Old rock quarries are common in New England, and more than a few have seen a second life as swimming holes. On a residential lot in Western Massachusetts, the owners took that idea further, building a pool into a limestone quarry.
The quarry is the star feature of the roughly 60-acre property in the town of Sheffield, in the scenic Berkshires region. The quarry and 800-square-foot pool are just across the lawn from a four-bedroom house, which together with the lot is on sale for $3.2 million.
“It’s a fully functioning pool, with filtration and heating, but set in a spectacular quarry. When you walk in, you feel like you’re entering an archaeological site or ruin,” Jared Kelly of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty, who co-listed the property with colleague Elle Villetto, told Homes.com.
Steps run down from the top of the quarry to the pool, where there’s a small area for deck chairs next to the water. At the opposite end of the pool is a 16-foot waterfall. A company based in nearby Connecticut built the pool for its original owner, who had the house built in 1997. The company brought in travertine stone to provide a level surface for the steps into the pool and its base. The current owner, who has used the property for vacation visits since buying it in 2001, made some additional improvements to the pool and renovations to the house, Kelly said.
The house has some of the characteristics of a carriage house, like the sort some well-heeled owners might have used in the past to park horse-drawn carriages. For instance, the doors to one of the bedrooms have a distinctive carriage house-style design. In general, the builder tried to emulate certain features of Gilded Age estates that dot the Berkshires hills.
“I think it draws some inspiration from that, with the cedar shakes and the copper standing seam on the roof, and a couple doors open up like a carriage house,” Kelly said. “It’s not too dissimilar from some of the higher-end homes that have been built in this area.”
A highlight of the house is the great room, which includes vaulted ceilings with exposed wooden beams, French doors and a wood stove. Kelly said it feels a bit “like a treehouse.” There’s also a four-car detached garage.
One downside to having a pool in a quarry is that it can’t be covered easily during the fall and winter months. That means more spring maintenance to remove leaves and other debris from the water.
Kelly said he expects the property to draw interest from some of the New York and Boston residents who look to the Berkshires as a place to spend a bit of their summers and enjoy nearby recreational and cultural opportunities.