Put Yourself in the Picture | House for Sale in Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Having slipped in right before closing time, I don’t have long to admire the artwork in front of me. But as I pick out one detail after another, comparing it in my mind to the street I had been strolling not an hour before, I’m drawn in just as so many before me have been.

Norman Rockwell’s famed Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas (Home for Christmas) hangs in a place of prominence at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Since its first appearance, in the December 1967 issue of McCall’s magazine, the painting has taken a central place in the pantheon of Rockwell Americana, often reprinted and even annually restaged by the proud residents of Stockbridge.

What has brought me to this picturesque hamlet in the Berkshires is not the museum (though it is absolutely worth the trip), but an unusual opportunity: to actually step into the Main Street of Rockwell’s Stockbridge and make it one’s home.

Kyle Haver, whose family has owned the building since 1981, has never lived at 44 Main Street, but he nonetheless feels as though he grew up there. In the 1960s, Haver’s grandmother, Harriet Sossner, found herself newly divorced and in need of income. She rented a storefront at 44 Main Street and opened an antiques store, which she named Seven Arts in recognition of the artistic disciplines and venues that draw people to the Berkshires: classical music, jazz and contemporary music, painting, sculpture, theater, dance, and literature.

At that time, the building was owned by the town’s postmaster, David Braman, who lived on the second floor. When Braman retired in 1981, he sold the building to Sossner.

Sossner, who passed away in 1987, had two sons, and they in turn each had three sons. “We were quite a workforce, back in the day, and we were always helping move things at the shop or out scouting yard sales for new treasures,” Haver remembers.

Today those six grandsons, none of whom still live in the Berkshires, co-own the building. “Selling was not a decision that we made quickly or easily,” Haver says. “We’ve always thought about what our grandmother would do when we make decisions about the building. She saw it as a community investment rather than a business one.”

Rockwell maintained a studio on Main Street, and he actually lived two doors down from Sossner’s home. Over the years, the neighbors became good friends, and Rockwell would often drop by with signed copies of prints, or to scour the shelves of her antiques store in search of props for his paintings. Sossner’s poodle, Tiffany, was even given a cameo in Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas, in a station wagon parked in front of the shop.

To the grandsons, the famous artist was never Norman, always Mr. Rockwell. And he was far from the only recognizable face to frequent Seven Arts. Artists and performers drawn by Tanglewood, the Berkshire Playhouse, Jacob’s Pillow, and other nearby venues made a point to stop by, so a visitor off the street might walk in on a conversation between Norman Mailer and Arthur Penn, or Leonard Bernstein, Herbie Hancock, Mel Brooks, or Merce Cunningham. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward visited, as did Eugene Ionesco, Janis Joplin, and Yo-Yo Ma. Alice Brock, whose eponymous next-door restaurant was made famous by Arlo Guthrie, would occasionally walk over with some of her acclaimed borscht.

One of Haver’s favorite celebrity memories is of the time his grandmother was perplexed by the lack of interest for an old pump organ she had at the shop. The pianist Van Cliburn was in town for a Tanglewood performance, and Sossner invited him to take a look at the organ. “He sat down and played for 20 minutes,” Haver recalls. “By the time he was done, not only was the store full of people, but four offers had been made on the organ.”

The floor plan of the 8,770-square-foot building, which as part of the historic Main Street district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, hasn’t changed much over the years. There are two retail spaces out front, currently occupied by a real estate agent and a modern reincarnation of Seven Arts, whose vintage records and funky gifts stand in for Sossner’s antiques. A retail space in the rear of the building recently welcomed a wool shop.

Shortly after Braman moved out of the second-floor living space, it was rented to a tenant who stayed for 25 years. It has giant windows and great bones, though it is overdue for a facelift. A glimpse of the decorative tin ceiling behind a drop ceiling from the 1960s hints at its once and future grandeur.

Perhaps the building’s biggest surprise is to be found on the third floor, originally designed to serve as the town’s Masonic hall. Its large central room, where acupuncturist Lonny Jarrett has been teaching classes for 35 years, features a domed acoustic ceiling. A word quietly spoken at one end carries perfectly throughout.

“It is going to be an ideal fit for someone,” Haver says of 44 Main Street. “Maintaining history and tradition and community always took priority over money for my grandmother. We don’t really want the corporate world moving in. For us, this is a building of memories. We’re looking for someone whose vision for the future respects and reflects the best of Stockbridge.”

The building is listed at $1,795,000. For information, contact William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty at 413-528-4192 or go to williampitt.com.

To learn more about Stockbridge’s Norman Rockwell Museum, which houses the largest and most significant collection of Rockwell art in the world, go to nrm.org.

Yankeelikes to mosey around and see, out of editorial curiosity, what you can turn up when you go house hunting. We have no stake in the sale whatsoever and would decline it if offered.