Ten Chimneys
Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne’s country estate preserves theatrical work, intimate interiors, gardens, guests, and the disciplined domestic world behind a celebrated partnership.
Artwork inspired by Sister Thomasita Fessler
Ten Chimneys was both retreat and working environment. Lunt and Fontanne rehearsed, entertained collaborators, designed rooms, gardened, cooked, and tested ideas here; furnishings and personal objects show how performance extended into hospitality and self-presentation. The house is unusually intact because the couple treated the estate as a complete creative world.
The tour becomes more than celebrity biography when attention shifts to craft: scripts, timing, design, correspondence, food, gardens, and the long preparation behind apparent ease onstage. Guests ranged across theater and public life, yet the useful question is how the estate supported collaboration and recovery—not simply who slept in which room.
- Estate
- Main house, cottage, studio
- Residents
- Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne
- Recognition
- National Historic Landmark
Quick guide
- Central story
- Lunt and Fontanne partnership
- Look beyond fame
- Rehearsal and design labor
Look for the work behind theatrical ease
- Read rooms as performance
- Color, furniture, sightlines, and object placement shape how guests encountered the couple and one another.
- Find rehearsal evidence
- Scripts, notes, studio spaces, and repeated routines connect country life directly to stage discipline.
- Notice two careers
- Resist reducing Fontanne to half of a couple; compare each artist’s decisions, labor, and public image.
- Carry the tour outdoors
- Gardens, cottage, and estate layout explain retreat, hosting, and movement between work and rest.
Good to know
Interior access is by guided tour, and tour choices may cover different buildings; allow additional time for the visitor center and grounds.
Notice these
- Ten clustered chimneys
- Flirtation Room murals
- Rehearsal studio