Mountain Rest

Mountain Rest
The retreat's Avery Cottage, c. 1910
Location Goshen, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°27′36″N 72°50′23″W / 42.46000°N 72.83972°W / 42.46000; -72.83972Coordinates: 42°27′36″N 72°50′23″W / 42.46000°N 72.83972°W / 42.46000; -72.83972
Area 32.77 acres (13.26 ha)
Built 1902 (1902)
Architect Henry Hathaway & Sons
NRHP reference # 83003984[1]
Added to NRHP November 10, 1983

Mountain Rest is a historic religious summer retreat[2] on Wildwood Lane, off Spruce Corner Road in Goshen, Massachusetts. Built in the first decade of the 20th century, it served as a retreat for Christian missionaries to foreign countries during periods of furlough in the United States, and as a training facility for future missionaries. The camp was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.[1] The camp closed in 1970, and in 1987 the complex was converted to condominiums.

Description and history

Mountain Rest is located in the northwest part of Goshen, a rural community in the central eastern Berkshires. It is a cluster of buildings on Wildwood Road, formerly the camp's access road, north of Massachusetts Route 9 off Spruce Corner Road. The camp has seven buildings, all of wood frame construction, organized around the drive, which ends in a loop around which most of the buildings are arranged. The largest of the buildings is Scudder Hall, a two-story building constructed in 1902 as a dormitory, which served as the focal point of the community. The most architecturally sophisticated is Avery Cottage, a four-story multi-gabled structure with Victorian stylistic elements.[3]

The camp was established in 1902 by Dr. George Dowkontt, a leading missionary physician and founder of the New York Medical Missionary Society. It was established on land donated by Alvan Barrus, a state senator. The purpose of the camp was to provide a retreat for missionaries and their families while in between assignments, and to provide for the exchange of formal and practical knowledge associated with missionary activities. Notable attendees of the camp included Dr. William Wanless and Dr. Ida Scudder, for whom Scudder Hall was named. The camp operated until 1970, by which time the scale of American missionary activity had been greatly reduced.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2008-04-15). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ New York Observer, 1910
  3. 1 2 "NRHP nomination for Mountain Rest". National Archive. Retrieved 2017-10-29.
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