At a small college like this one, it doesn’t take much to think you know campus like the back of your hand. Many students, however, are unaware of the sprawling estate owned by the College, located just a 10-minute drive from campus.
Most students will only come to know the 72-room Georgian mansion and expansive grounds of Mount Hope Farm at the end of their senior year, when the site hosts an annual senior dinner and dance. For many, it’s an upscale backdrop for the obligatory senior year Instagram post. But in fact, Mount Hope’s relationship with the College is a long and complex story spanning over 60 years.
Mount Hope Farm was founded by Colonel E. Parmalee Prentice and Alta Rockefeller Prentice — the daughter of John D. Rockefeller Sr. — in 1910, after the couple bought several parcels of land to create an estate of approximately 1,200 acres. The mansion on the estate was finished in 1928 as a summer residence for the Prentice family. It is formally named the Elm Tree House, in honor of the American elms that line its winding main drive.
Prentice was a successful lawyer from Chicago who developed a philanthropic interest in improving agriculture and farming practices. Beyond serving as a retreat for his family, Mount Hope was also meant to be the hub for agricultural research. Prentice was concerned that livestock farms were inefficient, and used Mount Hope to investigate new breeding techniques that would improve quality and quantity of food.
Research conducted at the farm was essential to the development of modern American farming, according to a thesis by Amanda Stout ’04 titled “Breeding hope: Science, philanthropy, and the history of Mount Hope Farm.”
Prentice’s ideas about farming challenged commonly accepted notions about cattle in the early 20th century. Most cattle farmers had not yet accepted biologist Gregor Mendel’s discoveries about genetics and insisted on breeding cattle based on pedigree. However, Prentice and the two full-time geneticists employed at Mount Hope — Dr. Edward F. Godfrey and Dr. Hubert Goodale — knew that the “purity” of farming animals was irrelevant to how much food they produced. Instead, they chose to breed animals based on their productivity.
A 1938 issue of Life Magazine characterized Mount Hope as a “foremost genetic station,” illustrating some of the farm’s successes, which included breeding chickens to lay over 30 percent more eggs with increased average weight and size and creating the first native type of non-pedigree dairy cattle, which became known as the American dairy cow. Milk production at Mount Hope increased so dramatically that the cows allegedly had to wear bras to keep their udders from dragging.
These research successes did not go unnoticed. Throughout the 1930s, the farm received awards from the governments of both Italy and Bulgaria for its contributions to agriculture. There was even a Bulgarian postage stamp released in 1938 that depicted a white leghorn chicken from Mount Hope imported by the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture.
Farming activity on the estate ended after Prentice’s death in 1955. When Alta Prentice later died in 1962, Mount Hope was bequeathed to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. In 1963 the College bought the 1,200 acres that made up the estate for $325,000 — around 3 million dollars today, adjusted for inflation — with the help of an anonymous foundation. According to a 1963 issue of The Berkshire Eagle announcing the sale, the College decided to purchase the estate in order to prevent further development on the property and help ensure that the Town could continue to benefit from taxing the property.
Even then, it was not clear how the College would use Mount Hope. In the early years of the College’s ownership, proposals to use it as another library or even open a sister college as an alternative to co-education were floated. Special Collections still has several pamphlets from the 1960s, which the College sent to alums promoting Mount Hope as a potential convention and research center and encouraging them to submit suggestions for its new purpose.
A column by Robert Krefting ’66 published in a 1963 issue of the Record pokes fun at the College’s purchase. “So dear old Eph-dom is left holding the bag, and a million-dollar milkless cow barn,” Krefting wrote. “There is one way out. (Oh, good!) What’s the most natural thing in the world to do with that vast loser on Route 43, the huge headache with the impossible future? Give it to Amherst.”
Amid uncertainty about how to best utilize the estate, the College held multiple diplomatic events at Mount Hope after purchasing it. In 1967, President John E. Sawyer hosted the King and Queen of Thailand, and Professor of Government, Emeritus, James Burns met with Lady Bird Johnson at Mount Hope when she was first lady. The mansion was the site of many glamorous dinners for alums, faculty events, and even fashion shows planned by the Women’s Faculty Club.
In 1978, however, the College was forced to sell the estate due to continuing $100,000-a-year deficits. The property was bought by August Mansker, a health spa executive. But, in 1984, Mansker could no longer pay his mortgage, and according to a 1998 news release from the College, a group of alums purchased the property once again. Parts of the estate were given to the alums that contributed or placed in a private land trust. The remaining land, including the mansion, was donated to the College.
Ever since, the College has used the estate for academic events and reunions, but in a limited capacity, due to the costs of maintaining the mansion and upgrading it to meet safety codes.
Recently, in addition to hosting the senior dinner and dance, Elm Tree House has also been used for a Global Scholars symposium and as the site of a day-long Winter Study retreat for the History Department’s thesis students.
Students who have been lucky enough to visit the property express surprise at its obscurity. Maite Rivera ’27 reflected on her experience at the property for the Global Scholars event last spring. “From the moment you enter the grounds it feels like you have gone back in time and landed in a 19th century novel,” she wrote to the Record. “It is such a unique place. I wish the college would utilize the space more.”
The questions posed in a 1970s issue of the Williams Alumni Review still remain relevant to Mount Hope today: “What would you do with a 1,000-acre dram property in Williamstown — one with wooded hills and spectacular views from a 72-room mansion looking down on open land and remote farm buildings — and operating deficits above $100,000 a year?”
