Grey Towers National Historic Site
Gifford Pinchot House | |
U.S. National Historic Site | |
Location | Milford, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
---|---|
Nearest city | Port Jervis, New York, U.S. |
Coordinates | 41°19′39″N 74°49′15″W / 41.32750°N 74.82083°W |
Area | 102 acres (41 ha)[1] |
Built | 1886 |
Architect | Richard Morris Hunt H. Edwards Ficken |
Architectural style | Neo-Norman |
Website | Grey Towers National Historic Site |
NRHP reference No. | 66000694 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966[3] |
Designated NHL | May 23, 1963[4] |
Designated PHMC | June 1, 1948[2] |
Grey Towers National Historic Site, also known as Gifford Pinchot House or The Pinchot Institute, is located just off
The house, built in the
In 1963, his family donated it and the surrounding 102 acres (41 ha) to the Forest Service; it is the only U.S.
Building and grounds
The mansion itself is a three-story L-shaped
The house boasts a number of outbuildings. On the 303 acres (123 ha) of the combined parcels that made up the original estate, there are 48 total buildings, structures and sites, all but eight of which are considered
History
There are four distinct periods in the history of Grey Towers: its initial construction under James Pinchot and his ownership, Gifford and Cornelia Pinchot's years, the early years with the Forest Service, and a more recent period of historic preservation efforts.[9]
James Pinchot
In 1875, Gifford's father,
There, James Pinchot's primary endeavor was planning and designing Grey Towers and the land around it. At first, he developed the land along lines of the
Almost all the materials came from local sources.
In 1906, a design by Frederick Law Olmsted (who had died three years earlier) was implemented for an old cemetery on the property. (Olmsted's contribution is unclear, as all had existed from the early 19th century, before the Pinchot family's ownership of the land.) Today it is in poor condition.[12]
James Pinchot had come to regret the environmental damage forest-product industries such as his had done, and he endowed the
Gifford and Cornelia
James Pinchot died in 1908, and his wife, Mary, died 10 days after Gifford married
An avid gardener,[15] she turned her attention to the grounds. Chester Holmes Aldrich first designed a swimming pool for the property, a raised structure enclosed on three sides by a pergola of stone piers and wooden trellises. After that came the Bait Box, a playhouse for the couple's son, Gifford Bryce Pinchot. Elliptical openings in the stone walls around the courtyard provide views over the surrounding landscape. Next, in the late 1920s, when her husband was serving his first term as governor, came the Letter Box, a small cottage intended both as an archive for his papers and an office for his political staff when he was in residence. In their last collaboration, Aldrich and Cornelia Pinchot added a moat, which finally gave the house the raised effect Hunt had originally intended. In building it became necessary to lengthen the east lawn and build a new stone wall to support the moat.[7]
Forest Service
After his mother died in 1960, Gifford Bryce Pinchot donated the building to the Forest Service, as the family had planned. The agency intended to use the house as a conference center, and had to replace some interior walls that had suffered insect and water damage. Various other rooms in the wing and second floor were converted to storage or office use, and the swimming pool was filled in, in 1979, when it became a safety and maintenance problem.[16] A parking lot was built to the northwest.[17]
The
In 1980, the USFS realized how much its renovations had damaged an architecturally significant structure and began trying to undo some of the changes it had made. It developed a plan to restore the house and estate to a condition similar to the way it had been in Pinchot's era, in consultation with the Park Service's Harper's Ferry Center,
Today
The grounds are open daily from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. from Memorial Day weekend through October. Guided tours home and gardens start every hour on the hour from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.; there is a fee except when stated on their calendar of events. Self-guided interpretive trails devoted to the history of the Pinchot family, forestry and the bluebirds nesting in the woods are available on the grounds. There is also a gift shop.[22]
The Pinchot Institute also hosts conferences related to conservation matters. They are held either in the upper floors of the mansion or in the Letter Box.[23]
Gallery
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Partial front facade
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The Bait Box
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Patio leading to the Finger Bowl
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Part of the rear
References
- Notes
- ^ "About Us". April 5, 2007. Retrieved February 8, 2008.
New legislation enacted in FY05 established this historic landmark as a National Historic Site, the only national historic site administered by the US Forest Service.
- ^ "Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) - PHMC Historical Markers". Historical Marker Database. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ "Gifford Pinchot House (Grey Towers)". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved June 27, 2008.
- ^ a b "Special Initiatives in the Northeastern Area/Grey Towers National Historic Site". January 18, 2006. Retrieved February 12, 2008.
- ^ a b Del Sordo & Gutowski, pp. 10-11
- ^ a b c d e f g "Historical Information". January 12, 2005. Retrieved February 9, 2008.
- ^ Del Sordo & Gutowski, pp. 10-26.
- ^ a b Del Sordo & Gutowski, p. 4
- ^ Del Sordo & Gutowski, p. 23.
- ^ Del Sordo & Gutowski, p. 5
- ^ a b Del Sordo & Gutowski, p. 22.
- ^ "Yale School of Forestry Summer Camp at Grey Towers (1900-1926)". March 6, 2008. Retrieved March 14, 2008.
- ^ Del Sordo & Gutowski, p. 26.
- ^ a b "Cornelia Bryce Pinchot". January 12, 2005. Retrieved February 9, 2008.
- ^ Del Sordo & Gutowski, p. 17.
- ^ a b Del Sordo & Gutowski, pp. 8-9.
- ^ "Carpeting, Lighting, Wallpaper & Window Treatments". November 5, 2005. Retrieved February 12, 2008.
- ^ "Welcome to Grey Towers" (pdf). Spanning the Gap. 23 (3). Fall 2001. Retrieved February 12, 2008.
Amid birthday cake and music by the Fiddlin' Foresters, Grey Towers National Historic Landmark reopened on August 11, Gifford Pinchot's birthday, to showcase an $18 million restoration and renovation.
- Pennsylvania Department of Natural Resources. October 4, 2002. Retrieved February 12, 2008.
Gov. Mark Schweiker delivered $2 million in capital budget redevelopment assistance Oct. 3 to the Grey Towers National Historic Landmark in Milford, Pike County, the former home of Gov. Gifford Pinchot, for improvements that will help preserve its historic character ... The state funding will be used for improvements to visitors' services, including parking, rest rooms, walkways and a visitor reception pavilion. It also will be used for improvements to the historic amphitheater and the Historic Black Locust Aleé entry drive.
- ^ "Projects & Plans". April 5, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2008.
- ^ "Recreational Activities". February 13, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2008.
- ^ "Conference Center". March 1, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2008.
- Bibliography
- Del Sordo, Stephen G. & Gutowski, Robert (August 5, 1985). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Grey Towers" (pdf). National Park Service. Retrieved February 9, 2008.
External links
- Official website - US Forest Service
- Grey Towers Heritage Association
- Pinchot Institute
- Grey Towers History (Forest History Society)
- Grey Towers, Old Route 6, Milford, Pike County, PA: 8 measured drawings at Historic American Buildings Survey
- Grey Towers, Gate House, Old Route 6, Milford, Pike County, PA: 2 measured drawings at Historic American Buildings Survey
- Grey Towers, Bait Box, Old Route 6, Milford, Pike County, PA: 1 measured drawing at Historic American Buildings Survey
- Grey Towers, Letter Box, Old Route 6, Milford, Pike County, PA: 1 measured drawing at Historic American Buildings Survey