The Mount Receives $750,000 Gift, Restructures Debt

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 21st 2009 at 3:02PM

The Mount, the historic Massachusetts home of author Edith Wharton, is slowly struggling out from under a mountain of debt with the help of a new restructuring plan. The home received a $750,000 gift from The Alice M. Kaplan Memorial Reserve,. A new plan will cut the Mount's funded debt almost in half to $4.7 million. The estate is planning a summer festival as well as an expanded program of workshops and lectures.

The Mount is located in the Berkshires area of Massachusetts which relies on summer tourism for its local museums and estates. The Mount is part of the "American Icons" admission program which lets visitors purchase special package deal tickets to four cultural institutions: Chesterwood and the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, The Mount and Hancock Shaker Village in Hancock. Chesterwood was the summer home of sculptor Daniel Chester French. The Berkshires area is also the home of Tanglewood, the summer venue for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The season starts July 3.

Gallery: Edith Wharton's The Mount