Historic Preservation Focus: Crow House
In conjunction with “Influencers,” the HSRC’s semi-permanent Rockland Voices exhibition fea-
tures the special mini-exhibit “Crow House: Hand-
made by Henry Varnum Poor.” Poor seemed to turn everything he touched into art, and that is
perhaps nowhere more evident than in the house
$500.00
and studio he designed and built as a place of
$1,000.00 $2,500.00 $5,000.00
comfort for his family on South Mountain Road......
...... How it was conceived, constructed, and enjoyed
......
are illustrated through archival images and docu-
......
ments. Contemporary photographic images from
Zip: Zip: the past decade help shed light on the present
condition of this important artist's home and stu- Ceramics Studio, Poor’s Crow House dio and beg the question: What does the future
Photograph courtesy Friends of Crow House mail:
-
State: State:
E
hold for Crow House?
......
......
loved Brook House until her death in 1981. Some
...... Acknowledgments
s Circle s
of these homes stayed within the families; others ’
"Influencers" is a joint project of the HSRC and were sold, with new residents—some famous; Rockland Center for the Arts. “Influencers” and
others, low-profile—entering the enclave. “Crow House: Handmade by Henry Varnum Poor” April 24–October 27, 2019
President SustainingPatron Benefactor At the same time, South Mountain Road was Patron Museum were made possible by a grant from the Office of Wednesdays–Fridays & Sundays,12–4 pm
succumbing to suburban spread. Homes ranging the Rockland County Executive, Department of
from modest middle-class colonials to spectacular Economic Development and Tourism. We are An exhibition using objects, archival material,
grateful for the support. We also thank the Hon.
million-dollar-plus mountaintop estates have con- images, and artworks from the collections of the
$25.00 $40.00 $50.00
$100.00 $250.00 tinued to rise throughout the twentieth century. Harriet Cornell, Rockland County Legislator, for Historical Society of Rockland County and
City: City: her personal support of this exhibition, and of Ro- Fax:
In the 2000s, Rockland County acquired develop- MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES Rockland Center for the Arts to explore how the
ment rights to protect the western end of South CA and the HSRC. landscape of South Mountain Road influenced
...... Mountain Road as open space; to save the historic Special thanks go to Peter Poor and Daly its many residents over the course of the
Flanagan, executive director, Rockland Center for twentieth century and how, in turn, the artists
...... properties, the Town of Ramapo acquired The ...... the Arts, for paintings on loan; Caroline Han- and intellectuals who found inspiration here Brocken and Crow House. But lack of funding, ...... nah, Elizabeth Felicella, James Kaval, Julie Scholz, influenced one another.
among other factors, has stalled preservation.
Sendyour contributions to:,20 Zukor Road, City, New 10956 NY
Susan Stava, Chuck Stead, and Karen Zukowski for
The Brocken is in ruins, and the condition of Makechecks payable to: The Society Historical of Rockland County subject matter expertise and photography; the ......
Crow House—the iconic house on The Road— ......
Smithsonian Archives of American Art and New-
has become desperate. York Historical Society; HSRC staff and volunteers
......
But the South Mountain Road community Richard Anderson, Meredith Campbell, Robert ......
has never shied away from challenges. From early Carroll, Susan Deeks, Christine Kowalski, Mari-
efforts to reclaim farmhouses, through the cam- anne Leese, Jennifer Plick, Clare Sheridan, Caroline
There is no is There limit tothe donation. your size of Corporate/organizational donations welcome. are Thank you!
Individual Family Centurian FellowBlauvelt paign led by Maxwell Anderson to save High Tor Student/Senior Tapley; and the Trustees of the HSRC.
from industrial quarrying, to today’s activism to The exhibition runs through the end of Octo- THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY
save watershed and woodland, South Mountain ber 2019 and is open to the public, free of charge. OF ROCKLAND COUNTY
Road has managed to retain much of the rural To arrange a group tour, contact Christine Kow- 20 Zukor Road * New City, NY 10956 Preserve Our Heritage! Join the Historical Society of Rockland County! Rockland of Society Preserve Heritage! Our Join Historical the
character with modern convenience that attract- alski, Museum Services Assistant, (845) 634-9629, (845) 634-9629 * [email protected]
Name: Name: Address: Telephone: ed the artists to it more than a century ago. [email protected]. www.RocklandHistory.org
Introduction Harold Loeb; the sculptor and painter Carroll South Mountain Road is named for its geograph- French; the textile artist Ruth Reeves; and the ical location at the southern base of the ridge of painters Morris Kantor and Martha Ryther. hills that runs, east to west, from Route 45 in Over the next three decades, the growing art- Mount Ivy to Old Haverstraw Road and that con- ists’ colony would acquire even more famous resi- tains the Low Tor and High Tor peaks. dents—notably, the composer Kurt Weill and ac- “Tor” is a Dutch word that means “craggy out- tress Lotte Lenya; the writer Marion Hargrove; the crop of rock on the summit of a hill.” The road cartoonists Milton Caniff and Bill Mauldin; and the follows the path of the West Branch of the Hack- actors John Houseman and Burgess Meredith. ensack River, which flows along the valley eastward before curving south and eventually flowing into “Exurbia” (1950–1970s) the Hackensack’s main branch in Bergen County. Henry Varnum Poor was one of South Mountain Originally inhabited by bands of Munsee Le- Two Nudes, undated Road’s most notable residents. He arrived on The By Martha Ryther nape Indians, the valley became home to Dutch On loan from Rockland Center for the Arts Road around 1920, after serving in France during and English settlers named Coe, Concklin, Gurnee, World War I. He began to concentrate on painting Roberts, and Van Houten (to name a few) in the which was still very rural. Many were introduced to and ceramics, exhibiting at the Rehn Gallery, which 1700s. They farmed and quarried local sandstone the area by John and Mary Mowbray-Clarke, who also showed the work of Nyack’s Edward Hopper. deposits. A few sandstone houses survive along had been living there at the home they called The Strong sales enabled him to buy the land in Rock- South Mountain Road; the name Coe is associated Brocken since 1908. land on which he began building a house he had with all of them. In 1799, the corner of South John, a sculptor who specialized in medallions designed relying on skills that he taught himself. Mountain Road and Zukor Road was known as and medals, was a cofounder (with the painter A.B. By the 1950s, Poor’s reputation as an artist was Coe’s Corner, named for Samuel Coe, who owned Davies) of the 1913 Armory Show, the avant-garde enhanced by his work in furniture making and the the farmhouse that is still standing there. exhibition that introduced the Modernist style to design and building of a series of distinctive struc- Fireplace with Ceramic Tiles, circa 1950 By Henry Varnum Poor for Maxwell Anderson’s Home America. From 1916 to 1927, Mary owned and op- tures on and around South Mountain Road. They Artists’ Colony (1980–1950) erated the Sunwise Turn Book Shop with the writ- included Crow House, where Poor lived with his er Madge Jenison. Sunwise Turn became a gather- haus-influenced Contempora was designed by the In the 1910s, a group of artists and writers began to wife, the writer Bessie Breuer; Ruth Reeves’s house, Le Corbusier collaborator Paul Lester Weiner. move to the western end of South Mountain Road, ing place for artists and intellectuals in the period adjacent to Crow House; Milton and Bunny between the world wars. Discus- From the mid-1950s on, Rockland faced in- Caniff’s house; Maxwell Anderson’s creasing pressure as a range of social and economic sions begun at the shop were often house and writing studio; John carried over to weekend salons at factors drove “white flight” from New York City Houseman’s mountaintop home; a and rapid suburbanization and subdivision. A.C. The Brocken. Eventually, friends house for the attorney MacDonald followed the Mowbray-Clarkes’ and Spectorsky, author of the 1955 bestseller The Exur- Deming, who had married Bessie banites, predicted that the rise of “a fearful crop of bought their own property on Breuer’s niece; and the manufactur- South Mountain Road. suburban houses” would wipe out the New City er and inventor Jules Billig’s house, artists’ enclave just as a new generation was taking Among the first to relocate Poor’s last. were the sculptor Hugo Robus; the on South Mountain Road’s eclectic mix of sand- Other significant works of Mod- stone farmhouses and ultramodern homes. ceramicist and painter Henry ernist architecture are also repre- Varnum Poor; the actor Rollo Peters sented on South Mountain Road. and poet Amy Murray; the play- The house at number 475, built in Pastoralism & Preservation (1970s– ) wright Maxwell Anderson; and the 1953 for Fortune Magazine’s art di- By 1970, Maxwell Anderson had long since moved writer Frank Ernest Hill. They were rector Will Burtin, was designed by away from The Road, dying in Connecticut in 1959. followed by the photographer Mar- Mary Mowbray-Clarke passed away in Rockland in Woman with Alligator, ca. 1930 James Marston Fitch, a founder of jorie Content, a former Sunwise By Henry Varnum Poor Columbia University’s Historic 1962, followed by Hugo Robus, Ruth Reeves, and South Mountain Road and Vicinity, 1941 Gift of Martha Ryther HSRC Collection Turn manager, and her husband, HSRC 1979.067.2 Preservation Program. And the Bau- Henry Varnum Poor. Lotte Lenya lived at her be-