Narratives weave together across time and cultures at the Mission House. Built by missionary John Sergeant, the house watched over Stockbridge for nearly 200 years before it was moved to its current site for preservation.

John Sergeant arrived in 1734 as a missionary to assimilate the Mohican people. He learned their language so he could speak and preach to them without an interpreter. He built the Mission House around 1742 for his family and continued to defend the Mohican’s interests against white colonists until his death in 1749. Over the following decades, however, the Indigenous residents were dispossessed of their lands and voice in town government. Nearly all left Stockbridge by 1783 and began a long period of forced migration. Meanwhile, the Sergeant family continued living in the Mission House through the 19th century.

Mabel Choate purchased the building in the 1920s, when it was falling into disrepair across the street from her summer home, Naumkeag. Choate moved the house, filled it with her collection of colonial American furnishings, and added gardens and a museum of Mohican objects. In 2021, the Stockbridge-Munsee Mohican Community opened an exhibit (open seasonally) in the former “Indian Museum,” offering an Indigenous perspective on this history.

Step through the tidewater cypress fence into the Colonial-Revival garden designed by noted landscape architect Fletcher Steele between 1928 and 1933. Visit the Mohican Miles exhibit, curated by the Stockbridge-Munsee Community’s Cultural Affairs Department, to learn about the Indigenous history of the area. Explore the new Mohican Medicines garden, labeled with plant names in English, Mohican, and Munsee.

Please note the Mission House itself is now closed to the season, except for guided tours. The Mohican Miles exhibit is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 10 am-3 pm through Indigenous Peoples’ Day, October 10, 2022.

Grounds open daily, sunrise to sunset. Free for all.

Mohican Miles exhibit, open Tuesdays and Thursdays 10 am–3 pm through October 10, 2022. The exhibit will also be open for the final Mohican Miles Community Workshop of 2022, featuring JoAnn Schedler, A Tribute to Survival, Remembering, and Celebrating. October 9th and 10th 11 am – 12 pm, free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Trustees in partnership with the Stockbridge-Munsee Community and Housatonic Heritage.

To schedule a group tour, contact kknisley@thetrustees.org

Guided tours of the house are available on July 16th, August 13th, September 17th and October 8th. Space is limited and pre-register is required. Sign up here:

19 Main Street
Stockbridge, MA 01262
Telephone: 413.298.3239
E-mail naumkeag@thetrustees.org

Get directions on Google Maps.

From Points East: Mass Turnpike (I-90), Exit 10 to Rt. 20 East. Take 1st right onto Rt. 102 West/Pleasant St. Follow for approx. 5 mi. Pleasant St. becomes Main St. The Mission House is on the right at corner of Main St. and Sergeant St.

From Points West: I-90 East to Exit B3, NY Rt. 22 South. Follow Rt. 22 to MA Rt. 102 East. Go approx. 7.5 mi. to Main St. The Mission House is at corner of Main and Sergeant. Limited roadside parking.

• PHOTOGRAPHY: We ask that photographers or their clients become Supporting Level Members before conducting portrait sessions at this property.  Click here for more information, and to request permission for any portrait sessions. Photography is not permitted inside the house. The Trustees of Reservations reserves the right, and may give permission to its designated photographers and videographers, or to outside media, to photograph or video visitors and program participants at all its facilities and properties.
• Dogs are not allowed on the property.
• The red barn behind the Mission House serves as The Trustees’ Berkshires Regional Office.