HGB Ep. 582 - The Mount

Moment in Oddity - Emma Gatewood (Jenny Lynn Raines)

Back in 1955, there was a little granny by the name of Emma Gatewood who one day told her family that she was "going for a hike in the woods". Emma was 67 years old and known by all as Grandma Gatewood. She was a mother of 11 children and grandmother of 23 grandchildren. She was a strong woman after growing up doing strenuous manual labor on the family farm as a child and later marrying Perry Clayton Gatewood who set her to work building fences and mixing cement. Unfortunately, he also physically abused her for more than 30 years. The Monday that Emma told her family that she was going out for a hike, little did they know that diminutive Grandma Gatewood was setting out to establish a record. The 'woods' that Grandma was referring to was the Appalachian Trail and through her grit and determination, she became the first woman to solo hike the entire 2,168 mile trek. She did so with minimal equipment which consisted of the following:  a homemade denim bag with essentials like a blanket, shower curtain, cup, canteen, small pot, spoon, Swiss Army knife, first-aid kit, pins, flashlight, rope, raincoat, warm coat, and a change of clothes, as well as her trusty Keds sneakers. The journey took Grandma Gatewood 146 days and she was not only the first woman to hike the entire trail, but she went on to become the first person to hike the trail three times. Her hiking style was somewhat unconventional as she hiked without a map, tent or sleeping bag and she occasionally relied on the kindness of strangers for food and additional shelter which was more than her shower curtain and minimalist approach could provide. Taking up hiking at an older age is admirable, but accomplishing such a feat as hiking the whole Appalachian Trail not only once, but three times at the age of 67, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Susanna M. Salter elected the first female mayor in the U.S.

In the month of April, on the 4th, in 1887, Susanna M. Salter was elected the first female mayor in the U.S. in Argonia, Kansas. In the late 19th century the women's suffrage movement was gaining strength, bolstering the push for women's right to vote and have a voice in civic life. That burgeoning push for social change inspired many women to step up to challenge the opposition of societal norms. The movement was supported by organizations like the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and this is how the environment changed and America's first female mayor's story began. In Argonia, Kansas, there was a group of men who believed that there was no place in politics for women. As a spoof, the men decided to add the name of Susanna M. Salter to the ballot for the position of mayor. The men, thinking it was a great joke, believed that the prank would emphasize their point of view. Mrs. Susanna Salter was an active, respected and beloved member of the community. The men's goal of nominating Salter without her knowledge was to prove their point that women had no purpose in politics. Their intention was to humiliate Mrs. Salter and to discourage all women from striving for equality, especially in the world of politics. When word spread of the men's antics, Susanna's supporters quickly turned the prank into a full blown campaign. Many rallied for the unexpected nominee and to the pranksters' chagrin, Susanna M. Salter won by a landslide with over 60% of the vote. Not only did Ms. Salter break a glass ceiling, she proved that women do indeed have a seat at the political table.

The Mount (Suggested by: Mary Larkin)

Edith Wharton was a woman ahead of her time when she was born into her upper-class New York family. In 1921, she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature and is considered one of America's greatest writers. She inspired countless other authors and gave the world a glimpse into the rich of the Gilded Age. Wharton also wrote ghost stories. She believed in ghosts. The home that she built, that is known as The Mount, is said to be haunted. Join us as we explore this interesting woman's life and the history and hauntings of The Mount.

The Mount is located in Lenox, Massachusetts in the highland area of western Massachusetts known as The Berkshires (Burk sheer z). The man who named them was the royal governor between 1760 to 1769, Sir Francis Bernard. The name came from an area in England known as Berkshire. Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick from his home that had a view of a Berkshire mountain that looked a lot like a white whale when covered with snow. Melville described that whale as a "grand hooded phantom, like a snow hill in the air," which supports the theory that he was inspired by the mountain. Someone else who found inspiration at the Berkshires was Edith Wharton.

George Frederic Jones was a wealthy man from real estate investing and the profits of his family-owned bank, the Chemical Bank of New York. That bank was one of the 3rd largest banks in the United States all the way up until 1995. Legend claims that this Jones family is the one that inspired the saying "keeping up with the Joneses." George was born in New York in 1821. In 1844, he married Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander. Lucretia came from a wealthy family and grew up on her grandfather's estate that was called "The Mount." Frederic's parents didn't approve of Lucretia and they told their son that if he continued to court her, they would not give him a sailing boat he wanted. Frederic married Lucretia anyway. They would experience times of financial hardship, which was worsened by an addiction Lucretia picked up. While on their honeymoon in Paris, Lucretia saw all of the lovely clothes made and sold there and she became a "clothes-a-holic," wearing only clothes imported from Paris. The couple would have three children, Frederic, Henry and Edith. Edith was the youngest and born twelve years after Henry in 1862.

The family lived in a brownstone at 14 West 23rd Street in New York City when Edith was born. That brownstone no longer stands and was replaced with a building housing apartments and several businesses. Starbucks is currently at 14 W. 23rd St. Friends and family called Edith "Pussy Jones." Although Edith was born during the Civil War, her family wasn't affected much by the war. After the war, they traveled extensively through Europe, visiting Germany, Italy, Spain and France. France became a favorite of the family and many of them would die in France in their elder years, including Edith. Women were encouraged to find themselves a good mate and raise children at this time in America, but that wouldn't suit Edith at all. She pushed back against the female fashion of the time and the etiquette. And she wanted a good education. Her father didn't agree with that and so she had to turn to books and self-education. These were restricted to educational type books as Lucretia feared that Edith would be hard to marry off if she got the wrong ideas from novels. She forbade her daughter to read any novels until she was married. It was said that Edith obeyed her mother on that point. Edith said of her reading, "No children of my own age…were as close to me as the great voices that spoke to me from books. Whenever I try to recall my childhood it is in my father’s library that it comes to life."

From her travels, Edith became fluent in French, Italian and German. She also came to appreciate art and architecture. Edith developed her writing skills and she wrote a book of poetry at the age of sixteen, which the family published privately. At that same time, she was secretly writing a novella. She didn't tell anyone because her mother had squashed an earlier effort she made at writing a novel when she was eleven. Edith made her "debut" into society when she was seventeen. She didn't care for the parties and dances and all the rituals of high society. This will be made clear in her novels in which she skewered these trappings of the Gilded Age. She courted a couple of young men. The first, Henry Leyden Stevens, did propose marriage, but it ended shortly thereafter. Just before that, Edith's father died while the family was in Cannes, France. The year was 1882. She courted another young man, but no proposal came from that. The years passed and Edith obtained the age of twenty-three without a proposal. She was reaching "old maid" status.

Edith's brothers, Frederic and Henry, had a good friend named Edward Wharton, whom everyone called Teddy. He was born into the priviledged life as well, growing up in a wealthy family. He graduated from Harvard and came into his trust fund, which he used to travel. In 1883, he met Edith while they were both in Bar Harbor, Maine. They courted and married in New York in 1885. They purchased an estate in Newport, Rhode Island in 1893. This was a described as a summer "cottage," but we ran across a listing for it in 2019 that had it for sale for $11.7 million. It's utterly gorgeous. Although Edith was wealthy, she didn't removate Land's End into an extravagant place. She cherished simplicity. Edith so enjoyed the decorating of Land's End that she co-authored a tome on design and architecture with Ogden Codman, Jr. titled "The Decoration of Houses" in 1897. It was her first major book. Her time in Newport inspired the novel "The Age of Innocence." After ten years, Edith was done with the community of Newport and its stuffiness. The Whartons decided to buy a property in the Berkshires and build their own estate. This would be The Mount.

The original property was 113 acres and the Whartons were excited to bring a mixture of culture and traditions from their travels through France, Italy and Britain to the decor of the house and the landscape. Edith poured herself into The Mount, so when one sees this grand place, they really are seeing Edith Wharton. The Belton House in England inspired some of the design of the main house.  That house too is reported to be haunted. The spirit is described as being a black-clad spirit that haunts the bedchamber reserved for royal visits. Construction began in 1901 and finished in 1902 and the Whartons hired architect Francis L.V. Hoppin to design the Georgian-Revival manor. The exterior features white stucco and there are dozens of windows framed by dark green shutters. The ground floor has stonework on the outside. The west end of the house is three stories and the garden side is two stories. The manor is capped by a balustrade and cupola.

Ogden Codman, Jr. helped Edith with the interior design. Their main focus was on symmetry, proportion and functionality. The entrance hall features a statue of Pan. There was a library filled with books. The Main Staircase is lined with Rococo-style paintings and leads to the Gallery, which is Italian with archways and terracotta tiles and rows of windows to help show off the art the Whartons had collected. The Dining Room has two French doors leading out onto the back veranda and dark murals on the walls featuring fruit and flowers. There were no overhead lights or square tables in the room because Edith detested both of those things. And although she was about simplicity, many of the walls have embossed designs on them and the crown molding is ornate. Several ceilings also have embossed and elaborate designs. The bedrooms were on the second floor. Edith had her own room and did most of her writing in bed in the morning. She also had an office for writing. There was a sewing room on this floor, as well as a personal maid's room and closets. The main floor had the butler’s pantry, brush room for cleaning shoes and outdoor wear, and offices for household management. The ground floor had the kitchen, a scullery, laundry room and servants' dining room.

Edith designed the formal gardens herself in an Italian style, so they were laid out like rooms. The walled garden had walks and a rustic fountain with a lion's head spout. Her niece was well known landscape architect Beatrix Farrand and she helped Edith design the entrance drive into the house and the kitchen garden. There were walking trails and natural wooded areas. There were also terraced lawns and a French flower garden with a small pool that featured a dolphin fountain in the center. Sweet ferns and grass-covered steps were part of the alpine rock garden. The landscape underwent an extensive restoration that started in 1999 and took several years. Other buildings on the property included a Georgian-Revival gatehouse and stable and Lord and Burnham Greenhouse. BTW, a company bought all the plans and materials and such in 2018 and so is still manufacturing the greenhouses.

Edith wrote of her house, "On a slope over-looking the dark waters and densely wooded shore of Laurel Lake we built a spacious and dignified house, to which we gave the name of my great-grandfather’s place, the Mount…There for ten years I lived and gardened and wrote contentedly…” The Whartons had many servants that had been with them for years and a few Edith considered to be friends. She wrote, "Several of our servants have been with us for so long that I know to the full the strength of feeling one has about such irreplaceable friends." Most of their work was done in the southern wing. Edith wrote forty books in forty years and her most prolific years came at The Mount. It wasn't a happy time for Edith and Teddy though. They were ill-matched and spent the early years of their marriage traveling and raising dogs. They had little in common and Teddy was mentally unstable. Edith took on a lover named Morton Fullerton. She wrote to him of The Mount, "I am amazed at the success of my efforts. Decidedly, I’m a better landscape gardener than novelist, and this place, every line of which is my own work, far surpasses The House of Mirth." That novel she published in 1905. She would also write Ethan Frome here, which was published in 1911. That same year, the Whartons decided to separate and sell the house. Their divorce would be finalized in 1913. Although Edith only spent ten years at The Mount, it is the home she is most known for and it is her legacy. She moved permanently to France.

Edith didn't leave Paris when World War I broke out. She jumped into the war effort through charities and humanitarian groups. These included setting up tuberculosis sanitariums, refugee hostels, work for the unemployed and schools for refugee children.She even went to the front lines to document experiences in writing. For all of her work, she was awarded the French Legion of Honor. After the war, she left Paris for a suburban villa in a small village. In 1920, Edith wrote The Age of Innocence, which was first published in serial form in the magazine Pictorial Review. In October of that year, it was published in book form and went on to win the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Wharton was the first woman to receive a Pulitzer. The novel is set in the New York of Wharton's childhood and was said to be a kinder and gentler version of her work The House of Mirth. The novel reflects on the prewar world that was now lost and Wharton was sad for that. Many of our listeners may have seen the 1993 film of the same name by Martin Scorsese and starring Michelle Pfeiffer as Countess Olenska, Daniel Day-Lewis as Archer, and Winona Ryder as May Welland Archer. Winona Ryder was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance.

Edith only returned to America twice after move to Paris. She spent her latter years writing, gardening and raising dogs. She received an Honorary Doctorate from Yale in 1923. She is remembered as one of America’s greatest writers and the fact that wrote over 40 books in 40 years is an impressive feat not matched by many. She died on August 11, 1937 at the age of 75 at Pavillon Colombe. She is buried, in the Cimetière des Gonards in Versailles. As for The Mount, it became a private residence for a time and then a girls' dormitory for Foxhollow School. It sat vacant for a few years and then a theater group called Shakespeare & Company moved. The Edith Wharton Restoration acquired the property and restored it to its original condition and opened it as a museum. They continue to manage the property that sits on just 50 acres of the original plot. None of the furnishings belong to the Whartons as Edith took everything with her when she moved to Europe. The one exception is the library that has 2500 books that belonged to Edith. All forty of the books she wrote are in the library too. The books are written in several languages and feature a range of subjects revealing how varied Edith's interests were. Many of the books have personal annotations by Edith. The Terrace Cafe has food offerings. Events and weddings can be booked for the property. Group tours and ghost tours are offered. Meaning, The Mount is haunted!  

Wharton was interested in paranormal activity because she had experienced it herself. Many people who read Wharton may be unaware that she not only wrote ghosts stories, but she was very good at crafting them. Edith wrote in the preface to her book Ghosts, which was a compilation of what she felt were her best pieces of supernatural fiction, "I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m afraid of them." She had a fear of ghosts that went back to her childhood. She was sick with typhoid fever when she was nine and almost died. While her mother wouldn't allow her to read novels, a couple of her friends snuck her some books and she wrote of one of the books, "To an unimaginative child the tale would no doubt have been harmless, but it was a 'robber-story' and with my intense Celtic sense of the supernatural, tales of robbers and ghosts were perilous reading." Edith wrote that after she recovered from her illness, "I came to myself, it was to enter a world haunted by formless horrors. I had been a naturally fearless child; now I lived in a state of chronic fear. Fear of what? I cannot say – and even at the time, I was never able to formulate this terror. It was like some dark, indefinable menace, forever dogging my steps, lurking, and threatening; I was conscious of it wherever I went by day, and at night it made sleep impossible, unless a light and a nursemaid were in the room." That didn't keep her from being a fan of the genre as she got older. She would read the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, M.R. James and she said of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw it "stands alone among tales of the supernatural." And her childhood fear gave her inspiration for her own ghost stories. Her first ghost story was titled "The Fulness of Life" and it was published in 1893. The last story she ever wrote was also a ghost story titled "All Souls." Interestingly, she did say during an interview that she couldn't bear to sleep in a room with a book containing a ghost story until she was almost 30 and "I have frequently had to burn books of this kind because it frightened me to know they were downstairs in the library." Now she just might be a ghost herself.

When The Mount was the Foxhollow School for Girls, the first stories of paranormal activity were reported. This started in 1942. The girls reported hearing unexplained noises and having things disappear. When the theater company moved in, the actors reported similar activity that the female students had reported. They too heard weird sounds and they often saw a figure in period dress. Through the years, guests and staff have reported seeing pale faces gazing out of windows from rooms that are empty. Disembodied footsteps are heard in the hallways. Female visitors have had their hair pulled in Teddy's former study. Ghost Hunters visited the location twice - once in 2009 and again in 2015 - and captured audio and visual evidence that included disembodied footsteps and voices.

One of the spirits thought to be here is said to belong to a chambermaid of Edith's named Catherine Gross. The story about her claims that she became pregnant from a lover who rejected her and she hanged herself from the upstairs landing. People claim to see her hanging from that spot. There is also the ghost of a male apparition with glowing eyes. This was seen by a contractor doing renovations in an upstairs apartment. A shadow figure has been seen wandering in the woods near the house and this has been reported for decades. Another ghost seems to belong to Edith's caretaker and chauffer, Charles Cook. This apparition hangs out in the stables mostly and appears many times as a shimmering ball of light. A whispered "goodnight" is heard often as well. We have also seen some stories that claim Wharton is here, although she clearly didn't die here, so maybe she just visits a home that once meant a lot to her. Another female ghost is sometimes seen appearing with sunken eyes and cheeks looking out the window of Edith's bathroom. The Mount's Rebecka McDougall explains that "the ghost tours bring the property to life in an altered, shadowy light. We share stories from former residents, staff and visitors of ghostly encounters and the unexplained" and recent visitors have "mysterious movements and the feeling of an unseen hand on their shoulder."

Seeing this extraordinary house during the day would be amazing. Going on a flashlight tour of the house at night would be a lot of fun. It seems as though there are many spirits here, perhaps conjured by the lovely ghost tales Edith Wharton spun. Is The Mount haunted? That is for you to decide!