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THE GUNNERY
CLASSnotes
Holiday House How many alumni remember stumbling on the large, old, stone foundation in Steep Rock and wondering about its origins? You may have even kicked up a 19th century bottle thrown long ago in the house dump. This is a hand-colored postcard of Holiday House, which was built by Edward Hook Van Ingen overlooking the Shepaug River. His summer cottage the Knoll (which became Bourne Hall) was the first summer home in Washington. Mr. Van Ingen owned some textile factories in Brooklyn and he asked Ehrick Rossiter (Class of 1870) to design a summer retreat for his female employees. The shop girls would come up on the train from New York and cross the Shepaug on a foot bridge designed
by Washington Roebling, the son who was the civil engineer on the Brooklyn Bridge for his father, John A . Roebling who designed it. Carriages would convey the girls up the hill to Holiday House for a two-week vacation. While they were there, boys from Hampton Institute of Virginia were their waiters, drivers, and servants. An African American college, the Hampton Institute, had close ties to Washington and their students came north in the summer to work and earn money for their tuition. They camped on the Gunnery athletic fields in the summer and gave concerts in the various churches.
1948
1951
Ed McHugh writes “Every day is the same …
During Commencement celebrations, David Hoadley told the story of many trips to the PO
very good.” Al Stiles wrote that his new hobby is making
wooden puzzles with complex, thumb-sized pieces in the shape of birds and animals.
1950 65th Reunion
as a student. He was suspended by Irving Von Gal, the proprietor, for two weeks because he threw a 22 caliber bullet on the ground and it exploded. “It was the longest two weeks of my life.” His standard order was a 10-cent Coke and a Frisbie pie.
Bruce Bradshaw came down to the archives
during alumni weekend and was looking at photos of his cousins Mike ’64 and Dave ’52 Renkert.
1954
Mary Post gave The Gunnery a gift “in honor
of the wonderful men of the class of 1954 who asked my husband Michael Post and me to be
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