History

By Skip Moskey Twin Memorials to Commodore G.H. Perkins by Daniel Chester French. Left: New Hampshire State House (1902); right: U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis (1911). After the death of her father Commodore George Hamilton Perkins in 1899, Isabel Anderson began plans for a memorial to him on the grounds of the New Hampshire State House in […]

Nicholas Longworth Anderson Bridge, Boston July 17, 1920 In 1913, after he returned from his ambassadorship in Tokyo, Larz Anderson commissioned a memorial to his father, a bridge across the Charles River in Boston that would connect Harvard’s Cambridge campus to its stadium in Boston. Designed by Boston city architect Edmund Wheelwright, it was known in […]

In June 1907, while cruising along the mid-Atlantic coast aboard their houseboat the Roxana, Larz and Isabel Anderson invited several friends to join them for a dinner party at sea. The cook prepared a mouth-watering menu that proved the Roxana’s catering standards equal to those of an Anderson kitchen on terra firma. The summery menu included a frothy cold consommé, […]

by Skip Moskey Pierre Lorillard’s houseboat “Caiman”, pictured here in a watercolor published in 1893 in The Illustrated American. (Source: Google Books.) We often associate yachts and steamships with Gilded Age vacations and recreation, but did you know that houseboats were also once the “in” thing for wealthy boaters like Pierre Lorillard, Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt, […]

On Easter Monday, March 28, 1910, Larz and Isabel Anderson attended a field day for children at Randle Highlands in the District of Columbia. Known now as Washington Highlands, the area was first developed by Col. Arthur E. Randle (1859-1829), a prominent Washingtonian. The children of Randle Highlands petitioned Isabel to attend their festivities and help give […]

Anderson House, 2118 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC., 1905, designed by the Boston architectural firm of Arthur Little & Herbert Brown. (Photo by Skip Moskey.) Did you know that, like people, buildings have their own “genealogy”? I’m not talking about the style of a house (such as Gothic Revival, Art Deco, or International), nor am […]

A Gorinto is the Japanese interpretation of a type of Buddhist pagoda used as a memorial or burial marker. Larz and Isabel Anderson saw many of these on their trips to Japan and purchased one for their estate in Brookline, MA.  Their estate is now the Larz Anderson Park. A Gorinto has five levels, each with […]

By Skip Moskey “Puddingstone” as it looked in 1948, about 20 years after its construction. (Source: Leslie Jones Collection, Boston Public Library, via Digital Commonwealth.) In 1925, in response to a real estate development boom that was then spreading throughout the Boston suburbs in the wake of the nation’s burgeoning economy, Larz Anderson, who had […]

“Open the Door of Your Heart” from Isabel Anderson’s operetta Marina (1932) Words and music by Grace Warner Gulesian Performed by Antoine Palloc (Paris, France) [Sheet music for “Open the Door of Your Heart” is linked below.] Open the door of your heart dear, For love stands waiting outside. Pray leave the portals ajar dear, […]

By Skip Moskey Larz Anderson, ca. 1888. Probably taken around the time of his graduation from Harvard College. (Source: Anderson Collection, Society of the Cincinnati) [For almost three years after his 1888 graduation from Harvard, Larz Anderson (1866-1937) did all that he could to avoid the issue of work and career.  Between the summer of 1888 […]

Books, Gardens & Horticulture, Italy August 25, 2017 skipmoskey By Skip Moskey Edith Wharton, ca. 1889 Edith Wharton is known in American cultural history primarily as the author of Gilded Age novels that for a century have captivated and entertained readers.  Her works The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, and Ethan Frome have been adapted as […]

Larz and Isabel Anderson’s summer estate “Weld” in Brookline, Massachusetts, was a horticultural paradise. Though not particularly noted for its architecture and interior design the way Anderson House in Washington was during their lifetime (and still is), the Brookline estate was famous throughout the world for the beauty of its gardens and landscapes. There were also whimsical elements […]

Anderson House, 2118 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC., 1905, designed by the Boston architectural firm of Arthur Little & Herbert Brown. (Photo by Skip Moskey.) Did you know that, like people, buildings have their own “genealogy”? I’m not talking about the style of a house (such as Gothic Revival, Art Deco, or International), nor am […]

Book Trailer (en français), France, Publication Updates September 27, 2015 skipmoskey Cliquer ici s.v.p. pour l’en commander sur Amazon.FR (site français, en anglais) Et ici pour l’en commander sur Amazon.com (site USA) en anglais Larz Kilgour Anderson (1866-1937) et Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson (1876-1948) étaient un couple américain de la haute société. Ils avaient un niveau […]