The Grey Towers Legacy Information and Calendar of Events Volume 14, Issue 1 USDA Forest Service 2012 needs are met, people will then think The Pinchots and The Greatest about the environment. Good: How One Family Improved Amos Pinchot spent the majority of his adult life fighting for people he Social Justice and Civil Rights in thought were bullied by “Big Business” and government. In 1915, he headed America an organization called the Little Civil The Pinchot family has for rights for Native Americans; Liberties Bureau, a group of lawyers a long-standing goal provided free college education to who offered pro bono defense of cases of conservation, men and women; supported the arts; that protected basic civil liberties such civil rights, and founded and supported civil rights as free speech, free press, peaceful social justice. organizations; campaigned tirelessly assembly, liberty of conscience, and Gifford Pinchot for the rights of workers, women, freedom from search and seizure. The was not just a and children; and much more. Few Little Civil Liberties Bureau eventually conservationist wealthy families of the nineteenth became the American Civil Liberties and a forester— century can point with pride to such Union. Amos served on its Board until he was a trust dedicated efforts on behalf of the less his death. buster, fearless fortunate. Cornelia Pinchot: explorer, and a Gifford Pinchot The U.S. Forest Service and its Cornelia, Gifford proponent of public partners continue to explore this Pinchot’s electric power. He family’s efforts to improve the basic wife, was a fought the corruption in which the rich human rights that we enjoy today. suffragette and powerful dominated the agenda of Grey Towers National Historic Site, who helped government. Pinchot’s ancestral home in Milford, get women Pinchot is known for reforming PA, continues to deliver public the right how forests in the United States programs and interpretive tours to to vote. were managed and developed and thousands of visitors annually. She worked for advocating the conservation of tirelessly for These Pinchot family members public good, Cornelia Pinchot the Nation’s forest reserves through continue to inspire us and our visitors: planned use and renewal. He called helping to put an it “the art of producing from the Amos Pinchot: end to child labor, forest whatever it can yield for the At the risk of taking a stand against low pay and service of man.” We also know it as alienating poor working conditions for women, “the greatest good for the greatest himself from and pursuing fair and just treatment number in the long run.” As governor his family of minorities in our country. She of Pennsylvania, Pinchot concentrated and his niche joined committees, started trade union on popular reforms: improving the in society, leagues, and walked picket lines with government economy, enforcing Gifford working women who were demanding Prohibition, regulating public utilities, Pinchot’s equal pay for equal work. She was a providing relief for the unemployed, younger brother founding member of the Committee and constructing paved roads to “get Amos fought 100, which was dedicated to justice and the farmers out of the mud.” vehemently for basic equality for African American citizens, human and civil Amos Pinchot and helped increase the National This altruism is rooted in generations rights. We can Association for the Advancement of that came before, during, and after learn from Amos’ perspective that as a Colored People (NAACP) legal defense Gifford’s time. His ancestors and society, we must help people first meet and education fund by $120,000 relatives fought slavery; campaigned their basic human needs. Once those within the first 7 years. Today we (Continued on page 2) Page 2 2012 Grey Towers Legacy The Pinchots and the Greatest Good (continued) can revisit Cornelia’s viewpoint Cooper organized the privately funded Amos Richards Eno: that women—as a strong block of United States Indian Commission, Gifford’s maternal constituents—can bring about change dedicated to protecting and elevating grandfather was in a society. Native Americans in the United a successful Antoinette Pinchot States and eliminating warfare in the businessman and Johnstone: Like western territories. His altruism was philanthropist her brothers felt throughout the generations, as from Simsbury, Gifford evidenced in a letter he wrote to the CT. He was and Amos, governor of New York in 1867: “A good a founding Antoinette human intelligence feels bound to use benefactor of all its powers to accomplish the greatest the Simsbury Free (Nettie) was Amos Richards Eno raised in an good for the greatest number of people.” Library, among Hmmmm….sounds familiar! other philanthropic gestures. Amos atmosphere rd surrounded by James Pinchot: built the Fifth Avenue Hotel at 23 the arts, natural According to Street in New York City, known in beauty, and Gifford Pinchot, the 19th century as “Eno’s Folly” AntoinettePinchot since it was considered too far uptown humanitarian Johnstone it was his father causes. In 1892, James whose to be successful. He founded the she married Sir “…foresight and Second National Bank of New York, Alan Johnstone, a British Diplomat. She tenacity were headquartered at the hotel, which was known to direct her energies toward responsible…for was hit by scandal when Amos’ son promoting social causes. During bringing Forestry embezzled millions of dollars and then World War I, Antoinette organized and to this continent. fled to Canada to avoid prosecution. managed the large American hospital That being true, Amos personally repaid the millions that were stolen to the depositors. He near Paris. While living in Holland, he was and is James Pinchot she was instrumental in bringing relief fairly entitled to be owned the land that is now occupied to British soldiers who escaped from called the Father of by the iconic Flatiron Building and the German prisons. Forestry in America.” It was James who swampy hunting grounds now known encouraged Gifford to pursue a career in as Madison Square Park, where the Peter Cooper: Peter, official rules of baseball were developed Cornelia Pinchot’s forestry when no such profession existed in America. He also endowed the Yale because he allowed baseball teams to great-grandfather, practice there. was an American School of Forestry and dedicated a industrialist, portion of his Grey Towers estate to Want to learn more about these inventor, and establish the Milford Forest Experiment fascinating family members? If so, ask philanthropist. Station, the first of its kind in the us about the walking tours of both Because he United States. Milford and New York City, the lecture/ believed that James participated in the financing and film series, and the publication “The men and women founding of the National Academy of Pinchots of Grey Towers: One Family, deserved a free Design and the American Museum One House, One Legacy.” education, he created Peter Cooper of Natural History. He was also the Cooper Union for instrumental in bringing the Statue of the Advancement of Science and Art in Liberty to America. He held positions “A good human intelligence 1859 in New York City. Cooper Union with the National Geographic Society, feels bound to use all its provided a location for local citizens Washington Academy of Sciences, and to participate in social and political the Society of American Foresters. He powers to accomplish the debates and hear free lectures on science was founder of the first association in and government. It also served as the America for providing model tenements greatest good for the greatest place where some of our country’s for the poor, a project in which he number of people.” most important organizations, such remained actively involved until his as the Red Cross and NAACP, were death in 1908. —Peter Cooper organized. Page 3 2012 Grey Towers Legacy Cornellia’s Moat Adds Architectural Cleverness Here are some commonly asked questions about the moat: to the Landscape How wide is the moat? When Cornelia Pinchot was redesigning The curved moat is 17 feet wide. the Grey Towers landscape after she How much water does it hold? and her husband Gifford inherited 35,000 gallons. the property, she wanted to increase the amount of flat terrain that was What happens to the fish and frogs next to the mansion. From 1927 to in winter? 1931, Cornelia worked with landscape They overwinter in the moat without architect Chester Aldrich to design an any problems. A larger threat is the extension of the East Terrace and the great blue heron that stops by for half-moat that sits about 14 feet breakfast throughout the spring and below it. Blooming forsythia in the moat dramatizes summer! the view of the mansion. The resulting wall helped dramatize How is the moat cleaned? the view of the mansion as visitors Every spring the Forest Service staff approached from below by visually The sculptures were purchased from catches the fish in nets and places them heightening the house from that angle, Mr. Aldrich, although he originally in temporary water tanks so the moat an effect that is still visible today. The offered them as a gift “as a slight token can be drained and cleaned. More than moat is a clever play on the French of [his] thankfulness for Milford 2 tons of beech leaves and nuts are chateau style of the home. hospitality.” The moat is a wonderful removed each year and stored for use as compost. Cornelia covered the new curved stone place for visitors to reflect, be inspired, wall in cascading branches of forsythia and imagine what life was like at Grey planted in pockets in the wall. She then Towers almost a century ago. added several varieties of water lilies and goldfish to the moat and planted a hemlock hedge east of the moat to enclose this new garden feature.