About our historic home
The Weathervane Inn, built circa 1786 (the living room with original beehive oven is the oldest section of the house), was the home of Col. Joseph Curtis, a yeoman who migrated from Newington, CT to South Egremont in 1780 at the age of 24 with his wife Rebecca and infant son Jasper in search of farmland and fortune. Over the next 30 years, Col Curtis became a wealthy man and self-styled Gentleman and Esquire as a result of land transactions made along what became, primarily through his efforts as a petitioner, the County Road extension from South Egremont to Great Barrington (today Route 23), and the Alford & Egremont Turnpike (today Route 71). At the time of his death in 1810, this house was part of a 150-acre working farm. Upon Rebecca’s death in 1823, the family’s homestead was transferred to their son, Wilber. Both Col. Curtis and his consort Rebecca are buried in Mt. Everett Cemetery, next to the inn.
At the time he inherited his father’s home, Wilber was a married man with five children and a wealthy and prominent citizen in his own right. Over the course of his lifetime, Wilber Curtis was actively involved in state politics (as a member of both branches of the Massachusetts Legislature and a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1853), business (as founder and the first president of the Mahaiwe Bank in Gt. Barrington), local government (as Magistrate and Justice of the Peace in Gt. Barrington) and philanthropy (as founder and trustee of the Egremont Academy and the First Congregational Church).
In keeping with an architectural movement sweeping New England in the first half of the 19th century, Wilber added the Greek Revival addition to the house circa 1836 (the front section of the house). Wilber and his wife Maria (also buried in Mt. Everett Cemetery) lived in this house until 1852, when it was sold to Joseph Augustus Benjamin, a wealthy businessman and descendent of a family with a long settlement history in Egremont. In 1876, Joseph Benjamin named the house Twin Pines for the huge pine trees located on the front lawn. The house remained in the Benjamin family until 1892, and then transferred ownership over the next 50 years as a private residence.
The house remained a private residence until the 1940s, when then owners William & Doris Mullaney built one-room guest cottages on the property and become Innkeepers & Common Victuallers. Since then, although under different names (Twin Pines, The Gifford House, The Red Saber, The McMeekin House, and finally the Weathervane Inn in 1980), this house has been a home away from home for thousands of visitors to the Berkshires.