News about Old Places from New England to New York

Aloha all,

until last week, I had never read a poem by Robert Frost. I also had no idea what actually happened at ‘Concord & Lexington’. I was equally clueless about about the history of the textile industry in America. I knew of Mark Twain and Harriett Beecher Stowe, but knew nothing negative about either one of them. It also seemed weird to me that the only National Park in honor of a painter was for a certain Mr. Weir, whom I had never heard of. I knew next to nothing about West Point and exactly nothing about Bannerman Castle. I had never heard the whole ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving. The fact that Jay Gould was once the richest man in America was lost on me and I always confused the various Rockefellers. All that has changed in just eight days. 

We actually had to check our calendar twice to confirm that we really did all this in just eight days, while also doing a little work, playing a round of golf and even a little pickle ball. 

It's hard not to smile when you're
playing pickleball

I’ll quickly have to write down a few lines about all the things we have learned before I forget it all again:

The best place to learn about the poet Robert Frost is a little farm outside of the small town of Derry along a rural road in New Hampshire…you could almost say you have to take “the road less traveled” to get there. The first thing we learned was that both of the quotes we knew (even though I didn’t know they were from Robert Frost) are both widely misunderstood. The poem that mentions “the road less traveled” is actually called “The Road Not Taken” and is not so much about not following the herd and going your own way, but about wondering what would have happened if one had taken another path in life. It’s a fun little poem and you obviously don’t need to come to Derry, New Hampshire to read it. The second quote I had heard of is “good fences make good neighbours”. But if you think it advocates having strict boundaries to get along, you might have to read that poem, too. 

The Robert Frost Farm along
"the road less traveled by"

Lowell, Massachusetts is a great place to learn about the Industrial Revolution in general and the American textile industry in particular. About 200 years ago, this town was specifically designed to create a new type of manufacturing. In one of history’s best stories of industrial espionage, the town’s namesake Francis Lowell went to England to copy the top secret technology of power looms. 

Power looms in the Mills at
 Lowell National Historical Park

The initial plan was to built beautiful, master planned factory towns and exclusively use young women from rural New England as labor to avoid the social problems encountered in Europe. The concept of women working outside the home for cash (other than as a maid or a prostitute) was as revolutionary in the 1800’s as the type and scale of production in these factories. For most of the “Mill Girls” it was the first time away from home and the first time they earned money they could call their own. It was also the first time all stages of textile manufacturing (from raw cotton to linen) were combined under one roof. A system of canals was built to power the machines by water.

Mill buildings along the canals
diverted to power the looms

The new system was very successful at first. Before the civil war, this factory town had grown to be the second largest town in all of New England. Imagine this: There were dozens of six story buildings with thousands of power looms in each, producing almost a million(!) yards of cloth a week….all without electricity! After the boom followed a bust. Currently, Lowell seems to be on the upswing again: At first we were surprised that the loft apartments in the former mill factories are more expensive than Maui real estate. But there are actually commuter trains from Lowell to Boston, so it’s not surprising people are willing to move into historic buildings in this unique town for prices that seem normal by Boston standards. 

Obviously, the war for American Independence was a long and complex process. But if you wanted to pick a time and place where the Revolutionary War actually started, you might choose April 19, 1775 at the North Bridge close to Concord, MA. This was the first time that American militia (who were all still British subjects and many of them still felt loyal to the king) were ordered to fire on British soldiers….the famous “shot heard around the world”. 

The North Bridge by Concord, where the
"Shot Heard Around the World" was fired 

It’s nice to fill in the gaps of the often simplified and romanticized stories, such as Paul Revere’s midnight ride. You wouldn’t know it from the famous poem, there were actually several riders sent out to warn the militia that night, but only one of their names rhymes with “Listen, my children, and you shall hear”. However, Revere never actually made it to Concord. Only a rider named Prescott did, but Prescott only rhymes with “forgot”.

One of the most famous writers
hanging out with one of the
least famous ones

Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain and the author of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”) and Harriett Beecher Stowe (who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”) were next door neighbors in Hartford, CT. These two are credited with writing two of the most important anti racism books in American literature. But I love it that at the respective house tours, they are honest enough to not idolize these people blindly. Even though our house tour was led by his wife, I’ve learned that Mark Twain was clearly racist in his younger years, opposing citizenship for black people. And Beecher Stowe, even though she wrote the most important anti slavery book, was at first in favor of sending black people “back” to Africa. Of course it’s always easy to criticize people with the hindsight of history. Who knows what any of us would have thought or done. And both of them changed their mind about those issues during their lifetime. It just shows that history is never as ‘black and white’ as it seems. That does not diminish the contributions these two Hartford neighbors made on our path to “a more prefect union”.

The Weir Farm National Historical Park

Since there is only one National Park dedicated to an American painter, you’d expect it to be someone really famous, wouldn’t you? Maybe some of you are better informed than me, but we had never heard of Julian A. Weir and we did not know a single of his paintings. I’ll admit it, the only reason we went to the Weir Farm in eastern Connecticut is that it’s managed by the National Park Service. And they did not disappoint, we got a great tour of the house and the studio, took a nice walk around Weir pond and had a long talk with the very informative ranger. 

They encourage visitors to create art
themselves at this park.
This is my attempt.

From there, it was a short drive back to the Hudson River Valley. We had seen the northern part in June, but had missed the whole southern part. In other parts of the country, we sometimes have to look for some old house we can tour. Along the Hudson River, there seem to be more mansions and historical sites than even we will ever be able to visit, so we just picked a few highlights.

Memorial at the West Point Military Academy,
using original links from the chain that was
strung across the Hudson to stop the British

Military installations are usually not on our list of “must see” places. But we are sure glad we made an exception for the Military Academy at West Point, NY. On our tour of the campus and in the visitor center and museum we learned that this place is actually very far up our ‘presidential alley’:

President George Washington chose the location at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, not for its natural beauty (which is stunning), but for its strategic importance controlling the Hudson River. 

President Thomas Jefferson signed the legislation to establish the Military Academy at West Point in 1802.

President Ulysses Grant is among the graduates of West Point. Interestingly, he would face fellow West Point alumni Robert E. Lee a little later…

President Dwight Eisenhower graduated from West Point, too. 

So you could argue that this school helped America achieve independence, helped keep the union together during the Civil War and helped liberate Europe during World War II. We were very impressed by what we learned about West Point. We have great respect for anyone who graduates from this school, but I have to admit: I’m glad we came here only to visit. 

"Chapel" at West Point

I often prefer to watch a movie without knowing what it’s about. Same is true for some historical sites. I’m actually glad we booked the boat trip to Bannerman Island simply because it looked cool. The only thing we knew was that the castle on the island lays in ruins, but we had no idea why. 

Sunset boat tour to Bannerman Castle

Spoiler Alert! If you’d also rather visit this place without knowing the history, you might want to skip the next paragraph. The actual name of the island is “Pollepel” and Mr. Bannerman bought it because he needed a safe storage place for his military surplus business. Apparently his neighbors in New York weren’t happy that he stored huge amount of ammunition and weapons in the city. 

So far, so good, this island in the Hudson seems like a safe place. However, for whatever reason, he wanted his storage facility to look pretty, like a European castle. And he wanted to design it himself, even though he had no expertise in architecture or structural engineering. It probably did not help that he used scrap metal instead of steel for rebar and the brackish river water to mix the cement. In hindsight, it’s surprising that over a century later, after explosions and fires, anything of this castle still stands.

Charmingly maintained Bannerman Island

There seems to be an endless number of mansions to visit along the Hudson River. For this part of our tour, we picked these three: Washington Irving’s Sunnyside, Gould’s Lyndhurst Mansion, and Rockefeller’s Kykuit.  All three of these homes are spectacular, different and intriguing. 

Tour at Washington Irving's "Sunnyside" home

Washington Irving built “Sunnyside” mostly from the money he made as an author. His most famous story is “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, which obviously gets milked for all its worth, especially before Halloween. I actually prefer his other famous story about “Rip Van Winkle”, who sleeps through the Revolutionary War. Washington Irving designed the home himself and it’s a very playful, eclectic architecture, mixing different European styles. It is a very peaceful setting along the Hudson River…until the train comes through. Irving was not happy about the railroad being built between his home and the river. But he was pressured into accepting it and in return they would stop the train for him when he wanted to go into New York City. 

Lyndhurst Mansion

Jay Gould was one of the richest ‘robber barons’ of the Gilded Age. This seems like a very appropriate term to describe them since they became ridiculously rich through very unscrupulous business practices and then acted like royalty. Gould made his money mostly with railroads, which apparently was even more lucrative than writing. He bought the “Lyndhurst Mansion”, which looks more like a castle. On the tour we learned that “fake” was very popular back then: They made wood look like rocks and plaster look like marble and they even painted wood to look like another kind of wood. Apparently it was more impressive to have fake marble than real marble. We had a very gifted tour guide here, the home was fascinating to visit, but if I owned it, I would probably move into the little bowling alley building down by the river.

The Rockefeller family's Kykuit Mansion

I was surprised that the Rockefellers, as the richest robber barons, could not afford a property right along the Hudson River. That’s only because I don’t speak Dutch. The Rockefeller Estate is called “Kykuit”, which means “Lookout” in Dutch and even though it’s quite a bit away from the river, it’s on the highest hill in the area and really has spectacular views. Compared to some of the other mansions, Kykuit is a small home with no grand staircase and no big ballroom…on the tour we learned that it’s called "understated elegance”. It can’t be easy to spend this much money without appearing to boast about your wealth, but apparently that’s what they were going for.

After being confused about who is who in the Rockefeller family for years, the long tour of Kykuit was a great way to learn about the three most prominent Rockefellers:

John D. Rockefeller came from humble beginnings, but quickly became the wealthiest person in America. He started the family fortune (mostly from his ‘Standard Oil Company’), which is considered to have been the largest in American history, if calculated as a percentage of GDP. As a devout baptist, he saw it as his god given right and duty to make as much money as possible, but also to donate as much as possible. This makes him both - an exploitative businessman and one of the most generous philanthropists the world has ever seen. Two traits that he passed on to future generations of Rockefellers.

John D. Rockefeller Jr. inherited a lot, but also added to the wealth, amongst other ways by developing Rockefeller Center in NYC. Apparently he tried to outdo his father in exploitation and in philanthropy. On one hand, he is blamed for a deadly attack on striking miners, on the other hand he helped finance worthy projects like Colonial Williamsburg, as well as the Acadia, Grand Teton, Great Smokey Mountains, Yosemite, Mesa Verde and Shenandoah National Parks. We have been to and love all of these places. 

Plenty of art and plenty of views from Kykuit

Nelson Rockefeller is the most famous of the next generation of Rockefellers. He loved art and politics. His love of the arts is clearly visible throughout the Kykuit Mansion and gardens. He also converted the basement into an art gallery that rivals some museums. He was a four term governor of New York, that’s when he did that ambitious and controversial Empire Plaza project in Albany (see the blog post from June). He was also selected as Vice President by Gerald Ford. His own presidential ambitions never came to fruition, probably because he had gotten a divorce. One single, little divorce seems negligible by today’s standards, but apparently that was different then.

As mentioned earlier, all these mansions are spectacular. But when I asked Sandra in which one of them she would prefer to live, she quickly answered “in Joy”. I agree, as much as we enjoy visiting these places, I don’t think we’d be happier living there, even if we could afford it. Apparently most of the heirs of these estates agree; there’s a reason that so many of them were donated and became historical sites open for the public to visit. Looks like the the current Rockefellers, Goulds and Irvings don’t want to live in those mansions themselves. However, I haven’t seen any of them around the campground or overnighting at a Walmart parking lot either… 

Aloha,

Chris & Sandra