Blue Stone Manor

We already know the stories from the house. As the backdrop to some of the Real Housewives of New York’s most memorable episodes, Dorinda Medley’s home in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, Blue Stone Manor, is famously where Luann fumbled an olive branch to Carole; Carole went head-to-head with Bethenny in costume; and Bethenny called Luann, among other things, a liar, a hypocrite, and a snake. Tears have been shed, friendships broken, and fires started. Even Ramona’s dog Coco has lost her cool. All this despite the valiant efforts of their host, who—lest we forget—cooked, decorated, and made it nice!

Few among even us RHONY superfans, however, know the story of the house. “The show is so focused on the girls, it doesn’t ever really show the architecture,” says Medley, speaking via Zoom from the Berkshires, where she has been sheltering in place with her daughter, Hannah, and family friend Greg Calejo. “People always come and say, ‘Wow, your house looks so different in person.’” Built in 1902, the 11,000-square-foot Tudor-style residence harks back to the Gilded Age, when titans of industry commissioned the likes of Peabody & Stearns, Rotch & Tilden, and McKim, Mead & White to design sprawling summer cottages in the mountains of western Massachusetts. Blue Stone Manor captures that same spirit in the form of intricate ironwork, elaborate mantelpieces, and a generously proportioned seven-bedroom layout, which is anchored by side-by-side entry and stair halls.

Real Housewives of New York star Dorinda Medley collaborated with designer and friend Marshall Watson on the recent restoration and decoration of her Berkshires residence, Blue Stone Manor. In the entry hall, torchères in the form of Vestal Virgins flank a pair of French doors dressed in gold-threaded curtains; the walls were hand-stenciled by Judy Mulligan. Says Watson, “This room gives an immediate feel of an English Baronial house.”