Joseph Pulitzer House

New York, New York

www.nyccago.org

You know the maps.  Every concierge in New York City hands them out while circling the hotel location so you can find your way back to them.

We weren't staying at a hotel.  Just a day trip. But the maps are a great reference tool.  I was waffling.  Guggenheim or Whitney?  But could this be mid-town house museum?  Here on the map is the Joseph Pulitzer House right near the Whitney at 11 E 73rd Street.   Sure sounds like a house museum.

We ducked into the nearest hotel and asked the concierge for help.  He wasn't familiar with this house museum but a google search produced more info.  As we headed back onto the busy cold streets we took a closer look at the printout.

Wait just a minute!  This is the I.S. 145 Joseph Pulitzer school in Queens.  Not ready to go back to middle school we ditched this for the day and decided the computer in my warm cozy office at home was the best place to investigate further.

Joseph Pulitzer was easy to research and a pretty interesting guy.  Yet a thorough history of the house was found on a most unusual web site - the New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.  That's right!  They've got an on-going project documenting all the organs, past and present, in the five city boroughs.  And Pulitzer's house, with an Aeolian organ, was listed under the category of "non-extant or moved residents and yacht."

 www.nyccago.org

 Joseph Pulitzer is well known for founding a newspaper empire, funding the establishment of the Columbia School of Journalism, and creating the Pulitzer Prizes honoring excellence in journalism and the arts.

The Pulitzer's family home on East 55th St was destroyed in a fire in 1900.  He subsequently hired Stanford White to design a lavish new mansion on 73rd St.  After living in the mansion for only 8 years he passed away and his family moved out.  It was vacant for a few years and then plans were developed to replace it with a new apartment building but the Depression intervened.  Over a twenty year period the mansion was slowly converted into apartments.  In the early 1950's another high rise replacement plan was proposed. When the plan was abandoned the building was converted into a cooperative.

The good news is this Stanford White designed mansion was saved from the wrecking ball on multiple occasions.  The bad news is .... we can't visit.

Back to the important stuff. My visit to the Guggenheim was fantastic.  Not crowded and saw a fascinating retrospective of  Maurizio Cattelan's work.

Go to http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/ResPulitzerJ.html  for pictures and mansion history.

White Christmas in Arizona

Just looked back to an early posting on this blog.  I was sure I had included a somewhat obscure and seasonal bit of information in a May 2009 entry.  But no. It's not to be found.

The posting I am referring to is about the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix Arizona.  I remember it clearly from our tour as we walked around the pool on a warm sunny day.  There in the blog entry is a picture of the pool.  Yet no mention of ............  Irving Berlin composed the song White Christmas while sitting around the very same pool.  No doubt on another sunny warm day!

$6.2 M Rehab

 "Historic Houses of NY State, A.G. Smith, Dover Publications, 1997.


This is going to be one long period of delayed gratification!  Many house museums are closed during the winter months.  I understand that.  Heating costs to keep the few cold weather enthusiasts from freezing solid to the floor boards would be astronomical.

But when Sagamore Hill closes on Dec 5 a three year $6.2 million dollar rehab will commence. A much smaller exhibit will be housed in another building on the property.

Sagamore Hill is the 28-room Queen Anne shingle-style mansion in Oyster Bay on Long Island, NY that Teddy Roosevelt built and used as the summer White House during his presidency from 1901-1909.  The home is now part of the National Park Service holdings and has not had any major renovations in more than 50 years.  The electrical, heating, security and fire safety systems will all be upgraded.  A new roof, gutter and drains will be installed.  Exterior work also includes restoration of 78 windows and doors, porches and siding.

To protect the home's contents everything must be packed up, stored and catalogued on a computer spreadsheet.  Workers began this herculean task nine months ago.  There is one particular prize possession not yet protectively shrouded and put away for safe keeping - the 10-foot-elephant tusks inlaid with silver ornamentation.  Any suggestions on the best place to keep these babies for a few years?

More Martha and Me

I'm happy to report that Martha Stewart has been adding to the house museums on her website. Since my September 12, 2011 post she has added two homes to American Treasures.

Here's the complete list:

Great Camp Sagamore : Raquette Lake, NY
Gropius House : Lincoln, MA
Adamson House : Malibu, CA
Bonnet House : Fort Lauderdale, FL
Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House : Glouster, MA
Historic Deerfield : Deerfield, MA
Hollyhock House : Los Angeles, CA

To read more about the homes go to :

http://www.marthastewart.com/852644/home-tour-great-camp-sagamore/@center/276999/home-tours

Sign Up Now

Something new!  I just added a feature to the blog where you can sign up to be notified by email when a new posting has been added.  That way you don't have to check in all the time only to find out there's nothin goin on that day or maybe worse try to figure out a pattern of postings.  It doesn't exist.

Just look up to the right hand corner where it says follow by email.  Enter yours and hit submit.

It's that easy!

Hildene

Manchester, VT

I want a DO OVER!  I just didn't have enough time.

For the record my do over includes sunny skies.  But don't mess with the gold and russet leaf colors that were still stunning on this late October visit. 

Hildene, is the family home of Abraham Lincoln's only surviving son, Robert Todd Lincoln, and his wife, Mary Harlan Lincoln. Vermont is not a state that I  associate with the Lincoln family. So my first question is why, aside from the obvious beauty, did Robert build here?

Easily explained. Robert's first visit to Manchester, VT was in the summer of 1864 when he, his mother and brother, Tad, stayed at the Equinox Hotel. ( By the way the Equinox is still a handsome hotel on main street. It's also part of the Starwood Hotel Group where we typically rack up points and then use them for hotel stays! Oh good find!) His second connection to the area prior to building was that his Chicago law partner owned a home and land in Manchester and he often visited  him there.

In 1902 Robert purchased 500 acres and built a 24-room Georgian Revival summer home on a promontory overlooking the Battenkill Valley.  The entrance on historic RT 7A begins a long drive bordered by massive trees that leads you up, up and back from the road to the  mansion.  Once there the view of the surrounding mountains and valleys is picture post card perfect.

Now in the ideal visit you've allowed yourself enough time to linger outside, photographing the sweeping vistas.  Then without feeling rushed you'd slowly gracefully enter the foyer.  But wait that's my next visit, not this one.  In this one I rushed up the hill past a group of four and barged into the sedate foyer as if I was a six month old puppy.

Hildene is the only house in the US where only direct descendants of Abraham Lincoln continuously lived.   That's why the house is in the unusual position to say that almost everything in the house (the furniture, the china, the books, the contents of the office safe) belonged to the family.

The last owner , Peggy Lincoln Beckwith, was a colorful personality with a zeal for life.  She passionately adopted and then just as abruptly dropped photography, flying , painting, and golf. While living in the home she was typically dressed in overalls and personally tended to the animals and workings of the farm.   She judged value for herself and in one instance used a signed Gustav Stickly piece of furniture as a work bench.  When one of the tools was too long for the top drawer she just carved a circular hole through which a long tool could poke out.

Hildene is once again a working farm. On sale at the gift shop are cheeses made from the goat milk of Hildene's herd of Nubian goats.

Just prior to the start of the tour our attention was drawn to the 1000 pipe organ in the entrance hall on the stair landing.  The player organ was a gift of Robert to his wife, Mary, in 1908. Our musical recognition skills were tested with a tune.

What an odd choice.  Dixie in a Lincoln home?  Can't be.  Yet the tune was one of Abe's favorites and only after his life became associated with the confederate states.

My fav - the dining room wall paper.  The wallpaper installed by daughter Mamie  is obviously a stand out.  It's actually a 3D application with layer built upon layer.  And the trees individually clipped or pruned prior to application.

A second choice is the screen or room divider that Robert built himself for his grandchildren.  It's adorned with pages from children's storybooks.  At bedtime the kids could point to their choice for the evening.  I like that because I can see the person he was, a grandfather with a loving connection to his grandchildren.


Just before leaving I had an interesting conversation with the house historian, Gary, about why some of us find history  fascinating and it puts others to sleep.  His theory - an early history teacher way back there in elementary or middle school either sparked a passion or had you nodding off.  She/he was someone who imbued the story of history with life rather than bullet notes in a chapter outline.

I've patiently been ticking off those elementary school teachers at Samuel Smith in Burlington, NJ.  So far no one stands out as an inspiring history buff.  On to middle school or junior high as it was called then.

Here's two interesting history tidbits I didn't learn during my visit but later while I surfed the web.

The law firm that Robert Todd Lincoln founded with Edward Isham was dissolved in April 1988.  Internal squabbling amongst the partners was blamed. 

and

Edward Ishams' daughter Ann Elizabeth was one of only four female first class passengers to die in the Titanic sinking.   There was a woman seen in the water following the sinking with her arms wrapped tightly around a dog.  It's speculated that she drowned due to her refusal to leave her Great Dane dog behind.

OK those tidbits are little side notes not related to Hildene. Yet isn't that the fun of history?  You never know where the story is going to take you. 

Highfield Hall

Flamouth,MA


I'm almost ready to pack up and move to Cape Cod. Not only are there numerous house museums to visit but Highfield Hall has the most interesting events calendar. There's art exhibits, cooking classes, jazz nights, lectures, nature walks and a Holiday Ball.

Highfield Hall is a fascinating place, both it's history and current usage.

When the railroad from Boston and New York transformed Cape Cod from sleepy fishing and farming villages wealthy families began building summer estates to escape the city heat (not so different from today). In 1878 the Beebe's of Boston, heirs to a dry goods fortune, built two Stick-style Queen Anne mansions on a 700 acre property in Falmouth,MA.

For a mere 50 years or so the homes remained in the family but when the last heir passed away the property was sold and began a journey through different owners and uses. Attention to the beauty and possibilities of the estate waxed and waned. For a period the two mansions were used as a hotel and later the estate housed a theater and school. (Reminds me of the inn in White Christmas. The movie with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. But that being the movies the inn was saved before it slid into disrepair. Not the case here.)

The two mansions suffered from years of neglect and vandalism until in 1977 one of the two grand homes, Tanglewood, was demolished. Highfield Hill continued its decline and was nearly razed as well. Eventually it was saved by a local ordinance enacted two days earlier.

I found the preservation story of the home fascinating. Loved the pictures of volunteer supporters doing the dirty work of cleaning up;local government involvement in the 11th hour rescue; and the professional manner in which the house is now run and presented to the public. This extraordinary example of local initiative was recognized with a 2010 Preservation Award from the Massachusetts Historical Society.

The estate now is a vibrant community asset offering public viewing of the mansion, a full calendar of cultural events, and rental availability. The current non-profit owners have achieved their goal as outlined in their strategic plan " to create a new model for an historic house that's not a static display, but a house that is to be used and treasured by the entire community."

While tours of the house must be prearranged and are for groups only, a room just off the entrance has a permanent exhibit with a full history of the family and their estate.

Wish I had taken some notes. Since our September visit the details have slipped my mind. I vaguely remember some melodrama with a father rushing to his suicidal daughter's bedside and the carriage colliding with and killing a local ten year old boy. Even an internet search on that didn't turn up the details.

You can see from the pictures that this house can be a wonderful venue for a wedding "at home" if you don't happen to have a floor plan that can comfortably accommodate hundreds of people.