They tell the story that in the midst of the Great Depression, 1934, New York Philharmonic Conductor Henry Hadley was traveling down Route 183 in Stockbridge. He saw the horse barn and riding ring at the Dan Hanna estate, Bonnie Brier (DeSisto today), and pronounced it “perfect.”
Hadley dreamed of a summer music festival that brought culture to the country and year-round employment to his orchestra. The man showing Hadley around, scouting locations, was a reporter for the Springfield Republican. He also introduced Hadley to Gertrude Robinson Smith.
Smith—a woman of girth, guts, and money—enlisted a few friends and made it happen. The money was raised, the Berkshire Symphonic Festival (BSF) was founded, concerts planned, a venue selected, and Hadley’s baton raised at the first performance just three months after he met Smith at her summer home, The Residence, in Stockbridge.
The first concert took place on August 23, 1934, at 8:30 p.m., in the horse ring at the Hanna Farm in Stockbridge. The first two years went well. It was down-home Stockbridge. Tickets were sold in the back of what is today Minkler Insurance on Main Street. In New England style, Hadley was praised and thanked publicly, but, privately, he was told to step up his game. Between 1934 and 1935, he enlarged the orchestra and refined the programs. It is unclear what he might have done in year three as he fell ill.
The BSF faced the 1936 season with nothing—no orchestra, no conductor, and no venue. Hadley died, and the woman employed at the Hanna Farm who volunteered to sell the tickets pocketed the money and was serving time.
Smith called upon BSF board member Georgie DeHeredia at Wheatleigh. Together they approached Mrs. Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt at Holmwood (Foxhollow today) and secured it as the venue.
Smith then contacted Maestro Artur Rodzinski of the Cleveland Orchestra at his summer place in Stockbridge. He was readily available, but not the least interested. Of the three major orchestras in the U.S., only the Boston Symphony Orchestra remained. Smith made the call and the rest, as they say, is history.
The arrangement between the BSO and BSF was struck. August 1936, as Serge Koussevitzky conducted Wagner, a thunderstorm drowned the music and the audience. The indomitable Smith rose to her feet and shouted over the storm demanding the money to build an enclosure. She raised $10,000 in minutes (about $200,000 today).
Just before the 1937 season, Miss Mary Tappan and Mrs. Brooks, owners of the 210-acre Tanglewood, gave the estate to Maestro Serge Koussevitzky, who in turn gave it to the Boston Symphony Orchestra ensuring a permanent home for the summer music festival. Shortly after the first 210 acres were given to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky walked the grounds excited by the spectacular view. He said, “This is wonderful. We [will] make beautiful music here.”
The music was good, but there was not much harmony on the business side. On May 17, 1937, an agreement was reached and a contract signed to lease 25 acres for five years until 1941. It provided sufficient land to build an enclosure and have a parking lot.
Koussevitzky again toured the grounds, this time with friend and architect, Eero Saarinen. They planned a music pavilion looking rather Greek and costing an estimated $200,000 (about $4.2 million today). Smith had raised a tad over $70,000 after the thunderstorm. In her signature style, she commented, “Those boys will have to be reigned in.”
To the contrary, when Saarinen was told of the funds available, he quit. His parting words were the now famous comment, “For that amount of money, all you can build is a shed.”
And so Stockbridge did. Joseph Franz, Stockbridge selectman and electrical engineer, built the Shed that stands at Tanglewood to this day.
George Edman, Berkshire Evening Eagle editor and BSF board member, explained, “If the BSO fails to live up to its part of the agreement (to present an agreed upon number of concerts) all title to the property and the shed which we erected reverts to BSF. If we fail to live up to our part of the agreement (to manage and promote annual concerts in a suitable enclosure) the property including the shed reverts to the BSO.”
