A driver crashed into a historic home in Lenox, Massachusetts, on Friday, destroying a porch that the homeowner’s grandfather built more than a century ago. The crash happened at the house at 73 Main Street, according to The Berkshire Eagle.
A silver sedan went off the road. It traveled through the wooded yard of the property. It then collided with the porch. That account comes from Jim Brooke, the homeowner’s brother, who went to the scene after the crash.
Several people were inside the house at the time, working on renovations, Brooke said. None of them was injured. Brooke said the driver appeared to decline medical attention at the scene.
A member of the Lenox Police Department said Friday afternoon that he did not have any information about the crash. The damage came just weeks after the Lenox Historical Commission awarded the property a plaque designating it a historic home, Brooke said. He said his grandfather built the destroyed porch in 1906.
What Is the History of the House at 73 Main Street?
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The house is known as the James Robbins House, built around 1807, and later as Ludlow Cottage. A Lenox Historical Commission survey published by the Lenox Historical Society describes it as a Federal-style, two-story wood frame house with clapboard siding, a five-bay center entrance, and a hipped roof. The survey notes a front entry porch with fluted Doric columns, along with a separate one-story porch off the left side of the house with lattice walls, Roman-arched openings, and a stone foundation.
The original owners were James and Maria Robbins. The house was sold in 1850 to Ammi Robbins, who kept it until 1866, and during those years, it was said to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. It passed out of the Robbins family in 1902, and in 1906 it was sold to Louisa Ludlow, which is where the Ludlow Cottage name comes from. The historical society’s record traces the house from the Ludlow family down through the Brooke family and, in 2001, to a granddaughter.
What’s Still Unknown About the Crash
Basic details have not been released. Lenox police said Friday afternoon that they did not have information available, and no cause has been given for the crash. The driver has not been identified, and it is not clear whether any citation was issued.
The full extent of the damage to the house has not been detailed either. Renovation work was underway inside when the sedan struck the building, and the porch destroyed in the crash was the one Brooke said his grandfather built in 1906. The town’s historic plaque for the property arrived only weeks before.