Concord MA Tanglewood John Hoar Middlesex Hunt Club Letters Harvard University

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Concord MA Tanglewood John Hoar Middlesex Hunt Club Middlesex School Letters Harvard Oriental Rug Review/Asian Trade is pleased to offer a group of items, letters and other paper having to do with Concord Massachusetts, it's Tanglewood section, and its people, c. 1900 - 1918. The people who wrote these letters to each other were the bluest of the blue bloods of the time. Their children went to the best schools and colleges (mainly to Harvard) the women volunteered for the best charities, the girls were all debutantes, the men were mainly bankers or other types of financiers, as well as members of the best Boston clubs. Some of the men were gentleman farmers who sponsored "hunts" on their rolling acres. These people used the Boston Social Register as we mortals used to use the telephone book.Some of this material is from the "Springhurst" estate of millionaire financier Franklin Q. Brown.. These were found in the correspondence of FQB and his extended family. At twenty-nine Col. Brown was the youngest railroad company president in the country. He worked parallel with railroad man Harry B. Plant extending the rail lines to Tampa Florida just in time to be of service to the U. S. Army with its invasion of Cuba in 1898. He later founded Redmond & Company which morphed into Merrill Lynch. We are endebted to a Dobbs Ferryana collector for the following insight into the Springhurst Estate, "I lived just down the street from Springhurst, Col. Brown's estate. I used to play around the grounds (house was empty by the late 50's, early 60's); couldn't get into the house, but we would play on the stage in the little theater he had behind the house. He would bring Broadway shows up and put on performances for his guests. In about 1964, there was a huge fire, started by some kids from Childrens' Village which was the next property over, smoking in the old house. It was quite a spectacle. We had to watch from a great distance the fire burned so hot. The house was destroyed. The theater and huge barn/garage were spared, but torn down when they removed the debris from the house. Very sad to see an old estate disappear like that. There was a gatekeeper's house that was occupied for a while by a man who herded sheep on the property. Then the city bought it all for the elementary school and I believe there is a junior high on the site now too. Every time I go back to visit, I drive up there and walk around looking for any remnant of those old days...but not even a foundation outline exists today.This archive came to us about 25 years ago, in several huge old packing cartons. They contained the combined correspondences of the John Hoar Family of Concord and the Franklin Q. Brown family of Dobbs Ferry on Hudson. John Hoar and Dorothy Brown were united in marriage on June 17, 1916. It was a perfect day except for the fact that burglars raided the Dobbs Ferry Freight office by boat, stealing most of the couple's wedding presents. This gave rise to comments in the New York Times about pirates and a policeman was quoted as saying the floor of the freight office was knee deep in ripped open Tiffany's boxes. This conjoining of the Hoar Brown families precipitated this large correspondence which is the source of the items listed here.Item 1.) This item is a letter from Helen and Samuel Hoar of Concord, MA writing from Florence Italy to their son Jack Hoar in Concord MA. The letter and cover are "Grand Hotel, Florence" stationary. (Excerpts)"...All the cabs here are rickety to the last degree and the drivers are all fat, their clothes in rags and I do not think they have ever used water, inside or out..." We went in and out of churches till my head was in a whirl. The great people of Florence were the Medici and we saw Lorenzo di Medici's prayer book for which the price of $40,000 has been offered, but no money can buy it. Michael Angelo lived here too and he built churches and fortunes too and great wall that are still standing. He was too a great painter and sculpture too. Dante lived here and fought for the liberty of Florence with h... read more

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