February 2024

My copy of Presidents and Pies, by
Isabel Anderson (1920)

While I was writing my biography of Larz and Isabel Anderson, I discovered hundreds of  “rabbit holes” that, had I decided to go down into, could have added years to the time it took to write it.  (Rabbit holes have been described by one New Yorker writer as something that we pursue “to the point of distraction—usually by accident, and usually to a degree that the subject in question might not seem to merit.”)  But these rabbit hole stories continue to intrigue me, and now that the book has been published, I’ve had more time to go back and explore some of them.

One of my favorite rabbit holes comes from my own copy of Presidents and Pies, which includes both an inscription (“For Mrs. Post with best wishes, Isabel Anderson”) and a bookplate (Annie Edgerly Thayer):

It was easy to identify Annie Edgerly Thayer (1870-1957; more on Mrs. Thayer below), but “Mrs. Post” was a bit more elusive. Post is hardly an uncommon name in the history of American elites. I eventually found Mrs. Post in the first place I should have looked: the index to Isabel’s compilation of her husband’s papers, Letters and Journals of a Diplomat.  I was thus able to identify Mrs. Anne Maxwell Post (1866-1942); trace the course of her life; and find a connection between the two women who had owned the same book.

Mrs. Post was born Anne Maxwell Pultz in New York City in 1866, and grew up in a house at 529 Madison Avenue that the family continued to occupy at least into the 1910s. The family travelled to England in 1886 when Anne was 20 years old and returned to the U.S. in 1888. She eventually returned to England, where she married Major James Clarence Post (1844-1896; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) in London on April 21, 1892.  Major Post was Military Attaché to the United States Legation at London from July 3, 1889 to December 23, 1893. Larz Anderson was Second Secretary of the American Legation in London starting in August 1891, and this is without doubt how the Andersons and the Posts came to know each other.  Mystery solved! 

Major J.C. Post, probably at the time of his posting
to London

The Posts’ marriage was to be tragically short. Major Post died less than four years after their marriage, on January 6, 1896.  Their son, Clarence Ely Post, was only a week old at the time of his father’s death. As if that was not enough of a loss for the young widow and mother, Clarence died three years later in July 1899, in Narragansett Pier, R.I., while Mrs. Post was vacationing at the seaside town.

After the death of her husband and son, Mrs. Post continued to live at 529 Madison Avenue with her parents and brother, John Leggett Pultz (1877-1939), with whom she travelled abroad for two years beginning around 1902.

In 1920, the year that Presidents and Pies was published, Mrs. Post was still living with her mother Helen in New York City, though they had moved from Madison Avenue to 23 East 65th Street, a few blocks away. Her occupation was listed in that year’s census as “Objects of Art/Own Account,” suggesting that she may have had some connection to the art world.

By the early 1930s, Mrs. Post had left New York, perhaps because the stock market crash in 1929 had wiped out whatever assets she and her mother had. She moved to Boston, where she lived with two other women in an apartment at 78 Charles Street, near the Boston Public Garden. Rent was $105 a month; her co-tenants, a school librarian and a manager at the telephone company. Though there is no documentation, it is hard to imagine that Mrs. Post and Isabel Anderson would not have kept in touch during these years in Boston.  Mrs. Post did not have anything approaching a life of luxury: she worked in an insurance office at 100 Milk Street to supplement her husband’s small military pension (which had been granted to her by Congress in 1914). She stopped working in 1941 at the age of 75, and died a year later.  She is buried with her husband and son in West Point Cemetery.

Mrs. Thayer’s Library

Mrs. Post’s copy of Presidents and Pies eventually ended up in the library of Mrs. Thayer’s home, Thayercrest, in Farmington, NH, located, like Isabel’s New Hampshire retreat, at the southern end of the Granite State. Built in 1915, Thayercrest’s house and grounds have been preserved in what was essentially their original condition.

So, how did Mrs. Post’s copy of Isabel’s book end up in Mrs. Thayer’s library? We’ll never know for certain, but Mrs. Post and Mrs. Thayer were, like Isabel, both members of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mrs. Thayer’s Revolutionary War ancestor was from Massachusetts, and it seems extremely likely that the three women would have met at DAR events in the Bay State.

And how did this copy end up in my library?  In 2014, Thayercrest was put on the market by Mrs. Thayer’s descendants. The furnishings and contents of the house most likely had to be weeded through so that the house could be staged for sale. Old books are always the first to go when a house is on the market.

I purchased my copy of Presidents and Pies in 2014 from a used bookseller in Maine. Thayercrest is 20 miles from the Maine state line.

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Mrs. Isabel Anderson, 1920, the year she
gave a copy of her book to Mrs. Post

There were hundreds if not thousands of similarly complex and interesting friendships in Larz and Isabel Anderson’s lives. What’s remarkable about her friendship with Anne Maxwell Post was that even before Isabel gave her the book, Mrs. Post was already living in straightened circumstances.  A New York socialite once listed in that city’s Social Register finished out her life living with two other working women on the edge of Boston’s Public Garden, but this surely meant nothing to Isabel. She continued to express her friendship for Mrs. Post by the gift of a book, and likely many other small kindnesses, and once again showed us her humanity and gave us yet another reason to never forget her.

http://amzn.to/1VxLyMN

By Skip Moskey

People often ask me what books I’ve most enjoyed reading about the Gilded Age.  Here are three favorites from my biography shelf. Click on the book image for more information; these are all available as very low-cost used copies on Amazon.com.  Happy reading!  

Henry James: A Life, by Leon Edel.  This is a wonderful book about a wonderfully interesting man, his social circles, and his work.  You will relish every detail about the life of this expatriate American who spent most of his life in England, France, and Italy at the height of the Gilded Age.

Mornings on Horseback, by David McCollough.  If you are interested in the inner workings of an amazingly interesting Gilded Age family across several generations, this book will be a page-turner!  I highly recommend this title.

Henry Adams in Love: The Pursuit of Elizabeth Sherman Cameron, by Arline Boucher Tehan.  This is a touching and revealing portrait of the enduring intellectually passionate but platonic friendship between one of the greatest minds of the Gilded Age, Henry Adams, and one of the most interesting women, “Lizzie” Cameron.  Both Henry and Lizzie are part of the story of Larz and Isabel Anderson, and each make several appearances in their biography.

Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age by Stephen T. (Skip) Moskey has been in development since January 2010.  Now, after almost six years of research, writing, and editing, the book is with its publisher, iUniverse LLC of Bloomington, Indiana.  You can view a short book trailer by Clicking Here.

One of the key features of the book will be a rich selection of illustrations.  The book includes many never-before-seen photographs of Larz and Isabel and the places they lived and traveled.  The book includes a set of exquisite new renderings of the floor plans for Anderson House in Washington, D.C., and Weld, the Andersons’ former estate in Brookline, Massachusetts (now Larz Anderson Park).  The new schematics, based on the original blueprints for each house, were prepared by Washington, D.C.-architect Harry I. Martin, III (AIA), who carefully studied the original plans, period and contemporary photography, and other materials, to produce a unique set of visuals that help readers understand Larz and Isabel’s use of interior space.  The rooms are labelled using the couple’s own nomenclature as documented in their letters and journals.

The photograph above dates from sometime in the 1910s and shows Larz Anderson seated on the Bowling Green of Weld.  The cigar-smoking friend sitting with him is unidentified.  Though this photograph does not appear in Larz and Isabel Anderson, it is an example of the unique and personal character of the book’s illustrations.

Illustrations
Larz Anderson on the Weld Bowling Green (ca. 1915) Collection of the Larz Anderson Auto Museum, Brookline All rights reserved.

(Digimarc® Guardian for Images)

Larz and Isabel Anderson were an elegant Gilded Age couple with two impressive homes: Anderson House in Washington, D.C., and Weld, their summer estate in Brookline, just outside of Boston, Mass.  Weld was more than a fascinating Gilded Age mansion filled with treasures from around the world, however.  It was also a working “gentleman’s farm” with extensive horticultural and agricultural operations that included a vegetable garden, fruit trees, a dairy, and a hen house that produced food for the Andersons and their servants.

This undated photograph of Larz’s 1898 Winton Stanhope, said to be his favorite automobile, shows the estate’s chicken coop in the background.  A handsome building despite its humble purpose, it shows evidence of what today would be considered humane treatment of hens.  Windows on at least two sides provided light and fresh air, and the three louvered vents in the roof helped keep the building cool in the warm summer months.

The coop remained standing until sometime in the late 1950s, though it had long before been abandoned as a place where high quality hens laid their eggs.  A local photographer snapped a picture of the coop before it was torn down.  The spot where the coop once stood is now a parking lot.

Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age, in press for a late 2015 or early 2016 publication date, will provide many more details of the Anderson’s Brookline estate, now the Larz Anderson Park.  You can view a short book trailer by Clicking Here.

Illustrations Anderson Estate with 1898 Winton in the foreground and chicken coop in the background Courtesy Larz Anderson Automobile Museum, Brookline Anderson estate chicken coop Photo by John K. Nanian (1865-1965) Public Library of Brookline via Digital Commonwealth

CC BY-NC-ND

A Tudor Revival house, probably circa 1910, with a river stone ground floor exterior, on South Highland Street in West Hartford, Conn. I grew up in a small Cape Cod across the street from this house.

By Skip Moskey

I grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut, during the 1960s.  We lived in an area of town that, because of its close proximity to Hartford, had for almost a century been an attractive, bucolic setting for the grand homes of bankers, merchants, and insurance company presidents.  One of the most prominent avenues along which these homes were built was named “Prospect” for the sweeping, panoramic views of Hartford and the Connecticut River from a long ridge high above the city.  Magnificent homes designed in every major style popular between 1880 and 1930 were built on Prospect Avenue, and with a few exceptions, almost all remain private, single-family residences that have been beautifully and lovingly maintained into the 21st century.

As I child, I often walked up and down Prospect Avenue on my way to Elizabeth Park to play in all kinds of weather, from sledding and ice skating in winter, to arts and crafts lessons and bike riding in the summer. Several years ago, I took a walk along Prospect Avenue and took pictures of the buildings I remember so well from my childhood.  Take a stroll with me along Prospect Avenue and see if you don’t agree with me that it is one of America’s loveliest streets.

[Note:  All photographs by Skip Moskey. Architectural style classifications are from Historic Buildings of Connecticut. House photos appear below their captions.]

Henry Wood Erving House (1880)  – Queen Anne Style

Burdett Loomis House (1885) – Eclectic Queen Anne–Shingle

Charles E. Shepard House (1900) – Eclectic Craftsman–Swiss Chalet

Dr. Michael Gill House (1901) – Eclectic Queen Anne–Shingle

Henry R. Hovey House (1902) – Colonial Revival

George W. Ellis House (1902) – Tudor Revival

Sylvester C. Dunham House (1904) – Eclectic Craftsman Bungalow

Isidor Wise House (1907) – Swiss Chalet

By Skip Moskey

Ambassador and Mrs. Larz Anderson, 1924, by Philip de László. The Andersons were among Washington’s most glamorous couples. Everything about them was glamorous: their homes, their clothing, their art, and their style. (Photo by Skip Moskey.)

In Part 1 of this two-part series, I reviewed the relationship between the architectural form and intended social function of Washington, DC’s Anderson House, which from 1905 until around 1930 was the winter party palace of Larz and Isabel Anderson.  It was a house that was planned, first, to make sure that all who saw or visited it understood that its owners were powerful people of good taste; and second, to entertain select individuals drawn from Washington’s elite society at teas, dinners, cocktail parties, and musical performance.  The house was designed to move guests through an ever-changing interior “landscape” of spaces, rooms, views, and experiences that enhanced the social and gastronomic elements of an evening dinner party or late-night musicale.  Now, Part 2 of this series on “The Genius of Anderson House” shows how that relationship between form and function played out at one particularly glamorous dinner party that the Andersons gave on Friday, May 30, 1917.

A Dinner Party for Italian Royalty

His Royal Highness The Prince of Udine was to be the guest of honor at this evening’s dinner party. A cousin of Italy’s reigning monarch, King Victor Emmanuel III, the prince was one of the most important visitors to the nation’s capital during the 1917 social season. World War I was raging in Europe and the presence of an Italian royal at the Andersons’ dinner table had both political and social import. Twenty years earlier Larz Anderson had served as first secretary at the American Embassy in Rome. He would have been very pleased indeed if any of his guests speculated idly among themselves that he was in some way involved in the conduct of the war – in a behind-the-scenes kind of way, of course.

By 7:45 p.m., more than two-dozen servants stood ready to attend to the needs of the thirty very select guests who had been invited to what was without doubt the most important event of Washington’s winter social season that year, in the loveliest of Washington’s great houses.  The guests would begin arriving as if on cue at 8:00 p.m., and the servants were tasked with getting the guests up to the second floor of the mansion as efficiently as possible. The hosts, the celebrity guests, and cocktails were waiting above!  

The entry way in the forecourt of Anderson House. Guests arriving here were protected from winter winds, overhead precipitation, and the eyes of the general public. (Photo by Skip Moskey.)

One by one, elegant horse-drawn carriages pulled up to the mansion’s front door, situated in an elegant forecourt that provided protection from prying eyes on the sidewalk.  As the guests alighted from their carriages, footmen helped them to the front door, where they were greeted by the Andersons’ butler.  Larz and Isabel may have been host and hostess for this evening, but the Butler was in charge!

The ground floor of Anderson House as designed by the firm of Little & Browne of Boston (1905). The Andersons later made some structural changes to the original plan. (Drawing by Harry I. Martin III, AIA. Copyright (c) 2015-2016 by Stephen T. Moskey. All rights reserved.)

As guests arrived, they were ushered through the mansion’s broad paneled door into the Entrance Hall.  There, they came face-to-face with a giant statue of the Buddha that was flanked by bronze Japanese temple lanterns.  If you did not know anything about the Andersons before this moment, you now at least knew they had exotic “Oriental” interests and tastes.

The front vestibule of Anderson House in 1910. The entry hall was intended to immediately convey to visitors that the Andersons were collectors with exotic tastes. (Source: France Benjamin Johnston Collection, Anderson House)

The guests did not linger long in the entry way.  They were immediately whisked away to the right through a room called The Choir Stall Room, with old Italian church paneling installed around the walls.  But the choir stalls were not the highlight of the room.  The visitors’ eyes were drawn from the dark sombre walnut panels below to the bright, colorful ceiling above, decorated with dozens of medallions, coats of arms, emblems, and cartouches.  I always think of this as Larz’s “bragging room,” where he could show off the couple’s academic degrees, memberships in academic and patriotic organizations, awards, and decorations.  Though the meaning of these medallions and cartouches might be a bit vague for modern visitors, in 1917 their significance would have been immediately apparent to anyone from Washington’s elite social class.

Part of the ceiling and frieze of the Choir Stall Room of Anderson House, where Larz made sure visitors knew he was an important and highly-decorated man. (Photo by Bruce Guthrie. Used with permission.)

Once they passed through the Choir Stall Room, guests arrived in the Grand Staircase Hall, where maids would help the ladies with their coats, and footmen would help the gentlemen with their hats and walking sticks. The arched doorway in the far left corner led to a ladies lounge, and the one on the right, to a gentleman’s lounge one level below, under the grand hall. Once they were ready, guests were escorted up the grand staircase, to begin the evening’s festivities.

The Grand Staircase Hall, Anderson House, 1910. (Photo: Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Anderson House)

As guests ascended the grand stairway, they could contemplate the pomp and circumstance depicted in a billboard-sized painting in the stairway: The Triumph of the Dogaressa of Venice by Spanish artist Jose Villegas y Cordero.  It is said that Larz felt that this painting would set the mood for an event that his guests would soon experience on the piano nobile, or “noble floor,” of Anderson House.

The Grand Stairway of Anderson House, designed specifically to display “The Triumph of the Dogaressa” by Spanish artist Jose Villegas y Cordero (1882). (Photo (c) by Bruce Guthrie. Used by permission.)

At the top of the stairs, guests entered a reception area the Andersons sometimes called the Cincinnati Room, a reference to the murals depicting both the founding of the Society of the Cincinnati and the early history of the city of Cincinnati.  (The Andersons also sometimes called it the Key Room, as it is now known—a reference to the meander, or Greek key, design of the marble floor.) This was the anteroom to the rest of the piano nobile.

The piano nobile (second floor) of Anderson House, as designed by Little and Browne of Boston (1905). (Drawing by Harry I. Martin III, AIA. Copyright (c) 2015-2016 by Stephen T. Moskey. All rights reserved.)

The Andersons, the prince, and the count and countess greeted each guest as they were announced at the top of the staircase.  Introductions and brief polite conversation ensued, but only briefly.  There were many guests to be processed through these arrival rituals, and cocktails were waiting!

The Cincinnati Room of Anderson House, the “gateway” to the piano nobile where most of an evening’s socializing and entertaining took place. This panel shows an allegorical representation of the founding of The Society of the Cincinnati in 1783. The two central figures are George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. (Photo (c) by Bruce Guthrie. Used by permission.)

After passing through the Cincinnati Room, guests gathered in two adjoining drawing rooms, one in French style and one in English style.  Cocktails and conversation were the order of the evening in these two elegant rooms.  Once everyone had arrived, Larz and Isabel and their honored guests joined the others in these rooms.  The Andersons were delightful hosts who mingled with their guests and made sure everyone had a cocktail.

The English Drawing Room in Anderson House, 1910. (Source: Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Anderson House) The fireplace in the French Drawing Room of Anderson House, 2017. (Photo by Skip Moskey.)

Around nine o’clock, after a few rounds of cocktails, guests assembled in order of social precedence that Isabel had carefully spelled out in a “dinner chart” she created for the dinner. Using the chart as his guide, the butler paired each gentleman with a lady for the procession down the long gallery that led to the dining room on the other side of the house.  The gallery, filled chockablock with mementos of Anderson travels, gave silent testimony to the magnificence of the hosts’ lives.

The Gallery of Anderson House, 1910. Dinner guests processed down this long hallway, with ample time to view and admire the Andersons’ eclectic collection of European and Asian art and collectibles. (Source: Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Anderson House) The Gallery as it appeared in 2013, a shadow of its former self. Many pieces of the Andersons’ collections were consigned to auctions more than twenty years ago. The crystal chandeliers are a modern addition.  (Photo (C) by Bruce Guthrie. Used by permission.)

The french-walnut-paneled dining room, adorned with priceless Belgian tapestries commissioned by the French King Louis VIII as a gift to the pope’s emissary, Cardinal Barberini, was a cosy and elegant setting for the dinner.  Isabel believed in giving “modern” dinner parties with fewer than 15 couples, and often only 10 or 11.  (In contrast, dinner parties in the late 19th century, were given for as many as 100 or more people!)   

The Dining Room of Anderson House, Washington, DC, during the Andersons’ lifetime (1910). (Source: Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Library of Congress)

Unfortunately, there are very few examples of Anderson menus.  The guest lists and seating charts were saved, but not a record of what was served.

A rare example of an Anderson House luncheon menu, 1931. Though the menu is written in French, it was essentially a simple meal of sauteed chicken, parslied fried potatoes, salads and vegetables, and chocolate eclairs and fruit for dessert.  (Anderson Collection, Society of the Cincinnati)

After dinner, the guests descended the mansion’s famous “floating staircase” into the vast room below that had been designed for entertainment and relaxation. Many more guests had been invited to arrive after dinner to meet the prince and his entourage. Coffee, cigarettes, and cordials added to the late evening’s conviviality.  Isabel’s choice of performers and programs at her after-dinner entertainments favored European musical traditions. One evening, Mademoiselle Germaine Arnaud, a French-born British pianist and vocalist, accompanied by the Irish pianist, composer, and conductor Sir Hamilton Harty, sang a selection of pieces by Bach, Chopin, and Saint-Saëns. On another evening, Miss Marie Hall, an internationally acclaimed English violinist, performed a program of Polish, French, and Italian music.

The “floating stairway” that leads from the dining room of Anderson House to the room that the Andersons called the “Saloon.” (Photo by Skip Moskey) The Saloon of Anderson House, shown as the Andersons furnished it: as a large living room for entertaining guests after dinner, with cordials, cigarettes, conversation, and music. 1910. The floating stairway is visible on the left.  (Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection, Anderson House)

The next morning, the Washington Post called the Anderson dinner party for the Italian VIPs “a particularly interesting function” because of Larz’s diplomatic past. Larz’s publicist made sure the reporter did not forget other details of his biography. The brief article reminded readers that Larz had married into Boston wealth, had been part of the Taft administration, and had been decorated by the Italian king. 

Anderson parties always made good copy.

Cover photo (c) by Bruce M. White. Used with Mr. White’s kind permission.

To learn more about Larz and Isabel Anderson and their fascinating Gilded Age lifestyle, please read Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age by Stephen T. Moskey, available on Amazon Prime and from your local bookseller.

Portions of this blog are excerpted from Larz and Isabel Anderson: Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age by Stephen T. Moskey (iUniverse 2016). This blog and its content are Copyright (c) 2016-2018 by Stephen T. Moskey. All rights reserved.

One hundred and twenty years ago this month, in June 1895, Isabel Weld Perkins graduated from Miss Winsor’s School in Boston, now called The Winsor School.  She was in the school’s first graduating class of young Boston women prepared by Mary Pickard Winsor for a life in society and the world at large. During the earliest years, girls attended classes in Miss Winsor’s home home on Beacon Hill, and as enrollment grew, the school moved into its own buildings.

The school did not start keeping formal records of its curriculum or graduates until 1897, but the curriculum for that year offered instruction in English, history, art, geography, French, German, Latin, Greek, mathematics, science, and drawing.

As the school’s website records, Miss Winsor wanted to “prepare women to be self-supporting, … competent, responsible and generous-minded.” In this, Isabel Anderson lived up to her teacher’s vision and is among the school’s many illustrious alumnae.

Photo,”The Winsor School, Boston” Copyright (c) 2012 by Skip Moskey(Digimarc® Guardian for Images)

In the fall of 1898, a year and a half after their marriage, Larz and Isabel Anderson took a trip of several months to India by way of Europe and the Suez Canal.  Along the way, they stopped to visit old friends in Rome, where Larz had served as first secretary of the American Embassy from 1894-1897.

One of the highlights of their visit to Rome on their way to India that year was a 20-minute private audience with His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. Larz left no record of their conversation, but he and the pontiff likely shared many interests. Leo made the Catholic Church more open to scientific and historical analysis and had a connection to Washington, D.C. In 1889 he authorized the establishment of The Catholic University of America.

Illustration Credits
Painting of Pope Leo XIII and Emblem of the Papacy
Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)