Bidwell Mansion

Chico, CA

 It's a bit of an unusual relationship.  Jane and I became friends/acquaintances because our email addresses are almost identical.  I was serving on a volunteer committee and in our back and forth emails one of the members dropped a letter from my address.  Next thing we knew Jane from California was in the loop and regretfully declining attendance at the next meeting.

When Jane learned about my passion for house museums and this blog she recommended her local favorite, the Bidwell Mansion in Chico CA.

Though not planning a trip to the West Coast anytime soon, I was intrigued.  But I was stopped in my tracks.  Early search results  focused on a listing of over 70 California state parks slated for closing in the summer of 2012 due to the dire California budget crisis.  Bidwell Mansion was on the list! 

Reading further the Mansion looked just like the kind of property I love to tour and write about.  It's interesting to me at every turn... so many historical references in the related biographies, so much period furnishings and interior design elements, so many architectural details, and so much beauty in the surrounding geography!

The Bidwell Mansion Association is raising funds to keep the Mansion open for another year!  Let's hope they're successful and that they're ingenious enough to keep Bidwell open year after year.

To learn more about what we're missing at the Bidwell Mansion go to Martha's Musing. And for more discussion about the California park closings as well as the Bidwell go to the blog  State Park Closures Trip.

Downton Abbey Frenzy

We're all in a frenzy over Downton Abbey on Masterpiece Theatre.  The 20 room mansion in the series has attracted almost as much interest as the vivid personalities who inhabit it.  Highclere Castle, in Hampshire England, is the real grand house where the show is filmed.  According to the New Yorker it's a house museum open to the public in the warmer months of the year.  The current Earl and Countess live on the estate in a smaller home.

To quote Yogi Berra  it's deja vu all over again!  In my post of July 3, 2011 I talked about the 1960 Hollywood movie "The Grass is Greener".  It's a movie about the earl and countess of a English stately house, or house museum, that is giving tours to the public in order to pay the bills.

There are over 500 stately houses in England.  I can't think of a better vacation than leisurely driving the English countryside and visiting a different stately home each day.  However, having driven on the left side of the road in England before, I now know we'd need a chauffeur for the trip.  A very stately idea indeed!

Ventford Hall and the Mount in the News

The Mount

Today's New York Times  Travel Section has an article on the winter season in the Berkshires. It's a nice tour of cultural activities in Western Massachusetts.

Ventford Hall and The Mount, two of the first house museum posts on this blog, are mentioned.  I liked reading once more about the interesting history of each and was reminded again of how many important historical homes come close to demolition.

Ventford Hall

The author and I did disagree on Ventford Hall.  It's way down on my list of beautiful house museums.  Perhaps in the last three years they've done a lot to restore it's original luster or based on his wintry night dance soiree images, Id say the author has a great imagination.

Thanks to the article I've added another museum in the area to my long list of Massachusetts house museums :  Arrowhead, Herman Melville's home in Pittsfield.

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