Stevens Glen, the site of carriage parties and dances during the Berkshires’ Guilded Age, has been preserved through the generosity of a pair of brothers from Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Millard H. Pryor, Jr. and Frederic L. Pryor conveyed the glen and surrounding acreage to the Berkshire Natural Resources Council in December, subject to conservation restriction agreement that precludes development of the property. “This is a tremendous gift to the public,” said Tad Ames, Council director. “Stevens Glen is one of the great joys of the Berkshires.” Ames said that the Pryors’ gift of land totaled 128 acres, of which 78 acres are in Richmond, and 50 in West Stockbridge. Millard Pryor and his wife Claire, who maintain a home on Stevens Glen Road, said that the family has long intended to preserve the property. “It’s a spectacular place,” Pryor said of the glen. “Claire and I, along with my brother, have always felt blessed to own part of the Berkshires’ great natural legacy, and we’re particularly pleased that the Council, together with the Richmond Land Trust, is prepared to take on stewardship of these lovely lands.” Lenox Mountain Brook flows over the property through Stevens Glen, falling down a 40-foot drop and over a series of cascades through a narrow gorge. In all, the water falls 100 vertical feet over the course of 400 horizontal feet of stream flow. While today Stevens Glen is something of a secret , hidden in the forest and known only to locals and other enthusiasts, it was not always so. In 1884, Romanza Stevens, a farmer, realized that his glen was something special. He built wooden steps and bridges and word began to spread of the great attraction just over the mountain from Lenox . Soon, Stevens was charging 25 cents admission to tourists and curious Berkshirites. The carriage trade peaked as the century came to an end and trolley cars, which did not come near the Glen, became the popular mode of transport. The dance pavilion Stevens had built at the Glen was used less and less. Still, as late as 1918, a party of 900 people from New York and Albany gathered at the site for celebration. In 1919, however the dance pavilion roof collapsed under heavy snows, and thereafter Stevens Glen proceeded slowly and steadily back to nature. Earlier this month, the Resources Council won a $2,810 grant from the Department of Environmental Management’s Greenways program to develop plans and a construction log for a public trail into the glen. Pending construction financing, the trail could be opened within a year. In addition, the council owns a number of contiguous parcels on Lenox and West Stockbridge Mountains up the ridge to the east of Stevens Glen, and hopes someday to create trail linkages from Olivia’s Overlook westerly down the mountain to Stevens Glen. “The glen is one of the jewels of the Yukon Ridge Forest Reserve,” Ames said, referring to the mountain lands the Council is preserving. “Protecting these lands is one of the highlights of The Berkshires’ conservation history. We are extraordinarily grateful to the Pryors for the generous act.” Ames said that the Richmond Land Trust will be the primary holder of the conservation restriction on the property precluding any development beyond construction of trail to the glen. “It’s a fail- safe plan,” he said. “This land is protected forever.”
(c) 1996 Berkshire Natural Resources Council
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