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VOLUME TWENTY SEVEN, NUMBER 5
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MAY 2013 New flag: Paul Conboy (Maintenance) sends Old Glory aloft again, now accompanied by new Beaumont flag, in Anniversary Week ceremony last month. Woman in pink sweater is Marion Snyder, who designed the new flag. (Picture of Marion from the front, Page 13.) Photos by Louise Hughes
New song: Top left: Alan Tripp, composer of Beaumont’s new anthem (Page 3), prepares to lead assembled residents and staff in singing it. Also in picture, left to right, are Ed Rosen and Barbara Ann Murphy. (Picture of Alan showing his face—and Maggie’s—Page 8.) Left: Enjoying the sight are Dining Services Director Rose-Marie Pringle and Certified Nurse’s Assistant Jennifer Hyman. Below: The new flag.
25 years gone by in the blink of a week By Mary Graff Beaumont’s Silver Anniversary celebration broke all precedents and lasted close to a week. Some of the events were scheduled; others—notably the descent on unwary diners by Marion Snyder with a basket of names to be drawn, followed closely by staff bearing prizes—were kept secret until they occurred. “Wine and Chef Surprises” turned up frequently. A committee of residents, managers and others, headed by Mary Schnabel (see Page 2 for all of them), met repeatedly for months in advance. Staff, too, some of them veterans of as many years as Beaumont itself (see Page 12), outdid themselves. It all started with a lunch on Friday April 5 for staff,
followed two days later by Silver Sunday Brunch for 200 residents, family and friends plus one magician (no rabbit, though one would have eaten very well had there been one. (So, indeed, would any carnivorous four-footed mammal. The ones with two feet, especially the grandchildren, went back for seconds and thirds—at least. See Page 6.) That evening we heard residents Eugenio Calabi, violin, and Carlos Gonzalez, piano, at a special concert in front of the continued on page 2
Photo by Milissa Cwenar
Behind the silver scenes
The committee that planned Beaumont’s week-long 25th anniversary celebration, captured while at work in the Card Room (clockwise from left): Fitness Director Bob Stedeford, Executive Chef John Bauer, Resident Services Director Kim Norrett, Health Services Vice President Linda Lemisch, Cally (Mrs. Arthur) Wheeler (whose late husband was the original developer of Beaumont), Louise Hughes of Resident Services, Committee Chairman Mary Schnabel, Marion Snyder, Katy Place, Evelyn Rosen, Joan Roberts, Beaumont President Joe Fortenbaugh, Recreational Therapy Director Jenny Hadfield, Dining Services Director Rose-Marie Pringle and Human Resources Director Mary Wells. At the table, but hidden, was Jennie Fankel, Administrative Assistant.
Blink of a week . . . .
Wednesday in both the Mansion dining rooms and the Grill Room saluted William Liseter Austin and his connection with locomotives as well as challenging the wardrobes of our ever-inventive residents (Page 8). A formal 25th Anniversary Gala Banquet Thursday made a sparkling conclusion to the week. Residents and special guests (240 of them) dined appreciatively on dishes produced by Executive Chef John Bauer and staff, finishing up with Baked Alaska. (Page 6.) (A week later, on April 18, a party masquerading as a tailgating party for the staff in the Beaumont Room turned out to be a surprise 62d birthday party for President Joe Fortenbaugh. (He would have been here 25 years next April if he weren’t planning to retire in August.) (Buxom Eagles cheerleaders! Eagles mascot Swoop himself! Coming in the June issue!)
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organ in the Music Room. (See Page 16 for pictures and some interesting facts about the rescue of the organ.) This was followed by introduction of the firstever Beaumont Anthem, “Beaumont My Beaumont,” composed—both words and music—by Alan Tripp. (Pictures of Alan Pages 1 and 8; anthem lyrics Page 3.) Alan, Evelyn Rosen and Marian Lockett-Egan sang it. The next day, Monday, at a noon session of “Timely Topics,” there were stories of early Beaumont by eyewitnesses including Avie Wheeler, Cally’s son. (See Page 4.) The Beaumont Room was packed with residents, family and friends, eating a buffet lunch in between rounds of full-strength applause. In the evening Jane Garrison’s son, architecture expert and author Jim Garrison (picture Page 4), joined with Jeff Groff, Director of Public Programs at Winterthur Museum and Country Estate, in a talk about Main Line history. Tuesday started with a parade and flag-raising ceremony introducing the newly designed Beaumont flag, with full cooperation of sun and wind (Page 1). The Beaumont Singers ( Page 7) performed in the evening. Wednesday morning was the rain date (happily not needed) for parade and flag-raising, so residents and staff got to catch up with themselves. Wednesday afternoon included Anniversary events in the Health Center and a Happy Hour featuring a new “Silver Streak” cocktail. (Pictures and list of ingredients Page 9.) “People will think all we do here is drink,” Rose-Marie declared when she saw some of the pictures. Not true. Lemonade and cookies were served at the flag-raising! An informal (very informal) “Riding the Rails” dinner
BEAUMONT NEWS The Beaumont News is published by the residents and staff of the Beaumont Retirement Community, 601 N. Ithan Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Managing Editor Production Editor
Christine Johnson-Hall
Editor Emeritus and Historian
Louise Guthrie
Photo Editor
Louise Hughes
Events Manager Proofreader Circulation Manager
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Mary Graff
Kim Norrett Jennie Frankel Barbara O’Brien
Joe pitches in President Joe Fortenbaugh, fists full of wine glasses, bandanna in rear pocket, was on his way to help out at the bar during Anniversary Week “Riding the Rails” dinner. Reaching the entrance to the Mansion dining rooms, where diners and guests were assembling, he all but slid to a stop. Pausing only for breath, he joined strolling singers in a chorus of “This Land is Your Land”—and with that, everybody sang. It was a memorable Anniversary Week moment. The officially strolling singers, from left: Dining staffer Joe Hoban, resident Evelyn Rosen and Dining Services Director Rose-Marie Pringle. (More pictures of “Riding the Rails” evening on Page 8.) Photos by Louise Hughes
Oh Beaumont, My Beaumont! This is the song written by resident Alan Tripp to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Sung to music composed by Alan and arranged by Lou Carol Fix, pianist who accompanies the Beaumont Singers (see Page 7), it was first performed by Alan himself with Marian Lockett-Egan and Evelyn Rosen at April 7 concert and then belted out by all at the raising of Beaumont’s new flag two days later. CHORUS: Oh Beaumont, my Beaumont, where I want to be— Forever and ever, just living free and happily. Now folks come to Beaumont from near and afar— So raise a toast— “What I love most is Beaumont at Bryn Mawr!”
Abracadabra: Enjoying the trickery of professional magician Richard Gustafson are Samir, 8, and Laela, 4, grandchildren of Ingrid and Dr. Carlos Gonzalez, as Elizabeth and John Hentz look on. The children’s mother, Stephanie Hijazi, daughter of Ingrid and Carlos, was sitting nearby when picture was taken. She reported later that some crumpled paper in the magician’s hands had magically turned into hats, which he then gave Samir and Laela. Mr. Gustafson performed magic throughout the dining rooms during Silver Sunday Brunch April 7. (See Page 6 for another Brunch picture; Page 16 for Carlos at the piano during concert that evening.)
VERSE: Some day I’ll go to heaven and I’ll face that pearly gate. They’ll ask me, “Where’d you come from— and how come you’re so late?” I’ll tell them that I stayed behind. . .hung on for all I’m worth, ‘Cause it was close to heaven there— back where I lived on earth.
COMING IN JUNE ■ Green Committee issues first Honor Roll ■ Joe gets surprise kick out of the Eagles ■ New residents arrive in force ■ Jim Zug defies stereotype of the “over 70” person 3
Speakers recall the pioneer days from which Beaumont’s vibrant spirit sprang By Mary Graff
More than 25 years have passed since our homes at Beaumont were conceived as a gleam in Artie Wheeler’s eye, but the mental images from that time live on—along with the pioneers’ vibrant spirit. Fifty overgrown acres met the eye back then, large trees blocking every view, and a jungle of vines entangling the feet. Presiding over all this was an abandoned old house in danger of sinking into a decrepit old age. Avie Wheeler (Arthur L. Jr.), son of Cally and Artie, Beaumont’s original developer, remembers trying to sell prospective residents on his father’s vision of what it would be like to actually live here, retired but actively enjoying life. Avie, now retired from selling real estate himself, was the lead speaker in a group telling of memories at a Timely Topics meeting last month. Some excerpts follow: Avie Wheeler: “I think much of what makes Beaumont unique—both the Avie Wheeler (top), son of cooperative ownership and the Cally, and Jim Garrison, son of Jane, both speak- club-like culture —is a reflection ers who took part in of who Artie was and what he Anniversary Week wanted. As a residential developer it was never his goal to retain ownership of the whole community on an ongoing basis. . . . He was used to developing, building and selling homes, and so that process carried over into Beaumont. . . . “But I must admit there was a great deal of stress and concern in the early stages. Development partners changed, financing was not easy and the novel concept required a real commitment on Art’s part to sell it over and over again. “In the end friends and family came to the rescue to secure financing. . . . “We relied heavily on the model which showed the entire 50-acre tract covered by a combination of villas, apartments, woods and pond. “Many who came had no interest in the retirement community, but we could have sold the gatehouse 10 times over. We also had those who wondered if the whole idea would fail and they would swoop in to pick up the whole estate. . . . “I remember a conversation with one lady who was
Once upon a hilltop: The view Mary Yurchenco remembers from her first visit in 1989 was “just a dirt road leading up to a dilapidated mansion.” This picture, photographer unknown, shows what is now the front of the mansion; the original front door was on the right side, approximately where the mansion coatroom is now and where you can still see the original doorbell.
considering Beaumont so convenient to her own home, when I suggested she had likely looked at Waverly as well—most did—she exclaimed, ‘What, all the way out in the country!’ A surprise to me what a couple miles could mean. . . . “We also told the story of the Austin family, Baldwin Locomotive and the Beaumont property as it had been passed on to us. How the main house was constructed in part with iron railroad track for beams, and a favorite tale was how Miss Anna Austin used to live in the main house with just one companion and her favorite pony—who also lived IN the house! . . . “Clearing the site was like the curtains being held back—we could finally really see what we’d been selling.” Kathy Hesington, Maintenance: “I came to Beaumont on January 3, 1988. . . . Upon arrival there were dirt roads. Made it interesting when it rained! “Villas were in different stages of completion with several on Pond Lane already occupied. Baldwin was partially completed. . . . continued on page 5
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GENESIS: “In the beginning,” wrote the late Betsy Roberts in the March 1998 Beaumont News, celebrating our 10th anniversary, “the earth was without form. “When it was dry, dust and dirt covered the land. When it was wet, there was mud. But even in the beginning there was a Plan. . . . “And the Plan said, ‘There are too many trees. This is like a jungle. [Some] trees must go.’ . . . “When the Plan was sure of Township approval and when the neighbors had been mollified (and that was not easy) the Plan directed workmen to put in the footings and drop the slabs for villas. . . . “Only then could they start to build the 68 villas. And it was done. . . . “Then the Plan consulted the blueprints and saw there was still more to be done. And the Plan called for two large apartment buildings. . . . And it was done. “And when it was all done, the Plan looked around and was well pleased and said, ‘This shall be called Beaumont.’ And it was good.”
Pioneer days . . . .
Jackie Holness, Health Center: “I have been here since May of 1988. . . . The Health Center still was rough around the edges. I helped to hang shower curtains, cooked a little food. We had no phone, just walkie talkies. It was quite an experience, being part of Mr. Wheeler’s vision. “When Mr. Wheeler came through, such oohs and ahs! The ladies thought he was most handsome!”
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“Austin was only a garage. . . . I watched a large crane put the 1st, 2nd and 3d floors and the roof together. . . .” [Beaumont received its Certificate of Occupancy in March 1988—Ed.] Mary Yurchenco, resident: “The year was 1989. My husband, John, and I had been living in Radnor Township for about 30 years. He had retired and I had just completed a second term on the Radnor School Board. It was time for a change. . . . “I read about a new place just coming on the market named Beaumont at Bryn Mawr. It Posing for unknown photographer in 2005 are Cally consisted of a and Arthur Wheeler. Art, the real estate developer whose vision brought Beaumont to life, died in 2008. dirt road leading up to a dilapidated mansion and a few uncompleted cottages. But John loved it. It had a pond and extensive woods—Nirvana for an outdoorsman. “The sales office was a long table in an unkempt room housing a non-functional organ. But the woods sold it. . . . “John was very busy. He first explored the woods and planned and constructed two interesting trails— one by the pond and a connector loop to Old Gulph Road. Later he selected a location for a vegetable garden in which he grew 100 tomato plants; the ripened fruit deposited for the taking in our front lobby. “Our new director of activities gathered all of those willing to serve into a collective meeting where she outlined possible committees and had us sign up for them. We went to our respective groups, chose chairmen, and Beaumont was in operation.” For Mary’s account of the rescue of Beaumont’s Aeolian organ, see Page 16.
Barbara Ballam Stephens, new resident: “Sam Ballam was my father. My husband, Richard, and I came with Daddy to see the site. We met Avie and saw the architect’s model in the dark, musty entryway. Then we walked through the woods filled with tangle-dangle vines hanging over us and ensnaring our feet. My parents looked at no other options. “The financial set-up appealed to Daddy, a banker, so he replied immediately to the flyer in his mailbox. Dot and Sam Ballam moved into 74 Middle Road in the fall before the roads were paved and before any meals were offered in the Mansion. “Mother was the welcoming committee, calling on everyone. Since she knew everyone, she put displays of their collections in the empty cabinet in this [the Beaumont] room. “She also organized the huge needlepoint wall hanging, ‘Tree of Life.’ It depicts animals and plants native to Beaumont and hung on the stone wall in the lobby until recently it was moved to the other side of the glass from the Mansion Hostess Stand. “‘Ballam’ is the name of the theater dedicated to my mother. But ‘Ballam’ is also on many other things in the sense that Daddy established the Finance Committee, led the Health Center Committee (he hired someone from Penn to do an actuarial study, assessing future needs by residents). He always had his eye on the bottom line and wanted beds filled by the paying public. Daddy also spearheaded the Fitness Center. He started the Singles Table, which continues. “Daddy and I filled the empty shelves across from Jackie’s desk in the Health Center. “Richard’s mother, Helen Stephens, died only last year at age 104. Her paintings adorn many walls. “And I’m delighted to say that Richard and I are the newest residents. “Beaumont is now our home, and you are our new friends and neighbors.” 5
Anniversary Week Sunday Brunch: Figuring out how to fork up salmon without spoiling the effect is Andrew Fabian, son of George (just behind him) and Norma. An ice sculpture by Executive Chef John Bauer crowns the display. Gala Dinner Thursday: President Joe Fortenbaugh, dressed for dinner, made rounds of the Health Center with champagne for toasting, here with Dr. Albert and Margaret Keegan. At the dinner, Finance Committee Chairman Dolf Paier leans to chat with Jennie Frankel, Joe’s administrative assistant, and her husband, Steve. Photos by Louise Hughes
Also at the dinner: Connie Mueller, who was Joe’s assistant for almost 18 years, revisits Bill and Mary Graff, whose files she organized for them after her retirement in 2005. In the background can just be seen Anniversary Committee Chairman Mary Schnabel, on her feet with microphone, making a toast. Photo by Ann Louise Strong
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To everyone who helped with 25th Anniversary events from Mary Schnabel, Anniversary Committee chairman You’re footsore and weary, you’re broke and you’re beat Your minds are needing a rest In spite of it all It was really a ball And you certainly gave it your best!
Photo by Louise Hughes Sally DaCosta opens a prize during Marion Snyder’s unannounced descent on the Grill Room during Anniversary Week.
Gift shop knitter’s purl of a poem For the March 1998 News celebration of Beaumont’s 10th anniversary, Beaumont pioneer Sally DaCosta, who has jacketed untold hundreds of babies in her role as the Gift Shop Knitter, wrote a poem that cannot be improved upon today: Happy Birthday to Beaumont, which is 10 [read 25] years old, And our gratitude to Art Wheeler, for being so bold. He had a dream and made it come true. All of us here started life anew. How grateful we are for the caring we get, For the comfort of old friends and the new ones we’ve met. So Happy Birthday to Beaumont, long may it thrive, At least until the year two thousand ninety-five.
We’ve had magic and flags And occasional gags We even made use of tomato cans
There’s nary a resident now alive Who isn’t steeped in Twenty Five The mailbox crowd We’ve never done such a thing before Sings your praises loud So you jumped a lot from chore to chore And hope for the Thirtieth they’ll You’ve been on the run survive! And under the gun Planning parties and music and games I thought of hiring a big brass band galore (Or 21 guns on the other hand) To thank you correctly Of Beaumont’s staff we’ve used all hands I’ll tell you directly The kitchen created with pots and pans I haven’t the words at my command.
Displaying team spirit to the end are President Joe Fortenbaugh and Administrative Assistant Jennie Frankel in the Beaumont Room. Photo by Louise Hughes
Beaumont Singers at rehearsal for Anniversary Week Concert: Front row, from left: Charlie Wood, Richard Ravenscroft, Bob Morgan, Grenville Foote, Mary Jane Rhodes. On the left, starting at the back and angling down toward Bob Morgan: Donna Winsor, Gretchen Mitchell, Jeanne Cortner, Joan Thayer, Barbara Cooney. On the right, starting at the back and angling down toward Bob: Jane Garrison, Cynthia Drayton, and Marjorie Baird. Standing off to the right: Bobbie O’Brien, next to Jane Garrison, and Joan Roberts on Bobbie’s other side. Behind the piano, standing (from left): Bruce Mainwaring, Evelyn Rosen and Carole Morgan. Seated at the piano: the singers’ accompanist, Lou Carol Fix, a teacher at Moravian College, and Jason Bizich, conductor, head of the Choral Department at Harriton High School. Photo by Paul Conboy, Maintenance, from top of a ladder.
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Photos by Louise Hughes
Hobos never had it so good
A major highlight in an anniversary week blinding with stellar events was a “Riding the Rails” dinner, saluting William Liseter Austin, late president of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, who built the mansion originally known as Liseter Hall. The evening was also designed to honor—as the announcement put it—“the intrepid individuals who ‘rode the rails,’ legally or otherwise, in the early 20th Century.” Pictures, clockwise from top left: Mary Spence, John Lloyd and Patsy Dushane model their hats; Mary Schnabel visits the bar with bindle (that’s hobo speak) over her shoulder; Ed Rosen offers Annette Von Starck a courtly arm; Maggie and Alan Tripp prepare to rough it at table where soup can used as vase explains Mary’s reference to same in her poem of thanks (Page 7), and working train exhibit outside Mansion dining rooms is displayed by Nursing Director Paul McCleary (left) and Dean (Doc) Snyder. Paul lent the train and track, Doc built the platform, and the Nicholas Smith store supplied tunnel, trees, people and houses. Paul said the train has transported “everything from dinosaurs to GI Joe action figures” since he and his brother received it from their mother 45 years ago.
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Anniversary “Silver Streak” cocktail hits the spot at Happy Hour By Rose-Marie Pringle, Director of Dining Services
the wine list in a handsome new beverage menu when you dine with us. The Wine and Spirits Committee, headed by Mr. Birchard Clothier, decides on our offerings. Our president, Joe Fortenbaugh, remembers that in 2002 Beaumont applied for and received the first CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community) liquor license in Pennsylvania. Beaumont also helped write the regulations of Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board CCRC licenses. We set the trend! I encourage residents to come to our Happy Hours even if they do not care for the featured drink. Come stop by and have whatever you would like. Better yet come and socialize with friends, even make a few new ones. I invite everyone to stop by for Happy Hour, you will be HAPPY that you came! Cheers!
What’s in a Silver Streak? Ready? Gin, vodka, Triple Sec, Cherry Kirsch, white wine and simple syrup. Mrs. Ballard said she was afraid to try one until she looked around and saw people on their second
At Beaumont you can stop in the Mansion Bar and have a drink any day except Sunday, and twice a month on Wednesdays we have our own Happy Hour featuring a special Beaumont Drink beginning at 5:30 p.m. glasses and still upright. Said she thought it tasted pretty good. Where did the name “Happy Hour” come from? At Beaumont you can stop in the Mansion Bar and have a drink any day except Sunday, and twice a month on Wednesdays we have our own Happy Hour featuring a special Beaumont Drink beginning at 5:30 p.m. But I never knew where the name came from until a resident, Mr. Alfred Rhodes, informed me that it was in the military that Happy Hour was born. The soldiers would go the bar after a hard day and have a beer for 5 cents. WOW! Gone are those days! One glass of beer now in some establishments can begin at $6. Not here, you’ll be glad to know. Our prices: $3.50 for beer, $4 for spirits (including the Happy Hour mixed drinks), and $3 to $6 for a glass of wine; bottle prices for wine range from $15 to $20. You can find
Photos by Louise Hughes Happy Hour with the Silver Streak: Just above, Katy Place raises a toast with the new cocktail in the bar before “Riding the Rails” dinner during Anniversary Week last month. With Katy is her husband, John. Top right, Peter Binzen does the same with Marjorie Baird. Top left, Ian and Helen Ballard.
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Transformation and a mystery in the bar By Jean Churchman
A renaissance has occurred in Beaumont’s bar with the return of the newly cleaned painting above the fireplace. At last a dark and dreary day has been transformed into a lovely summer afternoon, and the little figures long imprisoned behind the screen of grime and cigar smoke have been freed to romp once again on a verdant meadow. This amazing transformation led me to wonder about the painting’s provenance. Obviously, it was commissioned by the Austins to fill the space above the fireplace. But who painted it? And when? After a visit to the Pennsylvania Academy Before and after: Photo provided by the restorers shows difference a cleanup makes. and a cursory study of So for the moment we must be content with simply late 19th Century landscape paintings, I know who what our eye tells us about it. What we do know is that didn’t paint it—but not who did! We don’t even know it was painted in a manner very popular at the turn of for sure if it was commissioned by the Austins’ first the century, using an Impressionist palette and painted Beaumont and brought to its present home in 1912 or indoors but aping the plein-air painters. The artist had if it was newly commissioned then. studied well, and adopted their often-used motif of a bit of bright red to attract one’s eye. (Echoing the spot of red, which some observers think could be a red jacket worn by a child bending over, are Sally Herd’s current arrangements of poppies and thistles on the sills of the bay window in the bar.) That bit of bright red and the winding path on the left lead us into this idyllic scene. Tantalizingly, there are two distinct brush strokes on the canvas, the clouds and sky being in a different style from the more impressionistic lower area. So, thanks to the fine restoration by the McClees gallery in Haverford, made possible by the Beaumont Fund and the much-appreciated generosity of Marie Photo by Louise Hughes Furlong, we have not only a wonderful, reborn work of Maintaining our heritage: Painter Rick Rogers touches up arched ceiling art—but a mystery as well. of Music Room during 2011 restoration project. Look for yourselves and see what you think! 10
Discovering the Michelangelo of Beaumont By Joan Roberts
One of the more stunning aspects of the mansion at Beaumont is its vast range of ornate interior decoration, from the flora and fauna, carved in wood and stone on mantels and paneling, to the painted and gilded ceilings, exploding with mythological scenes of mysterious origin. Although the skilled carvers still remain anonymous, the creator of the paintings has been identified, a German immigrant named George Herzog (1851-1920). The son of a painter named Hermann Ottomar Herzog, George trained at Munich’s Royal Academy of Arts before coming with his family to the United States in the early 1870s. He joined, and later took over as manager, the firm of Konstantine and Otto Kaiser, and he won prizes at the 1876 Centennial for upholstery design and fresco painting. He decorated major public buildings in Philadelphia, including much of City Hall, and executed many commissions at the Masonic Temple and the Union League (he was a member of both). Among his public buildings were churches and the largest synagogue in Philadelphia, Keneseth Israel, at 1717 North Broad Street (now demolished). Farther from home, he did some work at Shelby County Courthouse in Memphis, Tennessee, as well as interiors in New York City (where he opened an office) and on Long Island. Much of his work was for wealthy industrialists, such as the North Broad Street houses of Peter A.B. Widener and William L. Elkins, both later demolished. He often controlled the entire interior design, including walls, ceilings, furniture, draperies and glass. Most of Herzog’s work has not survived; changes in taste and lifestyle have led to demolition, destruction and painting over. His most intact interiors remain at the Philadelphia Masonic Temple, for which he designed about 80 percent of the decorative painting. His surviving work at Beaumont is therefore all the more worth cherishing and preserving. Like other wealthy industrialists, William Liseter Austin, President of Baldwin Locomotive Works, sought to emulate European taste when decorating his mansion. The scenes in the ceiling of the Music Room evoke medieval and pastoral themes, as well as Greek mythology, derivative of old masters. Whereas Peter A.B. Widener had his children portrayed in
Renaissance garb on the walls of his dining room, however, there is no known reference to the Austin children in the paintings at Beaumont. The two people who have had the most intimate contact with Herzog’s ceiling paintings are Brian Cesario and his associate, Diane Menke, who took on the painstaking job of cleaning and restoring them back in 1987. This involved working from a 20-foothigh scaffold, cleaning with solvents, removing and replacing varnish, and touching up paint. An earlier restorer had touched up without first cleaning, and had matched paint that was darkened from soot and smoke. Cesario and Menke completed the cleaning, then matched the correct color. Brian Cesario told me what he thought was the process by which the ceilings were done. He felt that the artist (Herzog) had supervised a group of apprentices who had reproduced the scenes from his sketches on canvas in a workshop, with some variation in the quality of their work. They had then cut them to fit the panels—not always precisely—and applied them to the ceilings and cornices. We are most fortunate not only in seeing the work in place on the ceilings, cleaned and repaired, but also in having access to the original watercolor sketches by Herzog from the collection at the Athenaeum of Philadelphia. There are a few that do not appear at Beaumont, and the question arises as to whether some were created for the first Liseter Hall, Mr. Austin’s earlier mansion on County Line Road in Rosemont built in 1902. That house was taken down when Mr. Austin feared that the railroad tracks in that area were to be re-routed through his property, and much of the ornamentation was moved to the new Liseter Hall, which became Beaumont. Mr. Austin seems to have commissioned Herzog to design one more personal item for him—an elaborate coat of arms which appears in the collection at the Athenaeum but nowhere in the house. The date 154(5?) is above a banner proclaiming “Quis Separabit,” above bundled fasces, abundant mantling, a helmet, and a shield on a very rakish angle. W.L. Austin is printed at the bottom. Is it serious, or tongue in cheek? Now it’s up to all of you to find the pictures in the Music Room ceiling. Just don’t let it spoil your next concert! *
IN MEMORIAM
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Material for this article was obtained from Wikipedia and a Philadelphia Inquirer article from July 5, 1987, by Marlene A. Prost. For technical reasons the News was unable to reproduce Herzog’s watercolor sketches, but arrangements may be made to display them.
Jake Joyce — April 5, 2013 Members of the Beaumont Community extend deepest sympathy to his family and friends. 11
Photo by Louise Hughes Veteran employees honored at luncheon were (seated, left to right) Jackie Holness, Raydeen Leid and Sam Mohan; (standing, second row, left to right) Mary Gweh, Sylvia Dwyer (not celebrating an anniversary but standing in for her absent husband, Larry), Kathy Hesington, Jeanne Drumheller, Vivian Singleton, Marion Gardiner and Inez Fagan; (standing, third row, left to right) Nonh Keokanya, Ingrid Valentine, Sharon Caliste, Warren Gillings and Pat Nardizzi.
Long-serving employees honored at pre-25th anniversary lunch By Mary Wells
Beaumont President Joe Fortenbaugh and Chairman Don Trachtenberg were hosts at a luncheon preceding the Silver Anniversary festivities honoring 20 employees who have worked here from 10 to 25 years—two of them almost since Beaumont’s founding. Celebrating 25 years with Beaumont were Kathy Hesington (Maintenance) and Jackie Holness (Nursing). Warren Gillings (Maintenance) was honored for 20 years of service. Fifteen-year veterans cited were Pat Nardizzi (Grounds), Sam Mohan (Dining), Alex Ramirez
Rah! Tiger sis boom bah! Smiling for Old Nassau (and a Beaumont Marketing ad to run in the Princeton Alumni Weekly) are alumni (standing, from left) Dr. Robert Morgan, Quartie Clothier, Birch Clothier, Paul Mecray, George Miller and Roland Morris; seated (from left) John Butterworth, Jack Baird and Ron Fraser. Photo by Charles Mostoller
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(Personal Care), Vivian Singleton (Dietary) and Pauline Virtue (Personal Care). The largest group celebrated 10 years with Beaumont. They included Sharon Caliste (Housekeeping), Michael Curran (Security), Jeanne Drumheller (Outpatient), Larry Dwyer (Housekeeping), Inez Fagan (Personal Care), Marion Gardiner (Personal Care), Mary Gweh (Laundry), Norah Kahunde (Nursing), Nonh Keokanya (Housekeeping), Charlie Koch (Security), Raydeen Leid (Nursing) and Ingrid Valentine (Housekeeping).
The cook: Dean (Doc) Snyder tastes the progress of his maple syrup, 2013 vintage . . . Photos by Louise Hughes
Sugaring at Beaumont By Dean (Doc) Snyder
Compared with last year, the results of this year’s assault on the campus maple trees in pursuit of sap was a resounding success. Unlike last year, I began tapping a full two weeks earlier by starting in late February. I was determined to tap every sugar maple I could locate because I promised Louise Hughes of Resident Services that this year there would be enough maple syrup for all attendees at the now annual Maple Syrup French Toast Breakfast by the Pond. Mark Hritz, Director of Grounds, and his crew helped me locate six Northern maples and three Florida maples. Fortunately for me, five out of nine yielded somewhere around 40 gallons of sap from only one tap. And near the end of the run I pulled the taps when the flow stopped three days in succession. Vermonters like to call March the short but sweet maple syrup season. Last year I risked setting up my sugar camp outdoors. I began cooking the night before breakfast. It was cold. The wind was blowing and by morning I was feeling sorry for myself and also those who attended, as I had just a taste of syrup for each. This year, thanks to Mark, I borrowed his two-burner propane stove and set up my sugar house in the implement shed and that was a good thing. I was able to round up two kettles with a capacity of two gallons each. Each batch of four gallons took about two hours to cook down to approximately five ounces of syrup. You figure it! Watching water boil is just not very entertaining. But despite some snide remarks, Conservative radio saved the day for me. Weekends I 13
listened to gospel music. I miss the entertainment, but I’m happy that I can now move on to bigger and better things. This year we planned to again assemble by the Pond for french toast and real maple syrup. Those 40 gallons of sap did in fact yield one gallon of syrup, plenty for all attending, but Ol’ Man Weather threw us a curve with a snow squall. Not a problem. We moved the event indoors and with the aid of two laptop computers dialed into YouTube, we were able to show a short film on the process of making maple syrup. This we followed with a short discussion of the history of sugaring and a question and answer period. I sincerely hope that sugaring may become a tradition at Beaumont. The trees can withstand tapping for their lifetime (200 years), but long before that I will be looking for a replacement czar of sugaring.
The bottler bottles the result under the kindly though watchful eye of Marion, his wife.
From Betty Friedan to Marissa Mayer: Some thoughts on feminism By Barbara O’Brien
groups: the whaling Now that we have three industry in the 19th female Supreme Court Century in New Haven Justices, two with neither and its effect on women husbands nor children, and families. I’ve been thinking about Earlier, much to her the situation of women grandchildren’s later over the past 150 years, surprise, she served for a and have especially been time as a fill-in Dean of thinking about five generRadcliffe, while they ations of my own women looked for someone perand how attitudes toward manent, but instead of work and family have using this as a jumping-off affected us. place, she returned home Because 2013 is the and had two more 50th anniversary of Betty children. Both of my Friedan’s provocative grandmothers had the book “The Feminine ability to do independent Mystique,” we are curwork, but the climate was rently watching TV panels not yet right for them to and reading remarks about the roles and possiPhoto by Louise Hughes feel comfortable enough to do so. bilities for working women After her husband’s today, being reminded The author, Barbara O’Brien, a member of the Library Committee, at work death, my Southern that the struggle to recon- repairing a copy of Charles Higham’s book on the Duchess or Windsor. (“Very worn,” she said.) grandmother traveled cile work and family remains an active and difficult subject. Most recently, widely with a friend in parts of the eastern the new head of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer, has asked all Mediterranean, including Greece and Turkey, unusually workers to work centrally in Yahoo offices, creating daring in that era, long before the packaged tour or new problems for women who thought that they had the rental car. She and the same friend, both unable to at least partially solved the work-family problem. Ms. swim, bought a small island in Canada and managed Mayer has solved the problem for herself by building to live there in the summers until World War II. My mother, the next generation, dutifully left Bryn a nursery for her new baby next to her office, a situation Mawr College after her second year in response to the not available to just anyone. I have five granddaughters, two old enough to work cries from her Texan family that she was too far away and three still in school or college. As I write, the world during World War I. She married a handsome Army is changing for them in ways that I could not have pilot and moved to New York, where she lived with imagined, but many of the old restraints and problems two daughters. My mother was full of energy and intelligence. Even specific to women remain. Of course, my story is of five generations of educated middle-class women. when we were little, my sister and I felt the restlessThroughout the world, life is still almost hopeless for ness which was left over after she had fulfilled all her family responsibilities. Today I am sure she would be many women. Both of my grandmothers were feminists in different working for a handsome salary, but in that era she felt ways: Both admired women who took leading parts in that she must put her energy into her family needs, the suffragette movement, and worked for parity for luckily for us. She finally did find several rewarding volunteer jobs, women’s wages. Of course women who achieved prominence in the “outside world” relied totally, then including one working for music programs in the New and now, on the help of other women to run their York City schools, and eventually took a paid position households. Both of my grandmothers led generally in a school doing various jobs from decorating the useful lives in their larger communities, and both foyer to buying the library books. She went on to work for her college degree, this treasured their independence of thought, but the volunteer opportunities were not as large or as varied as time at Columbia. But, to illustrate the state of “feminism” in the late 1940s, at Thanksgiving she was they were to grow after the 1920s. My Yankee grandmother did find a topic which approached in class by a young woman who said to interested her and caused her to lecture to various continued on page 15 14
On Feminism . . . .
continued from page 14
her, “Can you help me? You look as though you know how to cook a turkey.” My mother, flush with her A grades from Mark Van Doren and Padraic Colum, was crushed. Of course we had all heard of Margaret Mead and Amelia Earhart and other standouts, but seldom, if ever, was it pointed out that their socalled freedom to make serious contributions to society was based on their household help; few, if any, children, and a certain financial security. My own headmistress at Brearley, Millicent Macintosh, later head of Barnard, had somehow managed all these things and had fit five children into her schedule, a rarity in the general sisterhood. But, to be truly independent, to work professionally, it was easier not to have a family. The next generation, my sister and I and our friends, managed to fill our lives with a mix of volunteer and professional work, but not until our family responsibilities were peripheral, rather than central. My sister was a law librarian for many years, and I went back to Brearley to teach art history. By the ’60s, the pressure for more possibilities of work for women became more insistent. Rallies, marches, books, pamphlets, media exposure and the writings of educated women like Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan increased pressure on women to explore wider possibilities and new “freedoms” at work. Of course women who had to work to help support their families, usually in menial sales or clerical jobs, didn’t have the luxury of all the new speculations and often felt put down. My own students, 17 and 18, began to speak of futures which included marriage, children, and professions, summed up in the ‘80s as “finding yourself.” But of course there was still a worm in the apple. Women who worked would need the full-time help of other women: they would have to take time off to have their children, and it was not at all certain that the workplace would be flexible enough to manage this. Men began to feel somewhat threatened by the anger in a lot of the zealous arguments and, like Freud, began to ask, “What do women want?” By 1980, the first burst of pressure was over; now we entered a new phase, how to balance family and “fulfillment” on a personal level. This remains the central challenge facing professional women today. My two daughters, the fourth generation in my story, have worked before and since their marriages, but it is a little easier for them to feel they can control their lives because they often work at home, surrounded by technology. However, their situations when they had small children were very different: My older daughter, living in France, was supported by state-run nurseries and pre-kindergartens, while my daughter in this country had to find the occasional baby sitter on her own, and was only able to work part time. 15
New Yorker cartoon, April 1 issue, P. 44, reprinted with permission of Condé Nast. © Crawford/The New Yorker Collection/www.cartoonbank.com
I have three working French grandchildren who accept work as a socioeconomic necessity, not a part of an illusory “having it all” mantra. But they are still pretty much in charge of their lives; they are beginning to marry and have children, and my grandson’s wife is also working; they are aware that the state child-care system will support them as they begin their families. Three other granddaughters are still in school or college, but when I think of my students in the ‘70s and ’80s, their hopes and assumptions that they could “do it all” seem quaint in the new online world. So where are we in 2013? As I was writing this, I saw a poll which found a high percentage of discouraged men, many out of work, not comfortable with being the major child-care providers, living with wives with jobs at many levels who are themselves stressed trying to balance, dare we even whisper, the unbalanceable. Because I worked for six years before I was married, I know the dirty little secret: Work is a lot easier than raising children. I’ve also read that many young women who can afford to are taking “time off” to be with their families when they might be more useful working on their employers to establish the sort of child care and family leave which most developed countries offer. In a radio interview after his novel “Freedom” was published in 2010, the author Jonathan Franzen described the major theme as a longing for a simpler time when parents were parents and children were children. Yes, well maybe he would like the dodo to return. We have opened the chest, and like Pandora, we’re stuck with the things that flew out.
Music at Beaumont, then and now
Recent photos by Louise Hughes; 1991 photographer unknown.
At right, residents Eugenio Calabi, violin, and Carlos Gonzalez, piano, present formal concert in front of Music Room organ as part of Anniversary Week last month; top left, in 1991, Dr. Charles Cameron brings forth the first sounds to be heard from the organ after it had undergone a three-year restoration project carried out by resident volunteers under his leadership (see story below); bottom, Jim Zug plays impromptu background music for the 320 diners who enjoyed Beaumont’s 2013 Easter buffet.
Vision, passion and eager volunteers rescued our organ By Mary Graff
As was customary in great houses along the Main Line, William Liseter Austin, President of the Baldwin Locomotive Works, included a pipe organ when he was planning the building that became the heart of Beaumont. As someone said in recalling that time, “The ultimate touch of affluence.” The organ fell upon hard times, however, along with the rest of the house, and finally ceased to function. Dr. Charles Cameron, a retired oncologist, led the restoration work that started in 1988. A story in the Main Line Times July 11, 1991, recalled that “Beyond medicine, Dr. Charles Cameron had another passion—organ music. “When he was 12 years old, his grandmother took him to Wanamaker’s in Center City Philadelphia to hear the celebrated organist, Mary Vogt. . . . “[He] studied under one of the finest, Henry Gordon Thunder, for four years. He played church organs for the glory of God, the inspiration of his listeners and for his own grateful satisfaction.” “When I first saw that abandoned organ,” Dr. Cameron told the Main Line Times, “silent, desolate, my imagination leaped ahead—ahead of those who had looked, despaired and with wagging heads said, 16
‘Leave it as is’.” Much of the work was done by more than a dozen residents who set up shop in the Arts and Crafts Room and spent more than three years restoring, as the article continued, “with infinite patience and care, every square inch of the wooden surfaces of the 2,800 or so pipes, the cabinetry, and the underground mechanism that produces the wind that fills the pipes to produce the inimitable cadences, trills and nuances.” Mary Yurchenco, who with her late husband, John, was among the first residents to move in, was one of those workers. During last month’s Timely Topics session on recollections of early Beaumont, Mary recalled the preparations for unveiling the results of their efforts in 1991: “I well remember that about 9 p.m. I got a phone call at our villa to come quickly to the Mansion; the moment had come for our leader, Dr. Cameron, to start the organ. He went to the keyboard, pressed a note—nothing happened. Much scurrying in the basement under the organ—word came to try again and this time, sound came. We had cold champagne available, brought it out and toasted a wonderful success.”