Hildene – A Lincoln ‘Homestead’

…continuing with our adventures while exploring the northeastern United States this past August.

Our second major stop on day 16 of our trip was at the historic home of a son of our sixteenth President.  I must say, we didn’t know anything about the history involved…

This is the Visitor’s Center and Museum Store for Hildene, the former home of Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife Mary.  Robert was the only son of Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln that survived to maturity and, as you will see, achieved personal success.

This is the front of Hildene.  The name for the home comes from 2 old English words, “hil” meaning hill, and “dene” meaning valley with a stream.  Robert Lincoln built Hildene to serve as the Lincoln summer home at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Robert had first visited Manchester Vermont as a young man in the summer of 1864.  He came to the Equinox Hotel to meet his mother and his brother Tad.  About 40 years later, Robert returned to the area to purchase 412 acres where he would build this Georgian revival mansion, what he referred to as his ‘ancestral home’.  Hildene was completed in 1905. 

This snazzy red auto was on exhibit near the front entrance to Hildene.  It’s a Franklin Boattail Roadster and I believe that it was the 1927 model. 

The H.H. Franklin Company/Franklin Automotive Company was based in Syracuse New York.  In 1902, its first year of production, the company turned out 13 automobiles…the sixth most in the USA that year.  By 1920, the company was producing 10,000 autos a year…but several other companies were producing more vehicles at lower costs for the customer.  The last year of production was in 1933.

Despite its eventual failure to compete, mostly due to its high end hand-crafted cars, Franklin was a very innovative manufacturer with many ‘firsts’ in the automotive business.   To learn more, you can just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_(automobile).

Back to Hildene itself… We took many photos of this massive home and I’ve chosen a few to post here.  This is the front room/sitting room.  As you can see, it’s replete with dark wood and Victorian furniture.

You may be wondering how a former woodcutter’s son could afford to build such a grand summer home… Robert Todd Lincoln did rather well for himself.  The short version of his success story is that after graduation from Harvard, establishing a successful law practice and serving as a key governmental appointee, he became general counsel for the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago.  When George Pullman died in 1897, Lincoln became president of the company.  He served as President of Pullman, (then the largest manufacturing company in the world), until 1911 and served as board chairman until 1922.

The portrait at the other end of the dining room is of Robert Lincoln at the age of 62.  The china on the table was purchased by the Lincoln’s during the 4 years that Robert served as the US Minister (Ambassador) at the Court of St. James in the United Kingdom.

The home’s kitchen was restored to appear as it might have in 1905.  The sink is original.  Some of the maids lived directly above the kitchen.  There were 5 maid’s bedrooms on the second floor. 

The pantry was the only place in the main house that had a phone.  The old refrigerator is a GE Monitor and it replaced the original in the late 1920s.

This is the butler’s bedroom, the only servant’s bedroom located on the first floor of the home. 

Every man needs his cave…or office.  Robert Lincoln’s office and library is masculine and comfortable.  It’s a personal office befitting a Harvard graduate, successful attorney and CEO of a major US company who also served as a key appointee under 4 United States Presidents…Garfield, Arthur, Harrison and Cleveland.

Robert Lincoln was a golfer but another hobby involved the construction of a special building at Hildene.  He was a serious astronomer and he had an observatory built on his property.  It was equipped with a refracting telescope.  Both the observatory and the telescope have been restored and the facility is utilized by a local astronomy club.

 

This photograph of Robert Todd Lincoln was used on the cover of Time Magazine on March 8, 1926, less than 5 months before his death at the age of 82.   He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

 

Abraham Lincoln’s granddaughter/Robert Lincoln’s daughter Jessie Harlan Lincoln, used Hildene as her summer home throughout her life and lived here for the last 2 years of her life.  She died in 1948.  Hildene was occupied by Lincoln family descendants until 1975.  In 1978 the non-profit organization, the Friends of Hildene purchased the property and began restoration of the house, its 14 outbuildings and various gardens.

Historical Notes:

·       Robert Todd Lincoln was either present or nearby when 3 Presidential assassinations took place.  The first was his father’s, the second was James Garfield’s and the third was the assassination of William McKinley.  Even more curious is the fact that Garfield and McKinley had both invited Robert to attend the event where they were shot.   

·       Robert Lincoln was once saved from possible injury or death at a railroad station by Edwin Booth, whose brother, John Wilkes Booth, later assassinated Robert’s father.

To learn more about Robert Todd Lincoln, his life and career, just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Todd_Lincoln.

Robert had some health issues and he moved into this bedroom in 1908.  That big walnut bed once belonged to his father-in-law, Senator James Harlan of Iowa.  The closet is where letters pertaining to Robert’s mother’s insanity hearings were found.  

Laurie and I were both impressed by the many cut flowers scattered from room to room throughout the house. All the floral arrangements came from the  Hildene gardens.

The formal garden at Hildene was designed in 1908 by Jessie Lincoln, President Lincoln’s granddaughter, for her mother, Mary Harlan Lincoln.  The pattern suggests that of a stained glass window with the privet plantings representing the leading between the flowers…panes of glass.  This photo was taken through the window from the second floor of the home.

Here’s another view of part of this very beautiful garden with low mountains off in the distance.

We both thought that these views of Hildene was both more impressive and more beautiful than is the front of the house.  Of course, the presence of the garden doesn’t hurt the ‘look’!

Peggy Beckwith was the last Lincoln descendant to live here.  When she died in 1975, she actually left Hildene to the Church of Christ, Scientist.  That had been her grandmother’s wish.  However the will stipulated that Hildene would be maintained as a memorial to the Lincoln family.  The church quickly realized that they were not equipped to manage the property as required and they made plans to sell it to developers.  That’s when neighbors and other key members of the community got together to take action.  Through a combination of legal actions and negotiation, they came to an agreement with the church to buy the property. 

The views from the estate aren’t too bad are they?  Hildene was named based on these views.  Robert and his wife Mary named their home based on their views of the Taconic Mountains to the west, Green Mountains to the east and the Battenkill River flowing through the valley below. (Hill plus valley with stream = Hildene)

In addition to the welcome center and store in the historic carriage barn, mansion, formal garden and observatory, the property also includes at solar powered goat dairy and cheese-making facility and the Dene Farm.  The farm, a teaching campus, includes several structures and a wetland boardwalk.  There is also an 1832 schoolhouse that’s still used for educational programs. 

The farm portion of Hildene is in keeping with Robert Lincoln’s role as a ‘gentleman’ farmer.  The property had dairy cattle, produced butter and raised vegetables.  I found it interesting that Robert would ship 20 pounds of butter each week to Marshall Field, his good friend in Chicago.

From my viewpoint, this was a key stop in our tour of Hildene.  This is ‘Sunbeam”, a fully restored 1903 wooden Pullman palace car.  It took 2 years of searching to find the right car…one that would have been produced during Robert Lincoln’s time as President of the Pullman Company.  This car was the least modified from its original configuration but it still took 2 more years to properly restore it.  Sunbeam was put on display at Hildene in 2011. 

Laurie captured this photo of yours truly with a camera trying to take a photo through a window.  Docents control the number of people touring the coach at any one time so we had a short wait.

The Pullman Car Company was at its prime in the 1920s.  The fleet grew to 9,800 cars.  28,000 conductors and 12,000 porters were employed by the company.   Through mass production and the takeover of rivals, Pullman had a virtual monopoly on sleeper cars.  At its peak, these sleeper cars accommodated 26,000,000 ‘guests’ per year. 

Pullman didn’t just manufacture the cars, it also operated them on most of the railroads in the United States.  Pullman paid railroads to couple the cars to their trains.  This monopoly lead to the creation of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.  This union was one of the most powerful African-American political forces in the twentieth century.  To learn more about this union, just go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Sleeping_Car_Porters.

So when I took a photo of the main seating area inside the coach, I caught a photo of Laurie talking to one of the docents.  FYI, this Pullman Coach was equipped with electric lights backed up with gas lights and it had running hot water too…

A powerful exhibit adjacent to ‘Sunbeam’ focuses on the contradictions and possibilities surrounding Pullman Porters.  In the black community, a Pullman Porter position was prestigious but it didn’t pay well and the hours were long.  Perhaps inadvertently, the Pullman Company helped give rise to the black middle class.  Porters saw the inequities in life but they also glimpsed the possibilities…

This sleeping compartment on Sunbeam looks pretty upscale doesn’t it?

This 72 foot long Pullman Coach has 2 staterooms, a salon/dining area, public toilet, crew quarters/pantry and a galley.  The car weighs 70,000 pounds and it had a capacity for 18 passengers and 2 porters.

To learn more about the Pullman Company and George Pullman, go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Company.

Hildene, the Lincoln Family Home is open year around with the exception of Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Admission is $23.00 for adults plus $7.50 for a guided tour of the home.  Hildene is located at 1005 Hildene Road in Manchester Vermont.  Phone: 800-578-1788.  Their website is at https://hildene.org/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave