded it, but the lodging and amenities were comfortable and nice. The room’s color scheme was lively, and the spacious rainfall shower was simultaneously invigorating and relaxing after a long, steamy day on the road.
North Adams itself didn’t seem to have much going for it. Down the road in Adams, and further down the road back toward the Mass Pike in Pittsfield, there was a lot going on, including Tanglewood, various upscale lodging options and strollable downtowns.
I was actually trying to capture a spider’s web on our balcony in this photo, but the dew was gone by the time I was up.
The king size bed was wonderfully comfortable, the central AC fine. We had a private balcony. There were a few disappointments, however: Our room was in the main building and I was awoken throughout the night not only by a building entrance below, but also by food preparation, such that I could actually hear a can opener running and eggs being beaten! Not at 7:00 am, mind you, not at 6:00, 5:00, but more like 4:00 am, and silverware and glasses being sorted awoke me closer to 1:00 am. Breakfast was enjoyable, but the cute lunchpails my wife remembered lugging to each room contained milk and juice in old-fashioned mini milk bottles…that dripped their contents EVERYWHERE when we tried to pour them into glasses. That’s a quibble; the noise, all the more acute because the surroundings were so quiet, cost me sleep, and I thought I was paying a cost to guarantee myself some.
If you’re planning on visiting the region, up for the rates, and plan ahead for a room not in the main building, I’d recommend the Inn. There’s a nice pool and hot tub in back too, though our stay was too short to take advantage of them.
I did (sorry, Porches!) snag the latest issue of Berkshire Living home + garden from our room. Look for highlights as I glean regional architect and architecture links from its pages.
