US History – Writing New Jersey Life

A Thanksgiving: The Emily Dickinson Museum

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 10^th 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)

Sunny mums at the Hotel Northampton

Seward Johnson’s Invitation to Grounds for Sculpture

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On April 26, 2024

In Art, Arts, Culture, Museum, STEAM, Travel, US History

Come with me, and you’ll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look, and you’ll see
Into your imagination

“Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka” by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley

Beautiful peacocks wow visitors at Grounds for Sculpture

View from “Put Yourself in the Picture” by Roberto Lugo

Grounds for Sculpture is founder and sculptor Seward Johnson’s invitation to embrace art. Visitors, especially children, often hug or play with sculptures like they are old friends, sitting beside them at picnic tables or in outdoor cafes. Many have had the experience of bumping into a Seward Johnson statue around the country (and the world) and uttering, “Excuse me,” only to stop and laugh at the realization that it is not an actual person. The artist’s playful gotcha game continues with a celestial wink.

Beautiful orchard of Japanese cherry, apple blossom, and crab apple trees

The fun, a reflection of hard work, generosity, and planning, began in 1992 as an outgrowth of the Johnson Atelier, which Mr. Johnson founded in 1974, initially in Princeton, as a community for sculptors. The Atelier was ground-breaking by offering sculptors the opportunity to keep control of their work and have access to production methods formerly kept close to the vest within the sculpture world. By all accounts, the Atelier sculptors’ collaborations were, and are, rewarding and fun. The institute has the reputation of being the finest foundry for bronze casting in the country and among the best in the world. (Early collaborators and friends of Seward Johnson from the Atelier, sculptors Herk Van Tongeren, Isaac Witkin, and Brooke Barrie, contributed to the direction of the sculpture park that grew from the Atelier. Mr. Van Tongeren became the first Grounds for Sculpture president and executive director, and Ms. Barrie was the inaugural academic director, curator, and a successive director.) Seward Johnson’s generosity is a gift that keeps giving as sculptors have gone on from the Atelier to form schools and flourish as artists. Visitors may sometimes see the artists at work in the Atelier when exploring the grounds. Today, the Atelier also curates the exhibitions of Seward Johnson’s works, which help to increase tourism wherever the sculptures go.

“Put Yourself in the Picture” by Roberto Lugo

“Captured” by Seward Johnson with a woman reading his daughter’s book of poetry (June 2023)

What has changed most over the past several years at Grounds for Sculpture is that the core group of visitors has expanded from traditional art lovers to a crowd more reflective of those who would have visited when Grounds for Sculpture was the New Jersey State Fairgrounds. Through grants from a foundation, Mr. Seward purchased the neglected 42 acres of the former fairgrounds and gradually transformed them with the same generous thought he had behind the placing of his inviting “Everyman” sculptures in public parks – they are a way to draw people back into the park. Among the art lovers at Grounds for Sculpture are international travelers, which indicates the appeal of the art. On a weekend visit this month, children with their families on holiday from overseas sported cartoon T-shirts like the Incredible Hulk. Perhaps Seward Johnson might have taken it as a compliment that budding connoisseurs consider his art, too, a marvel.

The Seward Johnson Center for the Arts (June 2023)

The children are in it for fun, which abounds at Grounds for Sculpture. On an April weekend visit, a giant stone snake was a hit with children who ran along it, as were the Cloud Swings, which had parents and grandparents playing with their children. Ideally, the art and events will inspire children’s lifelong creativity, and there are online activities for young artists to try before they visit.

Founder Seward Johnson

“It’s easy sometimes to forget the simple things that give us pleasure. If we open our eyes, life is marvelous.” Seward Johnson

Seward Johnson with Cecelia Joyce Horton and her parents on Cecelia and Seward’s wedding day

Seward Johnson II, born in New Brunswick, NJ, April 16, 1930, lived a New Jersey story as much as a worldwide one, having resided in Highland Park, Hopewell, and Princeton at different times. His parents were J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Ruth Dill. His grandfather, Robert Wood Johnson, Sr., was a co-founder of the well-known pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, and his maternal grandfather was Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Melville Dill OBE, a Bermudian who served as an attorney-general and a member of Parliament. Not long after the Lindbergh kidnapping, Seward’s father foiled a kidnapping attempt in the Johnson family home, the Merriewold Estate Castle in Highland Park, which led to the family’s far-flung stays in London, Paris, Bermuda, and the New Mexico Ghost Ranch of Georgia O’Keefe. A fun tidbit is that Mr. Johnson’s cousins on his mother’s side are Michael and Joel Douglas, sons of Diana Dill and Kirk Douglas. Kirk once asked Seward to sculpt a bust of him, which Seward graciously did. Though portraiture was not usually “his thing,” it was a compliment that his famous uncle asked. The sculpture featured the striking dual faces of Kirk, whom the 16-year-old Seward first knew, and the Kirk of what was then 2002.

Following the philanthropic example of Robert Wood Johnson, J. Seward Johnson, Jr. set up six charities for each of his children to contribute to society, Seward’s being the Atlantic Foundation. It was through grants from the Atlantic Foundation that Seward purchased the land for the Atelier and Grounds for Sculpture and funded the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute Foundation, which his father had founded in 1971 for “preserving the environment through a deep, scientific understanding of the ocean”. The foundation supports marine research, classes, and marine mammal rescue as part of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University.

For someone who often appeared light-hearted publicly, Seward Johnson had navigated life challenges, some even more complex and undoubtedly more painful, by being played out publicly. Despite his intelligence, he struggled as a student due to his dyslexia but later found his way by enlisting in the U.S. Navy. During his service, he fought in the Korean War for four years on the USS Gloucester, and at one point, he and his fellow servicemen nearly lost their lives when the battleship took a direct hit. A failed first marriage caused despair, and lengthy litigation over the family estate made headlines for years. Corporate life did not suit his talents, and he was let go from the family business at 38.

Cecelia Joyce and Seward from the exhibition

A joyful counterbalance was Seward Johnson’s second marriage with writer, poet, director, and producer Cecelia Joyce Horton, with whom he shared the ultimate “meet cute” story. Seward, Cecelia, and another passenger got bumped from a flight from New York City to Nantucket. Seward wisely suggested that the other man, a traveler from California, might enjoy a night seeing the city, which cleared the way for dinner with Cecelia. For an uplifting experience, enjoy the exhibition “That’s Worth Celebrating: The Life and Work of the Johnson Family” in the Cecelia Joyce and Seward Johnson Gallery, which shares Mr. Johnson’s happiness with his family life.

Noting Seward’s mechanical ability, Cecelia encouraged her husband to move from painting, which they did together, to sculpture. After being rejected by the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Seward’s first sculpture, the steel “Stainless Girl,” won the U.S. Steel’s 1968 Design in Steel Award out of 7,000 entries, and, as he joked in interviews, he never won anything again.

Impressively, he carried on with his work despite the initial derision of some art critics who may have missed that he had a different aim. He would comment, “The art of my work is in the interaction, not the aesthetic.”

Seward’s determination, however, demonstrated that he was not a dilettante, and the increasing profits from the sale of his works went back into the Atelier. (In what must have felt like a rewarding, full-circle experience, Georgia O’Keefe later used the Atelier.) Notably, Mr. Johnson received the Lifetime Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award from the International Sculpture Center in 2019, which he had supported for years at the invitation of founder Elden Tefft, a sculptor and a professor at the University of Kansas, and membership in the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

“…not public art, but art for the public…” Seward Johnson

Seward Johnson’s most well-known series of sculptures may be “Celebrating the Familiar” as well as “Beyond the Frame,” which recreated the works of the Impressionists, and “Icons Revisited,” with the monumental sculptures like “Forever Marilyn” from a still photo from Billy Wilder’s “The Seven Year Itch” (the rights of which Mr. Johnson obtained from the photographer) and “Embracing Peace” from one of the better known Victory Over Japan or “V-J” Day photos of a sailor kissing a nurse in anticipation of the end of the war in Times Square. Seward Johnson created “Embracing Peace” from the photo by US Navy photojournalist Victor Jorgensen, which was in the public domain. Photographer Alfred Eisenstadt, who took the more well-known photo, had observed the tipsy sailor passing through Times Square, kissing women of all ages and appearances out of sheer joy that the war was ending. Current perspectives give the photo different meaning for some, but in the context of 1945 and Mr. Eisenstadt’s description, the jubilation at the end of World War II was felt throughout the country.

Life-size “Embracing Peace” in downtown Spring Lake, NJ (2022)

“If It Were Time” by Seward Johnson, an homage to “Terrace at Sainte-Adresse” by Monet (2021)

“Family Secret” by Seward Johnson, inspired by Renoir’s “Two Sisters in the Terrace” (2021)

Regardless of scale, the faces of his works are remarkably expressive. Though “Beyond the Frame” initially drew some criticism for borrowing from other artists, Mr. Johnson believed that if viewers could walk inside the paintings in 3-D, this would be an ultimate sharing of the artist’s vision and a way to engage people who might not otherwise be interested in art. Seward added his contributions beyond the artist’s original canvas. As he said in interviews, he wanted to create “not public art, but art for the public” and added, “Interaction is part of the art form. But the interaction also extends beyond what is simply there to what is created in the viewer’s imagination.” Over the years, his works gained acceptance and became popular. Perhaps by not only doing what he loved but creating it with love is what resonates with people today.

People have compared his works with those of Norman Rockwell, whom Mr. Johnson admired, but he noted that Mr. Rockwell presented a story while Seward wanted the viewer to imagine what his figure’s story might be. Influences that Seward Johnson pointed out in “The Sculpture of J. Seward Johnson, Jr. Celebrating the Familiar” (1987) were the French painter and sculptor artist Honore Daumier, who conveyed his critiques of society with humor and sociologist/journalist William H. Whyte. William Whyte’s book “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” (1980) contained observations underscored with photos of how people acted in urban environments. Seward Johnson, too, was a keen observer of human behavior and nature. In interviews, he shared that he liked to walk through Central Park for inspiration. His reassuring park figures offered an “enticement to socialize” and to enjoy nature. Similarly, Frederick Law Olmstead designed invitingly to bring people into parks for their benefit. The perspectives of both visionaries have become more invaluable post-pandemic.

Though intellectual, Mr. Johnson possessed an irrepressible sense of humor, which is evident throughout the Grounds for Sculpture. “I like to have discovery in my work, generally done with humor…I like people to smile at what I made them think…” Visitors will find themselves smiling and laughing out loud at some exhibits. When interviewed for the 2014 Grounds for Sculpture retrospective of his work, Mr. Johnson, who created art well into his 80s, divulged that he sometimes napped on the bed in the exhibit of Van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles and then went back to work with tap shoes tucked away in case some excess energy took hold. “I’m living in my dream, you see.”

Seward Johnson’s 3-D version of Van Gogh’s “Bedroom at Arles” that visitors can enter

The process

Imagination meets hard work in creating a bronze sculpture, which can take up to two years to complete. The trompe-l’oeil (“optical illusion”) or the realism of Seward Johnson’s work came with great effort. A novice’s summary of the process is that from initial clay models (maquettes), Mr. Johnson created facial expressions and gestures, then chose a live model to come to the studio for apprentices to make a life-size clay and plasticine figure. Seward finalized the face and pose and selected clothing for the sculpture’s story. Apprentices converted the figure to plaster and set the clothes in resin. Before the resin set, Mr. Johnson pumped air under the fabric and into the pockets to achieve the look of folds and motion in the clothes. The sculpture then dried for two days before being separated into sections.

“On Poppied Hill” by Seward Johnson, inspired by “Woman with Parasol in a Field of Poppies” by Monet

As described in “The J. Seward Johnson, Jr. Celebrating the Familiar,” the “true foundry process” then began. Apprentices converted the plaster pieces to wax by creating a rubber mold for each. They then perfected the details of the wax (“chasing”), which they dipped into a solution to create a protective ceramic shell. The next step was to “burn out” the wax to leave only the detailed ceramic shell with a “precise image of the original,” which is “the lost-wax method of casting”.

Highly skilled apprentices then poured molten bronze at 2,000 degrees F (1093.33 C) into the molds. The team then adjoined the pieces and added bronze details from the sculptor’s vision, like glasses, jewelry, and hand-held objects such as pens or gardening trowels. The last step, which involved reheating parts of the metal using acetylene torches, was the patination or the coloring of the figure with special colors unique to Mr. Johnson’s work thanks to his collaboration with his fellow artists at the Atelier. Computer technology later created the giant, iconic sculptures from the life-size bronze ones. Faces of Seward Johnson’s bronze works became more expressive over time with evolving techniques, which remains essentially the same today, though the Atelier offers more current information about their services.

The casting process of the Atelier also makes creating sculptures more cost-effective for artists, which is another draw in addition to the skilled artistry.

“Double Check”

A work of art can take on a life of its own, which Seward Johnson experienced with “Double Check,” another “double-taking” statue this one completed for Merrill Lynch and placed in Liberty Park (now Zuccotti Park) near the former Twin Towers. The Everyman sculpture depicts a man checking the contents of his briefcase before a meeting. After 9/11, the work, surrounded by debris, took on a different meaning, which Mr. Johnson speaks about in an exhibition video, a moving segment from “The Saturday Morning Show” with Russ Mitchell and produced by Nadine Witkin, daughter of sculptor Isaac Witkin. Some rescue workers initially mistook the lifelike sculpture for a survivor.

Firefighters, police officers, rescue workers, and mourners left notes, flowers, and other tributes around the memorial site. Respectfully, Mr. Johnson changed the time on Double Check’s watch to 8:46 a.m., the time the first tower was hit. Two tributes are at Grounds for Sculpture, one in the entryway (pictured above) and another in the Cecelia Joyce and Seward Johnson Gallery, a “shrine” in bronze.

A song in his heart

Sing-a-long host at Rat’s Restaurant accompanied by Phil Orr from the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts

A renowned raconteur, Seward Johnson also entertained people with his Sing-a-longs (with a bit of tap dancing) at Rat’s Restaurant. Accompanied by Adam Weitz and Phil Orr, he would sing Broadway tunes and American songbook favorites. Regrettably, I could not go to what I thought might be the last one, but his joy lives on in delightful YouTube and Atelier Facebook posts. After Seward Johnson’s unfortunate passing at nearly 90 years old in 2020, his friend Joyce Carol Oates compared him with Walt Whitman for his “populist yet strategically calculated art” with a “remarkable declaration of expansiveness….”. After an unveiling of an installation of his on Times Square, Seward serenaded his wife and in a mic drop moment quipped, “Now I can say that I’ve sung on Broadway.” Both he and his wife Cecelia’s generosity went beyond Grounds and the Atelier. Cecelia Joyce Johnson is now president of the Cecelia Joyce and Seward Johnson Foundation, which awards annual grants to educational and arts organizations. Among these is the Forman School in Connecticut, which supports students with learning differences, and where Mr. Johnson attended and Albert Einstein was an advisor.

(The grand sculptures are marvelous and awe-inspiring, but one of my favorites is the clay model of Albert Einstein, whom Mr. Johnson knew as a mentor from his high school days.)

Jazz greats by Seward Johnson at the Seward Johnson Center for the Arts

“God Bless America,” complete with corn, by Seward Johnson, inspired by “American Gothic” (earlier visit)

“A Turn of the Century” by Seward Johnson, an homage to “Dance at Bougival” by Renoir, with a partial view of “Los Mariachis” en route to Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton Township

One figure from Seward Johnson’s “Los Mariachis”

The landscape

As Seward Johnson shared in a 2002 EBTV (East Brunswick TV) interview with Amy Fisher, “I want to have the land sculpted so that each piece is a separate experience as much as possible. I want it to be a sequential experience going through the park. I think that’s terribly important and then to add theater to the experience so that when you go around, it’s ‘Wow!’ All of a sudden it hits you….” His intent was “to enhance each piece”. Mr. Johnson, both Director of Design and Founder, planned much of the original grounds himself from the “rubble” of the former fairgrounds, which included planting trees while working alongside architect and sculptor Brian Carey. (In a Grounds for Sculpture 2015 video, Facilities Director W. Bruce Daniels notes that starting up required planting more than 2,000 trees, the remarkable variety of which visitors can appreciate on a tree tour, and tens of thousands of shrubs, roses, and ornamental grasses – including bamboo – to fill the grounds that had only a few maple trees remaining.) Mr. Johnson explained that sometimes pieces had to travel around the grounds before finding a home. Repeat visitors will enjoy a different experience on each visit with the circulation of works and new sculptures. Part of the fun is that visitors think that they have seen everything, but with a return visit, they realize that they have not.

A different view of the entrance with Seward Johnson’s “A Turn of the Century” and Wayne Trapp’s “Geometry of the Cosmos” (June 2022)

As Seward Johnson remarked, he did not often create portraits, but in his EBTV interview with Ms. Fisher, he shared that when legendary screen star Audrey Hepburn asked, he could not refuse. Ms. Hepburn generously sponsored the Audrey Hepburn Children’s House, which offers services for maltreated children and is part of the Pediatrics Department at Hackensack Meridian Hackensack University Medical Center.

Across the street from the house is a rose garden with the sculpture “It’s Going to Be a Beautiful Building,” with Ms. Hepburn and an architect who are discussing the plans for the center across the street. Ms. Hepburn gives a sweet wave with her pointer finger to a shy little girl, which Seward observed when meeting with the benevolent actress.

On a June visit to Grounds for Sculpture last year, I went for the roses but fell for the water lilies with a tip of the sunhat to the dedicated horticulturalists and volunteers. (The flowers, the art! The art, the flowers! The floral beauty later transitions into art with autumn leaves and then with snowy vistas.) The sculptures are beautifully incorporated into the landscape, emphasizing how nature and imagination complement each other, an interplay that Mr. Johnson appreciated on a boyhood trip to Canada and later on a wilderness trek there with friends from the U.S. Navy, both thoughtfully shared in an excellent biographical video from the Johnson Atelier and another from Lynn DeClemente Losavio, the Collection Manager of The Seward Johnson Atelier via the Pennington Library.

Water lilies with “Sailing the Seine II” by Seward Johnson in the background

From Renoir’s “Luncheon at the Boating Party,” a partial view of Seward Johnson’s “Were You Invited?” (The answer at GFS is, “Yes!”)

Partial view of sculpture by Andrzej Pitynski (2021)

Works of other sculptors

Grounds for Sculpture has featured the works of numerous sculptors: New Jersey’s George Segal, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Dana Stewart, Clifford Ward, Gloria Vanderbilt, and Red Grooms. The collection is comprehensive, and these are only a few names.

“The Bathers” by Isaac Witkin (June 2023)

Exhibitions

This exhibition, “Likeness” by the artists of The Arc Mercer in the Education Center next to “Double Check,” closes Sunday, April 28^th.

On May 5^th, “Slow Motion” opens with the work of Ana Teresa Fernández, Colette Fu, Billy Dufala, Omar Tate, and Sandy Williams IV.

Previously, “Local Voices,” hosted with an almost familial dedication, was on view to convey an idea of the breadth of the exhibitions.

On the note of local, Seward Johnson’s sculptures are throughout Hamilton Township, which also features Veterans Park, Sayen Park Botanical Garden, and Mercer County Park. Nearby in Trenton is the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Cadwalader Park.

Seward Johnson work near Hamilton Township Town Hall (2020)

Photos from the annual Azalea Festival at Sayen Gardens with the wonderful Denny Paul Quartet (added May 2024):

For more “local” viewing of Seward Johnson’s work, also enjoy an exhibition at Ocean County College through June.

Visiting

Friendly staff members welcome visitors to the Grounds for Sculpture which is open daily from 10-5 (closed Tuesdays), though kindly check the Visitor Information as these change with the seasons. Reserve tickets online and allow several hours to explore. A museum shop with lovely selections is open Wednesday-Sunday.

A sculpted welcome along the way (June 2023)

Informal dining is available in the Van Gogh Café, which also offers pre-ordered take-out totes for Picnics in the Park in season to enjoy on the grounds, and another café in the Domestic Arts Building, when available, as is fine dining at the well-reviewed Rat’s Restaurant. Rat’s, named after Ratty from “The Wind in the Willows,” Mr. Johnson’s favorite character from a favorite book by Kenneth Grahame, recalls Monet’s Garden at Giverny. The restaurant has a separate entrance, and its hours are Wednesday through Sunday. Rat’s and the beautiful sculpture park grounds are available for meetings and events.

Grounds for Sculpture offers accessible tours of all kinds, as well as wheelchair and electronic convenience vehicle rentals. Tours for schools, colleges, adults, and corporations are available, though the popular school tours are sold out through June 17^th. Reserving well in advance is best. There are concerts and other events throughout the year. The Atelier is available for tours, private events, and team building. Additionally, Grounds for Sculpture became LEED Gold Certified in 2019, and it has two electric car charging stations. Memberships and volunteering (and gardening) that support Grounds for Sculpture and the Atelier are welcome. The Arc Mercer and Audrey Hepburn Children’s House via Executive Director Amy Glazer (amy.glazer@hmhn.org) also welcomes support.

The invitation

In this travel post, the GPS turned toward Seward Johnson’s life as he and the Grounds for Sculpture connect intrinsically. A true philanthropist, Seward Johnson has made his own “Everyman” good-hearted impulses larger than life with the realization of an incredible vision. Still present in the delight of visitors, Seward Johnson invites us all to his ongoing celebration.

Seward Johnson sculpture in homage to Monet’s “Women in the Garden” (partial view)

A “road trip” postscript

Seward Johnson’s sculptures at Old Westbury Gardens, Old Westbury, NY, which were selfie sensations (2022)

Seward Johnson’s Sculptures in Spring Lake, NJ (2022)

(Sources: groundsforsculpture.org and exhibitions, sewardjohnsonatelier.org, The Sculpture of J. Seward Johnson, Jr. Celebrating the Familiar by J. Seward Johnson, Jr. with Paula Stoeke, americanprofile.com, johnsonatelier.com, sculpturemagazine.com, youtube.com (Atelier, Pennington Public Library, EBTV, Nantucket History, Coppervideo), courierpostonline.com, communitynews.org, groundsforsculpturewordpress.com, mycentraljersey.com, washingtonpost.com, causeiq.com, ibdb.com, stateoftheartsnj.com, willowwoodarboretum.org, sculpturemagazine.art, artmuseum.princeton.edu, mainstreetmurfreesboro.org, walkaboutnewyork.com, observer.com, atlasobscura.com, downtownny.com, artcitybronze.com, uvalaw, hmdg.org, britannica.com, Wiki)

Cherry Blossom Encore: Atlantic City, Margate, and Moorestown

By Kathleen Helen Levey

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

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)

“Earth Day Collage”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On April 25, 2021

In Earth Day, Family, Travel, US History

“We were there…and we were square.”

As our family wended its way towards cherry blossoms and national icons in 1970, we first had to navigate the infamous Capital Beltway. My brother, a mini-me of our father with the same crew cut, intrepidly served as navigator, a daring feat for a second-grader. When we passed the city’s icons over and over again with no clear exit in sight, sometimes finding ourselves in Virginia as well as Maryland, we felt taunted by the holiday that might not be. Le panique having passed, working together, we eventually got out of the loop. Though some Americans were still reeling from the breakups of The Beatles and Diana Ross & The Supremes, Apollo 13 was safely home after a close call, so everything was possible.

After enjoying an early morning visit to the Lincoln Memorial and the cherry blossoms on the Tidal Basin, we walked up the hill on the National Mall towards the Washington Monument. Suddenly, a living tie-dye rainbow danced all around us, young people jubilantly carrying banners, chanting slogans, and looking like extras for a happier occasion than the protest in “Forrest Gump”. We had walked into the middle of one of the first Earth Day events. Impressively, the massive crowd had gathered pre-Twitter, and where they were from, who knew, but given the tee shirts, some had tumbled out of local college dorms. For a Junior Girl Scout, there were so many grooming revelations alone: face painting, uncombed hair, and braless-ness, but these were observations coming from someone who thought wild living was staying up all night at slumber parties with Flower Power sleeping bags and spinning Bobby Sherman 45s with girlfriends.

Our father, a Clint Eastwood look-a-like, walked with determination through the milling crowd. With a buzz cut amidst cascading manes, he was easy to follow, which all of us did, each politely repeating, “Excuse me” to the Gaia-revelers who did not see us. In the rosy hue of memory, when thinking of these Earth Day free spirits, I see an image of a young woman’s outstretched hand at the end of an innocent snap-the-whip as if inviting us to join.

Our grandfather, who lived with us, had opted to stay behind in the Garden State and work with the promise of a weekend visit with one of his sons. Coincidentally, our uncle lived near Freehold Raceway, but he was confident that his good looks and charm were always the draw. Our grandfather, a retired firefighter, was patriotic, but the ponies had a certain momentum that the once provincial D.C. of his youth lacked. He was, however, a charming paradox. Whenever asked for life advice, the racing fan playfully replied, “Don’t bet on the horses.” Much to our mother’s dismay, while other grandparents took their grandchildren to museums, concerts, and the theater, ours took us for schooling in applied math, though the main lesson was that he enjoyed spending time with us. *

Even on the road, our mother, a dutiful daughter, reminded my brother and me, “Don’t forget sugar for Grandpa”. This family tradition of bringing a few packets of sugar for Gramps evolved perhaps because he savored the luxuriant feeling of a restaurant while having coffee at home attired in what may now be referred to as pandemic chic. How this began may be as unanswerable as why some of us still wear make-up under facemasks.

Back home were also two sweet sisters who babysat us on occasion. The sisters’ parents had immigrated from Germany, and the young women sometimes impressed us by sharing a few sayings in German. The younger sister, who was delightful, was still in high school and immersed in homework and teen concerns. The older sister, who was in secretarial school and practiced her shorthand at night, seemed quite grown up and filled in if her younger sister was not free. Aside from being willing to play everything from Twister to Monopoly, she fascinated us with photos sent from her fiancé fighting in Vietnam to whom she wrote faithfully.

Lest sweet sisters and Earth Day revelers seem sent from central casting, like actors who do not want to be typecast, everyone wants and deserves appreciation for having depth. Our father with the buzz cut loved the arts and was a talented writer, especially gifted with descriptive writing. Earlier that April, we had had fun on his April Fool’s birthday, with our usual jokes, “You have ketchup on your tie,” phony bad grades, and plastic spiders in his food, etc.. Nothing could top the whimsy of the cosmos, however, that fated the birth of such a serious fellow on April 1^st, but this was also the man who could juggle plates like a top “America’s Got Talent” contestant, a skill acquired from his days waiting tables in his beloved Pocono Mountains.

Though now might not be the time for jokes about the Earth’s revolutions, Mother Earth or “Terra Mater,” the Roman goddess, intrigued me, as did all mythology. My father once delighted me with a beautifully illustrated book of creation myths from around the world, now safely tucked away along with family photo albums as we sail the pandemic seas, brought home from a business trip to the Philippines. What I recall of these myths or faiths, for many of us, are their extraordinary commonalities.

Every culture has its beliefs, and collectively still, we share the American Dream. For anyone who is feeling pessimistic, our grandfather would wink and say, “Don’t bet on the horses.”

*From a review of past posts, this is not a repeat in the abundant Gramps repertoire, but my editor is on holiday. ⛵️☀️

(Sources: Memory lane, NASA, Wiki)

“Smithville Holiday Cheer”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On December 31, 2020

In Christmas, Culture, Travel, US History

Charming Historic Smithville Village, just outside Atlantic City, offers an array of holiday cheer: a Christmas Light Show, a Magic Talking Tree, a children’s train ride and carousel, extensive shopping, and a variety of dining. With its mostly outdoor attractions, this idyllic spot also offers a safer way to get away and lift everyone’s spirits.

Smithville holds live events like its first performance of “A Christmas Carol” this year, which perfectly suits this warm-hearted community. The shopkeepers and staff are always friendly, admirably so at this time. The Christmas Light Show and Magic Talking Tree, generously, are open to the public. Early December features an annual Hospitality Night with events and refreshments to thank visitors for their loyalty, a courtesy which my former employers and friends in “The Christmas Customers” would have enjoyed.

Smithville kindness at the Village Sweet Shoppe

The scenic village with the bridge crossing picturesque Lake Meone forms what is known as “The Village Greene,” part of a larger residential Smithville community within Galloway Township. The village dates back to the 1700’s when it began as a stagecoach stop. The Historic Smithville Inn, which has blog updates, is a popular event destination. The inn is one of two, the other being the Colonial Inn Bed and Breakfast. The inns and some restaurants offer dining, now outdoors or with curbside takeout in addition to other food vendors for those who are spending the day or looking to go out for the evening.

Prim and Proper in the Noah Newcumb House, 1820

Delightful decor and gifts at Prim & Proper

Woof, Woof Barkery & Pet Boutique, one of the pet-oriented Smithville shops

For warm weather fans, summertime features paddleboat rides on the lake. There is no shortage of affordable entertainment year-round with events like the annual car show and Oktoberfest.

Dashing to share this before the wonderful Light Show ends on January 5th. For a current schedule of holiday events, kindly visit Historic Smithville. Warm wishes for a safe and Happy New Year!

(Sources: HistoricSmithville.com, Wiki)

Part of the 2020 Light Show with holiday music 🎵

“From the Earth to the Stars: Sterling Hill Mining Museum”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On October 23, 2019

In Museum, Science, STEM, Travel, US History

“What you do will show who you are.” Thomas Alva Edison

From the rainbow beneath the Earth to the stars in the sky, Sterling Hill Mining Museum encompasses every aspect of science. Described as a “gem” by Fodor Travel Guide, the nonprofit museum combines geology, history, and magic in a place that fascinates visitors of all ages as they experience one of the best tours in the state – or anywhere. On the National Register of Historic Places, the museum’s fluorescent minerals are on display in both the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Natural History. The incredible Rainbow Tunnel, part of what is the largest collection of fluorescent minerals in the world, and the mining museum are about an hour’s drive from New York City and slightly longer from Scranton, as is the neighboring Franklin Mineral Museum.

The Mining Museum

Dedicated to learning for all ages and the inspiration of future scientists and engineers, Sterling Hill Mining Museum is continuously evolving as its new website shows. Return tours like the one I enjoyed in the late summer bring more discoveries. In operation for more than 300 years, Sterling Hill Mining Museum is the fourth oldest mine in the country. Passing through picturesque Ogdensburg and going up the museum’s long driveway, visitors experience the awe-inspiring sight of the sky-high conveyor of the former working mine. A visit begins with a warm welcome when buying tickets for the two-hour museum and mine tour and/or Discovery Digs (fossil and mineral), sluice mining, the GeoSTEM Academy, or periodic special tours. Observations that staff share on the tours and in museum YouTube videos are, “If you can’t grow it, you have to mine it…” and “almost everything man-made depends on mining for its production,” capture the breadth of what the museum has to offer.

A mining car filled with fluorescent minerals

Honoring the miners and mineral collector Joe Cilen

Partial view of the conveyor and a 1915 mill

Touring the mine means walking through a 1/4 mile of white marble tunnels where the temperature is about 56 F (13 C) year-round. Of the 35 miles of tunnel, only the ground level remains open to the public. The mine floors are not perfectly smooth, but the tour is stroller and wheelchair accessible. Wearing layers and water-resistant clothing and shoes is helpful as is bringing protective eyewear for digs. The mine tour includes a simulated blast among the representative sights.

The tour begins in Zobel Hall Museum, which was the miner’s change house during the era of the New Jersey Zinc Mining Company, 1852-1986. Striking among many treasures in the room are the giant dinosaur skull, the incredible periodic table, and miners’ helmets in the glass cases. The fluorescent minerals in the curtained corner room give a preview of the remarkable display to come. Behind the miners’ helmets is the Oreck Mineral Gallery with beautiful minerals from around the world showcased with state-of-the-art lighting.

The tour also includes the original mine and the Warren Museum of Fluorescence with a collection of more than 700 specimens of glow-in-the-dark minerals. (Interestingly, different kinds of ultraviolet light, longwave and shortwave, bring out different colors.) Wonderful in itself, the Warren Museum sets the stage for the remarkable Rainbow Tunnel. Of the 356 minerals found in Sterling Hill Mine, the discovery of as many as 80 fluorescent ones in the early 90s brought Sterling Hill Mining Museum worldwide renown.

Mining Life

In Zobel Hall at the start of the tour, miners’ lockers remain with photos of those who contributed to the development of the museum. Miners’ work clothes hang from the ceiling as they did nightly to dry out for the next day. Jobs at the mine included: drill runners or lead drillers, muckers “who moved the blasted ore,” cage men who transported men and supplies on the “man cages” or elevators which descended at 900 feet per minute, and the shift bosses. Recovered footage of daily life at the mine in the 1930s is available in Sterling Hill Mining Museum videos on YouTube with links on the museum’s homepage. Extracting zinc, used to make pennies, paints, shoes, boots, ceramics, vitamins, sunblock, tires, and brass among other things, made a profit until the 1980’s when the costs of running the mine exceeded those.

White lung disease was the hazard of working in the zinc mines as black lung was of the coal. The miners of the late 1800’s came from Poland, Russia, Hungary, and other Slavic countries, some directly from Ellis Island. The new website shares the diaries of miner John Kolic, who worked in the mine from 1972 until the mine closed in 1986, and contributed to the museum from 1989 until 2014. To follow newly released diary chapters, events, and topics ranging from chemistry to geology to ghosts, sign up for the Sterling Hill Mining Museum Newsletter. Having family on our father’s side who worked in the coal mines in Northeastern Pennsylvania, visiting the mine and following its history is also of personal interest.

Thomas Edison at the Edison Ore-Milling Company

Thomas Edison, with ties to Ogdensburg, had a mining business, the Edison Ore-Milling Company, that traversed between there and Sparta following the company’s origin in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania. Mr. Edison invented what came to be known as the Edison Cap Lamp for the Mine Safety Alliance Company (MSA) in 1914. Battery operated, the cap allowed miners to see for as long as 12 hours without the danger of using flammable gas. Thomas is honored by the Edison Tunnel at the museum. This weekend, the film “The Current War” about the competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse & Nikola Tesla will be released. In addition to the Sterling Hill Mining Museum and Thomas Edison National Park in West Orange, science and history buffs can also visit the charming Queens home of another light bulb inventor Louis Howard Latimer, post in progress with a link to come, part of the Historic Houses of New York

From Mine to Museum

Brothers Richard and Robert Hauck bought the closed mine in 1989 with the generous thought of sharing it with the public as a museum. The moving addition of the steel remnant from the World Trade Center is a donation from an area company that assisted after 9/11, also giving visitors an idea of the character of those behind the museum.

Ongoing projects include a railroad caboose restoration. The museum offers a snack bar (with rock candy 😉) and a gift shop both of which help support this educational nonprofit. Donations of minerals, fossils, and mining artifacts are welcome as are memberships and gifts of support. The museum is a sponsor of a STEM Scholarship Award for college students.

The popular museum has about 40,000 visitors a year. Groups are welcome for tours scheduled two weeks in advance. Please call (973) 209-7212. The ticket prices for the two-hour tour are incredibly reasonable for this area: adults, $13, senior adults $12, children (4-12) $10 ($9 on a group tour), and free for under 4. Tours are daily at 1 p.m. till the end of November, weekends at 1 December through March, daily at 1 April through June, and daily at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. July through August. Sterling Hill Mining Museum welcomes anyone with interest in science or engineering who would like to be a guide. The next GoSTEM Academy is Saturday, November 2nd for those who would like to register.

Posted with thanks to @sterlinghillminingmuseum for following on Instagram. In addition to the museum’s Instagram and Facebook pages, you may enjoy their informative YouTube videos.

“Not Easter eggs, but rocks, minerals, and geodes….the difference is the light in which we see them.” @kathleenlevey Instagram from spring 2016, highlighting the museum’s incredible fluorescent minerals

The Ellis Astronomical Observatory

A new discovery on a brief follow up trip this month was the intriguing Ellis Astronomical Observatory. Far from city lights, the Ellis Astronomical Observatory offers clear views of the night sky with reflector telescopes and safe views of the sun through a Hydrogen-Alpha one.

The next viewing is for the transit of Mercury on the morning of November 11th, which is the sighting of the silhouette of Mercury against the sun. In each century, there are 13 transits of Mercury. The next one will be November 3, 2032. To make a reservation for this November, contact Bill Kroth (973) 209- 7212 or Gordon Powers: (973) 209-0710.

The Mine’s Namesake

Following the initial Dutch entrepreneurs who sought copper, Lord Stirling, 1726-1783, often spelled as “Sterling” in records of the 1700’s, was one of the early owners of the mine. Serving in the Continental Army from 1775 until his death in 1783, he first led the Battalion of East Jersey and then the 1st Maryland Regiment to win the Battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. Like many of his wealthy compatriots in the war, William used his own money to provide supplies and weapons for his men.

Considered flamboyant by some for his pursuit of a Scottish title, New Yorker William Alexander, Lord Stirling walked away from it without hesitation to serve his country in the fight for independence. With respect, General Washington called his brigadier general “Lord Stirling” as did William’s officer peers throughout the Revolutionary War. The issue of the title may have reflected the historical Scottish-English and English-Colonial tensions of the era. A Scottish high court granted William the title, which the English House of Lords later rescinded. The title would have given William ownership of a great deal of coastal land in New England and Nova Scotia.

Loyal, William helped stop the Conway Cabal, the 1777 conspiracy by General Conway and some Continental officers to remove George Washington for being a “weak general”. Appalled by such “wicked duplicity of conduct” (ushistory.org), William informed General Washington of the plot and supported him as he had done his previous commander General William Shirley, also an early governor of Massachusetts, in the French and Indian War. William’s courage at the Battle of Long Island earned him a newspaper headline, if not an official title, and the praise of General Washington as “the bravest man in America”. General Washington left William in charge of the Continental Army in the general’s brief absence and before the war had given William’s daughter Catherine away at her wedding. Catherine’s mother and William’s wife was Sarah Livingston, sister of William Livingston from Union’s Liberty Hall, who was a signer of the US Constitution and the first governor of New Jersey. Sarah accompanied William to Valley Forge and, a capable accountant, acted as William’s agent in managing properties.

Accomplished in mathematics and astronomy, William founded King’s College, precursor to Columbia University, of which his grandson William Alexander Durer was later president. William died shortly before the official end of the Revolutionary War in 1783, which is why he is not well-known today. In some ways, William’s attitudes were reflective of his peers, in other ways, not. Historically, Lord Stirling may best be remembered as a brave man of the American Revolution. The Lord Stirling Festival returned to Basking Ridge earlier this month at Lord Stirling Park Environmental Education Center to honor William for his contributions. William’s gravesite is in Trinity Churchyard in New York City, along with his wartime compatriot Alexander Hamilton. Today, William’s love of mathematics and astronomy echo in the scientific pursuits at the museum.

Tributes to the miners are throughout the area like the one at Heaven Hill Farm’s Great Pumpkin Festival

Franklin Mineral Museum

Franklin Mineral Museum is another geological treasure trove near Sterling Hill Mining Museum, both in the Franklin District. Also known for its florescent minerals, the Florescent Room at the museum celebrates this geological bounty of the region as it does the miners.

“The Zinc Miner, Dedicated to the memory of the men who worked in the world famous Franklin and Sterling Mines,” by Carey Boone Nelson

Displays in the museum begun by a local Kiwanis Club also include types of zinc that was the basis of the Franklin District’s mining from the mid-1800s, as Sterling Hill also notes: Franklinite, discovered in the Franklin District mines, zincite, rare except in the Franklin and Sterling Hill area, and willemite. The museum literature explains that the discovery of fluorescent minerals came about when sparks from early electric equipment in the mines made the rocks glow.

For visitors with children who like digging, dinosaurs, and tunnels, this is a wonderful complement to Sterling Hill. Another warm welcome from staff who enjoy sharing all that the museum has to offer is in store, though kindly ask permission regarding taking photos inside the museum.

Richard P. Hauck, who co-founded the Sterling Hill Mining Museum and after whom the mineral Hauckite is named, and his wife Elna, a geologist, two Hall of Fame Honorees at the Franklin Mineral Museum.

Princeton colors among the minerals with donations also made by Dr. Pete Dunn, Smithsonian Institute Mineralogist and expert on the Franklin Mine minerals

An exhibit of South American butterflies

A fascinating surprise was Welsh Hall, named after Wilfred “Bill” Welsh, a teacher who had served with the Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. Mr. Welsh donated his collection of Native American artifacts and fossils to the museum as well as his worldwide collection of minerals, acquired with his wife Mary.

Ortam, the Peace Chief of the Hackensack Tribe, Unami Leni Lenape, also known as the Delaware Native Americans, 1577-1667, New Jersey

Sussex County has beautiful family farms offering fall events and Christmas tree farms and skiing as the weather changes. For warm weather fans, the Sussex County Miners baseball team plays in Augusta. Off-season at their Skylands Stadium home there is a Christmas Light Show & Village, which takes visitors from fluorescent to holiday bright.

(Sources: sterlinghillminingmuseum.org, franklinmineralmuseum.com, youtube.com, americanhistory.si.edu, ethw.org, falconerelectronics.com, Ogdensburg Journal, nytimes.com, abc7ny.com, northjersey.com, mountveron.org, sterlinghistoricalsociety.org, lordstirling.org, ushistory.org, battlefields.org, brownstoner.com, tripadvisor.com, njherald.com, smithsonianmag.com, Franklin Mineral Museum pamphlets, tworivertimes.com, nyu.edu, William Alexander by Paul David Nelson, Past and Present: Lives of New Jersey Women, tapinto.net, americanrevolution.com, iment.com/maida/familytree/henry/bios/lordstirling.htm, Wiki)

“Daisy, Fala, and Wilderstein: Rhinebeck Gems”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On May 27, 2019

In Architecture, Art, Travel, US History

The Wilderstein Mansion seen through May blooms

Fair, kind, and true, have often lived alone, Which three till now, never kept seat in one.
Sonnet 105, Shakespeare

From the Kingston Rhinecliff Bridge, the Hudson Valley views are breathtaking and with the array of May green, celebrate spring. Blossoming dogwood trees greet visitors at Wilderstein, the home of Margaret “Daisy” Suckley, a distant cousin of both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Wilderstein Mansion

The Suckley family home at Wilderstein is incredible, a beautiful model of Queen Anne Revival style, and cheerful with its bright colors. Photography is not permitted inside the mansion, but all the more reason for a tour. You will enjoy seeing elegant rooms ranging in style from English Revival to Louis XIV with stained glass windows by Joseph Burr Tiffany, Louis Comfort Tiffany’s cousin. Interestingly, the first portraits visitors see are of the maternal Montgomery matriarchs, including Alida Livingston, part of the extended Livingston family which includes the first governor of New Jersey, William Livingston, who resided at Liberty Hall. The name of this National Historic Landmark is from a petroglyph, a stone found on the property with a rendering of a figure smoking a peace pipe. “Wild man’s stone” is a term that conveyed fascination with Native American culture in 1852.

The Suckleys (which rhymes with “Book-ley” as articles note) hailed from England, and Daisy continued the tradition of daily tea at 3 p.m. year-round. The family fortune was from shipping, a similar source for a number of prominent Hudson Valley neighbors. Summers growing up on the Hudson River featured parties, sailing, and tennis, a sport in which Daisy won numerous trophies that are on display. Charming, too, among the elegant first floor rooms are a collection of glasses with the New York Giants’ logo. Once the staff at the gas station knew that Daisy was a Giants fan, they gave her glasses on each visit, sweet mementos of both her charm and the warm community. The upstairs with the turret and Hudson River views is undergoing restoration.

The Suckley Hudson River idyll experienced a ten-year disruption. Though Daisy was close with her father, Robert Browne Suckley, his noted profession was “gentleman,” which did not enhance the family fortune. Upon a reversal of that fortune in the 1893-1897 economic depression, the family moved overseas to Switzerland where it was less expensive to live at the time. The Suckley’s resided in a hotel, an isolating experience for children used to playmates. Several of seven Suckley children were born there and felt invested in European life. After their return to the United States, Daisy’s older brother, Henry, with whom she was close, volunteered to drive for the American Ambulance Corps on the French front, known through the writing of Ernest Hemingway and others. Capable and respected, Henry had become commander of the section sponsored by the members of the New York Stock Exchange. A few days before the United States entered World War I, Henry, 31, died in a bombing raid while transporting a wounded soldier, a remembrance of both on this Memorial Day.

As a young woman, Daisy studied successfully at Bryn Mawr College for two years. Her father had championed the completion of a degree for his bright daughter, but Daisy’s mother Elizabeth thought that would make her less appealing as a prospective bride. Nevertheless, Daisy did serve as a nurse’s aide on Ellis Island during World War I and, after her father’s sudden death in 1921, found herself in the role of companion to an aunt and caretaker of her family.

When FDR was recovering from polio that same year at his nearby Springwood home, his mother Sara invited Daisy to tea to lift her son’s spirits. FDR welcomed intelligent and charming company, and this began his closeness with her. Their relationship evolved to the point where he included Daisy in the original planning for Top Cottage, or “Hill-Top Cottage,” which she initially believed they would share after his retirement. FDR’s trust in Daisy remained if not his romantic interest. She not only became the confidante of the president of the United States for twelve years, 1933-1945, but she helped him plan the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, the first presidential library which FDR created to offer public access for documents of U.S. history. Daisy was one of the library’s initial archivists.

From the brief film interview with Daisy before the Wilderstein tour begins, some people might dismiss her as being a character. Daisy had not had the house painted since 1910, and it was then the 1980’s. She wore cat-eye glasses and used “patrician” speech. Beloved by her neighbors, however, who thought she needed help in later years, they suggested that Daisy take in a boarder, which she did, and also rented out the carriage house. As someone on the tour kindly noted, FDR had provided not only the nation but his cousin with Social Security following her retirement. After Daisy’s death at nearly 100 in 1991, it turned out that she had a rainy day fund of $900,000 that she was afraid to spend having experienced the loss of most of the remaining family fortune in the Great Depression. Two relatives received this money, and one, returning the love, put this aside as funds to begin the restoration of Wilderstein after her own passing.

What one also takes away from the video is Daisy’s empathy with FDR as she remarked on how incredibly tired he was before he died at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia. He could get away from the public eye, but never the burdens of public life that had weighed on him for twelve years. As his health declined, FDR had asked Eleanor to stay with him as Springwood, but unfortunately too much had passed between them.

As a confidante, Daisy listened without judgment. When Franklin died, Daisy arranged for Lucy Mercer Rutherfurd’s departure to spare Eleanor’s feelings and Franklin’s reputation. After FDR’s death, his daughter Anna found Daisy’s letters to her father; he had saved them in his stamp collection box, which he always had with him. Both the stamps and the letters were sources of comfort and a turn of mind away from office. Whether or not she read them, Anna kindly returned the letters to Daisy. The discovery of these letters in 1991, along with some of FDR’s correspondence and Daisy’s diaries, was a revelation to most as no one knew of the closeness between them. The letters that remain characterize their relationship as a friendship with sometimes romantic overtones, but friendship is what it was though Daisy never married.

Admirably, even after FDR’s death, Daisy never revealed his confidences which ranged from opinions on foreign leaders, Winston Churchill was “an English mayor LaGuardia,” this in one of his letters, to his thoughts about declaring war on Japan. With the perspective of national security of 2019, it is extraordinary to think that at least some, if not all, of their letters traveled through the US Mail. What is even more telling is not necessarily what FDR wrote to her, but the constancy and the intimacy – he shared his innermost thoughts sent from international summits like the Atlantic Charter Conference on the Battleship HMS Prince of Wales in Newfoundland and the White House, where Daisy was a frequent guest. They took drives together in the Hudson Valley when FDR returned to the respite of home and adoration. Daisy took two of the rare photographs of FDR in a wheelchair, both at Top Cottage, another testament to their closeness and his trust in her.

Thank you and credit to our wonderful guide, who noted that Daisy was “smart” and “witty,” with a dash of research added. A nice couple on the tour asked great questions, which always adds to the experience. Thank you, too, to my friend from school, and reader, who shared Sonnet 105 with me, and we pass the gift along to Daisy.

Wilderstein is holding another of its wonderful art exhibitions on the grounds, and it was a pleasure to meet James Meyer, one of the artists who was installing his work “Undercurrent”. The show opens June 1st, 5-7. Be sure to pick up a brochure about the art and artists on your Wilderstein visit.

Dedicated gardeners keep the grounds at Wilderstein in bloom

Another view of the beautifully restored exterior

View of the Hudson River and the lighthouse

Fala

Before Daisy’s death and the discovery of her closeness with FDR, she was known as the cousin who gave the president his beloved Scottish terrier, the darling of both his owner and the nation. At times, Fala was the president’s political avatar as in the famous “Fala speech” of 1944 in which FDR expressed Fala’s disdain for false rumors generated about him by political opponents. Reportedly, the joke stemmed from a suggestion by Orson Welles.

The celebrated Fala was born in 1940 on the Wilderstein estate where Daisy kept kennels, one of her many interests, and she picked out the charmer to lift her cousin’s spirits. FDR named him after an ancestor, “Murray the Outlaw of Falalahill”. Before Fala became a White House resident, Daisy trained him to perform tricks, even appearing to smile, which should have gotten him a place on a ballot. As it was, Fala so popular that he had his own secretary to handle his fan mail. If you, too, are a fan of the adorable dog, you can also read more about him in Margaret “Daisy” Suckley and Alice Daigliesh’s book “The True Story of Fala,” available on Amazon, the FDR Library blog, and “Hyde Park: The Year From the Top”.

Fala’s image is everywhere in the cheery gift shop along with a book by Ken Burns’ collaborator, Geoffrey C. Ward, who wrote many of the award-winning scripts for Mr. Burns’ historical works, including “The Civil War”: “Closest Companion: The Unknown Story of the Intimate Friendship Between Franklin Roosevelt and Margaret Suckley”. His book is the source of information about the FDR-Daisy letters in various articles. Look forward to reading this, and you can also find it on Amazon.

Calvert Vaux and Central Park

Wilderstein grounds planned by Calvert Vaux

If you enjoy Central Park and Prospect Park, both part of New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Wilderstein is another wonderful place to visit that Calvert Vaux designed. Daisy’s father engaged Calvert Vaux, known as one of the Central Park co-designers to plan the grounds in the “American Romantic style” for Wilderstein. The Central Park Conservancy Institute for Urban Parks carries on the generous tradition of Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted. The Conservancy park professionals support their fellow urban park colleagues across the country by sharing best practices for maintaining beautiful open spaces for everyone to enjoy. Central Park’s Belvedere Castle, designed by Mr. Vaux, will reopen soon after its restoration. For news of the restoration, NY1’s Roger Clarke @RogerClark41 on Twitter will have updates.

The Gate House, now the Wilderstein office, designed by Calvert Vaux.

The rains which brought us the beautiful greenery this year made Calvert Vaux’s Wilderstein Trails better suited for exploration on another visit, though it was delightful to have made the hours on this trip (12 – 4 Thursday through Sunday in the summer). Among the structures Mr. Vaux planned for the grounds, the Potting Shed by Lord and Burnham is newly restored. The beautiful plants on the grounds are also a credit to Calvert Vaux’s partner on this project Horticulturalist Samuel Parsons of Queens, New York. Though the original 100-plus acre estate is now three, visitors can walk down to Suckley Cove on the river for more beautiful views and the petroglyph from which the estate gets its name. As they say, the third time’s the charm, an ideal excuse for another visit to Wilderstein.

Calvert Vaux’s original Potting Shed and Greenhouse

Guide to Wilderstein Trails by Calvert Vaux

Hamlet of Rhinecliff

Part of the Morton Memorial Library and Community Center

Rhinebeck

A few photos of charming Rhinebeck with thanks to @RhinebeckGuide for following on Instagram. You can enjoy wonderful photos and remembrances of their Memorial Parade there and on Facebook.

WWI Monument to all who served, known as the “Doughboy” by Allen Newman, 1910 (Poughkeepsie Journal blog, which credits E. M. Visquesney as the creator of the model “The Spirit of the American Doughboy”)

The Rhinebeck Post Office

Avid stamp collector President Franklin Delano Roosevelt opened the Rhinecliff Post Office on May 1, 1939, and Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark placed the cornerstone in this hometown WPA historic marvel of chandeliers, fieldstone, murals, and museum. Present, too, were Treasury Secretary Henry Morgantheau and Postmaster General James Farley with whom FDR sometimes designed new stamps as well as Dutchess County post offices and public buildings. Newspaper photos often pictured FDR serenely working on his stamp collection. As a boy, stamp collecting had introduced Franklin to the world. In the role of president during WWII, the calm and orderliness of his past-time appealed to a shaken public who viewed him as a paternal figure putting the world in order.

FDR oversaw the design of the post office, on the National Register of Historic Places, requesting that it represent “Kipsbergen,” the home of his Beekman ancestors. The name may be familiar from the town’s historic Beekman Arms, also in the are designated as the “Rhinebeck Village Historic District”. Formally designed by architect Rudolph Stanley Brown, the post office is built in Dutch Colonial Revival style, popular in the area and favored by FDR. The building incorporated some of the stones from the original Beekman home that had burned down. Rhinebeck artist Olin Dows, both a painter and chief of the Treasury Relief Art Project, funded by the Works Project Administration, created the murals for both the Rhinebeck and Hyde Park post offices.

Hudson River scene from the Olin Dows mural

Trowel used by Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark

FDR Library and D-Day Exhibit at Hyde Park

This weekend, “D-DAY: FDR and Churchill’s ‘Mighty Endeavor'” opens with ongoing events throughout the summer. The FDR Library will honor friend of the library Ralph Osterhaudt for his service and lifelong commitment to the legacy of his fellow servicemen in World War II. You can sign up for newsletters about the library’s exhibits and events.

Thank you again to the FDR Library for retweeting “Hyde Park: The Year from the Top”. Pictured are some recent photos of the library and the beautiful grounds at Hyde Park where you can also visit Springwood, the resting place of the president and first lady, Top Cottage, and nearby Val-kill, the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, as well as enjoying the delightful town.

Winston Churchill by Oscar Nemon at Freedom Court

Vanderbilt Mansion and Historic Gardens

The nearby Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, with upcoming summer events, features beautiful Historic Gardens, the nonprofit F.W. Vanderbilt Garden Association, Inc., that welcome volunteers.

Hudson River view from promontory towards the park exit

New view of the Pavilion, now the Visitor Center

Culinary Arts Institute of America

Looking forward to a formal visit to the Culinary Institute of America, but had to post these lovely sunset views. Thank you for the kind permission to photograph.

(Sources: Wilderstein.org, FDR Library, fdrlibrary.tumblr.com, PBS “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” nytimes.com, tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com, postalmuseum.si.edu, livingnewdeal.org, hrvh.org, hvmag.com, hudsonrivervalley.com, flickr.com, Wiki)

“The Great 88: The Empire State Building”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On May 1, 2019

In Architecture, Culture, Travel, US History

The breathtaking views: looking downtown with the Freedom Tower and Statue of Liberty, which caused a flurry of photo-taking excitement among visitors

“Spectacular,” “fun, “romantic,” “amazing”. There are many wonderful places to visit for New York City views, but it is the Empire State Building that has stirred imaginations over successive generations since its launch in 1931 as the world’s tallest building. “King Kong,” “An Affair to Remember,” and “Sleepless in Seattle” are a few of the more memorable films featuring this National Historic and New York City Landmark, “the most photographed building in the world”.

From childhood visits and those with guests from out of town, I think of the cinematic glamour, the breathtaking views, the bracing air, and the warm staff. All were in full measure on trips this spring to comprise what still is a unique experience. The marvel at the top of the building is not just the views, but that one feels so free in a relatively compact space. This is thanks to the building’s design, its management, and the staff.

The Birth of the Modern Skyscraper

What did the Empire State Building mean to people when it opened in 1931? Construction meant jobs during the Great Depression, and it began in good fortune on Saint Patrick’s Day in 1930. As “the largest commercial venture and investment ever,” the Empire State Building was a symbol of commerce in a bleak time. The building also represented a feat of engineering – 4 1/2 floors went up each week with new “fast track” construction. The building of the 102 floors took just over 18 months, completed one and a half months early and under budget by approximately $5 million. The Empire State Building (ESB) ultimately stood at 1,250 feet tall, 1,454 including the metal tower. The tallest building represented the “Empire State” of wealth and power. To feel hopeful and proud, New Yorkers only had to look up.

The 80th floor with the “Dare to Dream” exhibit, and the first opportunity for views, covers the building’s evolution from blueprints to construction with dramatic enlarged photos. For forty-one years, ESB held the title as the tallest building in the world and still is one of the tallest. The main deck on the 86th floor wraps around the spire for views of 360 degrees and 80 miles on clear days. With 1,000 offices, including LinkedIn, the ESB has its own zip code: 10118.

Ceiling guide in the lobby of the Main Deck

Skyline Beauty

Beauty was not only Faye Wray in the classic 1933 “King Kong”. The Empire State Building catches our eye and captures our imagination for its Art Deco design by architects Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Associates. The five-story marble and granite lobby with brushed stainless steel has a gold and aluminum ceiling. Refurbished in 2008, the lobby with its mural is so remarkable that it has separate registration from the building with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee. Large bronze medallions on the ground floor commemorate the craftsmen who helped build this icon. Another distinctive feature is the metal tower that is both the 102nd-floor observatory and a zeppelin mooring mast, though only one airship ever docked.

In 2008, the building underwent a $500 million renovation removing changes from over the years and restoring ESB to its original Art Deco glory. As a complement to the burgundy marble in the walls of those restored hallways, ESB guards received handmade uniforms in Art Deco style of the 1930’s that add to the glamour of a visit. The uniforms, by I. Buss, have a logo “the building against a starburst pattern” and chevrons on the sleeves. Those “V’s” are from heraldry and represent building rafters, suitable for wear in the number one edifice on the list of “America’s Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects” and one of the “Seven Wonders of the Modern World” according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The bravery in creating this architectural wonder

Why It’s Relevant

The Empire State Building is part of our psyches in ways that we do not realize. Going to work, we see it, while shopping, or visiting the city. While dining at Flatiron Square or ice skating in Bryant Park, it is there over our shoulders, a reassuring presence throughout our lives. Sometimes we do not notice it until we look at our photos. Or until it is out of sight.

Traveling into the city one day from New Jersey via the Lincoln Tunnel, the inconceivable and yet inevitable happened – the Empire State Building disappeared behind a high rise. The drive suddenly felt like trying to run to home plate with one of the bases missing. The skyline view of New York City from across the Hudson River is an iconic one that everyone associates with images of the United States. Even when commuting on the bus to some less than ideal stints in the city, my heart did and still does, soar a bit when seeing that celebrated, unique skyline.

As the Statue of Liberty wears her crown, so is the Manhattan skyline bejeweled in the night sky with the Empire State Building as its centerpiece. No one in New York City or the surrounding area needs reminding about sudden loss, but a loss by degree devastates in its way because we let it happen. Travel pieces are as much about traveling through life as seeing the sights. The new everyplace, anyplace skyline is a topic of conversation on city buses, in coffee shops, and around the city.

Driving home another evening on the New Jersey Turnpike after Notre Dame of Paris had burned, the blue, white, and red lights of the Empire State Building shone through the night across the Meadowlands in solidarity with France. What was apparent to the eye is only a blurry iPhone photo, but words may suffice where photography fails – as much as the Empire State Building is an international travel destination, it is also a beacon that connects us here in its tri-state neighborhood.

Not just a fixture in the New York City skyline, the Empire State Building steps up as a neighbor – it celebrates, comforts, and brings awareness. Prior to the lights for Notre Dame, the building was lit up in honor of Easter Seals‘ 100th anniversary. The LED lights installed in 2012 have featured everything from endangered animal species on the sides of the building to the NCAA Final Four and Championship winners to college commencements. And what other building features Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton rocking, “You Make It Feel Like Christmas” with a choreographed sparkling light show?

At a time when all of us share fewer collective experiences with exceptions like watching the Olympics or “Game of Thrones” (with New Jersey talent: actor Peter Dinklage and writer George R.R. Martin), the Empire State Building with its Tower Lights Calendar connects like a community bulletin board, and inspiringly, it moves us to care. For the informative and the entertaining, you can follow ESB on social media, which is, along with Central Park, one of the most generous New York City accounts with continuous retweets, photo contests, and promotions: @empirestatebuilding. Everything from the sunrise and sunset weddings on Valentine’s Day to launching the careers of new photographers is uplifting.

Indeed glamorous, exciting, and fun – iconic, but evolving, the Empire State Building is always finding new roles. These range from the practical like becoming a LEED-Gold “green” forerunner with a makeover in 2011 to the imaginative and celebratory lighting of the building by stars drawn from Hollywood, Bollywood, Broadway, the World Cup, and NYC sports teams.

The Final Five: Olympic Gold Medal winners of the US Women’s Gymnastics team: Gaby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez from New Jersey, Madison Kocian, Simone Biles, and Aly Reisman on a visit to the observatory

The ESB Inspires

At ESB last week, a mother and son from South Korea delighted in asking other people in line where they were from and chatted in newly practiced English with fellow tourists from Italy and Florida, all excited first-time visitors. For those who remember the ’80’s and tourists bypassing the Big Apple, it is heartening to see people enjoying a visit to this wonderful city. Ideally, they will leave loving it, as we do, both residents and neighbors. The wonder and cordiality of the Empire State Building experience are an important part of that goodwill.

Having left practicality in the rear view mirror many miles ago, I returned for a second visit to ESB for the leafier photos that Central Park deserves, though the views are beautiful year-round, and to see if my words to date were up to task for this American treasure. This trip was by train, throwing off the metaphor, but it offered a nice walk featuring Greeley Park, another of the welcoming New York City Parks.

Looking uptown with Central Park and some of the Reservoir in view

The view uptown towards the Bronx with the Chrysler Building to the east (March)

A return trip was well worth it for witnessing the precision of the staff following the spring break influx of visitors. The informal atmosphere pre-Easter and Passover that allowed for chats with staff members was now all business. This post-holiday organization, however, still includes a warm welcome that extends to those with strollers and wheelchairs. The 102nd-floor observatory is under renovation and closed until July, but special experiences on the main deck like the summer saxophonist, the Sunrise Tour, the Premium Experience, and the All Access Tour are available online along with City Pass with an Empire State Building app for an audio tour. Ever cutting-edge, the ESB offers free WiFi to share those photos and selfies with the amazing views. The Empire State Building is open 365 days a year from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. in the city that never sleeps.

In Chinese culture, 88 is auspicious, symbolizing good things to come. In the Empire State Building’s fortunate 88th year, may the sun never pass behind the clouds.

(Sources: esbnyc.com, archdaily.com, nytimes.com, emporis.com, money.cnn.com, cnn.com, thevintagenews.com, Wiki)

The Freedom Tower and the Statue of Liberty looking towards Staten Island

The Hudson River and New Jersey looking east

The Chrysler Building looking towards Queens and Brooklyn

The New York Life Building (gold tower) looking towards Brooklyn

A closer view of the New York Life Building, the MetLife Building (MetLife Tower) with the clock and gold spire, and Madison Square Park

Classic Cutler mail chutes from early skyscrapers, some now by Cutler are on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution

A gift shop that has everything including extraordinary Kate Spade bags that light up

The elevator ceiling on the way down from the observatory. Visual and verbal thank you’s in keeping with the style of the Empire State Building. Adding a mutual “Thank you”.

“Hyde Park: The Year from the Top”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On February 10, 2019

In Architecture, Culture, Family, Museum, Travel, US History

December and the holidays bring joy and sometimes reflection, but it is January, the heart of winter, that can become the month of rumination. The start of the year, however, is also when the days grow longer, and we appreciate the sun in a bright blue sky glistening on the snow – usually. If accustomed to snow, the absence of it offsets in that inexplicable way that setting the clocks forward and back sometimes does. January can become like this one a month played in minor key depending upon where our paths take us. With travel, like life, we may say that the timing is not right and never go, but think of 2019 as the year of heading out.

One such trip would be to the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Parks in Hyde Park, which offer not only history but the beauty of the Hudson Valley. For those interested in history, Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” brings home the relatable parts of the family story as well as world events: Teddy, a young man who lost both his wife and mother within a day, Franklin, a favorite son of a doting mother and the privileged man struck by illness, Eleanor, a girl who felt that she never fit in with her peers, and Eleanor & Franklin and the dynamics of a marriage.

Franklin, Eleanor, Anna, and Franklin’s mother Sara (Springwood)

Springwood, FDR Library and Museum, and Top Cottage

Springwood estate in Hyde Park, New York is the birthplace and home of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which the family referred to as “Hyde Park” and the “Big House”. The house is impressive, but the sweeping view of the Hudson River rivals it. One could see why FDR returned to Springwood often during his three terms as president. On the grounds are also the FDR Presidential Library and Museum and the burial site of the president and first lady. The estate is beautiful with trees that FDR, a conservationist like his cousin Theodore, had planted. Top Cottage, the president’s retreat, is about two miles away and accessible via the park shuttle.

Eleanor and Franklin welcome park visitors

Our first visit was on an impromptu stop while traveling to the Berkshires where my friend spent summers as a boy and enjoys returning as we both do. Hyde Park in Dutchess County, part of the Mid-Hudson Valley, however, is a destination in itself with FDR’s home, the Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Park and the nearby Sixteen Mile Historic District in Columbia County, all part of The Hudson River National Landmark Historic District, the largest historic district in the continental US.

Side view of Springwood with floral trellises and ivy

On this initial Springwood trip in June, we had a chance to tour FDR’s home. Among the fascinating accounts that the park ranger shared on the tour, a few stood out. Sara, Franklin’s devoted mother who owned the house and Franklin’s New York City home, interestingly, revamped Springwood to look more “presidential” years before Franklin was president with an idea like dressing for the job to which one aspires. Franklin assisted with the designs that transformed the exterior of Springwood from a pleasant “clapboard farmhouse” to Colonial Revival Style. Visitors, many political allies, could easily envision FDR in the White House.

Hudson River view from Springwood, now somewhat obscured by the trees FDR had planted, but still beautiful

The president, the “Great Communicator,” delivered two of his famous fireside chats from Springwood with his Scottish Terrier Fala, a favorite of children across the country, including our mother, by his side. Grown-ups, too, seemed to enjoy Fala. The FDR Library blog shares that sailors got the idea of cutting off locks of Fala’s fur for good luck on one of FDR’s WWII battleship visits. Fala had a habit of dashing off to the decks below to get treats, and he slipped by his “walking officer” on the USS Baltimore. The sociable Fala did not bark while being clipped, but FDR had to put a stop to this as the terrier looked quite shorn.

Fala depicted with FDR at the wonderful Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, DC, sculpted by George Segal (Wiki photo)

Before Fala’s antics, along the tree-lined driveway to his boyhood home, the 39-year-old Franklin pushed himself to walk farther and farther each day after being stricken with polio. Researchers speculate that the president may have had Guillain-Barré syndrome, which is a nerve disorder and not a viral disease, but that did not change what FDR dealt with in 1921. Franklin never made it to the end of the driveway, but he continued to try.

For our mother and many of her peers, FDR was president throughout their childhoods. Our mother recalls that Mrs. Branigan, a Vailsburg, Newark neighbor and an Irish immigrant, got off the bus from work one day and walked along the street sobbing. When Mrs. Branigan passed our mother’s house, she saw the little girl sitting on the porch glider, and between tears, said, “Our president is dead.” Hearing this, our mother, too, burst into tears feeling a family attachment to the man whose voice had come into their homes to reassure them during the Great Depression and World War II.

A familial warmth is part of the delight of visiting historic sites in Hyde Park and the area. Many residents knew the families who were also part of their community, and they shared life stories. After each winning election, neighbors carried torches up to the front of the house at Springwood to wish FDR well. The wonderful feeling of community in Hyde Park remains to this day.

A radiant young Eleanor proud of her accomplishment (Springwood)

An impressive collection of Roosevelt family equestrian prizes

Horses had names like “New Deal,” “Lady Luck,” “Pal O Mine,” and “Patches”

The elegance of the Rose Garden, here blooming with peonies, befits its stately purpose as the resting place of Eleanor and Franklin. The beloved Fala is also buried nearby and daughter Anna’s German shepherd.

FDR bust and FDR Presidential Library, the view from Freedom Court. FDR bust by Walter Russell.

On another visit, we enjoyed exploring the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, the first US presidential library, which we enjoyed exploring ohas the compelling pull of history. Seeing the president’s memorabilia from his White House years has a resonance beyond his delightful boyhood collections and the family photographs in his home. Historic photos come to life in the library. FDR was the first president to donate his letters to the public, leaving them to the National Archives. The innovative design of the entrance celebrates this historic boon. At FDR’s request, the library also includes the letters of the First Lady. The library also has virtual tours. Given park budgets, Top Cottage has limited tours, and after our wonderful library visit, we looked forward to seeing FDR’s retreat another time.

The library notes that Fred Relyea, a Poughkeepsie mechanic, adapted the car for FDR’s use

Top Cottage was the second home that FDR designed with architect Henry Toombs with the thought that the president would retire there after his second term. The fieldstone Dutch Colonial Revival home, in keeping with the historic houses in the area, is one of only two buildings designed by a US president and one of the first in the United States with wheelchair accessibility. Primarily, it was a peaceful getaway. Springwood was often hectic during FDR’s presidency, and well-wishers entered the grounds hoping to see the president, unimaginable with 21st-century security.

Like Springwood, Top Cottage had many famous visitors: Winston Churchill, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon MacKenzie, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Princesses Juliana and Beatrix, Norway’s Crown Prince Olaf and Crown Princess Martha, and interestingly, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek. On the first visit to the US by British monarchs, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were guests at the celebrated Top Cottage “hot dog summit,” where the president introduced the royal couple to American dishes at a picnic and took the king and queen on one of his hurtling car rides. The picnic had a serious and successful purpose in making the British monarchs seem relatable and more democratic as they ate and drank beer with Hyde Park staff. Months later, FDR was able to send supplies to help England after their declaration of war on Germany. All of FDR’s guests appreciated this woodland retreat from the public eye as he did and the warmth of being entertained in a home.

Winston Churchill by Oscar Nemon in Freedom Court

The Four Freedoms: A sculpture based on FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech that inspired Berkshire neighbor Norman Rockwell. Mr. Rockwell’s famous paintings, now on tour, but based at the Norman Rockwell Museum, raised money for war bonds on exhibit around the country. Speech admires May also enjoy the FDR Four Freedoms Park in NYC.

If we drove like FDR, we may have made it on time to tour Top Cottage, but missing the shuttle bus went from our running joke about timing, somewhat akin to having missed the rocket launch for life, to a lesson in saying good-bye to perfectionism, a good resolution. Travel writing should make people want to go to a place and enjoy it – informative fun does not have to be a dutiful treatise. And yet, we still tried. Top Cottage closes in the winter, another discovery on a different visit, which meant a great excuse to enjoy the beautiful tulip poplar trees outside the library and have lunch in the café before driving home. Other trips to the FDR historic site have brought more walks and gift shop stops for ornaments at the holidays. So a missed shuttle bus here and there has led to making the FDR historic site a regular stop like walking the grounds at the Vanderbilt Mansion.

Posting, too, went the way of the elusive Top Cottage. Even with the buffer of history, a post in the fall of 2016 was not the best time. Over the holidays, rethought this with the idea for Top Cottage as a metaphor for new beginnings, still the timing was not right, but better now with thoughts of spring visits.

Val-Kill, the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site

Stone Cottage, Eleanor’s residence at Val-Kill

Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt’s historic site, is two miles from Springwood and a little over four miles from Top Cottage. Perhaps that is part of how Eleanor and Franklin’s marriage lasted or that the demands of public life required personal space. A warm June sun, chirping birds, and beautiful flowers, show the simple residence as what it was, a haven for the first lady. With the exhibits planned by the park rangers, visitors feel Eleanor’s uplifting spirit. Practically, Val-Kill gave the first lady opportunity to work on her own projects including the development of off-season jobs for local residents, which became Val-Kill Industries. The name “Valley Stream” is from the Dutch for both the valley location and the wonderful stream that offered the Roosevelt family swimming in the summer. The grounds are beautiful with a charming footbridge and a wonderful garden with peonies in season. Val-Kill later went to Eleanor’s son Elliott, who had attended the Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey, a Garden State connection.

Eleanor’s photo at The Poughkeepsie Post Office

Vanderbilt Mansion

If you enjoy history, the tours are where you get the great tidbits. Our park ranger, part of the esprit de corps of rangers like those at Springwood, brought the beautiful mansion to life.

Frederick Vanderbilt, grandson of Cornelius, along with his wife Louise commissioned Charles McKim, a name partner in the country’s top architectural firm McKim, Mead & White, to build their Neoclassical-Beaux Arts home. As the Historic Resource Study for the site notes, the elegant architectural combination was unusual for a country home and is the only one of its kind in the Hudson Valley. With a newly restored exterior, visitors can now enjoy river views from the balcony in warm weather. Completion of the 54-room mansion brought the top craftsmen for woodwork and stone design, many from Italy, Germany, and Switzerland. The interior is incredible as you can see from the photos. Much of the furniture and art was brought from Europe, a trend at the time, and Stanford White was Frederick’s antique dealer. James Greenleaf designed the Italianate garden, which we look forward to seeing on another trip.

The Neoclassical-Beaux Arts mansion designed by Charles McKim

During the two years it took to build the mansion, 1896-1899, Louise and Frederick periodically stayed in the Pavilion, now the Visitor Center, to oversee building. The Gilded Age families were the generation that spent the fortunes that their grandparents had made. In the case of Frederick and Louise, they were generous as opposed to frivolous. Frederick had architect McKim build the Howard Mansion at Hosack Farm across the road for his niece Rose Anthony Post Howard and her husband Thomas Howard, a descendant of the founder of Rutgers University and Revolutionary War general, John Neilson. Rose and Thomas were the maternal grandparents of Thomas Howard Kean, the Governor of New Jersey. Well-liked in Hudson Valley, Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt did not have children and enjoyed giving gifts to those of their staff in addition to showing their appreciation for their work. Though they had their bedrooms designed as if they were European royalty, the fashion of the day, the Vanderbilts were warm and accessible. Louise herself oversaw gift-giving for the staff. They left a great deal of their fortune to charity, loyal staff, and a niece. The ultimate donation of the mansion to the public, like that of Springwood, was FDR’s idea.

The Pavilion was once a guest house for gentleman visitors

Play garden gift from Louise and Frederick. Many gifts generously make their way back to the mansion museum for the public’s enjoyment.

The estate provided local jobs year-round with the mansion, the grounds, garden, greenhouses, dairy, vegetable garden, orchard, and a dock where guests could arrive on their yachts. The ice box is representative of how eco-friendly the property was. Long after the invention of refrigerators, Frederick kept these efficient ices boxes in use. Not only did the ice boxes operate without electrical power, but the staff who maintained the ice remained employed.

The beautiful holiday welcome, done at the initiative of the park rangers, is breathtaking. Like other Gilded Age families, the Vanderbilts had several homes where they usually spent different seasons. The mansion was their country home where they celebrated Easter and visited in the fall, though they did give Christmas gifts to staff. New York City was their primary residence and Newport, Rhode Island, Bar Harbor, Maine, and the Adirondacks, their summer retreats. (Springwood also has Christmas decorations.) In warmer weather, visitors may go out on the balcony, opened after the restoration.

The beautiful decorations by the park rangers

Hyde Park

The Hyde Park Drive-in, opened in 1950, is across the street from Hyde Park. An in-season classic, it is another reason to stay over in the area to enjoy the sites and charm. If you enjoy these drive-in photos, you may want to follow the wonderful Cinema Treasures on Instagram, which documents movie venues all over the country.

The appropriately patriotic diner across the street from Springwood

Poughkeepsie

At the Vanderbilt Mansion, a number of loyal Poughkeepsians talked up their town, which called for a return trip first to enjoy the Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park. The views matched “The Queen City of the Hudson,” as Poughkeepsie on the east bank is also known, which is across the river from the charming Kingston. Even on a minus-degree wind chill December day, the Hudson River was spectacular. An active park group takes year-round advantage of the trails and you can connect with them on their social media. During the holidays, the nearby Franklin D. Roosevelt Mid-Husdon Bridge is lit in red and green lights at night.

Hudson River view of FDR Mid-Hudson Bridge from Kingston side of Walkway

The all too brief visit to the City of Poughkeepsie led to stops to admire the fine architecture and an informal tour of Vassar College. Look forward to visiting the charming Mid_Hudson Children’s Museum and more on the next visit to the city, which also has a drive-in, the Overlook.

The charming yellow building is the Children’s Museum

A delight of the December return trip was the holiday cheer and navigational expertise of the area toll takers. GPS is not the same as directions shared with smiles and the admiration of a cheerful holiday pin or Santa Claus gel nails. Our family knows the area from growing up, a story for another day, but these quick chats were not only helpful, but reminders of nice visits and family stories.

Johnson-Iorio Memorial Park and the FDR Mid-Hudson Bridge

Riverside park sponsored by Scenic Hudson, this one dedicated to the conservationist

Teddy Roosevelt display at the Poughkeepsie Post Office. Looking forward to seeing his historic homes.

Vassar College

As a Seven Sisters graduate, it was delightful to visit V assar College campus in Poughkeepsie. Now coed, the beautiful campus has a wonderful atmosphere and delightful shops and restaurants nearby.

Milton

Named after English poet John Milton, the hamlet in Ulster County delights with historic homes, churches, and welcoming shops in a scenic setting. With such a brief visit, look forward to another. A fun tidbit is that Marlon Brando’s “A Fugitive Kind” was filmed here in 1959. Enjoyed spectacular river views from the Milton Landing Dog Park with a truly merry Christmas tree out on the dock.

A delightful surprise on the dock at the Milton Landing Dog Park

Rhinebeck

Rhinebeck charms in every season. The former “Violet Capital of the World,” later renowned for its anemones, Rhinebeck is known for its hospitality, and to this day, a warm welcome awaits visitors. FDR gave campaign speeches from the porch of the historic Beekman Arms, 1766, which hosted everyone from Founding Fathers George Washington and Robert Livingston to New Jerseyans Frank Sinatra and Jack Nicholson. A further New Jersey connection goes back to Robert Livingston’s brother William, who signed the Constitution and was the first governor of New Jersey during the Revolutionary War. William resided at Liberty Hall, Union. Liberty Hall, now part of Kean University, was sold to Kean relatives, family of New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean on his father’s side. Alexander Hamilton was a guest at both Liberty Hall and the Beekman Arms.

German settlers from the Bavarian Palatinate named the beautiful area “Ryn Beck” in 1714, because it reminded them of their Rhine Valley home. Rhinebeck dates back to the Sepasco and Eposus, Lenape Native Americans who were later joined by Dutch settlers in 1686. The Dutch brought the Sinterklaass tradition now celebrated in an annual December nondemoninational festival. Well-known residents like John Jacob Astor IV followed the Dutch and Germans to what became “Rhinebeck”. The village, a National Historic District, is remarkable in that so much of its original architecture remains.

The photos here are from a December trip to the Village of Rhinebeck within the larger town both within the “Sixteen Mile Historic District”.

A well-known resident, Hilarie Burton, who stars in one of my favorite holiday movies, “Christmas on the Bayou,” is an active sponsor of a local charity Astor Services for Children and Families and has invested in a town business, Samuel’s Sweet Shop, both co-starring her husband Jeffrey Dean Morgan and friends Julie Yeager & Paul Rudd. Rhinebeck is also the hometown of Rufus Wainwright, whose performance at the Asbury Park Convention Hall on his tour for “All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu” was so incredible that it was like being transported out of time and place. In real time, however, my friend stepped out for a snack on the boardwalk and returned for the encore. Mr. Wainwright was in competition with the PGA Tour, which is not to slight a true artist who had sold out the venue, but it helps with perspective when putting work out there.

Wilderstein and the Hudson Valley

A brief moonlit stop with just a hint of the “Central Park serenity” of the Calvert Vaux design

The Hudson Valley has so much to see and do that we may never make it to Top Cottage. We look forward to discovering other sights that range from the High Falls Conservation Area to the Culinary Institute of America, which our mother has enjoyed with friends. Wilderstein, where FDR’s cousin, confidante, Fala gift-giver, and one of the first archivists of the FDR Library, Margaret “Daisy” Suckley lived, was and is on the visit list. Though arriving after dark on the most recent Mid-Hudson Valley visit, still took a loyal fan photo at the Victorian mansion with its grounds designed by Calvert Vaux, because all roads lead to Central Park and New Jersey at one time or another.

Home Travels with You

Once in a surprising turn of events, while traveling with a summer study group, we rode in a boat taxi along the Grand Canal at sunset in Venice. The sun splashed a million shades of gold along the colorful palazzi in “La Serenissimo,” the “Most Serene Republic of Venice”. Inexplicably, most of the students were arguing over the rooms, but the wonderful sound of rushing water and the steady hum of the engine could still be heard between sharp words. Looking across the boat, another classmate, like me, marveled at the panoramic beauty before us. She smiled serenely. We did not know each other well. From our remarks in class, we had different opinions on things, but we both had an appreciation for our good fortune. Our classmates missed the sunset, not having noticed, or not having minded. Later, when we all returned to school, work, and occasional turmoil, my fellow traveler and I would sometimes look at each other and smile. We had shared a love of beauty.

People will surprise us. Before going on the trip, our Uncle Ray, a comedy writer for Steve Allen, Bob Hope, and Phyllis Diller, and at times, presidents of both parties, whose favorite movie preferences were lighthearted ones featuring Laurel & Hardy and Hope and Crosby’s “Road pictures,” suggested, “Watch David Lean’s ‘Summertime’ before you go. Venice looks like a dream.'” The film, if you have not seen it, is a visual love letter to the city as much as it is about lost opportunity and timing. For our uncle who was so talented that he did not easily fit in, which ultimately led to full-time work in a factory, the film may have had a particular meaning. Generous, his career advice was his life advice, “Cheap shots are easy, it’s the clever jokes that are hard.”

In a pessimist’s theory of reductionism, Serenissimo is overcrowded, Fala was the invention of wartime propaganda, and Teddy’s bad side is on Mount Rushmore. On a certain level, these assertions may seem true, but it would be like describing Venice without the light. Happy New Year.

Eleanor Roosevelt stamp First Day of Issue, a gift along with a collection from Uncle Ray

Note: Intended for posting in January 2019.

(Sources: nps.gov, fdr.blogs.archives.gov, c-span.org/video/?429257-1/franklin-d-roosevelts-top-cottage “American History TV,” history.com, health.heraldtribune.com, hvmg.com, forbes.com, smithsonianmagazine.com, whitehousehistory.org, ushistory.org, poughkeepsiejournal.com, hrvh.com, rhinebeckchamber.com, rhinebeckmuseum.com, beekmandelamaterinn.com, wilderstein.org, usatoday.com, c-span.org, tripadvisor.com, winstonchurchill.org, providencejournal.com, aboutfranklinroosevelt.com, Wiki)

“A Sunday with the Shakers”

By Kathleen Helen Levey

On July 22, 2018

In Architecture, Culture, Travel, US History

Entry view towards the Round Stone Barn, National Historic Landmark, 1826

“Simple Gifts”

“Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free

‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

To bow and bend we shan’t be ashamed,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come ’round right.”

by Elder Joseph Brackett, 1848

Simple gifts like friendship, community, work, nature, even dancing as “turning” marks a step in a dance tune, were aspects of Shaker life that brought those in harmonious step back to the start of the dance, the place “just right”. Composed to sound like a folk song, this tune which also served as a hymn may seem familiar as Aaron Copland used it in “Appalachian Spring”. A wide-range of performers have recorded the song or used it as part of one of their works: Jewel, Judy Collins, R.E.M., Weezer, and the Toy Dolls. Take a few minutes to listen to the version Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma, who perform each season at nearby Tanglewood, and Aaron Copland’s version, and you will realize how familiar it is. (Kindly bear with a few moments of You Tube ads prior to each.)

“Hands to work, and hearts to God”

As a living history museum, Hancock Shaker Village in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, a National Historic Landmark, holds talks and demonstrations throughout the day, sharing the music, craftsmanship, and other talents of the Shaker community. If you know “Simple Gifts,” but not much about the Shakers, the community came to the United States from England in 1774 to seek religious freedom. Founder Mother Anna Lee and her followers referred to themselves as the “United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing”. The name from “Shaking Quakers” is a description, not initially flattering, given by outsiders for the members’ animated physical expression during worship when they “shook off” sin. Dance was considered a form of worship. They did not marry and referred to each other as “sister” and “brother” in their familial communities with an estimated 6,000 members from New England through Kentucky by the mid-1800. Shakers are known today for their beautiful music, architecture, and furniture.

At its height, the Hancock Shaker community had 300 residents who peacefully co-existed and contributed to the surroundings towns through their sale of hand-crafted goods and furniture: “hands to work, and hearts to God”. At the largest Shaker village in the eastern United States, visitors can see as many as 20 buildings.

“City of Peace”

The Shakers believed in gender, ethnic, and racial equality as well as education working to create a pacifist “Heaven on Earth”. At a time when orphaned children had few options for care, the community took them in and educated them without obligation to remain, though some did.

At the community’s heart was the strikingly beautiful Round Stone Barn, built in 1826 and restored in 1968. Though practical in purpose, it was a working community barn. My first thought upon seeing it through the frame of the entry gate, surprisingly, was its similarity to the Taoist Temple of Heaven in Beijing. Though from different cultures and eras, the Shakers considered work to be a form of worship and the barn as a temple may not stray in concept. The interior of the barn is a harmony of line, space, and purpose.

Round Stone Barn

Round Stone Barn interior

View of some of the other village buildings, both stately and charming

Interior views of residential buildings

For long-time admirers of Shaker furniture, seeing this and all the elegant architecture firsthand will be a pleasure. A filmmaker’s dream, the doorways provided wonderful frames to view the landscape in different ways in a play on perspective. At the Stone Barn, my friend gamely complied to reenact John Wayne’s role in “The Searchers” in an irresistibly incredible door frame that would have set John Ford’s heart alight. On a quiet June day between school groups and summer tourists, we could indulge ourselves thanks to a professional staff that reflects the welcome serenity of the original community.

Reenacting the end of “The Searchers” 🎥

The charm of the village includes friendly animals that are part of the Discovery Center for children and the working organic farm that offers monthly “farm-to-table” dining with “Food for Thought” and organic farming community farming. Sweet miniature donkeys run up to greet visitors, clearly used to people. Though traditional farmers, the Shakers embraced technology. They did not file for patents, so inventive ideas like putting gardening seeds into paper packets for distribution and creating flat brooms and circular saws cannot be traced specifically to them. Today, there are still some Shakers living in Maine.

Children can wear clothes from the period, learn to weave, milk a cow, and tend to a beehive at the Discovery Center.

The Shakers may have originated the sale of garden seeds in packets.

One of the adorable and friendly miniature donkeys. The barnyard animals are a delight for children.

Furniture-making machine shop

Newly made furniture

Beautiful and popular oval boxes

August 4th marks the annual Summer Gala. Though we actually visited last June, a revisit lends itself to mention this wonderful event that raises funds for the upkeep of this National Historic Landmark, which also features summer concerts in the Stone Barn, Shakerfest on August 18th, a Country Fair on September 29th and 30th. For more information on this site in Hancock (Pittsfield), Massachusetts, open daily 10-4 through the summer, Makers Days (crafting), recipes, premium tours for children and adults that include scary Halloween fun, online shopping, and ways to support, watch the orientation video, or also see the calendar of events. An excellent café is onsite. One tip to enjoy the visit is to wear good walking shoes as the grounds are extensive and the pathways are preserved to reflect the era. Reserve several hours to enjoy this serene and beautiful place.

(Sources: hancockshakervillage.org/, www.nps.gov/nr/travel/shaker/han.htm, Wiki)

Village entrance

View from across the street

Writing New Jersey Life

People and places of New Jersey…with some travels.

Category: US History Page 1 of 3

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“A Sunday with the Shakers”

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