The quaint little town of Stockbridge doesn’t just feel like a Norman Rockwell painting—it is one, as you can see from the ubiquitous reproductions of Main Street, Stockbridge, the artist’s rendition of his adopted hometown. Rockwell painted here for the last 25 years of his life in a 19th-century carriage–barn-turned-studio behind Stockbridge center, and the museum dedicated to the master of small-town Americana is one of the region’s most popular attractions.
The town has gone to great lengths to preserve its Rockwellian character, with white picket fences shining in the sun and few visible relics of life after 1950 on Main Street. Of course, the tiny Main Street is just about all there is to the town, making it a quick study to say the least. But the busloads of senior citizens and tourists who book themselves in at the Red Lion Inn looking for a slice of nostalgia like it that way just fine.