Berkshire Cottages  America's Gilded Age, the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, from 1865 to 1901 saw unprecedented economic and industrial prosperity. As a result of this prosperity, the nation's wealthiest families were able to construct monumental estates in Newport, Rhode Island, Bar Harbor, Maine and The Berkshires in Massachusetts. Although most uses of 'cottage' imply a small house, the use of the word in this context refers to an alternative definition, "a summer residence (often on a large and sumptuous scale)". Approximately seventy-five estates were built in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts.