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Mrs. CowIe s, co:m:mented, "I shall always be glad you took :me to the Pope house -- it see:med to :me the ideal of what an A:merican country ho:me should be. II And Willia:m Ja:mes, a frequent visitor, wrote, "A great new house on a hilltop -- in which an array of :modernistic pictures, :mostly French, wondrous e x a:mples of Manet, of Degas, of Claude Monet, of Whistler, of other rare and recent hands tr e ated us -- no proof of the sovereign power of art could have been for the :mo:ment sharper - - it was like the sudden trill of a nightingale, lord of the hushed evening. II Following the construction of Hill Stead, Theodate continued to work pe riodically at the Field House, developing further her technique s of de sign. She also traveled frequently to Europe, absorbing further its architectural treasures, her traveling co:mpanion usually be ing Mary Hillard. Finally, about 1909, her first :major architectural as s ign:ment ca:me in the des igning of Westover School at Middlebury, Connecticut. Through the efforts of her father and his close friend J. H. Whitte:more, also a collector of paintings of the I:mpre s s ionis t School, the :money was raised and the building rapidly took shape. Its construction was co:mpleted in 1912, and Mary Hillard beca:me the Head:mistress. A handso:me building, it was thus described by Cas s Gilb e rt, the renowned architect: liThe work is beautifully des igned and b e autifully planned. It is in fact the best girlls school that I know in the country. The details are refined and scholarly, and the proportions of the ar c hite ctur e ar e exc ee dingly well sustained throughout. The building is a rather ext e nsive one , for:ming four side s of a large quadrangle or cloister, and is r e fr e shing in its c har:m and si:mplicity. II On August 8, 1 9 13, Alfr e d At:more Pope suddenly died at Hill Stead. It ca:me as a great shock to his daughter, as they were particularly close. The r e followed a p e riod of divid e d allegiance. While not abandoning her designing (she built the Long Island residence of Mrs. Charles o. Gates, a ho:me at Middl e bury for Professor Joseph P. Cha:mberlain, three double cottage s at Far:mington, and the Hop Brook School at Naugatuck, Connecticut), she turned :more intensively to psychic research, in which she had long b ee n int e r e ste d. H e r previous interest in the field had been inspired by the d e ath of Mary Hillard I s brother John, when he was but 26 years old, and w ith w ho:m The odate had fallen d e eply in love. The fa:mous Mrs. Piper was the :me d iu:m, and long records of her co:m:munications, which she and Mary H illard felt indicat e d co:m:munication with John, were :made a :matter of r ec ord. With h e r fa the r, the r e se e :me d to b e no co:m:munication. But h e r intere st w as such that she ev e n proposed to endow a Chair in Psychical Pheno:me non , for Harvard Unive rs ity, though this fell through because the two p a r tie s c ould not c o:me to a satisfactory agree:ment as to the ter:ms. A furthe r outle t w as provided by her procuring as a legal ward a baby boy, na:med Gordon Brockway, a particularly beautiful child with curly blond hair and blue e y e s. She placed hi:m under the care of an elderly couple who inhab i t e d the cottage and who brought hi:m daily to Hill Stead whe n