Bascom Lodge

Perched atop the summit of the state's highest mountain, BASCOM LODGE crowns the centerpiece of a 12,500-acre wilderness park. Built in the depths of the Great Depression, by volunteers in the Civilian Conservation Corps., the lodge was designed in an architectural style that would later become an inspiration for many of America's national park buildings. Constructed of local stone, quarried from the mountain, and old-growth red spruce timbers, harvested from the slopes of "The Hopper," the lodge, as we see it today, opened its doors in 1937; and will celebrate its 87TH season of operation in 2024.
BASCOM LODGE is named in honor of John Bascom, Professor of Rhetoric at Williams College, President of the University of Wisconsin, the reservation's first Commissioner, the namesake of the WW2 "Liberty Ship" the S. S. John Bascom, an ardent proponent for the construction of a lodge befitting the grandeur of the mountain.

Originally intended to provide hearty souls in search of adventure and spiritual renewal with a place to rest and take shelter from the elements, today the lodge serves a much more complex and diverse array of patrons whose needs and expectations go beyond mere room and board. Whether they are hikers or cyclists out for the day, lodgers attending a music concert or summer stock theater, school children on a field trip, or "holidaymakers," visiting the Berkshires for the first time, Bascom Lodge provides a casual setting to refresh the spirit and nourish the body.