Location
Several sites were considered for the new college. The first choice was a site in New Lebanon, N.Y., occupied by the Darrow School, which refused to sell. The final choice was the estate of Dan Hanna (son of Mark Hanna) in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
The choice of this location may have been influenced by Scott Buchanan, who, according to Samuel Sass, was familiar with the area, having graduated in 1912 from Pittsfield High School. The site, officially known as Bonny Brier Farm, already contained eighteen buildings, including an inn, a dormitory, and a boathouse located on 2,500 feet (760 m) of lakeshore frontage on the lake known as Stockbridge Bowl. When the project was announced in 1946, Buchanan expected the institution to be open by September 1947, indicating that "the present buildings are sufficient to answer its purposes for the opening and the number of students attending in the first year or two." The site was about a mile and a half from Tanglewood, home of what was then called the Berkshire Symphonic Festival; in fact, it was the venue for that festival in 1934 and 1935, the first two years of its existence.
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