How Beechwood went from full of life to foreclosure. We go inside a fabled Cheshire mansion’s long reign and abrupt fall – Berkshire Eagle

CHESHIRE The dense, green veil of growth that wraps the former Beechwood House on Route 8 was just hacked away. Why? After years of neglect, visitors are coming Friday.

The haircut isnt doing this grand old lady any favors.

The mansion, an early American tavern and, later, a summer refuge for New Yorks elite, sits open in places to the weather, its clapboards loose, roofline heaving, hinges sagging, doors mismatched. In the past decade, it drew squatters, not socialites.

We can never recover these lost historical structures. Unfortunately, our society doesnt appreciate the historical value of them.

Barry Emery, Cheshire historian

Out back, missing boards above two windows suggest a scowl.

Thats what strangers will find at noon Friday, when the fabled building at 12 South St., built not long after the Revolutionary War and dramatically remodeled a century later, faces a foreclosure auction.

Once again, one of Cheshires most historic buildings, and perhaps its most distressed, stands at a crossroads.

Ill be very surprised if there arent a lot of bidders there, said Carol Francesconi, a former Select Board member. She said she has gotten calls from people asking about the building. Its prime property for the town of Cheshire.

Longtime residents see past the blight. Some hope what comes next for this historic address, at the prominent corner of South Street and West Mountain Road, will enrich the towns civic life, not diminish it.

For some reason, everybody in town is connected to it and everyone cares about it, said Jill Reynolds, who runs a business, Cheshire Glassworks, next door. Everybody wants to see something good happen with it. Its the center of town its right there. Its literally the heart of the town.

Beechwood House in Cheshire, as it appeared more than a century ago.

Dense growth surrounds much of the current 12 South St. property in Cheshire, formerly known as Beechwood.

A view of the rear of the building at 12 South St. in Cheshire, the property erected in 1975 by Moses Wolcott.

A view of the original tavern erected in 1795 by Moses Wolcott on South Street in Cheshire, two years after the town's incorporation. More than 70 years later, a different owner radically transformed the building's look.

At one time, the Pittsfield-Adams street railway passed through Cheshire.

The back side of the former Beechwood House in Cheshire, which faces a foreclosure auction Friday, Aug. 27, 2021.

The late Peter J. Krutiak operated a bed and breakfast from the 12 South St. property in Cheshire.

This view of the former Beechwood House in Cheshire shows a section of the building that has been removed. The former roof line is visible in the upper center.

The former Wolcott Tavern in Cheshire, after its transformation, in 1869, by owner Felix Petitclerc.

Looking though a picture window at the rear of the house, visitors to 12 South St. in Cheshire see objects left abandoned by previous occupants.

Felix Petitclerc's monument stone, showing his date of death as 1890. After his passing, the historic Cheshire home he had preserved became known as the Beechwood House.

At one point, this sign welcomed visitors to the Beechwood property in Cheshire.

The former Beechwood House, at 12 South St. in Cheshire, is assessed by the town at $115,300, with the land worth more than the building, according to town records.

When the building was remodeled, in 1869, the new owner transformed the look of Mose Wolcott's 1795 tavern into a Second Empire-style dwelling with Mansard roof and bay windows.

Beechwood House in Cheshire, as it appeared more than a century ago.

Dense growth surrounds much of the current 12 South St. property in Cheshire, formerly known as Beechwood.

A view of the rear of the building at 12 South St. in Cheshire, the property erected in 1975 by Moses Wolcott.

A view of the original tavern erected in 1795 by Moses Wolcott on South Street in Cheshire, two years after the town's incorporation. More than 70 years later, a different owner radically transformed the building's look.

At one time, the Pittsfield-Adams street railway passed through Cheshire.

The back side of the former Beechwood House in Cheshire, which faces a foreclosure auction Friday, Aug. 27, 2021.

The late Peter J. Krutiak operated a bed and breakfast from the 12 South St. property in Cheshire.

This view of the former Beechwood House in Cheshire shows a section of the building that has been removed. The former roof line is visible in the upper center.

The former Wolcott Tavern in Cheshire, after its transformation, in 1869, by owner Felix Petitclerc.

Looking though a picture window at the rear of the house, visitors to 12 South St. in Cheshire see objects left abandoned by previous occupants.

Felix Petitclerc's monument stone, showing his date of death as 1890. After his passing, the historic Cheshire home he had preserved became known as the Beechwood House.

At one point, this sign welcomed visitors to the Beechwood property in Cheshire.

The former Beechwood House, at 12 South St. in Cheshire, is assessed by the town at $115,300, with the land worth more than the building, according to town records.

When the building was remodeled, in 1869, the new owner transformed the look of Mose Wolcott's 1795 tavern into a Second Empire-style dwelling with Mansard roof and bay windows.

Cheshire had been incorporated for just two years when Moses Wolcott built the sites original home, using timbers that are still in there, beneath years of remodeling.

A view of the original tavern erected in 1795 by Moses Wolcott on South Street in Cheshire, two years after the town's incorporation. More than 70 years later, a different owner radically transformed the building's look.

Barry Emery, a town historian, dates the home to 1795. He said Wolcott operated a tavern and, in a side building, a store. The towns farmers celebrated Thomas Jeffersons election in 1800 by sending him a 1,235-pound cheese containing curds from every local dairy.

Decades go by. Wolcott keeps at it for years, sometimes tapping others to run the tavern. In the Cheshire town history published in 1885, Wolcotts name bobs up again and again, as authors Emma L. Petitclerc and Ellen M. Raynor chronicle, in their floral prose, his rising prosperity.

Wolcott seems to have made a killing on cheese, buying up supplies from local farms for sale around the Northeast, according to Petitclerc and Raynor, gathering the golden products of the farms, tier after tier of cheese, and row after row of jars packed with sweet fall butter, which he held until the proper time to ship and sell.

Wolcotts Cheshire legacy, to the authors in 1885, seemed far away. A grist mill he built had fallen into disrepair even then, when the tract was far larger than today.

The ruins still stand, the brook laughs along its stony bed, tumbles over the white boulders as fresh and young as when it turned the wheel, now crumbling away, they wrote.

Inside the tavern, and a cluster of related buildings, life was good through the first half of the 1800s.

The bar room always wore a bright and cheery look as very many of those living to-day can testify, Petitclerc and Raynor wrote.

The tavern-keepers inside this landmark seemed to come and go: Alpheus Smith, of North Adams, in 1825; Nathaniel Waterman from 1827 to 1835; then Allan Tucker for several years, according to Petitclerc and Raynor. In 1844, J.B. Dean opened a store on the property.

For decades, Wolcotts sprawling property served as a kind of business incubator. It created community.

In cool days, a bright fire of hard wood logs burned upon the hearth of the open fire place, arm chairs stood all about the nicely swept room, where the morning sun lay in bars of silvery light all the wintry morning hours, Petitclerc and Raynor wrote. Where the villagers dropped in from time to time during the day to inquire of the news and to chat a while with the neighbors already seated around the bright fire.

Felix Petitclerc's monument stone, showing his date of death as 1890. After his passing, the historic Cheshire home he had preserved became known as the Beechwood House.

Dexter Angel came on in 1859 to run the tavern, followed by Nathaniel Angel in 1862 and Daniel Morey in 1864. When Morey left, the tavern closed, ending more than 70 years as a public house.

In 1866, Felix Petitclerc, likely kin to that early town historian, Emma, bought Wolcotts tavern and dramatically remodeled it, adopting the Second Empire architectural style then popular and putting on its new mansard roof and replacing small windowpanes with deep bay windows. It became his home, ending the buildings long public life but only for a spell.

He kept the bones of the house exactly the same, Emery, the current historian, said of Petitclerc. According to the 1885 town history, Petitclerc had visited the Wolcott tavern as a child of about 12 and had stayed in a front room. Petitclerc returned to make Cheshire his home, accumulating a fortune as manager of the Cheshire Glass Sand Works and helping to organize the Cheshire Water Co.

This was another old landmark preserved with generous care, but, which from this time appears in a new dress, the authors wrote of Petitclerc in 1885.

Mentions of the property abound in old newspapers at the end of the 19th century. It had become known, two decades after Petitclercs makeover, and Petitclercs death in 1890, as Beechwood. It would go on to be referred to as the Beechwood House, Beechwood Hotel and, by the middle of the 20th century, as the Beechwood Nursing Home and Beechwood Rest Home.

Columns in The Berkshire Evening Eagle and in the Pittsfield Sun regularly listed which tony out-of-towners were staying at Beechwood. New Yorkers, especially, had found Cheshire, including a notorious madam who bought Greylock Villa in town and lived there often with her employees on holiday, according to Emery.

The Beechwood property continued to change hands. The ownership chain can be hard to pin down.

In February 1893, The Eagle noted that W.J. McDonald, formerly of Dalton, was the new proprietor at Beechwood House, adding, Many of his friends from this town will avail themselves of Mr. McDonalds hospitality.

In August 1901, Joseph H. Ressler, headwaiter at the Ellis restaurant in Pittsfield, bought it.

Mr. Resslers friends will be glad to hear of his success, the Pittsfield Sun reported. A trolley now ran by the business.

He will keep the inn open the year round, The Eagle reported, catering to summer country lovers in the season, and to sleighing and trolley parties in the winter.

A January 1912 newspaper ad for a major auction at Beechwood House signaled yet another transition of some sort, listing a slew of farm animals for sale, including horses, cows, shoats, buggies, blankets, harnesses and 111 chickens. The notice said the property just had been sold by John Rofenole.

The former Wolcott Tavern in Cheshire, after its transformation, in 1869, by owner Felix Petitclerc.

Skip ahead two decades, over a global flu epidemic, world war and financial crisis. P.S. Penner moved his family down from North Adams and opened a home bakery in Beechwood in June 1932.

The building became a home for the elderly by the 1940s, newspaper coverage suggests, and operated in that way into the 1980s once again a place of public life. Members of Girl Scout Troop 155 brought Thanksgiving gifts to residents in 1958. In February 1960, residents celebrated the 95th birthday of Lura Emerson, the homes oldest resident who had run her own nursing home on North Street for 28 years.

Francesconi, the former Select Board member, remembers helping out, as a child in the 1960s, at Beechwood, where her mother worked. She carried meals to residents seven rooms upstairs, seven rooms downstairs, and four more in back. The place was well-respected, she said.

A tag sale at Beechwood in November 1982 augured a change: The place was selling out all its furnishings, including linens, blankets and dishes.

That was a few years before the late Peter J. Krutiak, whose estate owns the property today, and which faces Fridays foreclosure auction, bought the property.

Peoples Choice Home Loan says the estate breached conditions of the $136,500 mortgage it gave Krutiak in February 2002. He had been the sole owner since September 1993, when it was transferred to him at no cost by a co-owner, Linda D. Krutiak. Land records show that Peter Krutiak used some proceeds of the 2002 mortgage to pay off a 1993 loan from the Adams Co-Operative Bank.

As of the last fiscal year, the estates property was valued at $115,300, with the land worth more than the building, according to town records.

Krutiak came to own not only Beechwood, but other Cheshire tracts, including, just to the south, the old Cheshire Inn, which also had been built by Capt. Daniel Brown around 1795. Krutiak bought the Cheshire Inn for $77,000 in 1986 from Cyril H. Conrod and Mildred M. McCoy.

Twenty-seven years later, in March 2013, Krutiak stood outside the Cheshire Inn watching workers level it. A raccoon living on the third floor was seen scrambling down an outside wall, evicted by the wreckers. Townspeople, like Diane Hitter, had tried to save the inn; repairs, though, were pegged at over $1 million.

The town had taken the property in 2011 for failure to pay taxes; it shelled out about $45,000 to demolish the inn. Krutiak expressed regret at the loss.

I love old buildings but this one has just been too far gone for a decade, Krutiak told a reporter at the time.

Krutiak died of esophageal cancer in 2019, and his estate left the house and land to siblings, including Maryann Ogden, of Cheshire, who declined to speak about the familys handling of the property.

A year after the Cheshire Inn went down, Krutiak brought forward a plan to sell the Beechwood property two doors to the north to Dollar General. At town meetings, people fretted about traffic, safety and the sites changing character. It wasnt the first intrusion of chain-store commerce on a historic property. Ten years before, Dunkin Donuts had proposed leveling the Cheshire Inn for a store, also with Krutiak as the prospective seller. Neither deal went ahead.

Steps leading to Fridays foreclosure auction began Feb. 6, 2019, with a filing by the lender, Peoples Home Choice Loan.

Even those who prize historic properties believe Beechwoods long run is near an end. Emery walked the outside of the building a month ago and doesnt think it can be saved. That pains him.

Looking though a picture window at the rear of the house, visitors to 12 South St. in Cheshire see objects left abandoned by previous occupants.

We can never recover these lost historical structures, he said. Unfortunately, our society doesnt appreciate the historical value of them.

For years, Francesconi hoped for a better outcome for her mothers former workplace at 12 South St.

Its a sad situation because that house at one time was a beautiful place, she said. They just let it fall into disrepair. Its ready to fall down. Its going to have to be torn down. I cant see how it will be fixed.

Reynolds, the glass artist, grew up in Cheshire and remembers admiring the Beechwood, before it fell dark and silent and brush climbed its walls. Krutiak was the landlord for her shop next door, where she has been for 15 years.

He loved that place and put his heart and soul into it, she said of the mans connection to Beechwood. He did a beautiful job, but he couldnt keep up with it.

Everyone moved out and people just kind of left. Then it just deteriorated. Its just a shame it got to the state it is, Reynolds said. I wish it had a different fate.

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How Beechwood went from full of life to foreclosure. We go inside a fabled Cheshire mansion's long reign and abrupt fall - Berkshire Eagle