Wainwright Hall

This photo, taken in October 1879, shows the historic Wainwright Hall, today the Wainwright Inn B&B, on Main Street in Great Barrington Massachusetts. The house as it is shown here is still as it was built by Peter Ingersoll in 1766. In 1890 the house was enlarged with two porches and an extension at the rear.

David Wainwright purchased the house from Ingersoll in the 1790s and it later passed to his descendant, Ebenezer Pope, in 1840. Pope’s family owned the property through the early 1900s.

Here, owner Franklin L. Pope, a prominent electrician at the end of the 19th century and then-owner of the house, stands on the far right next to Harvey Holmes. Seated is “Mrs. Schutt,” probably Emma, born in 1798 in Mount Washington MA. She is the mother of Harriet Holmes, in the doorway, wife of Orville Holmes, who is on the left. Orville and Harriet Holmes and Mrs. Schutt were tenants in the house.

Of those shown, Orville, Harriet, Mrs. Schutt and Pope were all dead in the next four years. Pope, the youngest of them, was killed by an electric shock in the basement of the house.