The Trustees of Reservations | Mission House

During my adventure through the Berkshires in July 2023, I visited Mission House, a property owned by the Trustees of Reservations located across the street from Historic New England’s Merwin House. This self-guided tour comes in two sections: a small museum telling the history of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians, and a Georgian style home with antique furniture.

Although more familiar with earlier colonial history than the average American, I did not know much about this community before visiting the museum, but the beautifully designed signage told the full story. While history textbooks frequently reference Cherokee Nation when describing colonization and displacement, European colonizers perpetuated the same acts of violence against many nations, including those who lived in Stockbridge. The exhibit telling this history began with the ancestors of the Mohicans and other Indigenous people, who arrived in the area between 12,500 and 10,000 years ago. A culture recognizable as Mohican formed around 3,000 years ago. European explorers made first contact with Mohican communities in 1609, while further exploration and trade continued until 1734.

In that year, the area entered the Mission Period, where Mission House derived its name. Twenty-four year old John Sergeant, a Christian missionary, arrived in Stockbridge to learn the local language and convert followers. While he wanted to assimilate the community into European culture, he did defend them against encroaching White settlers. Sergeant built the current house for his family around 1742 at a site that is now across the street from another Trustees property, Naumkeag. He intended to spend many years in Stockbridge, but he died only seven years later in 1749 at age thirty-nine. When the French & Indian War broke out in 1756, Mohican soldiers joined English soldiers in fighting the French. Their loyalty was not rewarded. In 1783, at the end of the American Revolutionary War, newly free White Americans expelled Mohican families from Stockbridge. The Sergeant family remained at Mission House.

Fortunately, Oneida Nation in New York welcomed Stockbridge Band to their homeland. From 1784 to 1820, Mohican families lived in their own town of New Stockbridge, because they loved the English name of their original home. Other Indigenous communities came to stockbridge. Delaware Lenape families arrived continually between 1802 and 1885, while Munsee families, the historic neighbors of Mohicans and cousins to the Delaware Lenape, joined Stockbridge Band in 1837. Throughout this time, White Americans continued pushing West and demanded that the government displace both Oneida Nation and Stockbridge-Munsee Band. While ambassadors tried to negotiate, the U.S. Government forced them to sign a treaty in 1856 that relocated the community to Wisconsin.

The Sergeant family still lived in Stockbridge for many years, but their house fell into disrepair. Philanthropist Mabel Choate bought the house in 1927 with the intention of using it as a storage space for her vast collection of American furniture and international art. She moved the building to its present location and turned it into a museum. When she died in 1958, she left the property to the trustees. Members of Stockbridge-Munsee Band live in Stockbridge, WI to this day, never forgetting the name of their hometown. Relations between the Indigenous community and White residents of Stockbridge have improved in the present day, especially with the reopening of the museum in 2021.

The museum at Mission House was among the best mini exhibits that I have visited. The information was eye-opening, concise, and written in plain language. The space was well-lit and easy to navigate. In contrast, Mission House itself was dimly lit and narrow, with rooms visible only behind dirty plexiglass. The entire Mission House complex is free and open to the public from sunrise to sunset during the spring, summer, and fall. The gardens are open all year. Both the Stockbridge-Munsee museum and the furniture displayed at Mission House are on the ground floor. The museum is wheelchair accessible, while the house requires a step up to enter the building. Parking is available on street in the lot across the street from the cemetery about a quarter mile down a paved sidewalk.

Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 8/10

Accessibility: 5/10