News, Tips & Bargains : Historic Homes Put Out the Welcome Mat

Two houses--the American retreat of one of England’s most famous authors, and the vast estate belonging to one of America’s richest families--have opened to the public for the first time.

In Brattleboro, Vt., Rudyard Kipling’s home from 1892 to 1896 has been restored by the Landmark Trust and is available for rent by the week, with shorter stays possible November through March. The house, designed in the then-popular “shingle style,” an outgrowth of the Arts and Crafts movement, is where Kipling wrote four of his books.

Weekly rates range $1,200-$1,500; short stays (a minimum three nights) cost $235 a night. Bookings must be made through the office of the Landmark Trust in England (tel. 011-44-628-825925; fax 011-44-628-825417).

In Pocantico Hills, N.Y., the Rockefeller family estate, known as Kykuit (a Dutch word for lookout), opened this month under auspices of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Public tours have already sold out, but a waiting list has been formed for 1995. The neo-Georgian mansion and its Italian villa gardens stand at the crown of a hill overlooking the Hudson River, commanding a stunning 300-acre site.

A two-hour tour, the only way to see the house, costs $18 for adults, $16 for seniors and students. Names are being taken now for 1995; call (914) 631-9491. A few tickets (at $50) are available for special cruise-and-tour packages offered through Oct. 30 by New York Waterway. Reservations are necessary: (800) 533-3779.