image description — Brian Duke, the new owner of the Springs Motel, is getting the renovated inn ready for the summer season. He's planning to run the motel year-round.

New Owner 'Fell in Love' With Springs Motel

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:37AM / Sunday, April 13, 2025Print Story | Email Story

Brian Duke picked up the keys to the 65-year-old motel earlier this year.

NEW ASHFORD, Mass. — The new owners of the landmark Springs Motel on Route 7 are keeping its newly renovated vibe but will add a few touches of their own.

"We kind of instantly fell in love with the place," said Brian Duke, when he and his family went to visit the property.

When he saw it was up for sale, he went to work and closed the deal earlier this year. He purchased the property for $1,575,000 as Springs Hospitality New Ashford LLC, according to documents in the Registry of Deeds.

The "vibe" comes from renovations made by designer Lindsey Kurowski who reopened the motel in 2022. The reality TV star featured the renovation of the long-closed motor court on Magnolia Channel's "Inn The Works."

Kurowski revamped 17 rooms and four cabins in mid-century design, echoing when the original motel opened.

"It had been closed for the season so there's been a process of just getting the place back up and running, you know, cleaning and preparing rooms that have been winterized for the season," Duke said.

The 8.5-acre property has another 13-unit building that Duke hopes to open after renovations in the future.

"We'd love to add 13 more rooms. We've gotten a lot of interest in group events this summer," he said.

Duke has more than 20 years experience in the hospitality business, owning other motels and short-term rentals in addition to working a corporate job.

"I sort of drove by old ma-and-pap motels like this and kind of wondered 'how does that work? is that a good business?' like really uncertain," he said. "Then quickly found out that if they are ran well, it's very rewarding both personally and financially. Since then, we've purchased a few more Airbnbs, another motel."

Those are located in Pennsylvania, where he is from, but Duke said he was always looking here in New England. He decided to jump fully into this type of work.

"The business in Pennsylvania was really taking off and I'd always wanted to be an entrepreneur and so I started very seriously thinking if I should leave my corporate job and try this," Duke said.

He's bought a storied property with roots going back to 1930, when Henrietta Grosso opened a sandwich and burger stand at the side of the road. It would grow into a four-star 250-seat restaurant, and the development of an 18-room motel and pool across the highway in 1960. Another 22 units were added in the 1970s.

The Springs complex stayed in the family for 68 years but went then through several owners around the turn of the century. Both the restaurant and the motor court, by then an America's Best Value Inn, closed around 2002.

Kurowski, a Cheshire native, saved the motel when she bought it in 2021 and brought back the '60s atmosphere with a modern twist.

Duke said he's building a team, taking customer reviews into consideration, and planning to open year-round.

"We've really spent some time going through the reviews over the last few years and trying to to focus on everything that people liked and fix some of the things that people liked less," he said. "We have staff onsite more frequently, completely keeping the same vibe and aesthetic, we're putting our own touches on things for sure, little things here and there, with the expectation of eventually renovating the currently unoccupied building."

Duke said he hopes to be able to accommodate small events and show what the Springs Motel has to offer.

"There's a lot of cool stuff up here and again it's just a unique set up. It's a unique design in a really quiet and cool place," he said. "I'm a guy who left his corporate job to do a small business. I and my family love to travel and I just want to make sure other folks have a great experiences as well."

To learn more about the Springs Motel, visit the website here.

Tags: new business, motels, hotels,

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Williamstown Yarn Store Bringing the Hobby Closer to Home

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:13AM / Monday, June 15, 2026

Gather sources some of its yarn from regional producers.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — If you knit, crochet, or want to pick up a new hobby with yarn, a new space is open to get your supplies.

On March 18, owners and friends Ashley Cart and Geraldine Shen opened Gather on Spring Street.

The two teach knitting classes at Williams College and thought it would be great to bring their hobby to life.

"We have always been avid knitters, and we've spent a lot of time together doing that, and find it to be for ourselves like this really wonderfully calming hobby," Shen said.

Shen said they see many people starting to take up the hobby and thought it would be great to open in location convenient for students and to give them a space to curate their work.

"We're finding a lot of interest amongst people to learn how to knit. Young people who want to get off their screens, find something that they can do with their hands, and so we have always talked about, like, wouldn't it be cool to one day do this," Shen said.

Shen said there aren't many options to buy yarn in the area, and often they're a long drive away. While they opened an online shop before finding a storefront, they recognized that for some knitters buying, online was not ideal.

"Yarn is one of those things that you do, at least the first time, want to see it in person, and like touch it, and look at it against your skin, or you know, color combinations, if you knit or crochet, just like to squeeze the yarn, and feel how squishy and soft it is, and so it is one of those things that you can't just easily buy online," she said.

Their new space is at 57 Spring St. on the third floor. An elevator at the Bank Street entrance can be taken straight to their door, it is especially readily accessible to the college students.

"We've sort of been working with Williams students, and we wanted to be accessible to them, because we really feel as though there's a renewed interest in this craft from younger folks, and that it can be a really good thing for them, and so we wanted to make it easy for Williams students to access the store, and they don't all have cars, they don't all leave campus much, so being on Spring Street was important to us," Shen said.

The store offers a variety of yarn and supplies, and a sit and stitch room where anyone can come in and hang out and work on their projects with others.

They buy yarn from local producers and offer other products as well.

"When people come through, like tourists and stuff, often they ask us what can you get here that you can't get anywhere else," said Shen. "So we have some yarns from local farms, we have some handspun by a local artist who's based in Lanesborough, we've got yarn from this woman who dyes it up in Brattleboro [Vt.], and so we're trying to highlight some of the really cool farms that we have around here."

One of the main opportunities they hope to expand on is being able to go into schools and teach children how to knit. They recently were awarded a grant to teach WIlliamstown Elementary School fourth graders how to knit. Each child was able to make a square and Shen and Cart put all of the squares together and it is now hanging in their space when you walk in.

"We want to go into more schools and teach kids how to knit, because there's some really cool research that talks about, like, the benefits of teaching younger children how to knit. It helps them concentrate, it helps them calm down, and gives them a sense of accomplishment," Shen said.

View Full Story