Tucked into the hills of Goshen, Massachusetts, along Route 112, Three Sisters Sanctuary is one of Western New England’s most quietly extraordinary destinations. Part sculpture garden, part healing retreat, part living artwork — it defies easy categorization. What it offers, above all, is an invitation: to slow down, wander, and let the boundary between art and the natural world dissolve around you.
A Vision Decades in the Making
The sanctuary is the life’s work of Richard M. Richardson, an environmental artist who has called Goshen home for over four decades. Originally from New Jersey, Richardson arrived in the early 1970s and immediately sensed he had found the place where he would put down roots. Over the years, his three daughters were born and raised on this same land — and it is they who give the sanctuary its name.
What Richardson has built here is the result of more than 25 years of sustained creative labor. Spread across eight-plus acres and bordered by 3,500 acres of protected mixed forest and wetland, the sanctuary has grown organically, piece by piece, shaped by Richardson’s guiding philosophy: “I live in my art, and my art lives in me.” The spirits of loved ones lost — his brother Chuck and his eldest daughter Tina Marie — are woven into the sanctuary’s soul, making it a place shaped as much by grief and memory as by aesthetic vision.
A Garden Like No Other
Walking the grounds of Three Sisters Sanctuary is unlike strolling through a conventional sculpture park. The art here does not stand apart from nature — it grows out of it, responds to it, and in many cases seems to have always belonged. Visitors encounter an eclectic and ever-evolving collection: impressive standing stones and cairns, mosaic installations, bejeweled figures, classic statuary, metalwork, glass art, and whimsical repurposed objects, all cradled by the living landscape around them.
The perennial gardens are threaded through with water features, including a tranquil water garden that invites quiet contemplation. A butterfly garden draws pollinators in season, filling the air with colour and gentle motion. Throughout, the works of both Richardson himself and a rotating cast of visiting artists find their places — some permanent fixtures in the sanctuary’s fabric, others temporary installations that keep the space feeling alive and ever-changing.
Among the most striking features is the Dragon’s Den, home to a fire-breathing dragon sculpture that has become something of an icon for the sanctuary. There is also a circular theater space, a labyrinth for meditative walking, standing stones that evoke ancient sacred sites, a fairy house that delights younger visitors, and a wooden tent structure that blurs the line between architecture and art. A 35-foot steeple, featuring two large stained “Portals of Many Colors,” stands as one of the sanctuary’s most recent monumental achievements, having taken nearly a year to complete.
A Place of Healing
Three Sisters Sanctuary wears its mission openly: to heal the heart, mind, and body through the merging of art and nature. It is a space conceived in service, designed to help visitors receive and reconnect with what Richardson describes as life’s gifts and energies. Whether you arrive seeking quiet reflection, artistic inspiration, or simply a beautiful walk in extraordinary surroundings, the sanctuary meets you where you are.
The grounds are open daily from 8am to 6pm, with an entry fee of $20 (children under 12 are free). For those who wish to linger longer, an Arts and Crafts-style apartment is available for overnight stays. The sanctuary also opens its grounds for weddings, memorials, and other special occasions — events that feel entirely at home in such a deeply personal and meaningful landscape.
Worth the Journey
Three Sisters Sanctuary sits just off the beaten path in the hills of Hampshire County, yet it rewards the detour richly. It is the kind of place that stays with you long after you leave — not because of any single dramatic installation, but because of the cumulative effect of wandering through a space where one person’s decades-long creative devotion has transformed eight acres of Massachusetts hillside into something genuinely sacred.
For anyone within driving distance of Western Massachusetts, it is simply not to be missed.
Three Sisters Sanctuary is located at 188 Cape St (Route 112), Goshen, MA 01032. Open daily 8am–6pm. Entry $20; children under 12 free. More information at threesisterssanctuary.com.