The beauty and sadness of decay at Maple Grove

I started helping out at a local historic site in Poughkeepsie. I stumbled on it one day and it really is something to behold. Maple Grove was built in 1850 with additions and changes made in 1891. It is one of the very few examples of a fine Hudson Valley mansion that was built on South Road during the 19th century.  It was built by a New York Banker named Charles Macy and it would be the home of many families in the 19th century until it ended up in the hands of the Kinkead family. They would own the house up until the 1980s and willed it to the Saint Simeon Foundation, a foundation that is letting it slip away. The house was set on fire in 1985 and to this day, the servant wing is still a charred mess. The house is without pluming, electricity, or heat. It is rotting away and there are very few in Poughkeepsie who seem to know about it or care what happens to it. While I was there today, I snapped some photos of some of the decay which I found quite lovely and saddening at the same time. Much love and money is needed to get this house back into shape, but I fear that if it ever comes, it will most certainly come to late.

"This Place Stinks! Lets get out of here" - The Joy of small children in Historic Houses

I had a family from Indiana on my tour this morning at the Vanderbilt Mansion. They had three small children, an older girl who said nothing, a middle son with red hair and thick glasses who asked lots of questions and a little girl who frequently proclaimed her hatred for stinky museums. The parents seemed to get even less out of the entire experience than their children. Upon entering the visitors center, I could already see that I was in for an adventure or sorts when the son opened up his bag of Doritos which of course makes his hands covered in greasy cheesy goodness. His father luckily informed his son he could not bring them into the mansion so I didn't have to play the bad-ranger. The little girl had a long strand of blue plastic ribbon which trailed far behind her which her mother informed me was her imaginary long hair, I informed the mother it would have to be reeled in. And the older girl, said nothing. We made our way over to the mansion and the little boy started his questions.

Kid - Soooo, you said that anything you could want in a home is here yes?
Me - Thats right, the Vanderbilts had all kinds of luxuries in this house
Kid - Sooo, did they have a couch that you sit in and you can just stay in the couch and not have to move and you could just have a cotton candy machine come to you and bring you some cotton candy?
Me - Sort of, its called a Butler!

     So we got to the mansion and I informed the family the importance of not touching anything inside of the house because it is all really old and fragile. The little girl continued to wrap her blue ribbon around and the older girl, said nothing. The little boy asked,

Kid - Soooo, if the guy who lived here came here today could he touch anything inside?
Me - Sure, he paid for all of the expensive things in here. But he is no longer here.
Kid - Hes dead!
Me - Yup!

    Inside we go and the little girl looks around and says, "I hate museums!" and flops down to the floor, where she remains for a good deal of the tour. I tried to get her interested in the painting in the golden room. "Go and see the pretty ladies on the ceiling", to which I got a rather blank look.And the older girl, said nothing. When we entered the main living room, I was explaining about the lights and house the mansion was one of the first in the area to have electricity. So the little boy asked,

Kid - Soooo,with these lights, did they clap them on and off like in my friend's house? (to his mother) William's house has the clapper!
Me - No, the clapper wasn't invented yet. They had the Butler to turn off the lights.

The little girl screamed out once again, "I hate museums" and the older girl, said nothing. We made our way upstairs and I let them look at all of the bedrooms and explained that not all of the bathrooms can be seen but they are behind some of the closed doors which of course led the little boy to ponder,

Kid - If all of the bathrooms are behind the doors, how is anyone going to know where they are? Does everyone just use this bathroom because we all can see it?

Goodness, moving on....So then I try to tell the story about the servants and I showed the family the butler's pantry and explained that the food was prepared in the kitchen in the basement and brought up to the butler's pantry to be taken into the dining room. This very much confused the little boy,

Kid - Now wait....umm, umm, if they bring the food down to the basement, wont it get cold?
Me - No, no, the bring the food from the basement, up here to bring into the dining room.
Kid - But why do they bring it down to the basement?
Me - They don't, they make it down there and bring it up here, I guess they might bring any left overs down to the basement.
Kid - But so where is it going?
Me - Into the dining room.
Kid - Then down to the basement?
Me - Why don't we go see the kitchen!

Downstairs, I continued to try to explain the dumbwaiter system to the boy so he could see what I was saying....I hope he got it. As I finish up with the servant's story and show them where they were to exit, the little girl said "This Place Stinks!! Lets get out of here!!" and the older girl, said nothing.

     

My loyalist point of view

So I have to write an essay for my exam in my Revolutionary War class and I am taking on the role of a loyalist in Boston in 1766. I am writing to my brother in Scotland who is studying medicine there and I am warning him of the issues in the colonies.


Dearest Brother,

I do so hope that you will continue your studies in Scotland and not give any more thought to coming to these troublesome colonies. Some of my neighbors believe that we as British citizens should not be taxed so harshly. The stamp act of which many of them dislike so much is of little consequence to me. Our King protected these colonies from the french and their savage allies and our we just supposed to say thank you and move on? We must do our part to pay for that expensive war. Many of my neighbors say that they would be happy to pay taxes if they had representation in parliament but none of our colonies have that, why should Boston be so fortunate? The crown is rule but I doubt these men, these sons of liberty understand that. The acts of a few dishonorable men have included hanging stamp officials in effigy and even the destruction of Andrew Oliver's home who is of course connected with the stamp act. I understand these people got what they wanted as the poor man resigned his commission. Can you imagine, a man of the crown being bullied from his post? What madness is here! Now I understand that parliament is going to send troops from his majesty's army and quite right too. If I were to take up a post of collecting on the King's behalf I would most definitely want the army here to protect me. We need to have a time of reason again my brother. There are far to many who believe in taking the law into their own hands and distorting it far from what the King desires. Parliament will no doubt repeal this act but there will be others and then what? More rebels? More destruction? The King will most assuredly come down hard on this colony and others who should do the same.

I remain your moste humble servt,

Lord So and So

Voices of the past

My lovely Victrola VV-IX lets me listen to the voices of the past. When I was little my father had a record player but all I had to do was press a button and make sure the speakers were plugged in and I could hear all of the music of the 70s and 80s (and my mother's hair band collection). Now I have invested in something different. At George Cole auctions I purchased a great Victrola that plays wonderfully for only $150! It was made in 1916 and still sounds as good as the day it was made. It actually feels funny having to crank it up for one song but knowing that its not plugged into anything or powered by any battery makes this little machine something amazing! It crackles and plays the music from long ago that just takes you someplace other than where you are, back into the past.

The small collection of 78s that I have purchased since finding my victrola is an odd bunch of songs and golden oldies...I guess. Lots of Perry Como, Andrews Sisters, and random stuff I have never heard of. For example....

Check out this title! "Shes the sweetheart of six other guys" by The Happiness Boys. I cant imagine they would be that happy if they were all sharing the same chick.

The Joy of Antiques

I love old things. I love the joy of finding something that was once important to someone from long ago. When I walk into an antique shop, auction hall or yard sale I get oh so excited and try to keep my eyes open for all of the right deals! I am told that sometimes I get too excited and that I should appear less interested when it comes to deal making, of course I know this is true, but I cant help myself! One of my favorite things to collect is military. I find that the most interesting of  items are the ones that might have taken part in the end of someones life. I have found a lot of bargains at places like George Cole auctions in Red hook NY and at large antique gun shows in Springfield MA and Hartford CT. In march I will be heading south to the Baltimore Antique Arms Show  where I hope to get myself another civil war sword to add to my collection. Which is quite modest. An officers sword, and a musicians sword.

 

I also hope to add a bayonet or two to my little collection of short blades. I have one from just about every American war. People find in very odd that a girl like me collects these sorts of antiques but I love it! Not only do these pieces make great wall hangers but people naturally want to talk about them when they come for a visit.   

 

Another thing I like to collect, is related to my job and one of the main people I study, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I have a modest collection of presidential campaign memorabilia. This man ran four times and was elected four times so there seems to be plenty of FDR related items out on the market and its amazing how many little booths at antique shops have pins just randomly sitting in cases. So I have both pro-Roosevelt and anti-Roosevelt pins like "No Third Term" which I couldn't help but add to the collection just to show how the pin clearly didn't get the message across!

 

 

Photos of the dead

I have many old photos. Photos of people from long ago. None if these people are still living and I honestly don't know who they are or even where they were from. In most cases I can judge the general time period based on the clothes they wore but not much else. I collect these photos of the dead because I find them interesting. I can make up a story of each person's life based on the looks on their faces or the items they might be holding.

Once in awhile, I do get lucky and find a name. Sometimes when you open these old and delicate time capsules you might just find something buried inside. This photo shows you some of the old photos in my collection. Its a mixture of daguerreotypes, tintypes, and ambrotypes. Once in awhile I will pull them apart and see if there is something behind them and this time I found something.....

 
Behind this image of a little girl, sucking something out of a bottle, I don't know what exactly...is her name and her parents names. "Hattie Brown, daughter of Alva & Nancy Brown". I know this little girl is long gone and so is the tasty drink that seems to be keeping her quite focused. But when this photo was taken, she was young, lovely and full of life. I wonder what Hattie went on to do in her later years, if she ever got that far. Did she die during an outbreak of colera? Did she marry and have another little Hattie? Who knows? But its fun to think about.     

"Hyde Park on Hudson": Why this terrible movie makes my job complicated

For those of you who bothered to see the latest flop "Hyde Park on Hudson", you might have noticed how terrible the movie was even without knowing the history behind it. I had heard that Bill Murray was going to be playing the role of our 32nd president but I had found it difficult to believe until the man actually stopped by one day and took a tour around the site. And when my boss took the producers into the home to get a feel for the place it then became clear that it was really happening. So naturally we were all quite excited. Months later when our site supervisors as well as those from Wilderstein (Daisy Suckley's home) had a private screening of the finished movie, I knew then that this was not going to be a pretty picture. When it was finally released in December of 2012 I rushed out to get a seat for what my boss had referred to as "Hollywood Garbage". Even though it was opening night and it was only playing in one theater in the area, the place was far from sold out. I could tell right from the beginning that this was not right. The movie makes it seem as if Daisy Suckley is just randomly appearing in FDR's life for the first time, which of course is incorrect, and that she had nothing to do with the construction of Top Cottage, his little retreat. The movie makes it seem like she is seeing it for the first time. She had everything to do with the construction of that building and was a major friend and key player in Roosevelt's life, and not the kind that the movie makes her out to be. The movie was filmed in England and not in the original estate at Hyde Park, so the overall look of everything about it is wrong. They also make a major error in the placement of the political cartoons in FDR's home.  The cartoons that poke fun at Great Britain (as well as the US) from the War of 1812 have always been in the main hall of the house and that is where the King noticed them in real life but for some reason the movie's producers decided to put these prints in the room where the King stayed which did nothing to add to the movie's already none existing plot. There was a major lacking in the overall plot and direction in this movie. It seemed like they could have done so much more in order to make it a little more true to life but they simply chose not to.

     So with that being said, there are some (few, but some) who have made it out to see this piece of - shall we say, historic fiction - and being naturally curious they have made the pilgrimage to see where it all really happened.  Now yes, the King and Queen popped by in 1939. Yes, they stayed the weekend, enjoyed some cocktails and hot dogs and went for a swim. But there is so much that this movie has to say that we have no record of or any proof at all. Particularly when it comes to Franklin and his love of certain ladies. So I have noticed some of the remarks, and/or dumb questions that have naturally come about, thanks to this co-called hollywood interpretation.

For example-- "Oh my, its much smaller than in the movie", "This must be where he and his girlfriend made out", "Did his secretary really walk around naked in Top Cottage?" "The Queen of England was very snotty in the movie, do you think she was really snotty?", "Why Bill Murray for FDR?" <---Actually thats a good question, I like Bill, don't get me wrong, but he is a ghostbuster, not FDR! Sure, he can wave that long cigarette holder around pretty well, but that was about it. So anyway, if you want to see a movie that does an OK job of showing the Roosevelts from Hollywood's point of view, try "Sunrise at Campobello" from 1960 with Greer Garson and Ralph Bellamy or "Eleanor and Franklin" a mini series from the 1970s that starred Jane Alexander and Edward Herrmann.  

 

Roosevelt and The Holocaust

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a president with more on his agenda then any president before or since. The great depression had suffocated the nation with unemployment, loss of property and of self-respect. Dust bowls were devastating the Midwestern portion of the country sending soil across the states. The war to bring down the Empire of Japan and the Nazis was a massive undertaking that this country was ill prepared for and required the President to travel overseas to make alliances with both the British and the Soviet Union. With all of these issues going on in his mind as well as the war being fought on many fronts, there was not much that the president wasn’t concerned with. Today, many scholars continue to judge FDR for his approach to handling those victims of Nazi crimes both before and during the war. Many of those even believed that Roosevelt himself was anti-Semitic. If one bothers to do the research they will see that Roosevelt was certainly more of a friend to the Jews of his country and the world and tried his best in saving them from extinction.

As a park ranger at the Home of FDR, I get to study this subject more in detail. However when I gave my first tour to visitors two years ago, I will admit that I only knew the basics of his life and presidency and had not yet touched on the issues with the Holocaust. This would prove to be a problem. On my very first day of giving tours alone, an angry middle-aged Jewish woman decided to confront me on the subject of the SS St Louis. She demanded to know why Roosevelt would not allow the Jews of that ship to enter Cuba to which I instinctively responded that Roosevelt had no jurisdiction over Cuba, of course. And she then demanded to know why he wouldn’t allow them entry into this country. I knew of the immigration laws which had been passed long before Roosevelt was even in office but I didn’t know why he couldn’t make an exception. She also went on to ask why he didn’t bomb Auschwitz in order to stop the killings that went on there. So she continued to bash both me and the president for the majority of the tour, and I do hope that she got her $14 worth. But by the end of that tour I wanted to know more.

In a time when anti-Semitism was common in the world and civil rights were a long way off, Jews had had it rough for centuries. In the 1930’s things were getting even worse as the Nazi party gained control and laws were being passed in Germany that prevented the rights of Jews. At first, most Jews in Europe and America did not take Hitler and his Nazi party seriously, there was no way they could see the troubles that lay ahead. Quickly these people went from average loyal citizens of Germany, to refugees of the Reich. As FDR was trying to pull this country out of a great depression, he was also kept well informed of the growing refugee crisis in Europe. By 1935 his friend and former Lieutenant Governor of New York, current Governor Herbert Lehman, a son of Reform Jews, was keeping Roosevelt up to date on all strict immigration quotas. These quotas undoubtedly concerned to president and in a letter to Lehman he expressed his concerns for the safety of these refugees, “persons who are obliged to leave the country of their regular residence, and who seek to escape from the conditions in that country by coming to the United States, should receive, on the part of American consular officers, the most considerate attention and the most generous and favorable treatment possible under the laws of this country.”

In November of 1938, FDR was informed by Rabbi Stephen Wise of the crimes of Kristallnacht and he quickly recalled the ambassador to Germany to report on the situation. Roosevelt addressed the press on the matter, “I myself could scarcely believe that such things could occur in a twentieth century civilization.” This civilization that he was referring to was still very much an anti-Semitic one even in his home country. In fact, FDR was the first president to have both a female cabinet member and openly Jewish members in the cabinet and in high ranking positions. Jews made up 15 percent of Roosevelt’s high-level appointments. These were the best of the best, people like his trusted speech writer, Samuel Rosenman and his good friend and neighbor Henry Morgenthau who had been with Roosevelt since his early days in public service and became the Secretary of the Treasury all the way through Roosevelt’s twelve years in office. Scholars, like Monty Penkower, Herbert Druks, and David Wyman, who had referred to Roosevelt as an anti-Semitic or claimed that he had abandoned the Jews, seem to have lost sight of the real monsters to blame.

As the war was raging in Europe with the invasion of Poland in 1939, it was not clear at first what was to become of the Jews of Europe, at least not to most Americans. At first, it was the Poles who suffered the brutality of the Nazis while Jewish poles were herded into ghettos. But still, one in five of Americans did not want to enter this war. Eighty four percent of Americans were pro-ally while only two percent were pro-German. The Wagner-Rogers Bill, that would have allowed 20,000 Jewish children into this country from Germany was approved by Roosevelt but shot down by Congress in 1939 and still seventy seven percent of the American people were opposed to allowing more Jews into the United States. In August of 1942 Gerhart Riegner a representative of the World Jewish Congress, informed American officials that Germany had begun mass exterminations of Jews in the areas under Nazi control. However, this new information was hazy and left most Americans skeptical at best. There had been rumors of war atrocities during the great war but some had proved to be false so it seemed difficult for many to believe what they were hearing about this war. Further evidence soon came on December 8th of 1942 and Roosevelt finally realized the importance of a rescue of prisoners. During the deportations that were quickly occurring in Hungary, two inmates escaped from Auschwitz and brought to the west some of the first accounts of the true horrors of that camp. However, this was not yet an option for FDR who still had “not yet landed a single soldier on the continent of Europe“. And as much of a shock as it might have been, still many people could not believe that such cold-blooded crimes were being committed.

With the war getting into high gear and the Americans putting together a force that could make a stand, Roosevelt turned his attention to what he promised to Prime Minister Winston Churchill; tanks, airplanes, and absolute victory. “There never has been-there never can be” Roosevelt told congress, “successful compromise between good and evil”. Roosevelt and Churchill met in Quebec in 1943 to agree on Operation Overlord and the plans for D-Day. But while the war was being worked out between allies, there were workings going on with Roosevelt’s men to help the refugees, while still other’s were working against this idea of helping Jewish refugees.

When it comes to proper facts and just what the president was aware of, how much and when, it seems that the state department was not always completely honest on the subject of Jews in Europe. FDR was usually left in the dark and he was not aware of the amount of people being let into the country or being killed in extermination camps. Breckinridge Long, of the State department had given FDR the wrong numbers and informed him that the U.S. had allowed over 500,000 refugees into the country since 1933 when in reality only about 200,000 had been given safe entry. To make matters worse, the State department also kept important messages about the exterminations away from important Jewish leaders. Between the State department and the British foreign office there did not seem to be much hope in the rescuing of refugees.

Henry Morgenthau was irritated by the constant manipulation of important knowledge and particularly angry with Secretary of State Cordell Hull who did not seem the least bit concerned with the Jews of Europe. Morgenthau believed that his friend the president would always do the right thing if he were given the proper intelligence to work with. Morgenthau also knew that the State department had blocked the license needed to transfer the funds that Roosevelt had approved for the refugee rescue efforts. He and others worked along side of Roosevelt to put together the War Refugee Board which the president issued on January 22, 1944. It was about that time that Roosevelt’s health was beginning to fail. He ordered the military to assist the WRB, however not everyone agreed that much could be done to save the refugees other then to win the war.

The WRB brought in 982 refugees, mostly Jews who snuck into Italy, and were taken to a camp in Oswego New York. This new board also played a major role in saving thousands of Jews from Hungary. When Adolf Eichmann arrived to impose the final solution there, the WRB sent in Raoul Wallenberg under Swedish diplomatic cover. The WRB also arranged for air-leaflet drops reminding those in the process of committing these war crimes that they would be prosecuted as war criminals as Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin all agreed in December of 1942. This helped save some of the Hungarian Jews but still many thousands were transported to Auschwitz where they were exterminated.

Auschwitz was the largest and most efficient of all of the camps. The complex and its sub-camps killed over one million people between 1940 and 1945 alone. So why didn’t Roosevelt send planes over this horrifying place and just bomb it? American surveillance planes had flown above it in 1944 and had sent photos back for the government to see but still no attempts were made to silence it's operation. Its important to keep in mind that the Germans also held over 200,000 British and American prisoners of war throughout camps in Germany and there was never any mention of saving these men either. The quickest way to save all prisoners of any kind, in the minds of many war officials, was to end the war and end Hitler.

As soon as reports started flowing in of the rapid pace deporting and killing of Hungarian Jews, there were ideas floating around Washington concerning the bombing of Auschwitz. However, these ideas never seemed to go very far, most Jewish groups said no to the idea, not wanting to be responsible for the deaths of any Jews. The World Jewish Congress did not approve of it either, saying "the destruction of the death installations cannot be done from bombing from the air, as the first victims would be the Jews who are gathered in these camps, and such a bombing would be a welcome pretext for the Germans to assert that their Jewish victims have been massacred not by their killers, but by the Allied bombings." It seems likely that since most Jewish leaders never wanted the bombings of these camps, that FDR was never even informed of the idea.

FDR had promised his Jewish friends back in 1944 that he would try to develop a Jewish State once things had been settled and even in the final months of his life and in failing health, he tried to stay true to his word. On his way back from Yalta, in February of 1945 he stopped to talk with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. He was hoping to convince the King to allow the Jewish refugees some space in Palestine but the King informed Roosevelt of his own people's feelings on the Jews and that it would not be possible, insisting instead that the land in Germany should be taken from the Nazis who have committed the crimes and given to the Jews. The two leaders battled back and forth but in the end Roosevelt could not win over Saud and had to return back to America empty handed with the great disappointment of knowing he could not keep his promise.

If Roosevelt did not care for the Jews as many of his critics believe, then why would he go out of his way to try to specifically help the Jews in finding a new homeland? He did not have to even bother with such a task in his final painful days of life but he did. He did not have to listen to his Jewish friends like Morgenthau about the Jews of Europe who had nothing to do with his own country and his own peoples problems and yet he did and it obviously weighed heavy on his mind. As Roosevelt said in a statement in March of 1944, "this government will use all means at its command to aid the escape of all intended victims of the Nazi and Japanese executioner, regardless of race, religion or color." He did his best in times and circumstances there were unlike any other. In the end, people should be judged, not by what they didn't do but what they did.