Recently completed renovations saved it from being torn down and have given it a renewed purpose as the home for Berkshire Waldorf High School. The building, with its commanding blend of neoclassical and Greek Revival architecture— including exterior columns, towering interior ceilings, and second-floor balconies overlooking the front and back lobbies— makes for a bright, spacious, and unique setting for a school.
The high school has been renting property since its inception in 2004. For two years, it was located at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School( now the Berkshire Waldorf School) abutting the Great Barrington Airport; then from 2004 to 2013 rented the distinctive English Gothic Revival mansion owned by the Christian Science Church on Main Street in Great Barrington( now a cannabis dispensary); and most recently was housed in a multi-family building with commercial / retail space at 14 Pine Street in Stockbridge.
“ This is the fulfillment of a dream to have a permanent home 21 years later,” says Berkshire Waldorf High School Executive Director Stephen Sagarin.“ It feels a lot like buying your first home.”“ There ' s a lot of amazing history in this little area right here,” adds the school’ s chief financial officer and former town selectboard member Patrick White.“ We’ re looking forward to figuring out how to honor that history and bring it forward into a new chapter.”
The town square, including where Old Town Hall sits today, was near the burial grounds of the Mohican Tribe. Two of the five original members of the town’ s first selectboard in 1739— sachems Konkapot and Umpachene— were Mohicans. Upon the town’ s incorporation in 1739, a town meeting house built on the town square served as both a congregational house of worship and a place to conduct town business. The Stockbridge Town House, now the back portion of Old Town Hall, was built in 1839 on the town square, allowing for the separation of church and state for the first time. Town offices were also built at 34 Main Street in 1884, since the Town House building was then considered too small to house all town government functions.
In 1904, the Town House building was moved south, turned to face east, and incorporated into a large addition, enabling it to become the Town Hall( Old Town Hall, as it’ s known today). As part of the Town Hall, there was a police station and an assembly room for town meetings and community events like dances and movies, making it a center for the town. The building was condemned in 1961 due to poor working conditions, but renovations in 1963 improved and expanded office capacity in Town Hall. The town then sold the 34 Main St. building, relocating and recentralizing town government in Town Hall.
In 2007, town offices moved to 50 Main Street in the renovated former Stockbridge Plain School, in part because Town Hall was not ADA accessible.( Renovations to the Old Town Hall included adding an elevator, making it a viable space for community gatherings once again.) Because of its location near the congregational church and the golf course, the church, which owned the building and most of the surrounding parking area, wanted to ensure they found the right buyer. Since the school only needs parking during the weekdays and not over the summer, it was a perfect fit and didn’ t conflict with parking during the golf club’ s high summer season or during Sunday church services.
After a lengthy search for the right space to call home, the decision to purchase the Old Town Hall was a perfect solution for the school. The school and church already had a good relationship, established during the pandemic when the school used the church’ s sanctuary and meeting space for socially distanced classroom space.
“ We looked at roughly 40 properties from just south of Great Barrington to north of Stockbridge, mostly along the Route 7 corridor,” Sagarin says.“ This was definitely not the least expensive. In fact, it was probably the most expensive, but also the perfect location, the perfect size, and a historical building, as well. And this building became a serious option in 2022 with the emergence of several deep-pocket donors who really anchored the project.” Thanks to those donors and community efforts, the Old Town Hall building was saved from being demolished. That would have been costly anyway, because the building contained lead paint, asbestos, and other materials collected over nearly two centuries of use that would have cost someone – either the town or the church – a lot of money to properly abate and dispose of, explains Teresa O ' Brient, chair of the Berkshire Waldorf High School Board of Trustees. The school remediated the hazardous material as part of the cost of the renovations.
Total costs were estimated at $ 6.5 million for construction, including architecture, furniture, and fixtures, with an overall budget of close to $ 8 million. Construction began in March 2024 and
Two Berkshire Waldorf High School students stand inside the Old Town Hall with the school’ s chief financial officer, Patrick White, center left, and Stephen Sagarin, executive director, center right.
Fall 2025 BERKSHIRE MAGAZINE // 61