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Cheney

Cheney Studio was given to the Colony by Mrs. Benjamin P. Cheney and Mrs. Karl Kauffman. Like Barnard Studio, Cheney is a low, broadly massed bungalow. Sited on a steep westward slope, its porches are supported on wooden posts and fieldstone with lattices. Although it still retains its appealing character, the original design of the shingled…
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Delta Omicron

Delta Omicron Studio was funded by members of the musical fraternity in 1927. The building design is somewhat medieval in character, with an unusual cedar shingle pattern, a steeply pitched slate roof, intersecting gables, and small windows. After a 2016 deep-energy renovation, Delta Omicron is now the most energy efficient studio on the property. To enhance an…
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Firth

Originally a working barn perched atop the namesake hill of Hillcrest Farm, this building was converted to serve the arts in 1956. A grand set of windows was installed to make the large interior suitable for visual artists, bringing in abundant natural light from the north. The addition of a screened porch and accessible entrance ramp…
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Putnam

The Graphics Studio, converted to its present use in 1972–1974 through a grant from the Putnam Foundation, originally served the Colony as both a power house and pump house. Well water was pumped from a large cistern to Hillcrest, the Foreman’s Cottage, and the lower buildings closer to Union Street. Inside the building, an engine powered…
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Heinz

The icehouse, built of fieldstone in 1914–1915, was a practical part of Mrs. MacDowell’s plan for a self-sufficient farm. Winter ice cut from a nearby pond was stored here for summer use at the Colony. Idle since 1940, it was a handsome but outdated farm building. In 1995, Mrs. Drue Heinz, a vice chairman of…
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Heyward

The Lodge Annex, a wing on the east side of the men’s dormitory (The Lodge), was completed in 1926. Initially intended as an apartment for a caretaker, the space was soon repurposed as a live-in studio for writers. In recognition of a major endowment gift from the Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Foundation, Lodge Annex was…
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Kirby

Erected in memory of Sarah L. Kirby, who had left a bequest to the Colony, this studio was the first — and remains the only — brick building at MacDowell. Built by local mason Augustus Beaulieu, the load-bearing masonry walls rest on a fieldstone foundation. The design of the boxlike building is simple and compact…
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MacDowell

Built in 1912, Pine Studio was renamed MacDowell Studio in 1943 in recognition of support from a group of Edward MacDowell’s music students. It was built as a composers’ studio and the stuccoed walls were intended to be soundproof. Like many of the Colony’s studios, MacDowell was winterized in the 1950s when the Colony began welcoming artists…
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Mansfield

The Helen Coolidge Mansfield Studio was donated by graduates of the Mansfield War Service Classes for Reconstruction Aides. Helen Mansfield helped found the New York MacDowell Club. The small, shingled frame structure with stone foundation was originally fronted on the west side by a neat white picket fence and gate, a garden, and a stone pathway…
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