CUMMINGTON — The grounds of the William Cullen Bryant Homestead and its trails remain open, but the house will remain closed for the foreseeable future.
“There’s no opening date right now,” said Aaron Gouveia, public relations director for The Trustees of Reservations.
The Trustees is the 130-year-old Massachusetts conservation nonprofit that owns and manages the Bryant homestead. The property is 195 acres and can be traversed via public trails.
“Those are all open,” Gouveia said. “It’s beautiful up there.”
The house was last open to the public in 2019, which was also the last year that programming was offered there.
The Homestead is the boyhood home and later summer home of 19th-century poet William Cullen Bryant, who served as editor in chief and publisher at the New York Evening Post. Bryant also was a founder of the Hillside Agricultural Society, which started and continues to run the Cummington Fair.
The Homestead has been the site of a number of different events, although for 2021 Gouveia said that “there’s not programming planned right now.”
The Trustees of Reservations own and manage 120 properties, all of which are in Massachusetts, and Gouveia said that all of the outdoor properties administered by the nonprofit are open and have been for a while.
Brian Westrick, an associate field director with The Trustees, spoke about the work that has been done improving the view on the property this spring and summer, as well as the work being done in the house now restoring windows and replacing clapboards.
“We’re doing a ton of work up here,” he said.
Westrick also commented on the beauty of the property.
“The viewsheds looking over the valley are spectacular,” Westrick said.