August 11

Sorry, but this theme of it getting too late is at play once again. I will add text tomorrow, I hope… if that day does not go too long. I did get photos from today’s parks loaded in the Daily Trip Report section. Go Washington Senators… Dash and Mack will remember that name.

Time to do August 11. How many of you watch the Emmy award winning show, Pardon The Interruption (PTI), on ESPN? Tony and Mike have a section called “Errors and Omissions”. Well, I have a couple to mention. First, going back to the versions of the sculpture of Col. Shaw by Saint Gaudens at Saint Gaudens NHS and on Boston Commons. The Boston Common casting was in 1897 and was the one for which Saint Gaudens was unhappy. He was being pressured to complete the work and so he provided a finished product. But then he decided to go about tweaking the plaster to make improvements, which he then exhibited in Paris twice, where he won blue ribbons. The bronze casting on the grounds of the NHS is from that final version. I want to thank Ranger Bob Widger from the NHS for providing this information.

The second correction concerns Adams NHP. I will start with this park for today’s comments, since rectifying is needed. John Adams provided the main effort to construct the church. He obtained the granite, made plans, and started a trust fund to finance the work. John Quincy was the force behind getting the church leaders to finally start the project. I would like to thank Bob Quinn, the tour guide who showed me around the church, for this information. But all the work which the Adams and others did really paid off. The church is beautiful. And I love the doors on the pews. As Bob said, the practice of paying for a family pew was the way of life back then. Each family could deed their pew to heirs, just like a house or horse. I put a photo of the two white buttons on the one pew. If only one button or no buttons were seen, then the congregation would know that family was behind in their “giving”. The church is right across the street from the park’s VC. Be sure to park in the four-level garage at the VC, so the rangers can validate your parking ticket. The rangers will also give you a map to help you get to the birthplace homes and the Old House… but you have to have a reservation. See www.recreation.gov to make reservations. They will sell out quickly, like many tours in the various parks. It only takes a few minutes of driving to get to each site, Quincy not being that large of a city. I would say the two birthplace homes stand out like a sore thumb, relatively speaking, to their surroundings. The old Post Road may have been dirt with wooden buildings back in the day, but today it is asphalt with many businesses and 20th century homes all around. One item I will never forget is Ranger Eve telling our group that an archeological dig discovered the outhouse for the house in which John Quincy Adams was born was located in the middle of the street just outside the front door.

As I mentioned in the Daily Trip Report, the artifacts in the Old House are original. This is the home John and Abigail Adams bought when they were considering returning to Braintree in the 1780s from Europe. Arriving in 1788, hope was dashed of enjoying the home since Adams became the country’s first Vice-President in 1789. But the home stayed in the family for multiple generations. A stand of roses which Abigail planted can be viewed in the flower gardens. And a large yellowwood tree which John planted is in the yard. The tour ends in the Library, a building which is separate from the house. A later generation of Adams kept the volumes in pristine condition. This is one large, impressive collection of books.

The Old House had been named the Vassall-Borland house based on its original owner. Mr. Vassall was also the owner of the house which Henry Longfellow bought. But since Vassall was a loyalist, he knew he had to abandon ship in 1775 and move to a house in downtown Boston to be safe from the anti-British colonists. That meant that house was not occupied. But not for long. Since it was the best house in Cambridge, General Washington set up shop to run the siege operations of Boston. When that ended in 1776, the state of Massachusetts took control of the property (Vassall was one of 1,000 loyalists who the King allowed to sail to England). Over time it came into the hands of Henry Longfellow, the greatest American poet of all time… can you say GOAT. Since multiple Longfellow generations lived in the home, all the furnishings and artwork are original to the family. The carpet is even an artifact, such that all the visitors had to walk on designated paths so as not to touch the carpet and floorings. A formal garden is out the backdoor, but it seemed that most of the blooming happened earlier in the year. Longfellow was an ardent abolitionist, giving piles of money to the cause.

About 15 minutes away is the home in which John F. Kennedy was born. Unlike the Interstates I was on in the last two days, the city streets were not too bad. Just let Google Maps play on your phone and the time flies. Parking can be a problem since every city street says you need a permit. I figured no one was going to worry about my car for ten minutes. With the house closed in 2023 for renovations, all I could do was take a few photos. Then another 15 minutes to Frederick Law Olmsted’s office and home. Just as Longfellow’s and Adams’ homes were basically museums with old priceless artifacts, Olmsted’s office was a similar time capsule. Though the instruments in the rooms we toured might not bring in as much money at a Sotheby auction, I was more intrigued since I have been an engineer for 40 years. The German device which was a gigantic plastic tube for creating blueprints had to be the most interesting. Before this invention, special paper would have to be put out into sunlight for the chemicals to work their magic. Now the transformation could be done inside via high-powered light bulbs. The drafting room looked like my freshman year engineering class. Yes, I had to learn to draft, with T-squares and the like. Nowadays the kids use CAD systems for drawing. If you go to Acadia or Yosemite, you will see some of Olmsted’s work. The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina is his doing as well. The thousands of projects he developed forever shaped the world of landscape architecture.