Beauty in the Berkshires

What: 90-acre estate with a 106-room Shingle-style main house; 11 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms in 55,000 square feet.

Where: Lenox, Mass.

Amenities: Butler's and gardener's cottages, greenhouse, 1,200-square-foot dining room fitting 110 people. Stable, barns, frontage on 20-acre pond.

Asking Price: $21.5 million

Opening Bid*: $20.9 million

Listing Agents: Maureen M. Dietze, Alton & Westall Agency, in Williamstown, Mass., (413) 458-8366

Due Diligence: This estate, in the Berkshires region of Western Massachusetts, was built in 1887 by Emily Vanderbilt and William Douglas Sloane, of W&J Sloane Furniture Co. It was designed by Peabody & Stearns, the Boston architectural firm that designed The Breakers in Newport, R.I. The grounds were created by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, a designer of New York's Central Park and Boston's Emerald Necklace. The property, which still has its original acreage and four dwellings, is listed on the National Historic Register. Owners Bob and Sonya Berle purchased the property in 1999; they say they restored much of the main house to its original 19th-century form and updated its electrical wiring and plumbing. The kitchen suite has a butler's pantry, breakfast room and original dark-stained cabinetry. Six bedrooms are en suite. Three bathrooms have original soaking tubs. (Three have contemporary spa tubs.)

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