Fruitland: The Utopian Experience - Harvard MA

May 25, 2014

 Months ago, we visited Orchard House in Concord, the home of Bronson Alcott. Bronson was the father of Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women.  At Orchard House, we learned of a Utopian experience in Harvard MA in which the Alcotts were involved. Bronson moved his family to Fruitlands, convinced that he would find the utopia he sought there. We decided to visit to learn more about the Alcotts and their experience in so-called "utopia". 

                    

To start, it was a beautiful day. Secondly, Fruitlands is located on Prospect Hill in Harvard and the views from atop the hill are incredible. One can literally see for miles.

View across a magnificent stone wall toward the mountain rang and five major peaks.

Ironically, we can thank philanthropist Clara Endicott Sears who had purchased the property to build a house on Prospect Hill with saving Fruitlands. She discovered an abandoned farmhouse in ruins tucked in one corner of the property It was the Fruitlands farmstead where the Alcotts lived. They remained here only seven months before Bronson had to admit the Utopian experience was a failure.  Sears was intrigued and thankfully rich and set out to restore the site and created the Fruitlands Museum.

The restored Alcott Farmstead

                                          

While researching for the restoration, Sears also discovered the connection between Alcott and the Harvard and Shirley Shaker communities. When the Shaker communities closed, Sears was able to purchase the Harvard Shaker house and artifacts and moved them to the Fruitlands site to create a Shaker Museum.

The Shaker Museum

During the excavations for the museums, an arrowhead was found. This find led Sears to the decision to create a Native American Museum on site as well.  The museum would focus primarily on local tribes, but would also have exhibits from tribes from all over the U.S.. This was definitely a favorite of mine. The clothing exhibits were particularly good and displays of axes, celts and arrowheads reminded me of collections from my youth.

Native American kayak 

I became one with the bear rug.

Outside the Native American Museum were two great bronzes. 

                                                

Sears also had an avid interest in art and added an art museum to the site. While we were there, there was a special exhibit of the Elaine Ehrenkranz Basket Collection and one on The Changing Landscape of Fruitlands. The permanent collections included the Hudson River School Landscapes and portrait collections. 

We finished the day with lunch at the cafe (associated with the Gibbet Hill Grill) - excellent by the way, but passed on the available hiking trails.  Instead, we checked out a few of the sculptures scattered about the property and the work of the artist-in-residence. 

                                                         

                            

What a day! It turned out to be perfect for a retirement adventure. Should I attribute finding Fruitlands to coincidence, luck or divine intervention? 

I shot and arrow in the air

where it landed

I know not where

I think not!

                              

Help from above?

I think not!

Whatever the cause … 

… whatever led us here … 

it does not matter.

Whatever the reason

I felt closer to Louisa May Alcott

than I had ever felt before.

And that was enough.

                   

Cyrus McCormick Farm and Museum - Raphine VA

May 3, 2014

On the way home to Vermont from Virginia, we stopped to see the Cyrus McCormick Farm and Museum. The farm is where Cyrus grew up and where at age eleven made his first invention to improve the wheat harvesting process. Years later, at age twenty-five, he completed his working model of a more efficient harvester, the invention that brought him fame. 

As a museum, the McCormick Farm is very average, but enjoyable. The original home is used for administrative purposes and the workshop and mill contain exhibits. However, what is lacking in the museum is more than compensated for by the site itself. It is absolutely beautiful. The day we stopped was sunny and warm. We had stopped in Lexington at Kenny's to buy the "best " fried  chicken in the area and had decided to have a picnic. That was definitely a great decision. The pictures tell the story well. 

Kenny's fried chicken

Surrounding farmland

Home

Anne at bridge over the  creek

Grindstone

Like the tree in the background

Mill wheel

Workshop

Gari Melchers Home and Studio - Falmouth VA

May 2, 2014

Thanks to a New Year's visit to the Carolina's and Folly Beach, we have suffered every since with acute Spring Fever. I suppose that I can thank global warming at least in part for the bizarre weather patterns we have experienced this year  … the worst of which is the absence of Spring for the cabin fever-plagued Vermonters.  The cure … sun and warm and a few flowers thrown in for good measure. A road trip South would do the trick.

We packed the car and headed for Virginia. We consulted weather.com for the Virginia forecast. There we found severe rain, wind, cold and tornado warnings. I was not encouraged.

Thank goodness for inaccurate weather reports. Other areas in the South were catching hell, but Virginia started to clear by the time we reached it. Our plans called for us to reach the Winchester area by nightfall and to head towards Richmond to visit my nephew and family the next day. Along the way, we were treated to a series of huge farms with mansions centered amid the rolling hills and accented with the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background. Our interim destination was Falmouth, VA,  just outside of Fredericksburg where Anne had attended college. Located there was Belmont, the home and studio of artist Gari Melchers.




The setting of the Melchers homeplace was just what we needed. Everything was pristine and the grounds were bursting with the colors of spring flowers, and blossoming shrubbery and trees.












Wisteria lined the picket fence in the front.
















In the rear of the property was a walking trail down to the river. Through the redbuds and dogwoods, the rapids of the Rappahannock River were visible below.



We arrived just in time for the first house and studio tour of the day.  We entered the house and were greeted immediately by a short, elderly lady with a distinct southerns Virginia accent reminiscent of South Boston, VA where we grew up. The lady was dressed impeccably … seemingly as pristine as the property itself.  The tour was  a real treat. Melchers was destined to be the artist he became.  Son of a artist himself, he was sent to Paris for his art education where he soon excelled. He lived in worked for 25 years in the Netherlands  and later in New York. A prominent portrait painter to the famous and wealthy of his time, although his real passion was painting the common man much like the work of Rockwell. The one thing he never experienced was the life of the starving artist … it seemed his success was meant to be. He came to Falmouth seeking a rural retreat from the hustle and bustle of New York. After his death, his wife eventually willed the home, his studio and the contents of each to the State of Virginia.

Melchers had several studios over the course of his career, but his favorite was the last, the one located at his home, Belmont. The studio today house his old desk, palette, brushes and tools. In addition, were severe rooms adorned with his paintings.






















The remainder of our visit was spent enjoying the grounds and the sunshine we needed so badly.

The garage

Trellis on the long walkway

Garden sculpture

The Spring House

                                                                                     

Melchers Home and Studio was definitely a good find … informational and beautiful. Perhaps I was wrong … perhaps, Spring will come this year after all.