{"nrhp_refnum":"03000644","name":"Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival","other_names":[],"category":"district","location":{"address":"George Carter Road","address_restricted":false,"city":"Becket","county":"Berkshire County","state":"MA","lat":42.26608597650005,"lon":-73.11720195324767,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2003-05-27","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"2003-05-27","areas_of_significance":["Performing Arts","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 150-acre complex of theaters, studios, cottages, converted farmhouses and barns on George Carter Road in Becket, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, home of the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. Buildings date from about 1789 to the 1990s.","why_significant":"The property was designated a National Historic Landmark for its association with the history of American dance. The festival has operated at the same location for about 70 years, and supporters describe its history as tied to the evolution of 20th century dance in America. The complex also preserves a rural, vernacular barn-based character built up from the 1930s onward.","narrative":"Jacob's Pillow is a dance festival campus set on a hilltop in Becket, Massachusetts, with views toward the Berkshire Hills. The complex includes theaters, studios, dancers' cabins, converted houses and barns, spread across about 150 acres of woodland and former farmland. Two late eighteenth century Federal-style farmhouses anchor the site, and the nineteenth century barns served as models for later construction. Buildings from the 1930s onward, including a fieldstone dining room, small cabins and the 1942 Ted Shawn Theatre, follow a Craftsman and barn-like vocabulary of wood and local stone. A boulder behind the Stephen Carter House gave the place its name. The property was designated a National Historic Landmark for its association with the history of American dance. Letters of support describe the festival as a leading presenting organization in the field, operating in the same location for seventy years, and it also houses archives for the festival and its school. The Stephen Carter House is the year-round headquarters.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Joseph Franz (Ted Shawn Theatre, 1942); Emil Malm (contractor); John Christian (architect) and Owen Burtt (contractor) for the 1967 Stephen Carter House interior; Margo Jones (Blake's Barn and Restroom Pavilion, 1992)","architectural_style":"Early Republic / Federal; Late 19th and Early 20th century Craftsman","criteria":[],"status_note":"Stephen Carter House serves as festival headquarters and is open year round; other buildings are open in summer during the festival season. Current uses include institutional housing, theater and museum.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:11:55.049187-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/45/7936/63793645/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/03000644_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000644/085d55eb2e-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/03000644/085d55eb2e-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"Camilittle (talk)","credit_html":"Camilittle (talk), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ted_Shawn_Theatre.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"00001458","name":"Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/massachusetts/jacobs-pillow-dance-festival-00001458/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63793645","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%27s_Pillow","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6118219"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/berkshire-county/jacobs-pillow-dance-festival-03000644/"}