A story originally appearing in a Northern Massachusetts newspaper, The Berkshire Eagle, describes the dilemma homeowners Joshua Williams and Shaun Mosley are facing after the couple purchased a home called Santarella Gardens in Tyringham, Mass., with repairs still waiting for the right contractor.
Known locally as “The gingerbread house,” the former dairy barn was transformed into an art studio by English sculptor Sir Henry Hudson Kitson, according to the article by reporter Stephanie Zollshan, and invites roadside stares with its 1920s storybook architecture featuring curving stucco walls, mounds of stone, turret and its faux-thatched roof. Kitson dubbed the structure "Santarella."
Photo by Stephanie Zollshan; reprinted with permission by The Berkshire Eagle.
“It is so visible from the main road that it is a stopping place for people driving past,” local historian Cornelia Brooke Gilder told the newspaper. “It is of extreme cultural importance to Berkshire County.”
The roof to the gingerbread house is leaking and, according to reports, will cost an estimated $600,000 to replace. The couple paid $1.1 million for the property in October 2020.
Click here to read the original story in the May 1, 2023, edition of The Berkshire Eagle.
