Vermont and New Hampshire: family, friends, and memories old and new

 

I was in northern New England last week for Stevens' committal and some most-welcome vacation,  This post is chronological rather than thematic because that's how I remember it.   The company of family and friends, museums and historic sites, trails to wander, and quilt shops with sunshine and blue skies all added up to a wonderful trip.

Thursday, August 21:  Coming in to Burlington. Green mountains!

I was Betty Woods’ guest for supper on Thursday. (“We have supper at 5:00,” she told me when I called earlier in the week. “Dinner is at noon.”) Betty is 95. Her husband Jonathan (called Joe) was Stevens’ first cousin. She has lived at Wake Robin for more than 20 years. It’s a beautiful life plan community in Shelburne, just south of Burlington.

 

The talk at the dining table was the goats who have been brought in to “mow.” As I was leaving I caught them in action.

I stayed in Burlington Thursday night.

 

Friday, August 22:  the Vermont state house. This is the third structure on the site, built 1857-59. There’s an acoustic tour that explains the architectural details. Extensively renovated. P.S. Montpelier is the smallest state capital city. Population 8000. (Phoenix is the largest pop. Juneau is the largest by area.)

 

Friday afternoon: across the state line to The Rocks, outside Bethlehem, NH.   

I walked into the beautiful visitors’ center — no other visitors present — and announced to the woman on duty, “I made it! And I’ve read the book!” She knew just what book I meant. Last month I read Eighteen Tiny Deaths by Bruce Goldfarb, about Frances Glessner Lee, the woman who basically invented forensic science.

 Chicagoans recognize the name Glessner — her family home was the Glessner House. The family’s summer home was The Rocks outside Bethlehem, NH. 

The last Glessner deeded the 1276-acre property to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.  The house no longer exists. The visitor's center has meeting/classroom space (used for weddings) and they'd set up for an outdoor concert on Saturday. 

Friday afternoon, part 2, still at The Rocks: “I walk in the forest preserves every day,” I told myself. “I can do this woodland walk.” But this is New Hampshire. There are hills and rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. I did the Loop Trail, the Beaver Pond Loop (though I didn’t see any beavers because I was watching where I was stepping…downhill a ways and then uphill, and I mention that there were rocks?), and the Maple Trail. About 2 miles.

Back west 20 miles to St. Johnsbury, Vermont, where I met up with the family -- daughter Julie, her partner Josh, granddaughters Rachel and Alyssa, and Jean and John (Julie's mom/Stevens' first wife, and her partner).  Over dinner we caught up (Julie, Josh, Rachel and Alyssa had all come for Stevens' memorial service).  John was very much at ease.  

Saturday, August 23:    emotional, memorable, one-of-a-kind.  I was so grateful to all the family.  Diane was pastor of the UCC church that was Stevens' first pastorate (1989-1994).  He and Diane kept in touch and we supported the church over the years, but we'd never met in person.  She said she would be pleased and honored to officiate at the committal.  "It's only a six-hour drive."  It was so good to meet her and her husband Ron. 

 

Jean brought a bouquet of yellow roses. They were their daughter Amy's favorite flower. We put one rose in with his ashes. 

 

A little humor was in order and I pointed out my marker.  Though I have no connection to St. Johnsbury, Marjorie (Stevens' mother) invited me to join her "and look down the hill on the river." 

 We all enjoyed lunch at a restaurant along the river in downtown St. J.  Jean and John went back to Concord.  Diane and Ron spent time on their own.

The rest of us went to the St. Johnsbury History and Heritage Center  Stevens’ gg grandfather (thus Julie’s ggg gf and Rachel and Alyssa’s gggg gf) built the house. I brought a photo of John Armington Stevens for their collection and a couple of St. J history books.

They've done a great job of displaying so many objects.

 

A visit to St. J wouldn’t be complete without going to the Fairbanks Museum. 

The four Hilyard children (Betsy, Barbara, Steve, and Dave) climbed on the lions outside the museum. Every kid does that.    

The museum combines natural history, science, and anthropology that all began with Mr. Fairbanks’ own collections.  (His family founded the Fairbanks Scale Corp., manufacturer of commercial and industrial scales.)  

 

When Stevens and I were in St. J in 2021 we enjoyed dinner at Salt Bistro and it seemed fitting to have dinner there this time.    Libby at Salt said the best ice cream was at The Milkhouse so that was our dessert.  

They loved the pillows that I made from his flannel shirts and suspenders. 

The journey began on August 23, 1980 . . . 

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Sunday, August 24:  when we visited the Currier in 2021 we learned that the museum owns two Frank Lloyd Wright houses. The tours were sold out that day so we enjoyed the rest of the museum. Stevens did not forget about the FLW houses and mentioned them in the years afterward. When I planned my itinerary for this week I made sure to reserve a seat. 

They use a van to take the tours (12 people max). Both houses are on the same street which was on the outskirts of Manchester in 1950 and 1957when the houses were built. Both are Usonian where Wright designed all the components.

FLW #1: the Zimmerman House. He was a doctor, she was a musician. No children. They wanted a change from their big colonial-style house in Manchester. 

 Top center: the windows meet at the corners without any sash.   Lower left: the paneling matches perfectly.  

Note the 'closed in' effect of the front (top left) and the openness of the back (bottom right).  

The Zimmermans left the house and everything in it to the museum.

FLW #2: the Khalil House is “Usonian automatic” meaning that Wright provided the plans for DIY. The Khalils wisely hired a contractor. The concrete building blocks weigh 200+ lbs each and are connected by rebar run across and up and down channels in the edges of the blocks. The Khalils did not have children. The heirs put it on the market. An anonymous donor paid $1m and gave it to the museum in 2019. 

Center right: the mitered glass corners.  Lower center: forms for the concrete blocks. Lower right: the channels with rebar.   

 

There was time before and after the FLW houses tour to see the Currier’s collections. I remembered the ‘melting rug’ from our 2021 visit. This time a docent gave a short gallery talk about it.

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I got to Julie's house (15 miles from Concord) in time for dinner.  We had a pleasant evening.  On Monday I woke up feeling absolutely awful with a fever and achy joints.  Tested negative for Covid.  I slept all day, felt the fever break, and woke up late Monday afternoon.   If I had to have 24-hour flu I was glad I didn't have to be in a hotel.

Tuesday, August 26:   adventures in central New Hampshire!  

The Mt. Kearsage Indian Museum is a nice collection representing tribes from all parts of what is now the U.S. Its founder, Charles “Bud” Thompson was in grade school when an Indian chief made a classroom presentation. Bud became fascinated by all things Indian and his collecting grew from arrowheads to larger artifacts. The museum opened in 1991.

Katsina dolls, rugs, baskets, pottery, lots of beadwork . . .

. . . the beautiful Seminole patchwork caught my eye, of course.

 

New Hampshire State Capitol. The oldest continuously used legislative chambers in the U.S. New Hampshire has a small Senate—24 (fourth smallest). They are paid $200 plus mileage per session. They have the largest House—400, the fourth-largest English-speaking legislative body in the world.  They, too, are paid $200 per term plus mileage for up to 45 days.   (#3 is U.S.Congress. #2 is Indian Parliament. #1 is UK Parliament.)

Center right: candidates for the New Hampshire primary autograph their campaign signs when they file their petitions at the Capitol.  

 

Christa McAuliffe is the newest statue on the Capitol grounds. The sculptor included "(heart) teachers" on the heel of her boot.

I stopped at the Henniker cemetery and left one of the yellow roses from Saturday with Amy.   Stevens chose the granite boulder.

(Julie, her mom, and the girls buries some of Stevens' ashes here earlier in the summer.)   

Wednesday, August 27:  I bid goodbye to Julie and drove north to Enfield, NH, to see the Enfield Shaker Museum.      

 We’ve been to all the Shaker communities except two so this visit comes closer to completing this bucket list.   The village was founded in 1793. It was a self-sufficient community. At its mid-19th century peak there were 3000 acres, 300 people, and more than 100 buildings. When it closed in 1923 the remaining brethren joined the Canterbury, NH, community. The property was sold to the La Sallettes, a Catholic order; they constructed a stone church and had a seminary and a summer camp. The Shaker museum opened in 1986 and the order sold their remaining portion to the museum.

Lower left: my feet are at two black dots on the floor of the room where they worshipped (center). The dots were guides for where to stand during sacred dancing.    Lower center:  a tailor's table. Lower right: the Shakers sold seeds (herbs and vegetables) and had a good reputation for reliability.

The Great Stone Dwelling is the focal point of the museum. It is an astounding structure. It took three years to design (by brethren) and four years to build—finished in 1841.

The docent-led tour of the Great Stone Dwelling took nearly an hour.  A rain shower prevented me from wandering the grounds to see the other buildings (or where they had been).  There are guest rooms in the Dwelling so maybe I’ll return to stay overnight!

I crossed the state line back into Vermont and stopped at Queechee Gorge.    It is 165 feet deep.   The Ottaquechee River flows through it. I walked down, down, down—and I made it back up!

I spent Wednesday night in Burlington (same hotel as the week before).  

Thursday, August 28:     another beautiful day, just right to see the largely outdoor Shelburne Museum. Stevens and I visited in the 1980s but I only remember that we did. Of course I knew about it (any quilt history buff does).  Electra Havemeyer Webb was an heiress ( her father was “the sugar king”) and thousands have benefitted from the way she chose to spend her money: to preserve American decorative arts. 

Mrs. Webb had the buildings moved to the site from other parts of New England.  

I was in time for a docent-guided tour of the Prentice and Stencil Houses.  They were originall in Hadley, MA (1773)    and Sherburne, NY (1794).   The houses are furnished in "Colonial Revival style," meaning that these are items from Mrs. Webb’s collections. Genuine antiques but  many are much fancier than a farmhouse would have had. The stencils were discovered under 5 layers of paint. (Lower left: the stencil that led to the restoration.)

 

 

General Store, Meeting House, Horseshoe Barn and annex.   The museum has a large collection of wagons, carriages, and buggies. 

 

In the Print Shop two women were printing using the antique letterpresses. I said a friend of mine was a printer who had a whole museum to house his collection. I added that I am from suburban Chicago. “Who is your friend?” one of the women asked. “The late Paul Aken.” “Paul Aken??!! He’s like a god in the printing world!” Six degrees of separation!  (Paul's wife is my quilting friend Irene.)

 

In Textile Galleries the summer’s special exhibit is Dahlov Ipcar, the Maine-based illustrator and artist.  She created stuffed animals that she then painted/drew for her books.  She also made a quilt that's in the exhibit.

 Lower center: opossum; upper right opossum.

There are many quilts in the collection but right now the crazy quilts are on display. Also late 18th/early 19th century samplers and hooked rugs.

 

 

 Hatboxes and bandboxes. (Bands=collar bands, when they detached from shirts.)

 

I somehow neglected to take any pictures of the decoys at Dorset House. I was reminded of the Ward Brothers decoys we saw in Crisfield, MD, in 2019, and there is a Lem Ward decoy here. The docent said the decoys are the second most valuable collection at the museum. The most valuable are in the Electra Havemeyer Webb Memorial Building. Her mother bought the Impressionists when the movement was new.

Top:   Mary Cassatt painted Louisine and Electra Havemeyer in 1874.  The building was constructed for the museum (fireproof).  Center: Monet. The spiral staircase is concrete. Degas.  Bottom: the Tiffany flatware takes two display cases. Monet. 

The SS Ticonderoga dominates the grounds.  It carried passengers, freight, and tourists on Lake Champlain from 1906-1950. 

"In 1954 the Shelburne Museum decided to move Ticonderoga overland to the museum grounds. At the end of the summer season the boat paddled into a newly dug, water-filled basin off Shelburne Bay and floated over a railroad carriage resting on specially laid tracks. The water was then pumped out of the basin, and Ticonderoga settled onto the railroad carriage. During the winter of 1955 Ticonderoga was hauled across highways, over a swamp, through woods and fields, and across the tracks of the Rutland Railway   to reach her permanent mooring on the Shelburne Museum grounds."  -- Wikipedia

 

 The museum logo is a quilt pattern 

It was a short drive to the Burlington Airport.  I returned the rental car, checked my bag, and went through security in 20 minutes! 

The flight home was uneventful and on time.  I was back at home at 8 p.m. 

Souvenirs . . . memories . . . a wonderful, healing, re-centering week. 

P.S.  Yes, there was fabric involved.  That will be part of the Stash Report in the next post.