LENOX — After more than a year of extensive renovations to a historic downtown building adjacent to Town Hall, former fashion designer Matthew Ames has opened the Walker Street Market as a design gallery for handcrafted home goods, furniture, lighting and ceramics.

The gallery showcases 70 artists and designers working in wood, ceramics, glass, textiles and metal.

Ames, 46, a Washington, D.C., native, was trained at the Art Institute of Chicago. From 2003-11, he lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he had a design studio before returning to Chicago prior to his move to Lenox last year.

He purchased the 22 Walker St. site from Richard Rothbard in March 2025. Rothbard had operated his “An American Craftsman” gallery there since 2018.

The building sold to Ames for $1,154,500, according to the Middle Berkshire Registry of Deeds. Ames declined to specify his investment in the restoration project handled by Eddie Hyatt of Lakeside Builders of Pittsfield.

According to the Lenox Historical Society, the nearly 4,000-square-foot Classic Revival structure, built in 1909 by F.J. Morrier, originally housed a dry goods store, a jeweler, a women’s tailor and later a restaurant, The Coffee Break.

The Walker Street Market in Lenox features a flower market, artisan goods, furniture and textiles from over 70 artists.

After Charles Dee purchased the site in 1925, he operated Dee’s Department Store. The business was purchased by Francine Darey, an employee, in 1956, and in 1973 it was acquired by Marguerite Bullwinkle. After Nancy Fitzpatrick bought the property in 1994, it housed Evviva women’s fashion boutique.

Ames is keenly aware of his building’s history and significance to the Lenox community.

“Walker Street Market is about connection between artists and landscapes, makers and materials, and above all, the personal stories behind the work,” he said. “It’s a space where works across disciplines are brought into conversation with one another, shaped by the scale and character of the place itself, and the irreplaceable experience of encountering them in person.”

Former NYC fashion designer Matthew Ames described his new Walker Street Market as “a sanctuary for the handmade with the aim of building community around craftsmanship in the Berkshires and beyond.”

Ames describes the market as “a sanctuary for the handmade with the aim of building community around craftsmanship in the Berkshires and beyond.”

Reflecting the building’s 117-year history, Walker Street Market also offers a curated selection of kitchen tools, tableware, functional décor and apothecary items.

Walker Street Market also offers a curated selection of kitchen tools, tableware, functional décor and apothecary items.

The exhibition space will host a rotating program of at least six shows year-round, featuring artists and craftspeople from the Berkshires and beyond.

“Summer Camp,” the first exhibition, on display through Labor Day, reflects the region’s tradition stretching back to the Shakers of Hancock “who built an entire way of life on the principle that work done with care and intention is itself a form of devotion,” Ames suggested.

Multidisciplinary work by 35 artists reflects playfulness and storytelling inspired by arts and crafts made at camp during the summer as well as select Native American, Japanese and Shaker antique crafts. Workshops will be held throughout the summer with artists to foster connection and build community around the art of craft, Ames said.

Among his collaborators are West Stockbridge woodworkers and furniture makers Peter Thorne and his daughter Lily Thorne, who built gallery displays including Shaker shelves and a 38-foot-long peg rail that spans the length of the gallery wall.

“I always aim to be intentional about what I’m putting into the world,” Ames said. “Walker Street Market is an expression of that and a celebration of the beauty of the handmade, and reflects the value of living intentionally with well chosen objects. Ideally ones that are crafted slowly, thoughtfully, and to last.”

If you go ...

What: Walker Street Market, a contemporary craft gallery.

Where: 22 Walker St., Lenox.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays.

Information: walkerstreetmarket.com