A New England Pilgrimage

Last Supper

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 01:00:00 +0000

We had a lazy last day so as not to be tired for our journey tomorrow. We had a lovely late breakfast at Café Henri, a French bistro near our hotel in Long Island City. Excellent, except for the screeching baby.

In the afternoon we went for a walk down to Gantry Park one last time and snoozed in the sun for a while.

We had our final dinner at Fushia Restaurant in our hotel (I had their Pad Thai again, because it was so good from last time) and played a game of Scrabble.

What an excellent trip this has been!

Tomorrow we fly back from LaGuardia Airport.

A Midtown Manhattan Walk

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 01:30:00 +0000

Today we again took the East River Ferry over to Manhattan. It’s such a quick ride, only about 3 minutes, and you’re right there in Midtown Manhattan. I don’t know why more people don’t take it. The Long Island City terminal is about a 15 minute walk from our hotel, mostly through a lovely waterfront park that we’ve been enjoying every day: Gantry Park. Its website calls it “one of America's most uniquely beautiful urban parks.” One always has to question the validity of those casual claims to be the best or biggest or most whatever. But it certainly is pretty and has great unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline. I would also agree with its website’s claim that it is “an oasis of tranquility” in an otherwise bustling and noisy city. We’ve been very happy with our choice to stay on the other side of the East River, away from the noise and the crowds.

We stopped for a bite to eat at Bagel Boss in the Murray Hill neighborhood, one branch of an establishment that opened in 1935, an event that warranted inclusion in the Kitchen Project’s History of Bagels. I had one with light scallion and lox cream cheese, and it was yummy.

Our ultimate goal was a walk in Central Park, but we passed several other landmarks along the way, as we once again trod the streets of New York on increasingly strong legs and tired feet.

The Morgan Library & Museum – a complex that encompasses both the home and magnificent private library of banker John Pierpont (“J.P.”), the leading financier of the Progressive Era. The library was donated to the public in 1924 by Morgan’s son, J.P. Morgan, Jr.

Grand Central Station – Built in 1871, during the heyday of American long-distance passenger rail travel, it has 44 platforms, more than any other railroad station in the world. It is a gorgeous building, a National Historic Landmark, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. To many people, Grand Central is “not so much a train station as a metaphor for directionless mayhem, traffic run amuck, bodies barely dodging one another.” We had to move on from there to get towards our goal.

The main branch of the New York Public Library – an imposing Beaux Arts style building done in Vermont marble, completed in 1911. It too is a National Historic Landmark. Unfortunately the famous Rose Main Reading Room with its gorgeous ceilings was closed for renovation, but we still got to see the magnificent entry with its arched ceiling and grand staircases. The famous pair of lions guarding the entrance, nicknamed Patience and Fortitude, were sculpted by Edward Clark Potter. For once, an illustrious Potter that my family is not directly related to (as far as I know).

There was photography exhibit on at the library at the time and I took a quick peek at it. “Public Eye: 175 Years of Sharing Photography” is an interesting look at how people have made their photos public over time: individual prints passed around or framed and displayed in venues, photo albums and scrapbooks, reproductions in books and magazines, slide shows, all the way to the latest mode of dissemination: social media.

Saks Fifth Avenue’s flagship store on – you guessed it – Fifth Avenue. Founded in 1898 by Andrew Saks, the luxury department store chain is now owned by the Canadian retailer, Hudson's Bay Company. The building housing Saks’ headquarters and flagship store was built in 1924.

Rockefeller Center – This complex of 19 commercial buildings, named after John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who developed it beginning in 1930 (another “Rock”: he’s the same guy the Rockefeller Library at Brown was named after), was the largest private building project ever undertaken in modern times. The original 14 buildings are in the Art Deco style. Rockefeller Center is a National Historic Landmark.

The bronze Art Deco Atlas Statue in front of Rockefeller Center was created by sculptors Lee Lawrie and Rene Paul Chambellan and was installed in 1937. It is the largest sculpture at Rockefeller Center. The piece has since been appropriated as a symbol of the Objectivist movement and has been associated with Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged (1957).

St. Patrick’s Cathedral was the crowning achievement of architect James Renwick, Jr., who also designed Grace Church which we saw yesterday. It is a Decorated Neo-Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral, built from 1858-1878 (construction was halted during the Civil War).

Calvary Baptist Church is a historic church founded in 1847. The current building, dedicated in 1931, is an early example of urban high-rise, or "skyscraper" church. It is a 16-story building which also includes the Hotel Salisbury, an apartment hotel. Billy Sunday and Billy Graham have preached at Calvary. The inscription over the front door is “We preach Christ crucified, risen and coming again.” Emmanuel the “gate man” who let us in was very friendly and says it’s important for a church to always have a gate man, to let in anyone who may knock. He told us the story of one man who came wanting to be baptised, and he was able to send him upstairs to the pastor. He also thinks the end times are upon us and more and more people will be flocking to the church before Jesus returns. Not sure I agree 100% with his theology, but he was a sweet man and very earnest.

Carnegie Hall is a famous Art Deco style concert hall built in 1891, financed by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. It is one of the most prestigious venues in the world for both classical music and popular music. The New York Philharmonic was resident there until 1962. Part of the folklore of the hall is the rumor that a pedestrian on Fifty-seventh Street once stopped violinist Jascha Heifetz (or some say it was pianist Arthur Rubinstein) and inquired, "Could you tell me how to get to Carnegie Hall?" "Yes," said Heifetz. "Practice!"

Finally, we arrived at Central Park, designed in 1858 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, whom we’ve met before in this blog. It is a National Historic Landmark and is the most visited urban park in the United States as well as one of the most filmed locations in the world. The Park’s lagoon, with its ducks, features in the novel The Catcher in the Rye.

Sarah has noticed a curious phenomenon on our trip. Whenever I stop to take a photo somewhere, a bunch of amateur photographers gather round to take a photo in the same direction. She wanted me to test her theory by setting up my camera to take a picture off into some random space that had nothing particularly photogenic. So I did it a couple of times in Central Park, and sure enough, the copycats came out in droves. Hilarious. I wish she’d had a camera too, to photograph that happening.

This time we walked back to our hotel via the Queensboro Bridge. We saw the Roosevelt Island Tramway right beside us as we went.

One last shot of the Empire State Building at night from the other side as we walked back to our hotel.

I mapped our whole route today, just for curiosity, using MapMyRun, and found that we had walked 7.65 miles (you have to subtract the leg that was the ferry trip across the East River, which was 0.52 miles). My pedometer app said it was 21,289 steps. I guess my walking stride is around 2700-2800 steps per mile, which is more than what they say is average.

Grace in the City

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 01:30:00 +0000

Once again we took the East River Ferry and walked a lot in Manhattan. Today’s main attraction was Grace Church (Episcopal), a historic church (founded in 1808) where my parents were married. Its present building (1843-1846) is a French Gothic Revival masterpiece designed by James Renwick, Jr. It has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

The chantry, built in 1879, was designed by my great great great uncle Edward Tuckerman Potter. I got special permission to have it unlocked for me to go inside and photograph it, because I said I was a descendant of the man who designed it.

The baptismal font with its carved canopy was designed in 1894 by his half-brother, William Appleton Potter. The font is octagonal because eight people survived the biblical flood, Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives, illustrated in the mosaic on the wall behind the font.

Another brother, Henry Codman Potter, notable for his early leadership in the Social Gospel movement, was the rector there from 1868 to 1884. He presided over expanding programs offered by the church to immigrants, who were arriving in ever-increasing numbers; these included day care and teaching skills that would lead to employment.

I was fascinated to learn of one parishioner, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, a philanthropist and art collector who “helped launch the competitive cycle of giving that transformed museums in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago, from the private pursuits of rich art lovers to professional institutions dedicated to educating large audiences and promoting modern art.” The great aim of her life was to give away her money wisely. She had great respect and admiration for Henry Codman Potter’s work, and a special affection for Grace Church. She donated the money for the Chantry, to be used as a Sunday School. She also paid for the construction of the parish house, between the Church and Rectory. She also donated the great East Window. This act of generosity provided an example for others to follow, and within ten years her fellow parishioners had given 36 of the 46 stained glass windows presently in the church. She bequeathed her art collection one of the largest in America, to the Metropolitan Museum, together with an endowment of $200,000."

A block up Broadway from Grace Church is Strand Bookstore, founded in 1927, by my estimation New York’s best and most famous bookstore. Known for its “18 miles of books” it takes up three and a half floors and sells both new and used books, 2.5 million of them according to a 2011 figure.

A few more blocks north on Broadway, at the northern end of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District (the location of some of New York's most famous department stores), is the Flatiron Building (1902), a National Historic Landmark. It is called such because of its wedge shape, like that of a cast-iron clothes iron. It has been called “one of the world's most iconic skyscrapers, and a quintessential symbol of New York City.” The neighborhood surrounding it is called the Flatiron District after it.

Nearby is Union Square, so named in the 19th century because it marked “the union of the two principal thoroughfares of the island.” It features an impressive equestrian statue of George Washington. Our friends Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (designers of Prospect Park in Brooklyn), were involved in the layout of tree plantings in 1872. Bronze plaques set in the sidewalk commemorate some of this historic events that have taken place at Union Square.

We had lunch at Village Taverna Greek Grill. Oh my, this is the best food we’ve had yet in New York! Lovely decor. I highly recommend it!

This is the Jefferson Market branch of the New York Public Library – formerly Jefferson Market Courthouse. Built in 1874-1877 in High Victorian Gothic style, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is also a National Historic Landmark. Its rescue from planned demolition and redesign as a library was “one of the first adaptive reuse projects in the United States, and a signal event in the historic preservation movement.”

In the afternoon we returned to Grace Church for Choral Evensong featuring Benjamin Britten’s “Rejoice in the Lamb.” It is an annual tradition of Grace Church in lieu of a blessing of the animals service, at the time of the year when other Episcopal churches do that. Britten’s text has lots of references to animals, and some strange bits too, but the music was lovely, sung by a choir of men and boys. The postlude was Maurice Duruflé’s “Prélude et Fugue sur le nom d'Alain” – very beautiful.

We had dinner at a Latin American/Cuban restaurant called Blend near our hotel which was recommended by a Hispanic guy behind the front desk. Yum! Highly recommended. We brought along a Scrabble set and played a game in the dim light there as we ate our meal.

Park and Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Sun, 18 Oct 2015 03:00:00 +0000

Today was another relatively light day, time to get some laundry done, etc.

Brooklyn’s 585-acre Prospect Park, created in 1867, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert B. Vaux. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It has many features including “Long Meadow” which is the largest stretch of unbroken meadow in any urban park in America. I’ve felt a bit of withdrawal from the fall colors of New England, but Prospect Park brought me back into that mindset. You might enjoy these 25 Little-Known Facts About Olmsted & Vaux's Masterpiece.

At the north end of Prospect Park is Grand Army Plaza with Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch (1892), dedicated "To the Defenders of the Union, 1861-1865" and the Brooklyn Public Library.

The adjacent Brooklyn Botanic Garden was created in 1897, with original site layout by the Olmsted Brothers (two sons of Frederick Law Olmsted), and later landscaped by Harold Capam. He conceived a collection of 13 eclectic gardens connected by winding paths. There’s a Native Flora Garden, a Rose Garden, the Cherry Esplanade, a Shakespeare Garden, and more.

The Fragrance Garden, created in 1955, “was the first garden in the country specifically designed for the visually impaired.” It includes braille signs, and you are encouraged to touch the plants and smell.

When the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden opened in 1915, it was “the first Japanese-inspired garden within an American public garden. Considered a masterpiece of landscape designer Takeo Shiota, it offers harmonious views from every angle and beauty in all seasons.”

There's a sundial with the inscription "Serene I stand amyddst ye flowres to tell ye passing of ye howres."

We had take-out dinner from John Brown Smokehouse, a Kansas-City style barbecue place near our hotel. It was delicious but very messy and a bit too peppery at times. The corn bread was unique: a kind of bread pudding almost, with solid kernels of corn in it. Quite yummy.

New York City on Foot

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 01:30:00 +0000

This morning we dressed for a day of lots of walking. We had breakfast at a nearby bagel café. I wanted to make sure Sarah had a chance to taste real New York bagels, and they did not disappoint.

Yesterday on her walk, Sarah had discovered the East River Ferry, which turns out to be a perfect mode of transport to get over to Manhattan. Nice views of the city along the way, and much nicer than being underground. Here's the view of the Upper East Side from the ferry, with a close up of the Chrysler Building.

We took the ferry to Pier 11, then walked to Battery Park, where we bought our tickets, went through security, and waited in line for the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We decided not to disembark at the statue, since we had a better view of it from the ferry and similar views of Manhattan from the ferry as we would have had from the top of the statue. Here are some views from that Statue Cruises ferry.

Battery Park, so named because an artillery battery there once served to protect the town.

The requisite shots of us on the ferry.

The receding Manhattan skyline and a close-up of One World Trade Center (“Freedom Tower”).

The Statue of Liberty, which was a gift from France marking the centennial of America's independence, and has become a symbol of freedom and welcome to immigrants.

Ellis Island, the main processing center for immigrants from 1892 until 1954.

View from Ellis Island of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, named for the Florentine explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, whose name is misspelled on the bridge. It connects Brooklyn with Staten Island. It was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion in 1964, surpassing the Golden Gate Bridge by 60 feet.

Views from Ellis Island of One World Trade Center and the Wall of Honor outside of the main building which contains a partial list of immigrants processed on the island. I couldn't find my Perera ancestors listed.

The Museum at Ellis Island presents the history of immigration to America, from the 1500s to the present, on the main floor. There is lots of overlap in the exhibits and it does not really give a cohesive sense of chronology, but still I found it interesting, even though I knew most of what it had to teach already. Here are some of the displays showing the main reasons why immigrants came to America.

Upstairs on the second floor is the old enormous processing hall where all the immigrants came through.

There are exhibits on either end and up on the third floor about immigration documentation, the ships people arrived on, the medical and mental examinations they were subject to upon arrival, the Immigrant Aid Societies (one of which was the Italian Welfare League, co-founded by my grandfather's uncle Lionello Perera and his wife Carolyn Allen Perera, who served as its first president from 1920 to 1942), a photography exhibit showing how the main building was left in disrepair after it ceased operations in 1954 and how it was restored. A few of the exhibits were closed, their artifacts removed to storage elsewhere because of damage to the climate control system sustained during Hurricane Sandy.

Some of the ships people came over on:

One of the many archival photos on display:

An interrogation room:

After we got back from Ellis Island, I took a quick peek inside the Museum of Jewish Heritage. It was nothing to write home about, since it is a history that I know pretty well already, though they did have some kinds of artifacts that I had not seen before, such as the trumpet played by Louis Bannet in the orchestra at Auschwitz-Berkenau. He owed his life to that trumpet. There was an Andy Goldsworthy installation of trees growing out of stones on an outdoor terrace.

The highlight of our day was the trip back. We walked all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge and across it. The views were amazing (it was that lovely golden hour of late afternoon as we reached the other side), and the exercise invigorating. The ever-present sight of One World Trade Center looming over the skyline was a constant reminder of the 9-11 tragedy and America’s resolve to move beyond that. It appears to have been designed with an image of a cross in the side of it (perhaps reminiscent of the steel cross found in the rubble of the destroyed buildings). I couldn’t find any website that mentions it as an intentional design element, but it’s clearly visible in one of my photos (the second one down below).

We caught the East River Ferry again on the other side and rode it back to Long Island City, where our hotel is. More amazing views of city at night from the ferry.

Total steps today: 22,884! I think that’s a lifetime record for me. Must have been somewhere around 11-15 miles. I’ve never seen New York that way before, and I must say it gave me a new appreciation for the scale of the city.

Best Memories of New England

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 12:30:00 +0000

     New England has been a feast of color, light and history. From Newport, Rhode Island to the village of Lenox in Berkshire County we have encountered the Fall in all its glory. We have passed through one settlement after another with white churches, central greens and historic architecture both Georgian and Federal in style.
     There have been so many gems that it is hard to recount them all. Perhaps, the greatest highlight was the least expected. As a result of happenstance we found ourselves slightly off our planned route in the oldest part of Hadley on the banks of the Connecticut River. In search of supper we parked in the middle of a green space with long rows of elegant well-spaced trees. We decided to take a walk before eating. One house after another carried a plaque – 1729, 1782, 1799, 1802 etc. We had stumbled across West Street the site of the original Hadley plantation. The following day we took a trip to the oldest open house in the area. Forty-Acres is situated two miles from West Street Hadley. It was built by Moses Porter in 1752. The house is truly remarkable. It contains original family furniture, art and possessions bought an excellent history of the family, entitled Eathbound and Heavenbent, written by Elizabeth Pendergast Carlisle. The book fills the house with people and events using the original diaries of Elizabeth Porter Phelps who lived there form its construction to her death in 1817.
     The small town of Lenox was equally charming as was the Beartown State Park. We drove through the heart of this magnificent forest on our way to the Bidwell parsonage. Stone walls, Schubert and pancakes with maple syrup will remain an enduring memory of New England. The Taconic State Parkway gave us a final fall color feast as we drove down to New York City on Wednesday. I was sad to leave New England but already New York is drawing me in.

Movie Madness

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 02:00:00 +0000

This morning I (Rosie) went to check out the Museum of the Moving Image while Sarah stayed and did some writing. The collection was excellent and the exhibits well done. They have thousands of historic objects, including antique movie cameras, projectors, editing machines; the mask worn by Peter Mayhew when he played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars, Larry Hagman’s hat from his role as J.R. Ewing in the TV show “Dallas”, and an outfit worn by Robin Williams as Mrs. Doubtfire.

For anyone who has very little idea what goes into the making of a movie, this museum would be a great way to learn. It’s got a lot of hands-on exhibits. Even though I’ve been behind the scenes, I still found myself caught up in their displays. I got to play with a working Zoetrope, one of the early precursors of movies. And I got to try my hand at doing some ADR (automatic dialogue replacement), aka dubbing – recording my voice over Dorothy’s in a scene from The Wizard of Oz. That was fun! I also finally learned how they do live “editing” of television, on the fly, as the action occurs. They had a display showing the TV reporting for a baseball game, and how the director calls the instructions to get ready and then switch from camera 1 to 6 to 10, etc., as he’s watching the feeds from all of them simultaneously. It was mind-boggling how much rapid mental processing that must require.

They also had an exhibit called "How Cats Took Over the Internet" which was a purrfect way to end my visit.

In the afternoon we both went to see a matinee of “The Walk” (directed by Robert Zemeckis) at Kaufman Astoria 14, a multiplex theatre right near Kaufman Astoria studios (“the Hollywood of the East Coast”) and the Museum of the Moving Image which I’d seen earlier today. It was exceedingly disappointing. I much preferred “Man on Wire” – the 2008 documentary which tells the same story (of Philippe Petit, the high-wire artist who covertly set up and walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974). I have no idea why they felt the story needed to be retold as a drama. I won’t bore you with my critique, but Sarah and I spent all of dinner picking apart the film’s weaknesses. We had dinner at a nearby Pizzeria Uno’s, the celebrated Chicago Deep Dish pizza place. It was yummy. There was a PaintNite event going on at a group of tables near us, which was interesting to observe. I’d heard about those before but have never participated in one.

Leaving New England; New York bound

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 02:00:00 +0000

Today we drove down to New York via the iconic Taconic State Parkway, my favorite highway in the United States. It is particularly lovely in the fall. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who lived in the area, had long envisioned a scenic road through the eastern Hudson Valley, and was instrumental in making it a reality. Its winding, hilly route was designed by landscape architect Gilmore Clarke to offer scenic vistas of the Hudson Highlands, Catskills and Taconic regions. It was completed in the early 1960s. The entire highway is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of it, as I was driving, but you can see some here.

We stopped along the way at the FDR Home & Presidential Library & Museum in Hyde Park (a National Historic Site) but didn’t have time to see much other than a brief introductory video called “A Rendezvous with History” and some of the exhibits in the lobby. A quote that struck us from FDR when he was dedicating the Library (the first ever presidential library, which started a tradition) on June 30, 1941, was "...the dedication of a library is in itself an act of faith. To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a Nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future." FDR himself designed the clamshell boxes that are used to store documents in the library.

Passing through Brooklyn, we stopped at the beautifully landscaped Woodlawn Cemetery, known for the many prominent people buried there (musicians: Irving Berlin, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Fritz Kreisler; Joseph Pulitzer, for whom the Pulitzer prize is named; “robber baron” Jay Gould; entrepreneurs: J.C. Penney, founder of the eponymous store; R.H. Macy, founder of Macy’s department store; F.W. Woolworth, founder of Woolworth’s five and dime store; Admiral Farragut, who said “Damn the torpedoes; full speed ahead!”; Fiorello LaGuardia, mayor of New York during the Great Depression and WWII, after whom LaGuardia airport, which we're flying home from, was named; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a leader in the early women’s rights movement; author Herman Melville; sculptor Daniel Chester French; and many more).

My quest, though, was to see and photograph the grave of my great great grandfather, Robert Brown Potter (1829-1887), a Civil War General in the Union Army. He served under Brig. Gen. Ambrose Burnside (for whom “sideburns” are named), and had a hefty pair of sideburns himself. He led troops in the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam, during which he was wounded. He lived out the end of his life in Newport, Rhode Island, which we just visited a couple of weeks ago.

Woodlawn Cemetery also has many beautiful classical mausoleums, sculptures, and mosaics, and some interesting artistic memorial stones.

Once we got to New York, we ditched the rental car, as we’re getting around by foot and ferry (and subway, as necessary) in the city for this last week of our trip. We are staying in a hotel in Long Island City (Queens), where we have a view of the Queensboro Bridge.

'Tis the Gift to Be Simple

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Wed, 14 Oct 2015 01:30:00 +0000

Today we went to Hancock Shaker Village, which was once an active Shaker community until 1959. At that time, their numbers had declined so much that they had to sell their property to a local group committed to preserving the Shaker heritage. Their utopian village “continues its life today as a history museum with 20 authentic buildings, a working farm and significant collections of Shaker furniture and artifacts.” We learned about the Shaker spirituality and founding principles: celibacy (the men and women were kept separate and the community only grew by adult conversion or adoption of orphans), communal living (they shared all their material wealth in common), confession of sin, and equality (a principle which extended to all races; “the Shakers welcomed many African Americans into their communities from their eighteenth century beginnings”).

The most striking of all the buildings on the property is the Round Stone Barn (1862), “the only circular barn ever built by the Shakers. Widely recognized as an architectural icon and agricultural wonder, this unique dairy barn originally stabled 52 milk cows. It’s been attracting visitors – most notably Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, who staged a footrace in the structure – since its construction.”

Once again, the colors today have been amazing. The second photo below shows a funky ladder leaning up against a red building. That's part of an installation art exhibit that the Village had on when we visited called "Modern Wings & Shaker Roots." That piece is by Jon Brooks.

O Little Town of Stockbridge...

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 01:00:00 +0000

This morning we explored Stockbridge, first settled by English missionaries in 1734, who established it as a mission for the Mahican Indian tribe known as the Stockbridge Indians. Reverend John Sergeant from New Jersey was the first missionary, succeeded by Jonathan Edwards. Today it is most known for its picturesque Main Street, made famous in a painting by American illustrator Norman Rockwell who lived in the town.

We walked along Main Street and peeked inside the beautiful historic Red Lion Inn. It was established as a stage coach stop in 1773 and rebuilt in 1897 after a fire. It is one of the few remaining American inns in continuous use since the 18th century.

We also poked around in Williams & Sons, a quintessential small-town American country store.

On the other side of the street, we walked along until we found the sundial at 23 Main St., the site of Jonathan Edwards’ home when he lived here. A little further along was the Stockbridge Mission House (closed for the season), where Edwards taught the Stockbridge Indians.

Our next destination was in Monterey, and I decided to get us there by driving through Beartown State Forest, a forest I discovered on the map, which I’d never heard of before, even though I grew up in this county. Wow, was that a good decision! It was the most spectacular drive through lovely trees with vibrant colors. Apart from one car that followed us about halfway in, we were the only ones there. We stopped for a while and went for a short walk in the woods.

Eventually we arrived at the Bidwell House Museum, built around 1750 for Reverend Adonijah Bidwell who was called as the first minister for a settlement in Monterey (named by England after a battle in Mexico, for some odd reason). The settlement ultimately failed, as it had no water source for powering mills. This house survived and has been kept up continuously since then, but all the other buildings of the original settlement are gone. The property includes 192 acres with walking trails and markers where you can still see old cellar holes, the site of the first meeting house, etc.

A number of old stone walls (a very characteristic New England sight), are still extant, marking out property boundaries. Robert Frost's words kept running through my mind: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall..." and "Good fences make good neighbors." (from "Mending Wall")

We had a late lunch at Friendly’s – a favorite Eastern US chain featuring ice cream and burgers and sandwiches. I had what I’d been craving for a couple of days: a Fishamajig®.

Another Sabbath

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 03:00:00 +0000

Today was a camera-free day. My back has been killing me, so I needed to take a break from having the weight on my shoulder. We didn’t go anywhere that I could take pictures anyway.

This morning we attended the church I grew up in, Grace Church Congregational.

In the afternoon, we went to a concert of the Dover String Quartet at South Mountain Concert Hall, a historic performance hall nestled in the trees atop South Mountain. Built in 1918 by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (“the Fairy Godmother of Chamber Music”) on her own property, it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. “The hall was built to resemble a church, featuring a cupola on the roof and a porte cochere. The main timbers for the building were taken from an old textile mill, and the seats were pews taken from a church.” The acoustics are amazing.

The Dover Quartet thrilled us with Mozart’s Quartet in B-flat Major, K. 458 “Hunt”, a piece called “Ainsi la Nuit” by Dutilleux, and (joined by Paul Watkins, cello) Schubert’s Cello Quintet in C Major, Op. 163.

Can't Beat Berkshire Beauty in the Fall

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Sun, 11 Oct 2015 01:00:00 +0000

We’re staying in the Cornell Inn in Lenox, and the breakfasts are amazing. There's comfy sitting area and a sweet little private pub for guests only.

Our inn is right down the road from the picturesque Church on the Hill.

This morning we went to see The Mount, the home that author Edith Wharton designed for herself and her husband Teddy Wharton. They only lived in it for 9 years, largely due to their troubled marriage. It’s very lovely, but seemed somewhat sterile, having next to nothing of Wharton’s own possessions, and appearing more like a museum than a historic home.

The gardens have been restored to their former glory and were beautiful to walk through, as was the woodland trail.

Fall foliage view from my parents' back yard.

This evening we had dinner with my dad at our family’s favorite restaurant, a Vietnamese place in Lee called Pho Saigon.

YP17

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 02:30:00 +0000

Today was mostly a downtime and driving day. I had lunch with my old friend Kelly (David C. Kelly), direct of the Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics (HCSSiM), which I attended as an eager high schooler and went back to teach at after my freshman year in college.

For those of you who know of my love of the number 17, and yellow pigs, Kelly (through HCSSiM) was the source of that. He has recently retired from fulltime teaching, though he still runs the math summer program. In honor of his retirement, Hampshire College changed all the speed limit signs around campus from 15 mph to 17 mph.

It rained all afternoon, and we drove the lovely rural Rte 9 from Amherst to Pittsfield. The autumn colors were gorgeous even in the rain.

Literary museums in Amherst

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 01:30:00 +0000

Sarah out for a walk along the Connecticut River, in Hadley.

Today, in Amherst, we went to see the Emily Dickinson Museum, which included a tour of her family’s homestead and that of her brother who lived next door once he had a family of his own. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) was very reclusive during her adulthood. Most of her poetry was never published in her lifetime, and the breadth of her writing was completely unknown (she left over 1800 poems, mostly hidden in the drawers of her dresser). But thanks to the work of some diligent family members, friends, and scholars, she is now almost universally considered to be one of the most significant of all American poets.

After that we drove to the Yiddish Book Center which is dedicated to preserving the Yiddish language and culture. The story of its founding is fascinating. Aaron Lansky, then a twenty-four-year-old graduate student of Yiddish literature, found that it was hard to get hold of Yiddish books to read an study. He “realized that untold numbers of irreplaceable Yiddish books—the primary, tangible legacy of 1,000 years of Jewish life in Eastern Europe—were being discarded by American-born Jews unable to read the language of their Yiddish-speaking parents and grandparents. He organized a nationwide network of zamlers (volunteer book collectors) and launched a concerted campaign to save the world’s remaining Yiddish books before it was too late. The YBC is more than just a library of old books; it is also a museum and education center. Thanks to funding from Steven Spielberg, they have been able to digitize tens of thousands of books, making the body of Yiddish literature, which was on the brink of extinction, “the first fully accessible literature in history.”

The quintessential Yiddish author: Sholem Aleichem. We read Tevye's Daughters as a family when I was a kid.

The Yiddish Book Center's building is designed in the style of an East European shtetl (Jewish town).

Had to see more of Hadley

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 02:18:00 +0000

Today we continued our serendipity. After seeing the old houses on West Street Common yesterday, we were curious whether there were any older, so I googled the oldest house in Hadley and found out that it was built in 1752 and is open to the public as the Porter-Phelps-Huntington House Museum. So we started off our day with a visit there. It had been the home of a fairly well-to-do (for that time and place) family who lived in it for six generations and had hundreds of acres of farmland. The third generation included Frederic Dan Huntington who would go on to become the first bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York. I discovered that one of his consecrators was my ancestor (my maternal grandmother’s great uncle), Horatio Potter, then Bishop of the Diocese of New York. It’s neat finding all these unexpected connections with family history!

We had lunch at Hillside Pizza which had really delicious GF three-cheese crust pizza (ingredients list for my own memory -- I’m going to try this at home sometime: tapioca flour, milk, eggs, canola oil, mozzarella cheese, cheddar cheese, parmesan cheese), uses all local ingredients (including locally made take-out boxes), and also operates as a fundraising company for community projects. I liked its philosophy.

After lunch we went for a walk along the Norwottuck Rail Trail (named after the Native American settlement occupying what is now Northampton), an 11-mile path linking Northampton, Hadley, and Amherst along the former Boston & Main Railroad right-of-way. We walked the section that crossed the old rail bridge over the Connecticut River. The views were magnificent.

From there we walked around Northampton (where Jonathan Edwards was at the center of the Great Awakening) in the waning daylight and saw:

First Church (1877) – the current edifice is the fifth meeting house to occupy the site. The church has had a long roster of distinguished ministers, including Solomon Stoddard (1669-1729) and his grandson Jonathan Edwards (1727-1750), who were its second and third ministers, respectively. Nothing is left of the third meeting house (1737-1812), where Edwards preached, except a semi-circular stone step.

Forbes Library (1894) – designed by architect William C. Brocklesby of Hartford, CT, in a style known as Richardsonian Romanesque, after the work of Henry Hobson Richardson – a style characterized by the use of contrasting light and dark color stones (granite and sandstone), massive rounded arches resting on short, squat columns and complex roof systems. It is in the Register of Historic Buildings. It is named after Judge Charles E. Forbes, who wished to build a public library for the citizens of Northampton, and left money for it. I have not been able to trace any connection between him and my Forbes ancestors.

The Manse (1737) – The original structure on this site was built by Rev. Solomon Stoddard (Jonathan Edwards’ grandfather) in 1684. It was where Edwards stayed when he first came to Northampton. Stoddard’s son, Colonel John Stoddard, inherited the house from his father and built the structure that remains today, which is in the National Register of Historic Places.

A Yankee in Connecticut

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 02:15:00 +0000

We left Providence this morning and drove through Connecticut, stopping in Hartford to see the Mark Twain House and adjacent museum. Once again, I wasn’t allowed to take photos inside the house, but it was interesting hearing how Twain’s 17 years in that house were the happiest and most productive of his life. Twain’s later years were sad. He outlived all of his family except one of his daughters, Clara. Fortunately Clara lived into her 90s, long enough to be able to help as a consultant for the house restoration project; she was able even in her old age to remember with clarity where every piece of furniture and painting was in the house. The museum was also very well done and had a very nice exhibit of paintings (I’m guessing by modern local artists) along the wall going up the long gradual staircase. Some of them depicted very New England-y scenes. It also included some famous Mark Twain quotes engraved in the walls. Mark Twain is so eminently quotable that often when a witty aphorism's attribution isn't known, it is assumed to have been his.

This day has been the longest drive we’ve had thus far, and the foliage is really getting amazing. The reds and oranges are still patchy amidst the green, so I expect more to come, but today has been sunny and glorious, and the views of the trees spectacular.

We continued on from Hartford along rural roads, directing the Google Maps lady to help us avoid highways. We stopped for a few brief photo ops along the way. First was the home where Jonathan Edwards was born (1703), in South Windsor, CT.

Next was Anderson House (1702) in Enfield, a beautifully restored Colonial house. George Washington might have once slept in this house. Directly to the right of that was a stone marking the site of the church in Enfield where Jonathan Edwards preached his famous “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” sermon on July 8, 1741.

Next we passed Enfield’s Old Town Hall (1775, Greek Revival), and Enfield Congregational Church (1849, Greek Revival).

In the evening we had the most amazing serendipitous discovery. We were dining in Hadley at Alina’s Italian restaurant (turned out to be delicious – I highly recommend it), and as we parked the car we noticed a tree-lined double-wide street with very old houses along it. We decided to walk its length and back. Many of the houses were marked with dates in the 18th century. We knew we had stumbled on something special. I had not known anything of Hadley other than the strip of Rte 9 with malls and movie theatres, and some farmland on a parallel road. But a quick Google search revealed that this was West Street Common, the original center of town and the longest public green in Massachusetts. Hadley was settled in 1659 and became a town in 1661.

Newport: An Old Port

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 02:19:00 +0000

Today we took a day trip to Newport, Rhode Island, to see two very different things it is known for: the mansions of the Gilded Age and the old colonial part of town. Newport contains among the highest number of surviving colonial buildings of any city in the country. It is also known as the sailing capital of the United States and was the venue for the America’s Cup yacht races from 1930 to 1983 (all won by the New York Yacht Club). We got glimpses of all the sailboats in the harbor, and could see why it would be a desirable place to be out on the water.

Many of the mansions are now open to the public as museums. We drove along Bellevue Avenue where the largest concentration of them lies and went inside two of them.

Our first stop was The Elms, which had been the summer home of coal baron Edward Julius Berwind and his wife, of Philadelphia and New York. The mansion, completed in 1901 at a cost of approximately $1.4 million, was modeled after a mid-18th century French chateau. The gardens are elaborate Classical Revival style. We took the audio tour and heard about all the entertaining they did, how the bustling activities of the servants and deliveries were kept hidden to make it seem as though the house ran itself, and how The Elms was rescued from threatened demolition in the 1960s (when such lavish houses and lifestyles were out of vogue) and restored to its present state. Unfortunately no photography is allowed inside the mansions, so you’ll have to use your imagination (or look elsewhere online).

Next we toured The Breakers, the grandest and most famous of all the Newport Mansions, which makes The Elms look positively modest in comparison. Commissioned in 1893 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, chairman of the New York Central Railroad system, and designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, The Breakers is “a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America.”

You can see why it’s called The Breakers, because it is right adjacent to the cliffs where breakers roll in. After seeing the house, we took a stroll along the Cliff Walk and enjoyed the sounds of the crashing waves. I took a little video footage of it. You need to click twice to get it to play:

After lunch at the Gas Lamp Grille, we went for a long walk around the old section of town. It was amazing to see one ancient house or public building after another, all lovingly preserved and lived in or used. The main points on our tour were:

Newport Colony House (1739) – fourth oldest statehouse still standing in the US; it served as the statehouse of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the official name of the state of Rhode Island) until the new one was built in Providence in 1901.

White Horse Tavern (1673) – America’s oldest tavern, and the seventh oldest in the world. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Benedict Arnold ate here. We weren’t dressed up enough to be able to eat there, but a kind waiter let us come inside anyway (it was between mealtimes) and gave us a tour.

Great Friends Meeting House (1699) – the oldest surviving house of worship in Rhode Island and the fourth oldest surviving Quaker meeting house in the nation.

Touro Synagogue (1763) - America’s oldest synagogue. There had been a Jewish community in Newport since the mid 17th century, but this was their first permanent worship place. In 1790, George Washington wrote a letter to the Jews of Newport, reassuring “those who had fled religious tyranny that life in their new nation would be different, that religious ‘toleration’ would give way to religious liberty, and that the government would not interfere with individuals in matters of conscience and belief.” His letter has come down to us as a key policy statement in support of First Amendment rights.

Redwood Library and Athenaeum (1750; chartered in 1747) – oldest surviving lending library in America. The original collection contained 751 titles and was meticulously catalogued. During the Revolutionary War the library was taken over for use as a British Officers' club, and more than half the volumes vanished from its shelves. In 1806 the library began advertising for the return of the books, and in 1947 a concentrated effort was launched to replace what was irrecoverable with equivalent editions. Amazingly, today the library has recovered or replaced 90% of the volumes that were lost. We got to walk through the oldest section of the library where these old books are housed, but couldn’t take photos inside the building. There is a magnificent collection of portraits hanging on the walls in the library, including one of the copies of a famous standing pose of George Washington, and several by famous Rhode Island painter Gilbert Stuart.

Newport Tower (mid 17th-century) – the remains of an old windmill. There are interesting theories as to its origin, including some who think it is actually several centuries older and would thus represent evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact. But carbon dating of the tower’s mortar puts it at between 1635 and 1698. It was most likely built by Benedict Arnold, the first colonial governor of Rhode Island (not to be confused with his famous great-grandson of the same name).

Trinity Episcopal Church (1726) – The congregation that meets here dates to 1698. “A striking feature in Trinity Church is the wine-glass or chalice-shaped pulpit. It indicates the importance of preaching during the colonial period, and the sermon at Sunday services is still given from it today. Most colonial churches had central pulpits, but many later moved them to the side. This is the only center-aisle, freestanding, triple-decked pulpit left in America today.”

We were treated to a spectacular sunset on the way back as we drove across the Newport Bridge over Narragansett Bay. Back in Providence, we had dinner at an Irish pub near our B&B, which has quickly become our local haunt.

Waldo and the fake antiques

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 02:00:00 +0000

     I am still stuck in Concord, Mass., even though we have made it to Rhode Island. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s house troubled me – a lot. I have never seen such an impeccable collection of fake antiques.
     I knelt on the floor examining cabinets, the undersides of chairs, hinges and knobs with considerable fascination. Short of taking the books off the shelves to check the dates of editions, I could not confirm my suspicion that a sizeable proportion of the books were twentieth-century editions. The thing is I have always associated Emerson with ‘real’, ‘natural’, ‘philosophical purity’. I know the works of E.M. Forster really well. Forster idealizes Emerson for his spontaneity and freedom of spirit. I also associate Emerson with Thoreau and the movement to recover connectedness to the land and the environment in a time of rapid industrial change. Why would a man like that fill his home with fake mass-produced objects?
     They were, admittedly, well-chosen fakes. The furniture aped the styles of the mid- to late-nineteenth century, but most of them (I think) were dated from the Edwardian period or the 1940s with the thick, treacle lacquer that is used to hide cheaper woods. The likely explanation is the family, who still own and run the Emerson House. They must have cleared the place and re-filled it for public consumption. The well-placed Emerson walking sticks and his country walking hat felt like sad sops to authenticity, although it would probably take a seasoned eye to notice. The house itself – the plaster, mortar and ceiling molding, looked painfully original and free of later interference.
     When the guide pointedly showed Rosie and me to the door, it was clearly time to leave. We had strayed off the beaten track of questions. We were not the only ones however. A Japanese Professor of American Literature at the University of Tokyo was also part of the tour. On more than one occasion my eyes met his in a look reserved for scrupulous boffins. I would have liked to have lunch with him and discuss the place in considerable detail but he eluded us in Concord.
     I left town troubled.
     The Slater Mill was fresh air. The machinary has been preserved with care-filled love. Our guides (especially the historian from Peru) were marvelous. They actually seemed to enjoy my questions about Factory Acts, collective bargaining and Richard Arkwright’s patents.
     I finished Howard Zinn before we left Boston. Mark Noll’s Christians in the American Revolution is a welcome change. Zinn managed to mention the Church, faith, Christianity and Religion less than ten times in a 500-page book on the history of America. This is, of course, a remarkable feat of historiography but it is good to hear about Calvinism, the Puritans and religious identity in Noll.
     I also finished Henry James’ The Bostonians. I didn’t like it, nor would I recommend it. I have read The Children Act by Ian McEwan since then and I am now embarked on The Hotel New Hampshire for further local style. It is a strong reading diet and combined with the many new places I have seen it is more than occupying my mind.
     I include a picture here for my family. I grew up in a Queen Anne house (and lived in a second one outside Oxford with Paul and the girls) – this is what an ordinary Newport house looked like in exactly the same time period! Rather different isn’t it?

Newport completely wowed me. I have never been anywhere with such sustained historic architecture from the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. It was simply magnificent. Even the decadent mansions of the Gilded Age had a truthfulness about them that once again enchanted

A Day of Rest (Sabbath) for our Minds; and A Brilliant Mind

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 03:30:00 +0000

Today we needed some downtime, so we rested for much of the day. I hung out reading in the Rockefeller Library on the Brown campus (nicknamed “The Rock”; yet another rock in our pilgrimage – a theme emerging?). Then we went for a walk around the Brown University campus and surrounding College Hill neighborhood.

Photos: First Baptist Church in America (founded by Roger Williams in 1638); Van Wickle Gates (main entrance to Brown; opened twice a year: once inward at Convocation when the new freshman process through them, and once outward at Commencement when the graduating seniors process through them)

Photos: The Sciences Library ("SciLi"); Students playing Frisbee on the Green

Photos: Sayles Hall (1881) has the largest surviving (3000 pipes) Hutchings-Votey organ in the world (installed 1903). The John Carter Brown Library (1904) holds a world-class collection of rare books and maps relating to the European discovery, exploration, settlement, and development of North and South America.

Photos: University Hall (1778), the oldest building on campus, houses the administrative offices. It was appropriated as a barracks for American troops during the Revolutionary War. Manning Hall (1835), which originally housed the library and chapel, was inspired by the temple of Diana-Propylea in Eleusis -- twice the size of the original.

Photos: Carrie Tower (1904), a memorial to the granddaughter of Nicholas Brown ("Steering freshmen to the corner of Waterman and Prospect for a date with Miss Carrie Tower used to be a favorite sport for upperclassmen"); Robinson Hall (1878), formerly a library, the nation's third "panoptic library" -- where the librarian could see all the books from his 360-degree view of the stacks

Photos: The inside of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, a very high church which was getting ready for a Solemn Evensong for the Feast of Michael All Angels. Me standing in front of my old freshman dorm, Archibald House, in West Quad (now called Keeney Quad).

Photos: Two classic College Hill houses.

Photos: Me standing in front of Fulton Rehearsal Hall, where the Band (which I was a member of) still practices. Henry Pearce House (1898), Romanesque architecture similar to Henry Hobson Richardson's style, houses the Applied Mathematics department.

Photo: Me standing in front of the old computer center where I used to spend hours (all night sometimes) at the terminals in the basement working on my programming projects.

In the evening we went for dinner to Andréas, a Greek restaurant on Thayer Street, the little business street that runs through campus – one of the few establishments still there from when I was a student. After that, and some ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s, we took in a film at the Avon Cinema, a classic Art Deco movie theatre opened in 1938. We saw A Brilliant Young Mind. Wonderful film about a socially awkward teenage math prodigy who finds new confidence and new friendships when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad. Brought back memories of my days at math camp.

We've Been Through the Mill; and More Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 01:06:00 +0000

This morning we left the Boston area and drove to Providence, stopping en route in Pawtucket to see the historic Slater Mill, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in America. It was really fascinating, and the tour guides were excellent. One of them, named Andrés, was from Peru; not someone you’d normally expect to be leading tours in America, but he was really sharp and clearly loved his job. He could tell that Sarah was a historian from the types of questions she was asking and said his mum was one too. The other guide also enjoyed our questions and wished he could have spent more time with us.

Before taking us into the mill, Andrés showed us the Sylvanus Brown House, which depicts the lifestyle of a typical pre-industrial family in Rhode Island.

Samuel Slater had come over from England as a young man, after apprenticing in textile machinery there. It was against the law to export the designs for the machines, so Slater memorized them and thus smuggled the technology into America, where he felt he had a better chance of making his fortune. Thus the “Father of the American Industrial Revolution” (a title coined by President Andrew Jackson), to whom America owes much of her wealth today, was an illegal immigrant! Take that, Donald Trump! In England he was known as “Slater the Traitor.”

With funding from the wealthy businessman Moses Brown (one of the co-founders of the college that would later be renamed Brown University after his nephew John Nicholas Brown), in 1793 Slater built his mill, powered by water from the adjacent Blackstone River. The dam he built across it was at the time the largest dam in America. He partnered with mechanical engineer David Wilkinson who had invented a lathe for cutting screw threads, an extremely important development in the machine tool industry. The Wilkinson Mill churned out screws for buyers all over the world, standardizing what had previously been individual products created by hand one at a time. When anyone could buy a screw that was interchangeable with any other one of the same size, it made possible mass production of all kinds of products.

Slater also started the first Sunday School in America. He provided education on Sunday afternoons to the children (ages 7-12) who worked in his mill, This was before the days of child labor laws, and even before industrial safety laws. Slater didn't tolerate laziness on the job, so if you had a workplace injury or other illness, you still had better come to work (using crutches if necessary). Slater's reputation around the country was such that if you had worked for him, you could get a job anywhere else, unless you had been dismissed from his service, which would be a black mark against you for hundreds of miles.

There were all kinds of fascinating machines that our guides demonstrated to us – many still in working condition. One of them was a mechanized loom that was controlled by cards with pegs in them – an early precursor of computer programming, similar to the Jacquard loom.

We had lunch (including more New England clam chowder) at Hemenway’s, a classy seafood restaurant near the Brown campus that has been there since I was a student, and then checked in to the Old Court B&B, our home for the next three days.

This evening we went for a walk down the hill to enjoy WaterFire, a special event that the city puts on several Saturday nights in the summer along the Providence River. In the center of the river they place burning cauldrons that are lit by men in gondolas poling their way up and down the river, and stoked with wood by boats. There is music piped in to speakers along the river, and people meander up and down the river, listening, watching fire-juggling acts, taking in the smell of the burning wood, and poking around at the tents with food and various artisans’ crafts.

We also came upon a very lovely and moving Holocaust memorial. It was a short pathway lined by candle-lit lanterns, with an image of railroad tracks in colored bricks. At the beginning of the path was a receptacle of clear glass pebbles which you could pick up one or several of (e.g., for the memory of any ancestors who had died in the camps), and carry it along the path to place on top of a smooth stone at the end. I placed three for the memory of Olga Perera Pincherle (my grandfather’s cousin) and two of her children, Emilietta and Samy.

Minds and Arms on Fire

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Sat, 03 Oct 2015 04:12:00 +0000

Today we were tired and needed to get some laundry done, so we only spent a short time in Concord, mostly just viewing the Ralph Waldo Emerson House (a National Historic Landmark) and having lunch in the charming town (met up with my sister Jane and cousin Ro Pinto at the favorite local hang-out, Main Streets Market & Cafe; no idea why they pluralize "Streets" in their name; must be more to it than just a missing apostrophe). The Emerson house was interesting, but I was disappointed that they didn’t say anything about his Transcendentalism. The guide told us afterwards, when we asked, that the Emerson family (who still own the house) have asked them not to discuss his Transcendentalism because there are so many interpretations of it. Sounded odd to us. We have more exploration to do on our own. At least they did recommend to us a biography of Emerson by Richardson (Emerson: The Mind on Fire), which discusses his philosophical development, so perhaps we can read that and slake our curiosity. Our minds are on fire!

I also popped my head inside the Colonial Inn, an establishment that has been around since 1716, well before the Revolutionary War broke out nearby on April 19, 1775 (we didn’t get around to visiting the site of that, near Old North Bridge). It’s about to celebrate its tercentenary next year. The hotel is proud of its history and has a free sheet about it at the front desk. "In the days leading up to the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the middle portion of the Inn…served as an arms and provisions storehouse for the local patriots. When the British soldiers arrived to seize and destroy all their supplies, the Minutemen were gathered at the North Bridge (just a half mile from the Inn). They were alerted [to] the British presence by the rising smoke and came to defend both their town and supplies." After the battle, the local doctor used rooms in the Inn, which he lived and worked in, as a hospital and operating room to care for the wounded Minutemen, and a morgue for the ones who didn't make it. "Today, the Colonial Inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a proud member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Hotels of America."

Witch Way to Newburyport?

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 03:20:00 +0000

Today’s itinerary included Salem, site of the famous witch trials of 1692, and Newburyport, the last town where the famous itinerant evangelist George Whitefield preached and where he died and is buried. We had planned on a few hours in Salem, but ended up quite disillusioned after a very short time. The history is sad – it was a period of mass hysteria where people denounced other townspeople as witches in order to get off being hanged as witches themselves. If one confessed to being a witch and named someone else who had led them astray, then one would be exonerated and the other would be pulled in for questioning. In the end 20 people were killed (19 hanged, one died in prison), probably most of them innocent of any witchcraft. Since then the whole town has turned into a massive commercialized exploitation of the idea of witchery, in all its variations. It really made us kind of ill. I suppose it was worse being there in October, in the lead-up to Halloween, than it would be any other time of year. But we were ready to move on after we’d seen just a sampling.

However, we didn’t leave town before stopping in for a quick visit to the Peabody Essex Museum, a really fine museum which houses (among other things) collections of porcelain from the China trade, which my great-great grandfather Francis Blackwell Forbes was involved in. I didn’t see any mention of his name, but I did see a piece of china that had been donated by a Dr. and Mrs. H. A. [Henry Ashton] Crosby Forbes, founder of the China Trade Museum (which merged with the Peabody Essex), a distant cousin. I also saw one lent by Mrs. Frederick Winthrop, another cousin.

The big treat for me was seeing that the PEM had an exhibit of Theo Jansen’s fabulous “Strandbeests” – wind-propelled animal-like walking machines that he designed to perambulate along the beach (“strand” in Dutch). I had seen one on a viral YouTube video before, and was fascinated by the concept. The video they had showing in the museum was amusing, because Jansen had to drag the machine back in the other direction after the wind helped it walk along one way. These “beests” don’t walk in reverse!

We left Salem and drove north to Rowley, where we stopped to see Pulpit Rock, an outcropping of rock in the woods from which George Whitefield had preached to some 2000 listeners (evidently the trees had grown up since his time; it probably would have been an open field back then). We tried out the acoustics and could see why Pulpit Rock was such a great place to preach from. I spied a toad listening to our impromptu sermon.

We continued on from there to Newburyport, a lovely seaside town where Whitefield spent his last days. He preached at Old South Church there, died in the parsonage, and is buried in the crypt under the pulpit. The church was closed, and anyway it wasn’t the original building he preached in. But we did see the house next door that was the birthplace (in 1805) of William Lloyd Garrison, the prominent abolitionist and social reformer.

As we meandered around town looking for a place to eat, we met a friendly man (named Mark, it turned out) who was doing some work outside a house. We asked him for a recommendation. He told us about a really good casual place called Angie’s (where we ended up eating) and also raved about Cider Hill Farm a few miles away, from which he’d just gotten some fresh-made cinnamon donuts the day before. He said in fact he still had some of them left, and would we like to try them. I said “Sure!” and he went to get the bag. They were the most delicious cinnamon donuts I’ve ever tasted. I’m just finishing off the last one now.

Another Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 03:11:00 +0000

Today we made an epic voyage down an obscure track through the woods to find Pulpit Rock. It was definitely worth the trek. A humble brown sign marked the entrance to the woods. If Rosie had not programmed the coordinates into her GPS, as any good Geek would do, there is no way we would have found the place.

Being Boffin and Geek when we arrived at the Rock, one of us spoke from the rock while the other carefully tested the acoustics in the surrounding area. The basin under the rock forms a remarkable natural amphitheatre. From the top the sound carries with clarity and ease in a wide semi-circle.

All my life I have labored under the belief that George Whitefield trained his voice from infancy to achieve the remarkable feat of speaking to a crowd of 2,000 without a microphone. Whilst conducting fierce elocution lessons in our living room my Grandmother told me if George Whitefield could do it – so could I. She told me he had learnt to speak with pebbles in his mouth in order to strengthen his vocal cords. I tried it once – just once.

But today I saw for myself that the physical terrain provided all the amplification that a person could want. I felt slightly cheated by my grandmother. The worst of it was when I stood on Pulpit Rock faced with a true opportunity for authentic re-enactment I couldn’t think of anything to say. I stood there tongue-tied and anxious, imagining Whitefield in his white wig and black attire with his hand in the air full of eloquence. I felt a great deal more comfortable standing under the rock and imagining myself listening!

From Pulpit Rock (there is definitely a rock theme on this trip) we headed to Newburyport. There we saw the church where Whitefield is buried. He died in the parsonage next door at the age of 55. The Church is as unassuming as Pulpit Rock. Having inhabited the Wesley Room as my office during my days at Lincoln College and having spent many hours imagining the Oxford of Wesley and Whitefield’s day, I couldn’t help thinking about the faith it must have taken to voyage to such a distant place and preach with confidence and boldness. An obscure wood is a far cry from the linen-fold paneling of 18th century Oxford. Whitefield did not know what America would become but he played his part in forming the nation.

I was inspired and awed today. Whitefield headed off the beaten track and we followed him. Perhaps obscurity is a necessary part of pilgrimage?

Baptised in Boston

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 04:00:00 +0000

Baptized in Boston

In my mind I now live in a small house off Warren Street in Charlestown. It has a wood paneled entryway, a gas lamp on the wide pavement outside the front door and a first floor drawing room with a bow shaped window. If the house were in England I would call it Georgian but that seems an inappropriate label for a dwelling so close to Bunker Hill.

If I ever disappear this is where you will find me – on the other side of England. I lost my heart to Boston in the pouring rain with Henry James safe in a polythene bag. I ate my favorite food in the Warren Tavern and felt the compelling need for revolution. I met three Bostonians. They all said the same thing: “I like your accent.” Surely, that’s as good a place to start as any - if a tad ironic.

Following in the Footsteps of Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (Rosie Perera) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 03:30:00 +0000

[Apologies that the “Add a comment” feature isn’t working. I’m trying to figure out how to fix that so you can participate in the blog. Also apologies that there are fewer pictures today. It was raining so hard most of the time, and I didn't want to ruin my camera.]

In the afternoon it was still raining, so we took off in the car to Fairsted, the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. Olmsted was the father of American landscape architecture. He designed the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Central Park in New York, and many other famous parks and gardens. Unfortunately it wasn’t open. But we were able to see the outside of his house and had a little walk around the landscaped yard, picked up an informative brochure, read it in the car, and had a good talk about the people and movements Olmsted must have been influenced by. Sarah has an uncanny knack for being able to guess such connections, and she’s usually right.

We continued on towards Boston Common and decided to brave it and walk the Freedom Trail, despite the horrendous downpour. We parked the car in the garage under the Common. As we emerged, a friendly Bostonian walked past us and said (with a grinning nod to the weather his “fair city” was blessing us with), “Welcome to Boston!” We took refuge for a brief while under the dome of the Bandstand in the middle of the Common, along with a motley crew of other drenched pedestrians. A convivial gathering of mutual understanding, even though we didn’t exchange actual words.

Founded in 1634, Boston Common is the oldest city park in the United States. Over the years it has been used for grazing “cattell” (as the sign with old spellings has it), as a “trayning field” (for British soldiers during their occupation of Boston), for public hangings (one of the most famous was Mary Dyer, one of the “Boston martyrs” – four Quakers who were put to death for their beliefs), and for public demonstrations (the largest one in Boston’s history being the Vietnam War protests in 1969 which drew 100,000 participants).

Stepping out along the red-brick-marked Freedom Trail, we saw the Massachusetts State House with its beautiful gold dome, designed by famous Bostonian architect (the first native-born American of the profession) Charles Bulfinch. Completed in 1798, it is a masterpiece of the Federal style.

Next we passed Park Street Church (1809), a historic evangelical (Conservative Congregational) church that has been associated with a number of famous pastors, evangelists, abolitionists, and musicians. On July 4, 1829, William Lloyd Garrison delivered his first major public statement against slavery here. The song “My Country, 'Tis of Thee” (aka “America”) was first sung at this church, on July 4, 1831. (You get the impression that July 4 is a significant day around here….)

Next door is the Granary Burying Ground where many famous Boston fathers (and mothers) are buried, including Samuel Adams (one of the leaders of the American Revolution), John Hancock (most prominent signer of the Declaration of Independence), Paul Revere (famous for his midnight ride to warn that the British were coming), Samuel Sewall (Salem witch trials judge, the only one who ever publicly repented of what he’d done), Phillis Wheatley (first African-American poet), Crispus Attucks (African-American victim of the Boston Massacre), and Mary Goose, whom legend has it was the original Mother Goose, though that has been debunked.

After that we passed Tremont Temple Baptist Church, the first racially integrated church in America, founded in 1838 as a “free” church. That is, unlike other churches of the day, there was no rent charged for pews – thus it was open to all, no matter what their means.

Next we took a look inside King’s Chapel, with its striking box pews. Many famous people have attended there, including George Washington, Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Louisa May Alcott (author of Little Women), and Oliver Wendell Holmes (a Supreme Court Justice).

We continued down School Street to the Old City Hall and the original site of Boston Latin School, the first public school in America, founded in 1635 by Benjamin Franklin (whose statue is out front). Nearby is a fun statue of a donkey with elephant-embossed footprints in front of it where you can “stand in opposition” – commemorating the animal emblems for the major American political parties.

At the end of that block is the site of Old Corner Bookstore (formerly the home of Anne Hutchinson), which was a meeting-place for authors including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. On the opposite corner is the Boston Irish Famine Memorial, commemorating the Irish immigrants who arrived in flight from the Great (Potato) Famine of 1845.

Across the street we went into Old South Meeting House, where the Boston Tea Party was orchestrated in 1773. It was originally a Puritan Meeting House, though it no longer has a congregation meeting in it. It is now a museum showcasing dissent and freedom of speech.

Next we went to the Old State House (unfortunately they didn’t let us in because it was almost closing time) which is adjacent to the site of the Boston Massacre.

Next stop was Faneuil Hall (a public marketplace and meeting house since 1743, and the site of several important speeches encouraging independence from Britain) and the adjacent Quincy Market, built in the 1820s as part of the same marketplace complex.

We walked past Paul Revere’s House (1680) en route to Old North Church, famous site of the hanging lanterns immortalized in Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” (“one if by land, two if by sea”). There were people in line to get inside for a fashion show featuring people in colonial costumes. We opted to take a pass, as we were getting hungry. So we hoofed it, past Copp’s Hill Burying Ground (second oldest cemetery in Boston, final resting place of many notable Bostonians, including several Mathers – Increase, his brother Samuel, and his son Cotton), over the Charles River, to Warren Tavern in Charlestown. Founded in 1780, it is “one of the most historic watering holes in America.” It was frequented by the likes of Paul Revere, George Washington, and Benjamin Franklin. We had a delicious meal of homemade meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans – a welcome antidote to the chill that had begun to set in after all that walking in the rain.

After dinner, we took a walk around Charlestown – along Warren Street and up Monument Ave to the Bunker Hill Monument. We were smitten by the loveliness of the architecture and the feel of the neighborhood. We could both imagine living there. Sarah would have moved right in, so I almost had to drag her along to the T (Boston's subway).