Monthly Archives: May 2017

Minute Men and Concord

Photographs

Early Massachusetts.

The Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts is the location of the first battle of the colonialists against their British oppressors on April 19, 1775. The 700 British soldiers survived the sniping of the Minute Men – so named as these early American militiamen volunteered to be ready for service in one minute – staggering exhausted and shot up into Lexington in the afternoon where they were saved by 1,000 reinforcements under General Hugh, Earl Percy. A nominal victory for the colonialists and the start of hostilities.

Those seven hundred redcoats walked four abreast down this exact pathway, resplendent in their red outfits with white ‘shoot me here’ bands, convinced that their empire would last 1,000 years, like subsequent claimants to that crown. It was not to be.

Mary Hartwell was among the first to see the British from this, her home. She wrote:

The army of the King marched up in fine order and their bayonets glistened in the sunlight like a field of waving grain. If it hadn’t been for the purpose they came for I should say it was the handsomest site (sic) I ever saw in my life.

Women have always been overly impressed by uniforms.

Hartwell’s warning got to Captain William Smith some 200 yards down the road, at his home:

Smith was the commander of the Lincoln militiamen and the brother of Abigail Adams, the wife of that magnificent patriot John Adams, the driving force behind America’s revolutionary fervor. Smith rode into Lincoln town center and rallied his minute company, which arrived in Concord that afternoon. The colonialists were nothing if not prepared for their fight with the mightiest army on earth.

* * * * *

The Park is located near the town of Concord, where we stopped for lunch. Boasting no fewer than three churches in the town center – Unitarian, Congregational and Catholic – and replete with memorials for our war dead, the town is everything you expect of an early New England settlement.


Main Street, Concord.


The Catholic church anchors Main Street.


The Unitarian Universalist church.


The Minutemen met on the morning of the revolution in this tavern in Concord’s Main Street.


Another view of Main Street. The profusion of flags announces that Memorial Day is just around the corner.


No one could accuse the American Indians of being good negotiators.

A beautiful day in New England, enjoying the history of how the greatest nation there has ever been came into existence.

Trinity College

Colleges

A gem in the rough.

For an alphabetical index of the New England College series of pieces, click here.

As with all the schools we are looking at here, Trinity College In Connecticut started life as a protestant school and eventually became secular. 2,350 undergraduates call it home. Strangely, the Chapel was not built until 1932, late for this life cycle.

While the campus is self contained it is sadly surrounded by the worst imaginable neighborhoods where the locals look like so many heroin addicts. This means the only way a student would want to leave this lovely campus would be in a bus or armored car. While the surrounding area is trying to gentrify the only reasonable solution is a wrecking ball or maybe a small nuclear device. This tends to take away from the surface appeal of a college in a great city.


The original Seabury Chapel has long since been replaced. It’s boarded up and really should be torn down. It is comically small.


This is Vernon Street, the main thoroughfare through the self-contained campus.


Winston registers in the Admissions Building. Finals were two weeks ago and the campus was largely deserted.


The Trinity Chapel.


The spire of the Trinity Chapel.


While the Chapel was closed for renovations, the workers allowed us to sneak in so we could view the magnificent stained glass work.


The Long Walk, completed in 1878, is an architectural masterpiece in the Victorian Gothic style by English architect William Burges.


Another view of the Long Walk. The only example of Burges’s work in the United States, the building includes both lecture halls and student housing.


More distinguished architecture in the quad.


Centered in the large quad’s lawn, founder Bishop Thomas Church Brownell is honored.


A beautiful campus.


The architecture of the Arts Center is an acquired taste.


The Gross Music Center.

Distinguished Trinity College alumni include George Will, Edward Albee and Nicholas Monsarrat.

A reader writes, July 15, 2017:

Thank you for your informative blog on Northeastern colleges. I want to make one important correction from your photo tour of Trinity College:

The small “castle” that you called “Seabury Chapel” in your pix is nothing of the sort. It’s a fraternity house called St. Anthony Hall. Also, note that the windows are currently being restored. It was built in 1878, the same year as the Long Walk. It was built as a fraternity house, so it has never been owned by the College. That land isn’t even owned by the College.

The original site of the chapel is on the Long Walk in the building still named “Seabury.” Today, it’s a large classroom.

Hope this helps.

Best,
Douglas Kim ‘87
Vice-President of the Class of 1987
Member, St. Anthony Hall

Tufts University

Colleges

A gorgeous campus.

For an alphabetical index of the New England College series of pieces, click here.

Founded in 1852 Tufts in Boston is a research university and home to 5,200 undergraduate and 5,500 postgraduate students. Though in the city, it is self contained and absolutely beautifully maintained. We visited it on a rainy spring day and were lucky to encounter another Northfield Mount Hermon student from my son’s school!


Professors’ Row across from the tennis courts, where senior faculty live.


Gifford House, the Dean’s home on Packard Avenue.


The Olin Center for language studies.


The Hillel Center is a focus of the campus’s active Jewish life.


The elephant mascot is everywhere.


Caution! Robin’s nest.


The Goddard Chapel.


Inside the Goddard Chapel. The light streaks testify to the rain on the lens!


The Cannon. Painted over nightly by students advertising their accomplishments!


Ballou Hall, dating from 1853, is the oldest building on campus and in perfect repair.


Donated by none other than PT Barnum, whose circus saw its final performance just this week, the elephant is Tufts’ mascot.


The magnificent Tisch library


Hilary Hutchison sculpture in the Tisch Library dedicated to the students of Tufts.


Winston in the Tisch Library, home to 2.7 million volumes. The Tisch family are major Tufts benefactors.

Tufts has many distinguished alumni who include Pierre Omidyar of eBay fame, William Hurt, ambassador Bill Richardson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Eugene Fama, Jimmy Doolittle and distinguished actors David Costabile and Dan Hedaya.

Dartmouth College

Colleges

An academic jewel.

For an alphabetical index of the New England College series of pieces, click here.

Dating from 1769 Dartmouth educates 4,300 undergraduates as well as 2,100 post-graduates but eccentrically prefers to stick with the ‘College’ designation rather than calling itself the full fledged university it in fact is.

The school prides itself on sending a high percentage of undergraduates abroad during their four year stay and has a large selection of clubs and societies. After several unsavory hazing incidents in recent years, not helped by the fact that the Animal House movie was based on one of the fraternities, it is now working hard to restore the pristine image it once enjoyed. Movie or not, it remains one of America’s greatest schools.

The setting is on the Connecticut River just across the Vermont border in New Hampshire, adjacent to the small college town of Hanover with a selection of decent eateries. Presumably the Hanover name dates from the family of George III who was the ruler of America at the time of Dartmouth’s foundation, and the school’s charter is signed in his name.

My son and I opted for the guided tour as there is so much to see.



Dartmouth Hall seen across the large quad.

The Collis Center is the main student center.


The original Dartmouth Hall burned down in 1904. Reconstructed, it houses the Departments of French and Italian Languages and Literatures, German Studies, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literature.


Sanborn House houses the English Department which includes this lovely library.


Hopkins Center for the Creative and Performing Arts shares its design with Lincoln Center, and the same architect!


Maintenance is constant. In fact, Dartmouth would do well to spend some more of its endowment on upgrades to many of its buildings which are really showing their age.


The Rollins Chapel is non-denominational.


Our small tour group was shown around by an effervescent sophomore named Emma, from Palo Alto, who is clearly much taken with the College and its academic and extra-curricular variety.


Student housing buildings are distinguished by the Dartmouth Green shutters.


Look carefully and you will agree that the Administration is behind the curve in maintenance work.


The Rauner Special Collections Library contains many priceless originals, all readily available for handling without gloves (!). Three of the four volumes of Audubon’s ‘Birds of America’ are on display, a gift of alumnus Daniel Webster.

Dartmouth has a long and distinguished alumni roster which includes Dr. Seuss, Nelson Rockefeller, Daniel Webster, Meryl Streep, Robert Frost, Timothy Geithner, Robert Reich, Jeffrey Immelt and Salmon Chase, in addition to scores of senators and congressmen. The no less distinguished Amos Tuck School of Business can lay claim to the highest percentage of graduate donors at 66%.