The serene vista of the Westfield River Valley served as lifelong inspiration for William Cullen Bryant, who was editor and publisher of the New York Evening Post for many years, and whose meditative verse influenced the nineteenth-century land conservation movement that included Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot, founder of The Trustees.
From 1865 until his death in 1878, Bryant summered here at what had been his childhood home—a two-story-farmhouse-turned-three-story Victorian cottage full of Colonial and Victorian pieces from the poet’s family, as well as exotic memorabilia from his extensive European and Asian travels. The Homestead’s pastoral landscape encompasses pastures, fields, and woodlands.
Currently operated by the nonprofit Trustees of Reservations, the homestead is open to the public. Guided tours are available.