BCD was founded in 1946 by a group of local parents who wanted to give their children a certain style of education which they felt was not available in the area. It began with 12 students in one building on the campus of the Lenox School for Boys, an Episcopal all-boys boarding school. Initially, the school covered only grades 1-6 and tuition ranged from only $150 to $310, depending on the grade. In 1957, the school expanded to include a seventh and eighth grade and kindergarten and preschool, and moved into two new buildings. The school's main building, housing the pre-k through sixth grade, was moved to the Starks' former family home on Walker Street in Lenox. The seventh and eighth grade, on the other hand, were housed in Bassett Hall, a building close by, which is now Kemble Inn. BCD's enrollment soared from 58 students in 1958 to 183 in 1963. Then, in 1963, the school purchased its current campus, the Brook Farm Campus. Initially, the campus was only used by the younger students for classes, while the older students continued using the Walker Street Building, frequenting the new campus for sports and co-curricular activities. However, this arrangement lasted for only a year, as the Walker Street building was destroyed in a fire. In the academic year 1967-68, the school expanded to include a ninth grade. In 2000, the school opened Berkshire Country Day Secondary School, a high school division of the school consisting of grades 9-12. BCD's ninth grade was separated from BCD and became a part of BCD2s. The high school was located on Winthrop Campus, the summer home of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, which the school rented from Boston University during the academic year. However, in June 2007 at the end of the academic year, BCD2s was closed, although the ninth grade class option was kept and added back to the BCD student body. Currently, the school solely resides at its Brook Farm campus, serving students from 2-years-old through ninth grade. Even though the Winthrop Campus is no longer used by the school, BCD is still permitted by Boston University to use the West St. Theater for its upper school theater productions, talent show, and film festival.
Brook Farm Campus
Berkshire Country Day School is currently wholly located at its Brook Farm campus near Lenox, Massachusetts. The campus dates back to the 1890s and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as it was once a working farm on Anson Phelps Stokes' Shadowbrook estate. Mr. Stokes built the 1,000 acre estate, complete with its mansion that encompassed 100 rooms and stretched 410 feet, as a summer cottage in 1892–1896. However, after only ten years the family sold the estate to Mr. Spencer Shotter. It was then leased to Mrs. Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt in 1916 and 1917 before being sold to Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Mr. Carnegie inhabited the estate until 1919 when he passed. The New England Province of the Society of Jesus purchased the estate in 1922 and used it as their seminary. Unfortunately, in 1956 the entire Shadowbook mansion burned to the ground in a tragic fire. The Society rebuilt a new brick building on the site of the previous mansion and maintained it for their society until 1970. The estate laid vacant until 1983, when the Kripalu Center purchased the mansion's section of the property. Meanwhile, the farm section of the ex-estate had been passed down through the family to Stokes' son, Anson Phelps Stokes, Jr., who lived there with his family. The old Shadowbrook farm is now the current campus of BCD. It consists of the original farm buildings, as well as new additions recently built. The fields that were once farmed and used for animal pasture are now sports fields and playgrounds, and much of the woodland is traced with hiking trails. Also, in 1972, a house for the head of school was built at the rear of the property.
Art
The many different arts courses offered to the classes at BCD include both visual and performing arts, and include ceramics, painting & drawing, mixed media, sculpture, jewelry design, woodcraft, vocal ensemble, digital music composition, and guitar ensemble. Students from preschool through Grade 6 participate in art, music, and chorus classes two times a week throughout the course of the year. The middle schoolers also partake in a term of shop, and have the option of participating in the Middle School Band or Chorus. Once in grades 7-9, kids are able to choose from a list of arts classes two courses to study for their "Arts Blocks" periods, the two last periods of the day on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Students take two Arts Block courses during each trimester of the year.
Division structure
The school is sectioned into four divisions:
Early Childhood
Early Childhood includes Beginner 2s, Beginners, and Pre-Kindergarten. Their main classrooms are located in Albright Building, whose upper floor also serves as the Administrative Offices.
Lower School
The lower school includes Kindergarten and grades 1, 2, and 3 and is based in Oakes Building. They also have classes in Furey Hall, Peseckis, Fitzpatrick, Albright, Peterson, and SESL.
Middle School
Grades 4, 5, and 6 constitute the Middle School of BCD. The Middle School grades' homerooms are located in Peterson, though they use most of the same classrooms as the Upper School-ers, alternating between Peterson, Ryan, and Peseckis for their academic classes and Fitzpatrick, Oakes, Clemons, and Furey Hall for arts, foreign language, and technology classes.
Upper School
BCD's Upper School consists of its 7th and 8th graders as well as its Senior class, the 9th grade. These three grades have their homerooms in Ryan as well as some of their classes, but they also have classes in Furey Hall, Peterson, Peseckis, Oakes, and Clemons.
Extracurriculars Activities
Berkshire Country Day School offers excellent extra-curricular opportunities - Band, Ceramics, Chorus, Creative Writing, Drama, Newspaper, Photography, Yearbook & more.
