More From the Southern Bershires

Saturday was jam packed with museum visits.  Most historic homes and sites do not open until 10am and close at either 4 or 5pm, so you need clear direction and purpose to get the most out of the day.  The reviews of the Briarcliff Motel are all true regarding the wonderful service, comfortable beds, and delicious breakfast.  Homemade scones, gingerbread, and granola, along with fruit, organic yogurt and fresh coffee from a local roaster greeted you each morning in the reception/breakfast area.  After sampling it all, and filling up my coffee mug for the road, I started with the Frelinghuysen House and Studio, home to artists George and Susie Frelinghuysen from 1940 until the 1980s. 

The earliest part of the original home (the left hand side with the window facade and triangular tipped roof) was an artist studio modeled after a building in France, which George discovered on one of his visits in the early 1920s.  The studio was built in 1925, with the rest of the house added in 1940, when he married.  Modernist architecture also greatly influenced the new addition.  Because the museum's season just opened on Thursday of this past week, attendance was slow, to my great delight.  On my tour, it started with just ME, along with two other guides, and the director, Kenny Frelinghuysen, the nephew of George and Susie.  Soon into the tour, three other guests joined in.  The main guide for my tour, Anna, offered excellent insight into modern art, the connection of art to architecture, and the use of line and shape in art. 

The house is full of suprises, first that is it is SO modern for the time....the living room, for example, still with original furnishings from 1940, could easily be lived in today.  Large dramatic windows opened onto the landscaped lawn. 

Each room took full advantage of distinct views.  In the dining room and living room, I noticed small pinholes, which I was told were lights.  They are not fixtures, but literally look like a whole in the wall...and placed at odd spaces high on the wall.  One guide mentioned that in the living room these were meant to direct light to the two large frescos that George had painted on the wall surrounding the fireplace (you can see one of these on the left of the fireplace in photo to right).  In the dining room they were also placed to create some light effect, and that this was the only light in the dining room save candles and two backlight wall features/sculptures.  The use of light immediately took me back to my visit to the Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts, in 2010.  One of the most outstanding features to me there was a description of how Gropious installed a pinhole light over the dining room table.  When he hosted dinner parties for four or six, the pinhold opening above the table was just large enough that when light projected, it covered the table to its edges, but no more.  Talk about dining drama!   I also think about how intensely design oriented this couple was, thinking imaginatively about how to use light to shape art/nature/life.  I also can not help but to compare that with the many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people across the nation, who in the late 1930s were still not electrified (especially more rural pockets of the deep South).  If I still find the home amazing and "modern" in 2013, what would someone in 1940 have thought?  It blows me away. 

The entrance to the home is both everyday and quite dramatic.  The front door is a standard size, but you step into to a marbled wide foyer or galley that includes floor to ceiling windows and glassed-paneled doors that open to the backyard landscape.  A novel feature for their day, but more mundane to us, was the use of flourescent lighting overhead.  Most outstanding in the entrance hall was the stairway leading up to the second floor.

Originally this stairway and landing included NO bannister or guardrail at the top.  Only after the couple noticed hat people put their hands on the wall when descending (and the hand touched the fresco/mural) did they install the handrail.

If ever in Lenox, please visit this place, it is fascinating beyond belief.  The guides know a lot about the property and you will come away with a greater appreciation for art, design, and landscape.

Next I ventured over to Chesterwood, the home of Daniel Chester French, most notable for creating the sculpture design for the Lincoln Memorial.  French actually created many well-known sculptures, for private citizens, for memorials, including the famous Patriot statue in Concord, Massachusetts, and a well-known statue in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.  Again, like most places around here, the landscape and the views were all incredible.
I can see why people fled New York City and Boston to come here for a long summer season.  The day I visited also opened their annual comtemporary art show, so more modern pieces of art/scupture were placed around the property for viewing.

My final stop for the day was the Norman Rockwell museum.  The is probably one of the most visited sites in the area and always appealing.  When Rockwell arrived in western Massachusetts he originally painted in the town of Stockbridge, but when this museum was built outside of town, they also acquired his studio and moved it to its current location.  One other side note.  I ate lunch at this museum and they had sandwiches catered from the Red Lion Inn in downtown Stockbridge.  The turkey cranberry mayo sandwich was great, and a good value.  It is worth considering this museum for a quick lunch!

Up the Hudson River Valley to Western Massachusetts

I have not posted in a while, but since I am on a vacation break, I thought it might be nice to write down a few observations while traveling.

I was a long drive yesterday from Jacksonville, through D.C. through Gettysburg, P. A. to the far outskirts of suburban NYC.  Two interesting notes from yesterday...the drive from Maryland up through Gettysburg was amazingly beautiful, with a nice sunset and great views off the highway.  Once dusk hit, there was a bonanza of fireflies, which looked almost like fireworks going off there were so many.  One oddity...July 1-3 is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.  While driving the outskirts here today I noticed that the outlet mall had a huge Abraham Lincoln with a big "150th" beneath it....all in lights.  A bit odd.

Today's activities amazed me.  I visited Franklin D. Roosevelt's homeplace in Hyde Park, New York.    The tour is great.  The home was actually owned by his mother, who, depending upon what you read, was a shrew, a mean controlling thing....or someone who was out to see that her son was well cared for.  Either way, I learned a few weird facts.  Roosevelt obviously grew up with wealth, but by fourteen he had traveled to Europe seven times, and was fluent in both French and German.  His father gave him a gun to shoot birds, but he had to promise not to hunt during nesting or mating season.  In the Hyde Park mansion there were dozens of stuffed birds. 

I have not seen the new movie with Bill Murray as FDR, but the rooms are clearly marked where the former future King and Queen of England stayed when they visited the Roosevelts in 1939.  The tour guide also mentioned that while FDR gave us the famous line, "there is nothing to fear, but fear itself," he was deathly afraid of fire (after developing polio and losing the use of his legs).  They showed us all sorts of ancient fire prevention devices in the house (kind of like a fire extinguisher today).  The guide also provided a funny quip about why FDR used those long cigarette holders...once, when asked he replied, "my doctor told me to stay as far away from smoking as possible."

Also on today's agenda was a visit Val-Kil, the cottage/home built by Eleanor Roosevelt with two of her friends during the mid-1920s.  The home was built on the Roosevelt property, and Eleanor never spent the night there until after FDR died in 1945.  Visiting here was a treat.  Much like Eleanor Roosevelt, the home is very unpretentious, cottage-like, very liveable, and with things replicated exactly as they were when she died in 1962.  Because her father and another relative both had issues with alcoholism, Eleanor tolerated alcohol, but never enjoyed its use.  The guide noted that when she hosted people for dinner, she would have a "ten minute cocktail" before dinner...literally not serving drinks until 6:50 and ushering everyone into the dining area at 7:00pm.  Eleanor Roosevelt achieved some amazing feats.  I think the appeal for both her and Franklin are that while both had great money and power, they both also faced tremendous obstacles (Eleanor's horrible upbringing, the death's of many loved one's, the betrayal of her husband....along with his polio).  Yet, despite these obstacles (and in part because of their money), they never let these personal tragedies undermine their determination in life to do what they thought would advance the human spirit.

The real surpise at Val-Kil was that our guide was a woman who actually knew Ms. Roosevelt when she lived in Hyde Park, from the 1950s-to her death.  The woman shared several interesting stories about her compassion and interest in people.

More museum activities tomorrow!