TURNERS FALLS — Nearly six decades after the Northfield Chateau’s demolition and three since local artist Jack Nelson immortalized it in clay, the to-scale replica is center stage at Great Falls Discovery Center for what might be one of its final exhibitions.
The Discovery Center began showcasing Nelson’s sculpture on Jan. 6 in its Great Hall, where it will remain until Feb. 27. The piece is accompanied by related artifacts, documents and other memorabilia to dig up memories that might otherwise have remained buried with the Chateau’s foundation following the 1963 demolition of the mansion. Nelson, who was present at the Great Hall on Sunday to answer questions from interested locals, said that after this exhibit, he will likely resign the sculpture to its undetermined “final resting place.”
Nelson, who was born in a 17th-century house in Brookline, said a love for history and old architecture is in his DNA. When he came across a striking building pictured on a postcard soon after moving to the Pioneer Valley and becoming a teacher at Northfield Mount Hermon School, he was moved to investigate further. He found out that the building was a chateau in Northfield very close to where he’d resided.
“I turned it over and it said ‘Northfield, Massachusetts,’” he recalled, “and I said, ‘no, I’d know about it by this time.’”
Nelson soon learned that the mansion had been demolished relatively quickly following its completion. Further research prompted him to believe that it had been demolished far too quickly.
According to Joan Stoia, co-author of “Images of America: Northfield” and a member of the Historical Commission, the 99-room Northfield Chateau was built in 1903 across from the Northfield Hotel as the summer residence of New York businessman Francis Robert Schell. Schell originally named the building “Birnam House,” a name that survives with Northfield’s “Birnam Road.” To cultivate the landscape to his liking, “Images of America: Northfield” co-author Sue Ross said, Schell went as far as to move houses to other streets in Northfield, build a two-mile long lake by damming Mill Brook, and give money to the town to build a scenic bridge over the Connecticut River that connected East Northfield to the train station.
“Northfield reminded Schell of Scotland and he engineered his building and surroundings to further remind him,” Historical Commission Chair and Selectboard Vice Chair Barbara Jacque wrote in an email.
Following Schell’s death in 1928, the property was acquired by Northfield Mount Hermon School, where it was used for years for special events, such as prom. Additionally, the mansion’s lower level was notably used as office space for the American Youth Hostel movement in 1934. The building later merged with the the Northfield Inn and Hotel and housed a popular tea room. While Stoia’s research doesn’t identify a reason for the building’s destruction, Nelson said that in 1963, a Historic American Buildings Survey study necessitated the building’s demolition after learning its state of disrepair would be too costly to remediate.
“In some ways, we have lost an incredible piece of architecture in the Valley,” Nelson said, arguing that the building’s demolition was a wasting of potential. “I’m just so disturbed that an institution could not see the future.”
“A number of ‘grand hotels’ were rescued during the latter half of the 20th century, i.e. the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire became Breton Woods,” Stoia wrote in an email. “Had the Hotel and the Chateau been preserved by either investors or a historic trust, the impact on the Northfield economy since then would have been incalculable.”
Nelson took on the Chateau as inspiration for not only his latest artwork, but for his newest teaching endeavors. He introduced the building’s story to Northfield fifth-graders so that they could make art and write poetry on the subject. He particularly recalled the idea of three young girls who, upon completing sculptures of the Chateau, suggested that they might bury their clay models at the site where the mansion once stood.
“That broke me apart,” Nelson said. “I thought that was such a positive conclusion that still inspires me.”
As Nelson’s emotional attachment to the Chateau grew, so did his commitment to detail in his own effort to pay tribute. As he sculpted his replica, he drew from not only old photos and hearsay, but structural blueprints and sketches from experts. Although he’d worked with clay most of his adult life, it was this precision that provided a trial he’d not quite faced as an artist. For the first time, he said, he had to draw more on his experience studying engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s preparatory program than his eye for aesthetic.
“That was the challenge,” Nelson said. “For this, I had to have the numbers. I had to be correct.”
By the summer of 1993, after a process Nelson said took three to four months, the model Chateau was complete. Almost immediately, the model turned heads. Nelson was invited to publicly debut the sculpture at the Massachusetts State House in Boston that June. After what Nelson dubbed the piece’s “grand opening,” he and the sculpture returned to Franklin County to celebrate local memories of the Chateau with showcases at venues such as the Franklin County Fairgrounds Roadhouse and Greenfield Savings Bank.
Now, 29 years after the sculpture was finished, Nelson is in the midst of deciding how its story will end. Despite pleas from fans and historians to preserve the piece indefinitely, Nelson maintains a fantasy that the piece’s story could end quite like that of its inspiration: with a to-scale wrecking ball swung from the rafters of a high ceiling.
“The world is far from recognizing what’s really real,” Nelson said with a grin, “so maybe it’s best to stay with the poetry of it all.”
In the meantime, though, locals are happy to have the model to appreciate at the Discovery Center.
“It’s a great way to connect to the past in a really tangible way,” Great Falls Discovery Center Visitor Services Supervisor Janel Nockleby said of the exhibit. “There are people from the Northfield community who remember that place, loved it, and wanted to reconnect … so that the past isn’t so in the past.”
“The history points out the importance of Northfield as a destination,” Jacque wrote. “People came here for renewal and recreation, especially from the city. The legacy of historical, cultural and recreational tourism remains strong in our town and is important to our economic development.”
“I think it was a tragedy it was lost, but I think it would be a greater tragedy to be forgotten,” Turners Falls resident Rob Machado said of the Chateau. “There was something remarkable here.”
All programs sponsored by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation are free. The Great Falls Discovery Center is located at 2 Avenue A, Turners Falls.
Open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the center is wheelchair-accessible. Reasonable accommodations available upon request. Follow all current COVID guidelines.
Great Hall Exhibit: The Northfield Chateau – Remembered, Revisited will be on display until Feb. 27.
Great Hall Exhibit Reception: A Community Remembers the Northfield Chateau on Sunday, Feb. 20, 1 to 3:30 p.m.; snow date is Sunday, Feb. 27. Share your own memories or family memories of the Northfield Chateau — from prom nights to weddings and employment and visit with people you may know from the Chateau. Light refreshments may be provided, depending on current COVID guidance.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.