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A Thanksgiving: The Emily Dickinson Museum

By

On November 28, 2024

In Arts, Baking, Gardening, Travel, US History

Visitors receive a warm welcome at the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst and enjoy guided tours with Dickinson scholars.  The museum has photos and exhibits that make it ideal for children and classes to tour. The Homestead, where Emily grew up, the Evergreens next door, where her brother Austin, his wife Susan, and their three children lived, and the carriage house are prominent features of the scenic grounds. Spacious and charming, The Homestead, a National Historic Landmark owned by Amherst College, underwent a restoration in 2022 based on descriptions from Emily’s letters and meticulous historical research about the family. The Evergreens, which had remained in the Dickinson family, eventually merged with The Homestead through the trust of Martha Dickinson Bianchi, Emily Dickinson’s niece, a poet, novelist, and editor of her aunt’s work, and the college.

The Homestead sits atop a knoll that has a stunning view of Amherst, which Emily took in each day from her bedroom window.  In Emily’s lifetime, she had the run of 14 acres of land, eleven of which extended across the street.  On the three acres surrounding The Homestead were an orchard, a peony garden, lilac bushes, a vegetable garden, a grape trellis, a honeysuckle arbor, a barn, and a “summer house covered in roses” (penn.museum). Emily’s avid love of gardening came from her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson. Her brother Austin’s interest in landscape design was so keen that he engaged Frederick Law Olmsted, known best as the co-creator of Central Park, to improve Amherst Town Commons.

The Federal style Homestead, 1813

The Homestead, which features a conservatory, reopened in 2022

The Evergreens, 1856: “Italianate domestic architecture” (emilydickinsonmuseum.org)

A trip to the museum brings alive the relatable human aspects of a genius and the life that formed her.  Emily Dickinson was a devoted and loving daughter, sister, sister-in-law, and aunt who owned a Newfoundland dog named “Carlo,” a gift from her father that she named after a dog in Jane Eyre. Emily loved gardening and was an amateur naturalist. Her mind was so focused on poetry that she wrote on the back of recipes, scraps of paper, and envelopes as she carried out her domestic duties during the day. Envelopes were handy as Emily was a faithful correspondent who wrote an estimated 1,000 letters and often included pressed flowers or bouquets from her garden with her letters: “My friends are my Estate” (archive.emilydickinson.org). She had a mischievous sense of humor conveyed through the wit of those letters and poems.  Lest her observations seem too sharp, sweet blooming roses on her bedroom wallpaper are familiar to many a girl and woman. Though not a churchgoer in later years, Emily was a person of faith, perhaps influenced by the Transcendentalism of her time, reflected in her poems:

The Brain – is wider than the Sky –

For – put them side by side –

The one the other will contain

With ease – and you – beside –

The Brain is deeper than the sea –

For – hold them – Blue to Blue –

The one the other will absorb –

As sponges – Buckets – do –

The Brain is just the weight of God –

For – Heft them – Pound for Pound –

And they will differ – if they do-

As Syllable from Sound –

As Joyce Carol Oates, the lauded writer, the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor of the Humanities at Princeton University, and a delightful public speaker notes in her introduction to The Essential Emily Dickinson, Emily gave voice to readers’ interior lives, the hopes, thoughts, and doubts most everyone explores. As Ms. Oates conveys, Emily was a “great poet of inwardness, of that indefinable region of the soul in which we are, in a sense, all one,” which is one reason her poems resonate worldwide. With pensive reflection and few references to news or events, Emily’s poems stand outside of time. Ms. Oates describes Emily’s lyric poems as “revolutionary,” departing from the traditionally structured poems of her time, sometimes even inverting sentence structure in a playful adaptation of the rules of Latin grammar.

Ms. Dickinson’s poems often stand outside of a setting as well, “scenelessness” (Monica Cooper, classicalpoets.org):

Summer laid her simple Hat

On its boundless Shelf –

Unobserved – a Ribbon slipts,

Snatch it for yourself.

Summer laid her supple Glove

In its sylvan Drawer –

Wheresoe-er, or was she –

The demand of Awe?

Biographical overview

Emily, her brother Austin, and sister Lavinia

Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, was a well-educated woman and used this in her poetry. Born at The Dickinson Homestead, she was the middle sibling between older brother Austin and younger sister Lavinia or “Vinnie” in a closely knit family.  Her grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, built the stately home, the first brick one in Amherst.  He was a prominent attorney and a founder of Amherst College. Emily lived at The Homestead for most of her 55 years with fifteen spent at another house in town after Samuel had overextended himself financially to support the fledgling Amherst College.  Some historians view his son Edward, Emily’s father, as being frugal and stern, which perhaps he was.  He grew up, however, as the eldest in a family of nine, saw his family’s finances fold, and rebuilt his immediate family’s fortune enough so that he could repurchase the lost Dickinson Homestead. Edward had his daughters formally educated in an era when many girls received only tutoring at home.  He married Emily Norcross, a well-educated woman, though “shy and retiring”.

As a girl, Emily studied for seven years at Amherst Academy, where her love of nature flourished with studies in botany.  She created a herbarium, a collection of pressed plant specimens, with more than 400 types of plants.  Visitors will see replicas of some pages on the tour. At the academy, Emily also studied composition, Latin, geology, and astronomy and had access to lectures at Amherst College.

Interior of the Talcott Greenhouse, Mount Holyoke Botanic Garden

The Talcott Greenhouse

Slender yellow woodsorrel

A 17-year-old Emily tested and placed in the middle of three levels at Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary in nearby South Hadley and might have graduated in two years. She found it confining, however, perhaps due to its strict Calvinism at the time and left after one year.  Emily favored the sciences over religious studies, which did not align with the revival of Calvinism throughout Massachusetts (The Guardian):

“Faith” is a fine invention

When Gentlemen can see –

But Microscopes are prudent

In an Emergency.                                                                                                                                         

Emily, 16, whose hair was reportedly red in childhood, and later auburn; her eyes were a dark hazel

One fun tidbit from the tour is that Emily’s father gave her mother a book on housekeeping as a wedding gift.  Mrs. Dickinson took this to heart and, though the family could afford servants, she and the girls did all the housework for 25 years. Emily’s work flourished upon the engagement of a housekeeper.

The petite genius who often dressed in white wrote at a tiny desk in her bedroom and kept her poems in packets, “fascicles,” sometimes sewn together. Enjoy hearing details about her bedroom’s restoration on the museum’s YouTube channel.

Around 1860, when Emily was 30, she began withdrawing from public life. Some speculate that her reclusiveness was due to an eye condition.  Her work became more prolific, so it is possible that she did not want interruptions. Regardless of the reason, she continued to read poetry, novels of her time, the Bible, The Springfield Republican, a highly regarded newspaper, and The Atlantic Monthly. With her family, Emily traveled to see family in Massachusetts and went on trips to Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

The circle of Emily’s immediate family grew with Austin’s marriage to Emily’s friend from Amherst Academy, Susan Huntington Gilbert, the greatest recipient of Emily’s poems and a helpful critic.  Some scholars believe that Emily’s feelings towards Susan extended beyond friendship.  Emily was a doting aunt to Susan and Austin’s children Edward (“Ned”), Martha (“Mattie”), and Thomas Gilbert (“Gib”).  One of her pastimes as a fun aunt was lowering gingerbread on the sly from her bedroom window to her nephews, niece, and their friends.

In middle age, she and her sister Lavinia, who kept the house running, cared for their mother, who was partially paralyzed after a stroke, with the help of their maid Margaret Maher.  Mrs. Dickinson resided in a room adjoining Emily’s.  (Their father had died suddenly while away from home when Emily was 43 which left the family grief-stricken twice over, not having had the opportunity to say goodbye.) Though Emily and her mother were not close, Emily reportedly never complained about caring for her for seven years and spoke of her with great affection.

Egyptian lotus at the Talcott Greenhouse

After the death of Emily’s beloved nephew Gib, 8, from typhoid fever and the loss of a friend and one-time suitor Judge Otis Philips Lord some months later, Emily’s health began to decline.  She died a few years later at 55 from Bright’s disease, which was a catch-all for unknown causes.

Publication

Of the nearly 1,800 poems Emily wrote, only ten were published in Emily’s lifetime, anonymously and likely without her approval. The lack of publication may be a combination of factors: Emily’s reserve, her father’s conservative views on women and publication, and discouragement from a friend and correspondent, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, an editor of The Atlantic Monthly.  Emily had read his letter to young writers in the magazine and submitted four poems to him.  Thomas did not recognize her genius and discouraged her, but they continued to correspond and eventually met.

After Emily’s death, Lavinia found hundreds of her sister’s untitled, numbered poems in a bedroom drawer. More kept turning up on scraps and the backs of various household papers which revealed Emily’s discipline and dedication to her writing.  Lavinia sought to have her sister’s poems published, but grief and a fractious division within the family resulted in a heavily edited publication by an Amherst College professor’s wife, Mary Loomis Todd, who had insinuated herself into the Dickinson family, and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.  As co-editors, the two “corrected” Emily’s poems to reflect the poetic style of the Victorian era.  The first time Emily’s poems appeared in print as she wrote them was in a 1955 edition from Harvard University Press edited by R.W. Franklin, the Director of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University.

For a list of noteworthy publications of Emily’s poems, kindly visit the museum’s page.

A 2016 definitive edition of Emily poems by Cristanne Miller, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Edward H. Butler Professor of Literature, University of Buffalo, an Emily Dickinson scholar who also edited and wrote several other books on the poet

The enigmatic Emily Dickinson loved riddles, and it is a joy to explore the meaning of her intricate poems.  One of the museum’s exhibits demonstrates how Ms. Dickinson’s poems often had alternate words in the margins.  One wonders if, rather than being “unfinished,” in the mind of a gifted gardener, Emily’s poems were organic: ever-growing and ever-changing.  Though her thoughts about publishing seemed ambivalent, publishing a poem defines it at least for the readers. Given the private nature of Emily’s writing, her sophisticated use of sound is another impressive aspect of her poetry.

Perhaps there is an irony in writing a travel piece about someone known as a recluse, but as our guide, Brenna shared, that term may be misleading for someone who had the run of a large working farm and gardens.  Emily Dickinson lived a full life on her terms and was sociable within her world.  Many of her poems concern death, which was all around her.  She lost cousins at an early age, lived through the Civil War, and saw people pass away from fevers or illnesses easily remedied today. (The average lifespan in 1860 was 39.4 years.) Emily’s most prolific writing period was 1855-1865. Though she never directly references the Civil War, it impacts her work. At the very least, the act of creativity in writing and gardening, is life-affirming. Though there were hardships for the family, as there were for many in those years, the cheer of The Homestead belies this.

Emily once wrote to a friend, “If we love flowers, are we not born again every day?” A curator for the New York Botanic Garden’s “Emily Dickinson’s Garden: The Poetry of Flowers” (2010) shared this in a PBS interview on YouTube and the wonderful realization of Emily’s that pressed flowers, like poems about them, live on.  Enjoy a virtual tour of Emily’s garden from the NYBG exhibition.

Though Emily Dickinson could explore the depths of the soul, she shared that soul’s resilience:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –

And sore must be the storm –

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm –

I’ve heard it in the chillest land –

And on the strangest Sea –

Yet – never – in Extremity,

It asked a crumb – of me.

Emily composed a poem for “Thanksgiving Day,” which is shared somewhat from the viewpoint of an outsider but conveys that our thanks are never sufficient:

…Not a mention whose small Pebble

Wrinkled any Sea,

Unto such, were such Assembly,

‘Twere “Thanksgiving day”

Children often initially read or hear “A Bird Came Down the Wall,” but the first that resonated with me was one I read as a teen:

The Souls Selects her own Society –

Then – shuts the Door –

To her divine Majority –

Present no more –

Unmoved – she notes the Chariots –

    pausing –

At her low Gate –

Unmoved – an Emperor kneeling

Upon her Mat –

I’ve known her – from ample nation –

Choose One –

Then – close the Valves of her attention –

Like Stone.

Gardening

Emily’s renown was as a gardener, and gardening offered her a world of metaphor for her poetry.  A striking feature of the street view of Emily’s home is the sparkling glass of the conservatory in which she grew ferns and flowers year-round. In a greenhouse that her father had built for his daughters, Emily grew gardenias, carnations, jasmine, fuchsia, and heliotropes.  She often used those flowers like violets, one of her favorites, in baking, another pastime.

Of Emily’s gardens, her niece Martha recalled “a mass of meandering blooms” composed of “daffodils, hyacinths, chrysanthemums, marigolds, peonies, bleeding heart and lilies…and Greville roses” (nytimes.com).

As an insight into Emily Dickinson’s gardening life, readers may enjoy the gloriously illustrated and detailed Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life by Marta McCall, Chatham, NJ, who teaches at the New York Botanic Garden and was the 2018 gardener in residence at the Emily Dickinson Museum. Bought this with good intentions as a reference for this post, but it will be a cozy winter read in anticipation of spring.

Baking

Emily won second place in a baking competition with her “Indian loaf and rye bread” (tastingtable.com) and enjoyed baking for her family, friends, and neighbors.  The home-baked gifts sometimes included edible flowers from her garden.  The Homestead had three types of grapes, and the family made jams and wine.  Emily’s popular gingerbread recipe is on innumerable blogs as well as the museum’s website. As a fun addition to the Thanksgiving meal, I added this:

Emily Dickinson’s Recipe for Gingerbread:

1 quart flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon ginger
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon salt
Make up with molasses (a little more than a cup is about right)

Cream the butter and mix with lightly whipped cream. Sift dry ingredients together and combine with the other ingredients. The dough is stiff and needs to be pressed into whatever pan you choose. A round or small square pan is suitable. Bake at 350 degrees for 20–25 minutes. (The recipe is via the nybg.com blog with the addition of a simple icing with confectioner’s sugar and edible violets. Enjoy making more of Emily’s recipes via novelist Emily Temple on Literary Hub.)

Since Emily’s grandfather co-founded Amherst College, this will include a brief pitch made in gratitude for the Five College (Amherst College, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke College, the University of Massachusetts, and Hampshire College) experience.  A free bus takes students around to each school.  When this started about the time of my senior year at Smith College, it led to the discovery of brilliant foreign films with friends at the Amherst Cinema, views of the golden autumn and pumpkin-laden fields of South Hadley on visits to a friend at Mt. Holyoke, and later her graduation at the hillside amphitheater, the music of Rimsky-Korsakov played by the Moscow Philharmonic at UMass concert hall (now the Frederick C. Tillis Performing Arts Center, part of the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts), and “Plan 9 from Outer Space” and other horror classics at a fun Halloween festival at Hampshire College.  All these experiences of the arts were as rich as any in New York City and made affordable to students in the days before ride shares allowed for the ease of off-campus trips and travel to Boston.

A later spontaneous trip to Amherst, which was to have included the Emily Dickinson Museum, began with Amherst College’s Beneski Museum of Natural History with its incredible dinosaur fossils.  As it turned out, planning to visit the popular museum is advised. The museum is open March-December, Wednesday-Sunday 10-5 with last admission is at 4 p.m.. A key suggestion is to purchase tickets online before the trip, an invaluable tip from tripadvisor.com reviews. The Evergreens, newly restored, and its former carriage house, now under construction as a welcome center, should reopen in the spring, which is all the more reason for another visit as well as to enjoy the gardens.  Enjoy updates by subscribing to the newsletter and following the museum’s social media.

Sincere thanks to the charming and scholarly Brenna who was a wonderful guide.  Anything on point is a credit to Brenna, any detours, hopefully, few, are mine.

A view of the beautiful trees on the museum grounds and the carriage house construction

Donations and items from the shop support the museum: Emily Dickinson Museum Shop.  Join the free online party on December 10th for Emily Dickinson’s birthday (in-person is sold out!) and a virtual tour.  As Frommer’s Travel Guide notes, Dickinson enthusiasts may also enjoy a tour of the Houghton Dickinson Room at Harvard University’s Houghton Dickinson Library, which features Ms. Dickinson’s writing desk, books from the family library, and other original items of the home.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Beautiful tree on the Amherst Town Common, such nice people there

(Additional sources: emilydickinsonmuseum.org, amherst.edu, mtholyoke.edu, poetryfoundation.org, poetry.org, drupal.yearbooks.yale.edu, poemanalysis.com, Britannica.com, edsitement.neh.gov,frommers.com, dbu.edu, penn.museum, journeys.dartmouth.edu, theatlantic.com, nytimes.com, buffalo.edu, princeton.edu, owlcation.com, tastingtable.com, quotefancy.com, lindaborromeo.com, frankhudson.org, publishersweekly.com, statistics.com, Wiki)

“The Emily Dickinson Museum” All Rights Reserved ©2024 Kathleen Helen Levey

Sunny mums at the Hotel Northampton

Cherry Blossom Encore: Atlantic City, Margate, and Moorestown

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On June 23, 2023

In Architecture, Cherry Blossoms, Nature, Park, Travel, US History

A Garden State-proud Facebook follower reminded me of the splendid cherry blossoms along Chapel Avenue, Kings Highway, and Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill and Haddonfield, both in Camden County, near Philadelphia.  Adding a few beautiful cherry blossom photos from this spring from O’Donnell Park, Atlantic City as an encore to “A Cherry Blossom Spring: Branch Brook Park”. Pictured with the blossoms are the Greek Temple Monument War I Memorial near the historic Flemish-style Knife & Fork Inn of that era. Neighboring Margate has begun its own Cherry Blossom Festival which means a must-see visit to the newly refurbished Miss Lucy, who celebrates her birthday July 22nd.

Greek Temple Monument WWI Memorial, one of several war memorials in “All Wars Memorial Park” as noted by the Atlantic City Free Public Library
O’Donnell Park
Stockton University, AC campus
Beautiful double blossoms
Atlantic Cape Community College, AC campus
Flemish-style historic Knife & Fork Inn, 1912
Margate Community Church, location of the inaugural Margate Cherry Blossom Festival, with Ventnor Avenue blocked off
Moorestown, Burlington County, near Philadelphia (2022)

“Cherry Blossom Encore: Atlantic City, Margate, and Moorestown” @ 2023 Kathleen Helen Levey.  All rights reserved.

A Cherry Blossom Spring: Branch Brook Park

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On June 21, 2023

In Arts, Cherry Blossoms, Culture, Culture, Nature, Park, Travel

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.” Theodore Roethke

Wandering under sunlit cherry blossoms is the hallmark of spring’s “Cherry Blossomland” in Branch Brook Park and one of life’s great pleasures.  The dance of spring in the blossoms, tremulous and dainty in the breeze, signals the end of winter as much as the arrival of the blooms.  So delicate, the white blossoms look like snowflakes on branches, spring having pranked winter with miraculous perseverance.  On Easter Sunday, in a harmonious convergence with Purim and Ramadan, and the festive afterglow of Holi, families, couples, photographers, and worldwide visitors strolled throughout the nearly four-mile park.  All were smiling, most grinning, blissed out by the breathtaking beauty and the great gift of enjoying life fully again.

Dancing snowflakes
Exquisite blossoms

Wonderful year-round, the park’s atmosphere is especially so in the spring. The park is a blossom-lover’s dream with all types of cherry trees: single blossom, double blossom, and weeping. Though selfies are the fashion, part of the fun in cherry blossom season is trading iPhones and cameras to capture happy moments.  Young auteurs giving directions while photographing their parents were charming, even holding up hands for “framing” on this and an earlier visit.  One, about 5 or 6, was reluctant to return the phone to parental amateurs in a hilarious and affectionate back and forth.  Stay long enough, or better yet, visit often, and experience the second flowering of Branch Brook Park: blushing brides before blooms, proud young adults in caps and gowns, adorable children dressed for First Communion, lovely girls in Quince dresses, graceful women in saris and salwar kameez, and smartly dressed families in their holiday best, all posing in blossom-laden photos as everyone passes through the park with a rhythm that mirrors the flow of the Branch Brook after which it takes its name.  Those dedicated to the park like the Branch Brook Park Alliance know how a shared love of beauty can bring people together.

Weeping cherry blossom tree

Branch Brook Park in spring reflects the worldwide celebration of the blooms.  Japanese cherry blossom festivals honor each stage of the blossom, which is reflective of life’s rites of passage with a reverence for nature that is intertwined with both Shintoism and Bhuddism. “Sakura” means not only “cherry blossom,” but symbolizes renewal.  The blossoms’ brief bloom is bittersweet, reminding admirers to appreciate the fleeting flowering beauty and nature’s imperfection.  How this philosophy of “wabi-sabi” (greatly condensed), which is from Zen Buddhism, manifests itself in everyday life in Japan is that family, friends, students, and co-workers gather in the tradition of “hanami,” which means flower-viewing, or what Americans might call picnicking, to appreciate the blossoms.  In Japan, school begins in April and collective childhood back-to-school memories are replete with falling petals much like many Americans associate crunching leaves with the start of school. Hanami in Branch Brook Park translates into the annual “Bloomfest” and a new Cherry Blossom Welcome Center that is scheduled to open this fall.

Pink and white blossom confection

Olmsted and Branch Brook Park history

A map of the L-shaped park of 360 acres shows its three main sections, the North, Middle, and the South with a picturesque extension in Belleville, which makes the park nearly four miles long.  Branch Brook is a tributary of the Passaic River and the park includes a reservoir, a lake, ponds, streams, and the Second River in the Belleville extension. With the liveliness of the present-day park, it seems hard to believe that it is the oldest county park in the country.

Branch Brook Park reflects a history of generosity.  Civil War volunteers trained in what was Camp Frelinghuysen on the former land of the Newark Aqueduct Board. The Ballantine Family gifted 32 acres, Z.M. Keene, William A. Righter, and Messrs. Heller, collectively, 50 acres, and the Newark Common Council, 60 acres. In 1924, Harmon Washington Hendricks, an industrialist from a prominent philanthropic Jewish family which dates back to the late 1700’s, bequeathed his family home and the 23 acres along the Second River, the former site of the Hendricks Copper Mill. The adjacent Hendricks Field Golf Course, upgraded in 2018, also has cherry trees.

Regarding the park design, requested by the Newark Park Commission, Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. and Calvert Vaux, well-known for Central Park (1858), envisioned a bucolic Branch Brook Park (1867) with their trademark naturalism that includes extensive rolling hills, stately tree clusters, waterways, and inviting paths.  Landscape architects John Bogart and Nathan F. Barrett designed a plan with an ornamental or “romantic” style (1895), but it was the Olmsted Brothers, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and his half-brother, John Charles Olmsted, who created the park keeping the garden-like style of Bogart and Barrett around the reservoir. 

The cherry blossoms adorn the design. Branch Brook Park boasts the largest collection of cherry blossoms in the country, though the picturesque spring wonder of Washington, DC’s Tidal Basin, a gift of cherry trees from Japan in 1912, receives an applause-worthy note as do the cherry blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  In 1927, Caroline Bamberger Fuld, who was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Germany, brought 2,000-2,050 cherry trees of many varieties from Japan. A lovely detail of this story is that she nurtured the cherry blossom trees on her own nearby Orange, New Jersey estate to ensure their survival before having them planted in the park.

Caroline Bamberger Fuld
(Photo: Jewish Women’s Archive)
A magnificent gift 🌸

Caroline was the sister of Bamberger and Co. department store founder Louis Bamberger and the wife of Felix Fuld, another founder. After Felix passed away in January 1929, Louis sold the business to R.H. Macy & Co. a few months before the stock market crash.  (Louis Bamberger gave the company’s 236 long-term employees, or “co-workers” as he called them, $1 million after the sale. Ideal bosses, he and Felix Fuld provided on-site health care, a cafeteria, a music club, a library, and classes offered through Rutgers University.)  After her husband’s death, Ms. Fuld, along with Louis, carried on her husband’s generosity. Both Caroline and Louis are known today for co-founding the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, which created a place for independent thought and research and gave new lives to many Jewish mathematicians in the 1930’s who needed to leave Europe.

Visual poetry

The original 2,000+ gift of Ms. Fuld has increased to approximately 5,200 (some sources note more) with 18 varieties with the help of the Alliance and Essex County Parks and Recreation, both of which have added more trees, preserved trees, and restored historical and architectural treasures. Various sources note that not only does the park have the most blossoming cherry trees in the country, but the greatest variety. Regarding the undertaking of planting the initial trees from Ms. Fuld, the National Park Service credits the Olmsted Brothers with returning and giving the trees a tiered-slope placement so park-goers could appreciate the blooms more completely. For those who prefer an immersive cherry blossom experience, the Belleville extension has the most densely planted blooms, which is also a wondrous experience for enjoying the light fragrance. A note here to underscore the park signs which have increasingly larger letters each year; please do not touch the trees so others may enjoy their beauty.

Architectural details

As Branch Brook Park Alliance notes, most of the “centennial” structures, those over 100 years old, are the work of the distinguished Carrere and Hastings, the most notable being the Beaux-arts Ballantine Gate, 1898. (The gates lead to the also noteworthy architecture of the Forest Hills section of Newark, where Newark Porchfest brings fun and music each fall.) There are also some Art Deco gems and the distinctive lion sculptures by Karl Bitter at the reservoir. The lions, donated by the Prudential Insurance Company from their former office building, are nicknamed “Art” and “Pat” after former Prudential CEO Art Ryan and his wife Pat, also park supporters.  Prudential arranged for the planting of twenty-four cherry trees as a memorial to Kiyofumi Sakaguchi. Other elegant tributes include the Patricia A. Chambers Cherry Grove, the Althea Gibson Tennis Center and statue by Thomas Jay Warren, the Roberto Clemente Fields and statue, a Felix Mendelssohn bust, a prize won by the United Singers of Newark in 1903, and a bust of Frederick Law Olmsted, also by Thomas Jay Warren, to note a few. While setting out to write about cherry blossoms, this has turned to a reflection on generosity, which are essentially one and the same in Branch Brook Park.

Beaux-arts Ballantine Gates by Carrere, 1898, and Hastings, restored by Essex County Restoration and Open Space Fund (2020)
Art Deco Bridge, Belleville extension (2016)
Blooms and Art Deco Bridge
One of the two 7-foot-tall limestone Prudential lions, 1901, by sculptor Karl Bitter at the reservoir with the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in the background (2018)
Althea Gibson by Thomas Jay Warren (2018)
Althea Gibson Tennis Center, which looks like a Tiffany window (2016). Louis Comfort Tiffany, a name appearing at the Newark Museum of Art, went to school and trained early on as a painter in NJ, another case for the maxim “all roads lead to New Jersey”.
Roberto Clemente statue by Roberto Clemente Field, Lake Street and Bloomfield Avenue, 2012, by Susan Wagner, a slightly smaller scale version (8 feet) of her Clemente statue at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Made possible through private donors, Verizon, and PSE&G.
Erie Bridge (2014)
Frederick Law Olmsted bust at the reservoir (2022)

Peak blooms are usually between the second and third weeks of April which means a welcome return trip for fans of the wonderful Newark St. Patrick’s Day Parade. For blossom viewing, driving is an option to see these sights and the blossoms, though there are wheelchair-friendly trails. Light rail lines and buses also travel to the park. For the definitive history of Branch Brook Park, please visit the Alliance. Other park features include the Prudential Concert Grove near the lions and reservoir, a roller skating rink and basketball courts near the cathedral basilica, baseball fields, bocce courts, which will return when the new center opens, a playground in the Belleville extension (“excellent” as rated by peals of laughter) and the Alliance’s cherry blossom live cam for anyone who cannot make the trip (yet) along with their Bloomwatch, which is also informative about the variety of cherry blossom blooms, on social media. Though the Rutgers Master Gardeners and many other organizations volunteer to help keep the park beautiful, the Alliance always welcomes more volunteers.

Pathway in Southern Division by the cathedral (2022 in this section)
Lake in Southern Division by Roller Rink
Beautiful rainbow

Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart

Standing majestically on the park’s horizon is the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, graceful with its French Gothic Revival style (1898-1954).  Both a National and a New Jersey Historic Site, the fifth largest cathedral in the nation is approximately 45,000 square feet, about the size of Westminster Abbey in London, and draws tourists as well as parishioners for its beautiful architecture.  In 1995, Pope John Paul II conferred the title of “minor basilica” upon the cathedral, the highest recognition given to a cathedral with special significance.

Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart (2022)
(2022)

Viewing the cathedral and the cherry blossoms was one of our early family traditions as Vailsburg, Newark residents, which brings to mind one special person among many, our grandmother, remembered in “Arriving Home to Sweetness”. Another early memory was seeing the first spring light shining through a window while hearing the voice of Newark’s Sarah Vaughan* from the records of “The Divine One” played often by our father fan. Newarker Whitney Houston was the great vocal artist of my generation, recalled in a visit to the former Grammy Museum at the Prudential Center, which is still home to the New Jersey Devils and the Seton Hall Pirates. The Newark Museum of Art, with its incredible collection, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), which now hosts the annual Sarah Vaughan Vocal Competition, and the Newark Library, which is a beautiful building and an excellent research resource, are also nearby.

New Jersey Center for the Performing Arts
“The Cuppah” by Gianni Toso, Newark Museum of Art
Beaux-art, Tiffany & Co. , 1900, Newark. Belonged to the [Thomas and Mina] Edison, West Orange.
An appreciative Martin Brodeur in “The Salute” to fans, 2015, by Jon Krawczyk outside Prudential Center (2019). The statue’s stand contains a fans’ time capsule of Brodeur memorabilia.
Partial view of the magnificent “The Mural,” 2007, by ambidextrous sports artist Tom Mosser. Commissioned by the NJ Devils, at 200’ x 30′ it is one of the largest indoor sports mural in the country. Pictured here are Martin Brodeur, Ritchie Regan, and boxers among many celebrated state athletes and icons.
Left to right: Ken Daneyko, Tony Meola, Terry Dehere, Althea Gibson

Note: News 12 New Jersey recently reported that Newark artists Rorshachbrand, Robert Ramone and Andre Leon, have created a new, beautiful mural honoring Newark and New Jersey musical artists that will inspire performers as they take the stage at the Prudential Center.

The 22-foot stainless steel “Stanley” aka “The Iron Man” by NJ Devils fan Jon Krawczyk stands in Championship Plaza behind the Pru Center. Children enjoy sitting and playing on his foot and hockey stick in what has become a popular selfie station/photo stop. The artist drove this and “The Salute” across the country from his California studio.
Newark Library (2015) which has beautiful murals

Nature’s poetry

Central Park has a plaque with the Theodore Roethke quote note above, “Deep within their roots, all flowers keep the light,” which came up when researching it.  (This calls for a visit to another Olmsted gem: “Central Park: A Template of Beauty”.) The renowned poet, who inspired generations of poets, felt a deep connection with nature from the time spent with his father in the elder’s greenhouse workplace where young Theodore observed the nurturing of beauty. After experiencing family tragedies at 14, Theodore struggled, as many young people have following the pandemic, but later found his way by writing poetry. Thematic in his work is the belief that nature has a soul, perhaps being interconnected with his own.  Poet Roethke’s view of nature as holding spiritual truth complements the essence of a traditional blossom festival.

A walk in the park with nature’s beauty, fresh air, and a stretch can often make cares drift away like petals on the stream. Nature is a gift, no more so than in spring, when flowers bring joy.  In the absence of the poet, deferring here to blossom eloquence.


Looking up in Branch Brook Park (2022)

* (No YouTube ad, hopefully; if so, worth the wait for “I’ve Got the World on a String”.)

(Sources: branchbrook.org, essexcountyparks.org, rhiplaces.com,
newarkbasilica.org/history, newarkhistory.com, newarkmemories.com, smithsonian.org, planning.org, jwa.org, loebjewishportraints.com, ias.edu, my modermet.com, loc.gov, asiasocity.org, portal.cca.edu, bbg.org, gotokyo.org, japaneseobjects.com, kenyonreview.org, poetryfoundation.org, knowingnewark.npl.org, acchamber.org, acfpl.org, tapinto.net, patch.com, jerseycares.org, tclf.org, krelickconservation.com, whom.com, bridgesnyc.com, splurgefrugal.com, emaculent.wordpress.com, dana.njit.edu, margatemasmore.com, wobm.com, cherryhill.yolasite.com, wally gobetz flickr.com, nhl.com, alltrails.com, lastleafgardener.com, nps.gov, Wiki)

“A Cherry Blossom Spring: Branch Brook Park” @ 2023 Kathleen Helen Levey.  All rights reserved.

“Fallish #thankagardener”

By

On November 21, 2021

In Baking, Gardening, Holidays

Rose, Van Vleck Gardens, Montclair

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus

A true June arrived in October this year with serene early summer temperatures that belied the falling of the leaves.  Topsy-turvy in this instance was a delightful surprise in the not-quite autumn with ocean swims until Halloween and gardens blooming well into November.  Visiting gardens, especially, brought appreciation for dedicated gardeners and volunteers and Nature’s gifts.

A favorite fall story is not mine to tell – the Halloween wedding of friends from school with warm-hearted images that play like home movies in my mind, but trick or treating, trunk or treating, and other fun neighborhood rituals have returned.  After all, ABBA is back, sparkling both in sound and rhinestone.  Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny, and Anni-Frid are the only people who could turn environmental stewardship into a catchy tune in “Bumblee,” my segue to Duke Farms in this autumn bouquet.

Duke Farms is one such Garden State oasis with more than 1,000 acres of the 2,740 preserved land open to the public.  The nonprofit also features sculptures on the grounds, a renowned Orchid Range, built by Kendall Taylor & Stevens, 1900, and an excellent cafe, which will re-open in the spring.

The historic Orchid Range is now LEED Platinum, highly rated for energy use and environmental impact
Beautiful tree allee of American sycamores with new trees being planted
Lee graciously posed for a moment in the record-breaking heat #thankagardener 🌿

Enjoy the wonderful Duke Farmers Market, open Sundays, 10-2:

Kim & her niece from Jams by Kim, also at the Montclair Farmers Market #shoplocal
Cheers from Love the Soup 🥣 #shopsmallbusiness

Heading up to North Jersey way:

Hubricht’s bluestar at Van Vleck Gardens, Montclair
An elegant Halloween scarecrow, part of a contest
Autumn serenity
“Rainbowlicious a Sparkle Unicorn goes Back to School” by Troop 22887 of the many charming Girl Scout contest entries
“Mister Micro-Plastic Monster Man” supporting savecoastalwildlife.org
Eastern redbuds, Presby Memorial Iris Gardens near Van Vleck Garden
The New Jersey Botanic Garden (NJBG), Skylands, Ringwood State Park, where “An Artists Holiday ” is December 2nd-5th at Skylands Manor.
Canna lilies and flossflowers, NJBG
Lovely rose at Ringwood Manor, currently under restoration, which will resume its incredible annual Victorian Christmas event in 2022 #thankavolunteer
Welcoming sphinxes, Ringwood Manor garden
Red maple, Shepherd Lake, part of Ringwood State Park
Monarch butterfly, Freylinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown
China asters
Friends of The Freylinghuysen Arboretum
#thankavolunteer
Asters
“Skilled Tradesmen,” Building and Construction Staff
#thankyouessentialworkers
“Swimming Season” by Recreation Department, Sunrise Lake Beach Staff #thankyoulifeguards #thankyoufirstresponders
#thankyouhealthcareheroes

“Dancing though Fall” by The Brown Family #thankanartist 🩰🎼🎭🎨
“Hard Working” by Monmouth County Parks Commission, Buildings and Construction
#thankyouessentialworkers #thankyoufrontlineworkers

Boomerang back to Central New Jersey:

Beautiful murals around town by the Arts Council of Princeton, here at Princeton Shopping Center #smallbusinesssaturday
The stately Prospect Gardens, Princeton University
Marigolds, Prospect Gardens
“Journey” by Marlon Davila, who grew up here, sponsored by the Arts Council of Princeton and generous donors (located at John Street and Leigh Avenue)
Another view of “Journey” at Lupita Groceries. Also enjoy artists’ work at the annual Chalet at Hinds Square along Nassau Street starting Nov. 26th.

Between the art and the flowers, a visit to Grounds for Sculpture was so delightful, had to return to enjoy it all again. The extensive grounds of this haven founded by sculptor Seward Johnson can offer a full day’s excursion with accessibility and dining onsite with a wonderful cafe and the popular Rat’s Restaurant.

Side view of entrance at Grounds for Sculpture with “A Turn of the Century” after Renoir’s “Dance at Bougival”
Swamp sunflowers
“Captured” by Seward Johnson
Beautiful roses at Grounds for Sculpture, sculpted by Nature and dedicated gardeners 🌿
“Family Secret” by Seward Johnson, inspired by Renoir’s “Two Sisters”
Oxeye daisies 🍃
Partial view of “My Sixteen-Year-Old Jazz Dream” by Seward Johnson (2020 visit in the visitor center, now open)
“If It Were Time” by Seward Johnson inspired by “Garden at Sainte-Adresse” by Claude Monet

Downtheshore:

Margate, city of flowers, neighboring Atlantic City 🌸🍃

Enjoy Santa’s ride through downtown this Saturday, Nov. 27th at noon with help from Margate City firefighters. For details, visit Margate Has More with thanks for following. 🌟

From the annual Margate Fall FunFest by the Bay, decorations by Margate City Beach Patrol #thankyoulifeguards

Lucy the Elephant, “America’s oldest roadside attraction,” which is usually open year-round, is now undergoing a makeover and welcomes support with one visit described in “Margate Marvel, Lucy the Elephant“.

(2020)
A rainbow pedi for the fall (2021)

One of Margate’s enchanting mermaid fountains that welcomes visitors along Ventnor Avenue:

A peek from one of Visit Cape May MAC 48th holiday tours, which have begun. Enjoy one visit in “Cape May at Christmas”.

A 👋 to Garden State neighbors:

Rose of Sharon at Winterthur, Museum, Garden and Library, where “Yuletide at Winterthur” has started and continues through January 2nd
Gordonias, Longwood Gardens, Kenneth Square, PA where the annual “A Longwood Christmas” has begun and continues through January 9th
PHS Meadowbrook Farm, Jenkintown, PA. The PHS Flower Show will enjoy its second year outdoors in FDR Park, June 11th-19th 2022.
Nigella Lawson’s Linzer Cookies

As a holiday thank you to followers and all, thought a cookie recipe was in order. This somehow became the three bears of baking: cookies from the first recipe were strangely mushy, the second, pure granite, and the third, Nigella Lawson’s Linzer Cookies were just right, apropos from the bella donna of cookie equilibrium.  Wishing you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving!

Cookies sans narrative

(Sources: dukefarms.org, vanvleck.org, capemaymac.org, nigellalawson.com, margatehasmore.org, winterthur.org, longwoodgardens.org, phsonline.org communitynews.org, Picture This)

“Fallish #thankagardener” All Rights Reserved © 2021 Kathleen Helen Levey

Avon-by-the-Sea
Red Maple, Wall Township
Autumn garden, Livingston hometown
Second summer in Asbury Park 🌼🍃
The Great Auditorium, 1894, Ocean Grove
#thankyoumastergardener 🕊🌿
Red maple, Livingston

“The Garden of Friendship”

By

On February 1, 2021

In Fashion, Friendship, Gardening

A snow-laden winter garden may appear bleak, but beneath the earth beats the slow, steady heartbeat of hibernation.  The emerging January light, perhaps the finest for photography, has a newborn clarity.  January, associated with the Roman god of transition and beginnings, Janus, looks both forward and backward in his depictions.  He takes the wisdom drawn from the past into the future, an investment much like the good faith planting of seeds.

With all of us keen for spring and the making of new memories, it is in the quiet time of winter that the groundwork for the miraculous happens.  Looking back, we appreciate the qualities that initially drew us to friends, sustaining memories even though we may enjoy the beauty of snow and crisp, clear winter days while we wait “safely apart”.  (Quotations marks convey the hope that these pandemic expressions will one day fade away from our collective memory.)

Wonderful friendships may have dubious beginnings.  One friend who loved gardens and helped them flourish approached me across a middle school cafeteria during study hall.  Certain I was in trouble, a fait accompli for the teenage mindset, it was quite the opposite – she worked in the school and needed a volunteer.  Immediately, I admired her style.  She always wore a colorful scarf, fabulous earrings, and/or a vibrant lipstick – that conveyed her appreciation for beauty.  As a fan of Maureen O’Hara, I loved her red hair. This graceful woman and a gangly teenager may have seemed an unlikely duo, but the chemistry of friendship was there.  Our friendship evolved like one of those lovely life surprises when your friends’ children also grow up to become your friends.

No friend was more loyal.  We were each other’s cheerleaders during short hems, long hems, big hair, sleek hair, and regular to gel manicures.  We shared scoops on everything from sales on bakeware to arts & cultural events.  She rolled with my youthful Star Trekkiness as I did with her mystifying love of cats.  (Kidding, cat fans.)  No one topped her for the relish and rapid-fire sharing of news-breaking gossip divulged to her circle of friends, but like a skillful tightrope walker, she balanced airily far above meanness.  She and her husband, also a wonderful friend, kindly extended themselves to many friends and former students for years.

Didiers Tulips from Rhinebeck, NY

My favorite story about her is one that I cannot share, but it involved her inventive and hilariously audacious sleuthing to help a wronged friend. (Will leave this to your imagination for now to preserve everyone’s privacy.) Nora Ephron once wrote about her disappointment that while dining out with family and friends that no one had told her that she had spinach in her teeth the entire evening.  Mine was the friend of the gentle nudge or signaling nod who saved me from many awkward social situations like a slip hanging out. (Checked Macy’s online, and slips appear not to have fallen prey to COVID chic.)  No one could ever even insinuate, much less say a bad word about anyone she loved in her presence, which was a rare gift to all of us as loyalties now change along with trending hashtags.  Lest my friend, who became our family friend, seem too serious, it was our shared laughter that I most recall along with our second birthday celebrations together, being almost birthday twins.

In the way that both falling snowflakes on the face awaken us or the first spring breeze feels on bare skin, thinking of my friend brings home the pleasure of a garden.  In her retirement, she volunteered at a beautiful arboretum among many nonprofits.  She most enjoyed working in the garden away from the politics of the office, displaying perennial wisdom.  Showing children how to appreciate nature and pass along beloved flowers, plants, and trees through generations was a true joy.  Having grown up with a special magnolia tree, lilac bush, and weeping willow trees planted by and for family members, I can understand the deep-seated satisfaction of gardeners like my friend who grow flowers, plants, and trees anew from those passed down to them by parents and grandparents.  These make a new place truly home, especially now with so many having moved.  As for my friend’s own flowers, as a meal shared with friends tastes better, so the flowers in her garden were more fragrant and the petals like velvet to the touch.

Our family friend was a prolific reader with virtuosity in discussing authors and their works. My wish was to delight her by being successful with writing in her lifetime, but her love was not dependent upon any behavior or success – it was for who I was, her most generous gift.  Though parting a few years ago was difficult, I was grateful to be here in the Garden State again to show her my gratitude and love while she was ill, small gestures along with those dedicated ones of her loving family and friends-like-family.  Devoted to her husband and family, she summoned all her strength to live until her 50th wedding anniversary, which she did with great joy. Her life-affirming appreciation of God’s gift of nature’s beauty reflected a steadfast belief that we would all meet again.

Writing about my friend has brought long-awaited snow, a gift indeed.  Next month, a visit to the arts, which my friend would have enjoyed.

(Sources: extension.umaine.edu/gardening, merriam-webster.com, Wiki)

“The Garden of Friendship” © Kathleen Helen Levey 2021 All Rights Reserved

“The Christmas Customers”

By

On December 29, 2020

In Christmas, Family, Gardening, Religion

The Nassau Inn, Princeton

“…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!” A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol stays with us as a spellbinding tale of redemption that keeps the spirit – and spirits – of Christmas alive. As we all debate which movie version of the tale is best (partial to the Albert Finney musical “Scrooge” and Michael Caine & the Muppets), and ideally, revisit the book, friends and family, now far afield, come to mind.

Our family friends, a wonderful couple, knew how to keep Christmas year-round in a home that was open to everyone.  As people of faith, they followed the example of humility and generosity bestowed on us through Christ’s birth. Though they had struggled for many years, no one kept Christmas like them, the ultimate year-round Christmas customers who wholeheartedly had bought into seeking grace.  During the holidays, their home was a delightful Christmas town with illuminated miniature houses and decorations floating on sparkling snowy cotton with holiday songs playing all day long.

Christmas magic in Bradley Beach

While working for their family owned business, I learned excellent customer care: take calls immediately, get back to people promptly.  Listen.  Nurture the loyalty in clients that they showed each other, family, friends, and employees. The customer is indeed, always right, delicately balanced with not letting him or her take advantage.  Smile.  Often. Customer satisfaction not only means return business, but pride taken in a job well done.

Princeton Floral Design, Princeton

The added bonus was the Fezziwig Principle.  Like Ebenezer Scrooge’s favorite boss Fezziwig, our CEO “…had the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil…The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.”  Our CEO might have preferred a likening with Cary Grant as the angel in “The Bishop’s Wife,” as he was a man of meticulous style, but he had the heart of a Fezziwig.  He took a personal interest in each employee and would brighten everyone’s day with a story or a joke, essentially creating an extended family.  This debonair man, who had grown up on a family farm, wrote all about that life that led to his success as a gift to his children and grandchildren.  His kept his family and the farm close with his own beautiful gardens that shared nature’s beauty and a reverence for the Master Gardener.

Our CEO’s “bride,” as he liked to call her, and board member, who was sweet and shy, decorated the office with a joy that brought immediate smiles from everyone who crossed the threshold. Christmas for them started in November.  Cookie tins, candy boxes, bottles, all wrapped elegantly and divided according to customers’ preferences were set out on tables around the largest room of the office, each labeled, so many that they spilled over onto the heating vents.  The most important part was the CEO’s personal delivery of these several hundred gifts with a “thank you” and a handshake for each customer, fading traditions that one hopes will make a comeback after these days of isolation.

Lambertville Trading Co., Delaware River Towns ☕️

Each a model Christmas customer, what our friends were teaching us was not just how to treat customers, but how to treat everyone.

Three Kings Day and then 349 days till Christmas!

“The Christmas Customers” All Rights Reserved © 2020 Kathleen Helen Levey

Beautiful crèche of Vocationist Fathers and Brothers, Florham Park

“Greenwood Gardens: Fairy-Tale Enchantment”

By

On January 27, 2019

In Architecture, Art, Gardening, Lifestyle, Travel

““…daily life…is practically composed of two lives – the life in time and the life by values…” E.M. Forster

Looking up to the Georgian Revival mansion from the Italiante garden

A garden is ever-changing, but perennial at the same time, planned around time to stand outside it.  We go then to a garden to enjoy nature’s beauty in time savored. Stepping into Greenwood Gardens takes us into a world of enchantment by adding fairy-tale charm to nature’s beauty. Greenwood Gardens features classical “Italianate gardens” with an “Arts and Crafts Design,” traditional handcrafted décor, resulting in the delight of Alice in Wonderland chess piece sculptures, a magical wrought-iron grille with birds of paradise and golden rabbits, fountains with Rookwood ceramic tiles, a stone teahouse, grottoes, and cascades.

“Greenwood Gardens” began as “Pleasant Days” an estate owned by the Days, Pauline and Joseph, who also lived in Gramercy Park. In 1906, the couple purchased the property from one of the well-known Newark brewers Christian Feigenspan, whose “P.O.N.,” the “Pride of Newark” beer won a silver medal in the Paris Exposition of 1877.  Mr. Feigenspan, a Cornell graduate, was a Newarker in an area filled with the country estates of wealthy New Yorkers among the “short hills,” high enough for views, low enough for access for those seeking a direct route to the countryside.

As a new Short Hills resident, self-made millionaire Joseph Day admired the garden of his neighbor, architect William Whetten Renwick and commissioned him to create an Italianate mansion and formal gardens for what would become “Pleasant Days”.  Before settling on a plan, Joseph and William toured gardens of Europe for inspiration. William, originally from Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshires, contributed to the design of both St. Patrick’s Cathedral and the Church of All Saints in New York City whose principal architect was his uncle James Renwick, Jr..  The Day gardens that he created had a modernized flair from new US inventions like lighting from Thomas Edison whose laboratory was in nearby West Orange and uniqueness with a working farm to fulfill the wishes of Pauline.  The beautiful Day home with its view of the Watchung Mountains was a social hub in the 1920’s and 1930’s.  During the Great Depression, however, Joseph, a real estate broker, had difficulty in maintaining the 79 acre estate, which went on sale in parcels after Mr. Day’s death in 1944.

Carriage house

Dr. Adelaide Childs Frick Blanchard bought the house and gardens, replacing the worn mansion with the present Georgian Revival house in 1950.  Adelaide and her husband Peter Blanchard, Jr. preserved the gardens on the still vast parcel of about 28 acres. Adelaide, a pediatrician, was the daughter of Childs Frick, a paleontologist and trustee of the Museum of Natural History and granddaughter of Henry Clay Frick who founded the Frick Collection. The Blanchards added the incredible limestone chess pieces, several ponds, and the striking London plane and Norway spruce allee along the entrance driveway. The estate, bordering on South Mountain Reservation with its mountain trails, allowed for one of the Blanchard family favorite pastimes, horseback riding.  Mr. Blanchard later sold 40 acres of repurchased land to the Township of Millburn where there is a playing field and extensive woodland paths for the public to enjoy as Old Short Hills Park.

The gardens have reflected both the taste of their owners and their respective eras, the Gilded Age and the Colonial Revival. The Day garden favored popular perennials, the Blanchard garden, the “modern” evergreens of 1950’s.  After Dr. Blanchard’s death, her husband, who lived many years thereafter, devoted the remaining years of his life to maintaining and restoring their home as a part of ensuring its future for public enjoyment.  Carrying on Peter, Jr.’s wishes, Peter Blanchard III and his wife Sofia created a nonprofit to preserve the garden under the national Garden Conservancy trust.  Son Peter, a writer, conservationist, and Greenwood trustee often speaks at the garden about which he has written Greenwood: A Garden Path to Nature and the Past, available at the gift shop or by calling (973) 258-4026.  Working from archival photos, the Garden Conservancy has restored the original terrace pergolas among several projects.  Today, the garden is a combination of perennials and plants with attractive foliage that offers color beyond the season of blooms.

Special flowers, particularly their scent, bring back memories – the rose corsage or boutonnière from a first formal dance, gardenias from a wedding bouquet, and pressed wildflowers from a picnic on one of those idyllic days that seem to have lasted forever. For many in our family, the scent of lilacs brings back the memory of our sweet grandmother Helen who returns to us each year with the first spring breeze.

Even more so than the beautiful flowers, perhaps it is the trees that are most significant at Greenwood Gardens.  The visual poetry of the allée of London plane and Norway spruce trees that Peter planted for his wife Adalaide let visitors know that they are about to experience a place so beloved that the Blanchards felt compelled to share it.

Partial view of beautiful London plane and Norway spruce allee
One of the Monarch butterflies in the allee
Flowering horse chestnut tree
Terrace pergola with mountain view
Terrace eagle
Flowers viewed from the terrace

After descending the steps in each marvelous level of the garden, visitors can travel through Greenwood’s mazes, an encounter with the wondrous. What is around the next corner?  Should one go right or left? The boxwood, fragrant at every turn, suggests that no one can choose wrongly. Surprises, some delightful and expected like birds singing and the rustling sound of squirrels darting through the hedges, may reassure us, and some fanciful, like the Rookwood fountain spouts of the enigmatic Dionysus, either smiling or frowning, offer mystery.

Cheerful allium

Friends who garden share the same qualities of patience, kindness, and good-naturedness. Perhaps that comes from taking the long view, knowing to prepare for spring months in advance and having the vision to imagine a flourishing garden when there is frozen ground.  Some friends in this bouquet are “house proud” as the British say.  They enhance the loving quality of their homes with fresh flowers and vegetables for their families and instill a love of nature in their children.  Others are artists, expressing themselves in the splendor of design.  Some are both. Almost all view themselves as grateful caretakers of God’s gift of beauty.  Each has a pride from accomplishment over time and the serenity of a joyful gift given to others.

A home of garden lovers, now shared with the public to experience not only nature’s beauty, but a sense of time more deeply valued, Greenwood welcomes volunteers.  For more information on their gardens which reopen in the spring, visit Greenwood Gardens, where you can also take an inviting online tour or see what’s in bloom. 

(Sources: greenwoodgardens.org, gardenconservancy.org, nybg.org, artprice.com, Arts & Crafts Home and the Revival: artsandcraftshome.com, nytimes.com, amnh.org, pawprinceton.edu, traditionalbuilding.com, hgtv.com, Wiki)

“Greenwood Gardens: Fairy-Tale Enchantment” All Rights Reserved © 2019 Kathleen Helen Levey

Front view of the mansion
Path to the stone summerhouse
Fields of daisies

“Central Park: The North Woods”

By

On November 21, 2018

In Architecture, Art, Culture, Gardening, Nature, Park, Travel

Harlem Meer, sunset view from the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center

“Every moment of light and dark is a miracle.”                                                                                 Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman, with New York and New Jersey ties, shares wisdom that lights the way in autumn.  At this time of year, the earlier darkness may not be welcome, but the fall offers a different kind of beauty with autumn leaves, a sometime #Snowvember, and a greater appreciation of the day.  At night, the stars shine more clearly in the sky.

Nature’s palette in Central Park

Fall splendor and autumn blooms in a celebration of nature’s palette mark autumn in Central Park.  And then there are the greens, vibrant after this year’s rain.  On a splendid day of second summer in the park, a walk in Central Park North brings the cheers of children playing soccer, strollers on their lunch breaks, friendly chats with fellow park admirers, and the fragrance of the flowers on the last of the warm breezes.

Untermeyer Fountain, Three Dancing Maidens by Walter Schott

Chrysanthemums, daisies, and asters in the Conservatory Garden

A young mother lay on one of the giant boulders with her newborn sleeping on her chest, looking at the sky while her infant slept in a perfect moment of contentment and connection.  This sight brought to mind a wondrous thing about Central Park that the Conservancy has revitalized from the park’s original vision: park-goers know that there is no judgment in the park, which is one of the keys to its serenity.  On a wonderful early fall tour of the North Woods, park staff mentioned the Bible as a source for Frederick Law Olmsted in creating a pastoral setting, his touchstone for a shared utopia. By looking to Heaven, he connected people with Earth.

Visual poetry

We all have our favorite parts of the park, and the Park Conservancy encourages us to explore and enjoy all of it.  The park is, impressively, 843 acres (341 hectares) and a six-mile (9.6 km) around its perimeter, its inception detailed on a springtime visit in “Central Park: A Template of Beauty”.  On another visit, while circling somewhere on a wooded path in the North End, when asked which way was a central landmark, a hiker responded with a smile and a shrug that in the nicest way possible expressed, “Why would anyone head where visitors flock when there are these great woods?”  She knew the paths of the northern park expertly and shared that knowledge with enthusiasm.  Everything is about perspective.

Springbanks Arch

North in the park 

The North End includes the North Meadow, Harlem Meer, the North Woods, the Great Hill, in season, playgrounds, baseball fields, and the seasonal pool/ice hockey Lasker Rink.  The Conservatory Garden is a few blocks lower than the start of the North End at 100th Street.  Designed by Gilmore Clarke, who created the Unisphere at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, it boasts three gardens in English, French, and Italian style.  Distinguishing the garden is the Vanderbilt Gate by George Browne Post, who designed buildings for the nearby City College of New York, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and the New York Stock Exchange, and who later lived in Bernardsville, New Jersey.  The Conservatory Garden is its own paradise thanks to dedicated gardeners.

A highlight on a recent trip was chatting with people fishing at Harlem Meer.  Fishing of bass, perch, and carp is catch and release with respect to NYC fishing regulations, but the sport is no less fun. Our grandfather, an avid fisherman, would have delighted in the fishing and have known the questions to ask.  A kidder, however, whenever anyone asked him what was new, he always answered, “New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and New Mexico” often accompanied by a friendly swat on the arm. Straightforward was not his way, but fun was, and through a love of fishing, he made friends easily as his fellow sportsmen at the Meer seem to do, too.

The Ravine

A tour of the North Woods offers a thoughtful combination of art, history, ecology, geology, good company, and a poetry reading, a sublime mix for those who love nature and art. The North Woods, designed to evoke an Adirondacks experience, features rushing cascades, leafy paths, and stone and rustic bridges with inspiration by Maplewood, New Jersey artist Asher Durand whose work embodied the counterpoise of “naturalism and idealization,” seen in “Kindred Spirits”.   The tour starts at the northeast corner of the park by Duke Ellington Circle, sometimes referred to as “the Gateway to Harlem” at East 100th Street at the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center.  From the center, situated on Harlem Meer, the group traverses the woodland to The Loch, “lake” from Scottish Gaelic like the Dutch “Meer,” the Ravine, and The Pool on the West Side. The water experiences were part of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux’s original “Greensward Plan” for the park. In an impressive feat of engineering, the two created the Pool, The Loch, Harlem Meer, and three cascades from Montayne’s Rivulet, once a passageway for Revolutionary War troops.  The Meer surrounds a promontory with the remnants of a lookout from the War of 1812. The Conservancy commissioned the center and restored the area to its original beauty in 1988-1993.

With this fall’s sensation of the sighting of the Mandarin duck, and now the saw-whet owl, it may reassure us at the holiday season to know that people will rush past cynicism to experience simple wonder, which is why the park is so important.  The North Woods is also a bird habitat, noted with appreciation to others on the walk who had brought binoculars and shared some of their delightful sightings.  All park tours, now also available in Spanish and French, are a way to learn about new parts of the park, to have a deeper appreciation for favorite places or an opportunity for children to discover.  Thank you to our knowledgeable guides.

Dedicated park staff members

Finding the way

If you live in New York City, you will experience friendly neighbors waving and calling out your name from across the street, which no one to this day believes in any of my out-of-state retellings.  “New York, New York City?” they ask, but the divine wordsmith Nora Ephron always recounted stories in both interviews and her work of how New York is a city of neighborhoods.  The apparent effortless serenity of the park, devotedly designed and developed, increases that warmth exponentially in New Yorkers’ splendid front yard where visitors are cordially welcomed.

For those fellow Central Park explorers whose sense of direction needs a little navigational nudge now and then, though the paths are clear, the fallback GPS works in the North Woods.  Better to enjoy walks with friends that offer visits on log benches or hikes with a tempo that pick up with camaraderie.

On such visits, we enter the woodland with the known behind us and explore the paths.  In the heart of the woods, we look back in thanks and forward in anticipation, a Thanksgiving with a view to a new year.

(Sources: centralparknyc.org, centralpark.org, centralpark.com, nycgovparks.org, metmuseum.org, watercourses.typepad.com, nytimes.com, Wiki)

“Central Park: The North Woods” All Rights Reserved © 2018 Kathleen Helen Levey

Fishing at Harlem Meer

Downashore with Gramps, second, left, and firehouse buddies in Brielle with a champion catch that made the “Newark Evening News”

Charles A. Dana Discovery Center

Dana Discovery Center

Autumn gold at Harlem Meer

The Pool

A side trip to the zoo with a thank you to staff. Pictured is a delightful red panda.

North Meadow

North End flowers

“Hildene: Robert Lincoln and His Family”

By

On July 1, 2018

In Culture, Gardening, Nature, Travel, US History

Hildene Mansion entrance with brick outline of the log cabin of Abraham Lincoln’s birth

“Hill” and “Dene (Valley)” Old English Thesaurus

Tucked away in beautiful Manchester, Vermont is Hildene, the family home of Robert Todd Lincoln, 1843-1926. The only child of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln to live to adulthood, Robert distinguished himself as the Secretary of War for two presidents, a Minister to Great Britain, and the general counsel, president, and chairman of Pullman Railroad which made the fortune that created Hildene. Robert also served in the Civil War on the staff of General Ulysses S. Grant and was present at General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox. Happily married to Mary Harlan, daughter of a US Senator, he had three children, and the atmosphere of the house reflects their harmony.

The quote most commonly attributed to the reserved Robert about his famous father is a regretful one, “During my childhood and early youth he was almost constantly away from home, attending courts or making political speeches. In 1859, when I was 16 … I went to New Hampshire to school and afterward to Harvard College, and he became president. Henceforth any great intimacy between us became impossible….” Visitors can see, however, the love for his father, even before they enter what Robert called “the family’s ancestral home” that harkens back to their English roots. A 12 by 17 feet (3.6 x 5.1 meter) outline of the Kentucky cabin where his father was born is directly in front of the entrance of the impressive 1905 Georgian Revival mansion, which along with the United States and Vermont flags signals to visitors that they are crossing a threshold of both history and the American Dream.

Full view of Hildene Mansion

The Lincoln family’s Manchester connection predates Hildene. Mary Todd, Robert, and brother Tad had spent part of the summers of 1863 and 1864 at the nearby historic Equinox Hotel to escape the heat of Washington, DC and the Civil War, where reportedly a special suite was created for a presidential stay the for the next summer. Robert later frequented the hotel’s golf course, playing on occasion with President Taft, also a guest at Hildene.

The Gilded Age mansion’s stunning floral arrangements created by volunteers and the personal touches: photos, letters, personal items, books, and teddy bears give Hildene the warmth of a lived-in home. Of the 24 rooms, 17 are open so there is a great deal to see. Some furnishings are former possessions of Mary Todd Lincoln’s family and almost everything is original to the house.  A happy family lived here, and the dedicated staff and volunteers have conveyed that with thoughtful detail. The soundtrack to the visit is a rare and wonderful one with the music of a “1,000 pipe Aeolian organ”.

Family dining room

Child’s bedroom

Robert, his wife Mary, and his parents

President Lincoln’s stovepipe hat

A compelling and unexpected aspect of the visit to Hildene is an archival room dedicated to President Lincoln’s presidency “The American Ideal: Abraham Lincoln and the Second Inaugural”. President Lincoln addressed accountability and healing at the end of the Civil War so that the country might go forward.  Some items on display are his stovepipe hat, Ford Theatre photos, a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation and a related diary entry of Lincoln secretary John Hay.  The experience is like looking into the soul of a man and a nation.  After viewing the exhibits, without exchanging words my friend and I both sat down on the room’s bench in silent reflection. Other archival material is available at the Charles Woodberry McLellan Collection of Lincolniana at Brown University, preserved in memory of graduate John Hay, for those who are interested.

The mansion with its history and charm are only part of the Hildene visit. Beyond the splendid French parterre garden is a jaw-dropping view of the Battenkill Valley.  Frederick Todd, an apprentice of Frederick Law Olmsted of Central Park renown, planned the Hoyt Formal Garden “to resemble a stained-glass Romanesque cathedral window” according to the design of daughter Jessie Lincoln as a surprise for her mother. Peonies are a garden highlight with more than 1,000 blooming in mid-June. In the front of the house, the observatory, though not large, has a remarkable and restored refracting telescope, state-of-the-art in Robert’s day, which enabled the stargazer and fellow astronomy enthusiasts to take advantage of fine hilltop views in a clear night sky.

Hoyt Formal Garden with peonies in full bloom and the dramatic Battenkill Valley backdrop

Partial view of Battenkill Valley

Hildene peonies

The welcome Vermont respite of Hildene was a true getaway for the Lincoln family who left their Chicago home base and sometimes stayed for as long as eight months, and it was here that Robert passed away on July 26, 1926. Of Robert, his loving wife Mary wrote that he “was a personage, made his own history, independently (underlined 5 times) of his great father, and should have his own place ‘in the sun.'” This quote is from a request for his burial in Arlington National Cemetery where both she and their son Jack, Abraham Lincoln II, who died at 16, were laid to rest. Robert’s last public appearance was on his father’s behalf in 1926 at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial where both the Second Inaugural Address and the Gettysburg Address are inscribed.

The last Lincoln family member to reside at Hildene was Robert’s granddaughter Peggy Beckwith who made the estate more self-sufficient, which one can see today with the goat and cheese-making farm. The 412-acre estate, which still retains its original cutting and kitchen garden, is ideally situated between the Green Mountains and Taconic Mountains.  In addition to the farm, Hildene offers wonderful hiking trails for those who wish to enjoy nature along with history. The house reflects the different periods of residence, Peggy’s, upstairs, and Robert’s, downstairs. After Peggy’s death in 1975 and a pending sale to developers, The Friends of Hildene fought to save the estate.

“Sunbeam” Pullman Palace Car

Part of the “Many Voices” Timeline of the experiences of the Pullman Porters

A 1903 Pullman Palace railroad car, the Sunbeam, came to Hildene after a national search and a meticulous restoration process. The luxurious sleeper car, used by President McKinley, reporters for Theodore Roosevelt’s 1912 campaign, and a part of FDR’s funeral train is 75 feet long vs. today’s 60. A timeline “Many Voices” begins with the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which links directly to the hiring of the first Pullman porters who were freed slaves after the Civil War through the Civil Rights Movement in 1963. The long view of history is that the job of porter offered opportunity, social exposure, and income, which led to the creation of an African-American middle class and respect for the porters within their communities. Access to newspapers through travel provided information for family and friends on jobs and conditions in the North. The day-to-day reality was that it was a difficult job with sometimes discouraging anonymity and little room to advance. The informative staff offer in-depth information about the period and Friends of Hildene notes the website of the Vermont African American Heritage Trail for those who are interested in learning more about similar historical sights.

One aspect of New Jersey history for regular readers connects Robert to Jersey City where Edwin Booth, the most famous and distinguished stage actor in the country and founder of The Players in New York City, saved his life. Changing trains in the early 1860’s, the 17 year old Robert, pushed in the crowd, fell between the platform and a departing train. Edwin pulled him up, not knowing who he was. Robert gratefully recounted the incident to Colonel Adam Badeau on General Grant’s staff who sent a letter of thanks to the famous actor. Edwin, ironically, was traveling with John T. Ford, owner of Ford’s Theatre. After President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865 by Edwin’s younger brother John, when Robert was by his father’s bedside when he passed, the letter reportedly gave Edwin comfort.

Replica of casts of Abraham Lincoln’s hands shortly after receiving the presidential nomination in 1860. Cast by sculptor Leonard Wells Volk, these are the models for President Lincoln’s hands in almost all well-known statues of him. His right hand is slightly swollen from shaking hands of well-wishers.

Walking around the estate is a pleasure, but there are also trams for visitors. For an accessibility guide, tour arrangements for the visually impaired, group tour reservations, archive tour, lectures and events, and ways to support, visit Hildene. The lovely grounds with an event tent make it a popular place for weddings and other celebrations.  As of early 2022: The estate, which includes the home, garden, Pullman Car, Hildene Farm & Goat Dairy, Dene Farm (a high school sustainability program), and twelve miles of walking trails, is open daily from Thursday-Monday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 except Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, the 24th-26th. Admission is $23 for adults, $6 for children (6-16). Children under 6 and members are free. Daily 45-minute guided home tours are at 11 a.m. with an additional $7.50 fee. Please register ahead by writing tours@hildene.org or calling (802) 362-1788.  A fun note: enjoy cross-country skiing and snowshoeing on the trails from mid-December to mid-March, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. with a preview of the grounds.

Thank you to the staff, volunteers, and Friends of Hildene for a wonderful visit.

(Sources: Hildene.org, EquinoxHotel.com, Biography.com: quote, historynet.com, VermontHistory.org, Smithsonian.com, Telegram.com, NewEngland.com/newsarticles/Lincoln, Wiki)

“Hildene: Robert Lincoln and His Family” All Rights Reserved © 2018 Kathleen Helen Levey

Hoyt Formal Garden view from second floor

Garden view of Hildene home

Edison & Ford Winter Estates

By

On May 20, 2018

In Food, Gardening, Science, STEAM, STEM, Travel, US History

“If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.” 

An admirer of Thomas Paine, who once lived in Bordentown, New Jersey, Edison’s remarks sometimes revealed a revolutionary soul, “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”  Perhaps that is one aspect that he had in common with his lifelong friend Henry Ford, a fellow trailblazer in innovation and mass production, who often visited at Edison’s Glenmont Estate in New Jersey.  Nevertheless, they both enjoyed some luxuries, not opulent in comparison with their peers, but elegant just the same.  One of those was their winter getaway to Fort Myers, Florida, designed by Thomas, which includes the Edison & Ford Museum, Seminole Lodge (main house, guest house, caretaker’s house), the Edison Botanic Research Laboratory, Edison Botanical Gardens, and The Mangoes, the Ford home.

The Botanic Research Laboratory was the result of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone’s concern about the United State’s dependence on suppliers overseas for rubber. After trying 17,000 native plants to produce rubber, Thomas found success with Goldenrod, though he did not live to see the completion of the experiments.  The lab is now a National Historic Chemical Landmark, designated by the American Chemical Society, one of few in the country, others commemorating the work of Rachel Carson and George Washington Carver. The extensive museum includes a Smithsonian Spark! interactive lab, a timeline of innovation, movies & music, and more.  Children’s activities include rainy day learning.

The more than 20 acres of botanical gardens includes trees planted by Edison and Ford themselves as well as a moonlight garden, 1929, designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman.  The banyan tree and royal palm allee are standouts among many gardens of interest.

Tours, lectures, and events are ongoing at the Winter Estates.  The estate is also available for corporate and private events. For more information and to take a virtual tour, visit: Edison and Ford Winter Estates.

If you enjoy bringing history to life, and simply making good recipes, try one of the favorites from Edison’s Family and Friends Recipes.

Ginger Snaps

2 cups brown sugar

2 cups molasses

1 cup shortening

4 cups flour

1 1/3 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

Heat and bring to a boiling point sugar, molasses, shortening (part of which should be butter), ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.  Remove from fire and cool.  In the meantime, mix and sift the salt and flour and stir part of it in the cooling mixture. Dissolve the soda in a tablespoon of warm water and beat into the mixture then stir in the remainder of flour.  Roll out to about 1/4 inch-thickness on a floured board and shape with a floured cutter.  Place on small buttered tins allowing space for spreading.  Preheat oven for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.  Put in oven and bake for 7 minutes.

As a firefighter’s granddaughter, I decided to use the microwave instead of boiling, and an ice cream scoop and a pizza tray replaced the cookie cutter and tin.  (Things are fast and loose in this kitchen, especially with a deadline.)  The batter has a consistency like taffy and the cookies taste like gingerbread.  If you prefer a sweeter cookie, a couple of sweet recipes are coming in the summer and the Martha Stewart’s peanut butter and jelly cookie recipe is still up. Our father’s favorite cookie was a molasses-based spice crinkle, and he would have enjoyed these ginger snaps as well as Thomas Edison’s overalls quote in the preceding post.  The ginger snaps may be a fun cookie surprise for Father’s Day along with a visit to an Edison site.

Mina Edison’s Ginger Snap Cookies

Sincere thanks to the Edison & Ford Winter Estates for their kind permission to use this recipe from Edison’s Family and Friends Recipes that features family favorites.  This is more like a booklet and only costs a few dollars.  Other recipes are: Mina’s “Light as Air Muffins,” Egg Croquettes, Mina’s Deviled Crab, Hot Slaw, Hickory Nut Cake, Chocolate Caramels, and Mina Miller Edison’s Holiday Punch.

You can purchase the book online with the Winter Estate or in the Thomas Edison Historical Park gift shop where I did.  Since we were in touch late last summer, the nonprofit Winter Estates came through Hurricane Irma.  In what seems like characteristic generosity, they are offering wood from downed trees to local woodworkers.

(Source: edisonfordwinterestates.org)

All Rights Reserved © 2018 Kathleen Helen Levey

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