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- | ==== GEORGE DUDLEY SEYMOUR ==== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | GEORGE DUDLEY< | + | |
- | Seymour' | + | |
- | Connecticut," | + | |
- | Bristol, Hartford County, Connecticut, | + | |
- | and the Hartford Public High School (1878), and in 1880 received the degree of | + | |
- | LL.B., from Columbian Law School, Washington, D. C. On October 6, 1883 his | + | |
- | twenty-fourth birthday, Mr. Seymour opened an office in New Haven for the | + | |
- | practice of patent law and for soliciting patents. Apart from his long and | + | |
- | successful professional career he is best known for his interest in community | + | |
- | welfare an interest that he traces to the fact that his father took him, as a | + | |
- | small boy, to town meetings and impressed upon his mind the obligation of every | + | |
- | man to take some part in public affairs beyond merely voting. These early | + | |
- | lessons in civics were never forgotten by the son. Mr. Seymour, feeling no | + | |
- | aptitude for city politics, did not take part in the usual political life of | + | |
- | his adopted city, and did not hold any public office of a political nature. | + | |
- | However, his interest in his city made him the author and leader of a sustained | + | |
- | effort to induce New Haven to adopt a systematic plan for its future growth, | + | |
- | using the historic Green (laid out in 1638) as a civic center, and to provide | + | |
- | New Haven harbor with up-to-date terminal facilities that would make the harbor | + | |
- | one of the city's chief commercial assets. | + | |
- | interest in early Connecticut architecture and architects and in the furnishings | + | |
- | of the early houses; and particularly for reviving the memory of Captain Nathan | + | |
- | Hale, originating and leading a movement to place a statue in memory of Hale | + | |
- | upon the Old Campus of Yale College, and himself buying and reconditioning the | + | |
- | birthplace of Nathan Hale in South Covent as a shrine of the patriot, who was | + | |
- | hanged by the British as a spy in 1776. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | contacts in Washington with some of the principal men working there for a return | + | |
- | to Major L' | + | |
- | capital. The idea of city planning was then beginning to attract attention in | + | |
- | some of the progressive American cities and Mr. Seymour conceived the idea of | + | |
- | bringing the message of city planning to New Haven which has he is fully | + | |
- | persuaded, the oldest existing organized town plan on the American continent. | + | |
- | Its great central open square, although primarily designed to serve as a market | + | |
- | place, was wonderfully adapted, as he envisioned it to form the civic center of | + | |
- | the New Haven of the future, if surrounded by public and semi-public buildings, | + | |
- | and offered an opportunity not surpassed in the entire country. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | city of his adoption came in 1906, when he appeared before a committee of the | + | |
- | Board of Aldermen in opposition to a petition presented by the directors of the | + | |
- | New Haven Public Library, asking for a site on the Green itself for a new public | + | |
- | library building. | + | |
- | change of feeling that has since taken place regarding the Green, that it now | + | |
- | seems hardly possible that the directors of the Library Board could ever have | + | |
- | recommended the building of a public library upon the Green, the invasion of | + | |
- | which Mr. Seymour felt would be nothing less than a public calamity. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And yet the very next year the city was threatened with the erection of a huge | + | |
- | hotel facing the Green on the site of Mayor Sargent' | + | |
- | once that the erection of a hotel on the key-site in question would be a serious | + | |
- | blow to New Haven. To checkmate the project, he immediately prepared a | + | |
- | comprehensive paper urging the adoption of city planning by New Haven and the | + | |
- | utilization of the Green as its //civic center//. This paper was simultaneously | + | |
- | published in full as an open letter to the Mayor, Board of Aldermen, and | + | |
- | citizens of the city and county of New Haven, on June 2, 1907, in the issues of | + | |
- | the //New Haven Sunday Register//, //Leader// and //Union//. It attracted wide | + | |
- | attention, and led not only to the formation of a committee of citizens to | + | |
- | secure a city plan, but also to the raising of a fund of about $8,000 for the | + | |
- | purpose, and to inviting Mr. Cass Gilbert, one of the foremost architects of | + | |
- | the country, and Mr. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., the country' | + | |
- | landscape architect, to visit New Haven. After studying the plan of the city, | + | |
- | they drafted a report with recommendations. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | This was no mean task, and due to one thing and another, the report was not | + | |
- | published until 1910, and even then it attracted far less attention in | + | |
- | conservative old New Haven than in the country at large. However, an Act of the | + | |
- | Connecticut Legislature, | + | |
- | was secured, and the commission was soon organized, with Mayor Rice its | + | |
- | chairman, and Mr. Seymour its secretary. The project had from the beginning the | + | |
- | enthusiastic support of the Chamber of Commerce, then led by Colonel Isaac M. | + | |
- | Ullman, but it was destined largely to fail because it never secured the real | + | |
- | support of the municipal government, without which, as Mr. Olmsted declared, | + | |
- | city planning could not be "put over." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | As an improvement closely related to his city-planning project, Mr. Seymour, in | + | |
- | 1913, led a campaign for the provision of the harbor with terminal facilities, | + | |
- | with the view that the harbor might again be utilized as one of the chief | + | |
- | commercial assets of New Haven. | + | |
- | and endorsed by armer President Taft, and supported by the Chamber of | + | |
- | Commerce, was destined to fail, although the Chamber' | + | |
- | Major Cassius E. Gillette, an army engineer of ability and experience | + | |
- | recommended by Mr. Taft who, as Secretary of War, had become familiar with the | + | |
- | subject of such engineering projects. Both Mr. Taft and Colonel Ullman were very | + | |
- | alive and helpful in this ill-fated enterprise, in which nothing was seemingly | + | |
- | accomplished. The day of the harbor has not yet come, but it is approaching, | + | |
- | beyond doubt. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | With these two major projects -- city planning and harbor improvements -- Mr. | + | |
- | Seymour was almost continuously engaged from 1907 to 1924, as the local | + | |
- | newspapers covering this period afford Ample evidence. To rehearse the details | + | |
- | would be impracticable, | + | |
- | gained by consulting the articles listed in Appendix XI, which articles, for the | + | |
- | most part, were prepared in support of the proposed plans and were published in | + | |
- | the current local papers, if peradventure they do not fall into dust before they | + | |
- | are consulted. In 1924 Mr. Seymour presented his resignation from the City Plan | + | |
- | Commission in a long letter addressed to Mayor FitzGerald, in which he reviewed | + | |
- | his aims in the premises. | + | |
- | Valedictory," | + | |
- | porters in his various city improvement enterprises.) | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Although both of these major projects, originated and untiringly pushed year | + | |
- | after year by Mr. Seymour, failed in their main objectives, their by-products | + | |
- | have been in some measure compensatory. Thus Mr. Olmsted, with his wonderful | + | |
- | vision, saw during his studies of the New Haven terrain in 1907 a great | + | |
- | opportunity for an all-the-year-round park and playground in the extensive well- | + | |
- | nigh-useless low swampy West River meadows. He enthused Mr. Seymour with the | + | |
- | idea, who passed it on to Colonel Ullman and so to the City Plan Commission, | + | |
- | where it long languished. Colonel Ullman and Mr. Seymour, however, both later | + | |
- | became members of the New Haven World War Memorial Committee and continued so to | + | |
- | cherish the idea that with some finesse they succeeded through Mr. Olmsted (a | + | |
- | story as yet untold) in " | + | |
- | administration it was "put over," and a park (West River Memorial Park) of some | + | |
- | two hundred acres in extent is now under way, though nothing has yet been done | + | |
- | regarding the obelisk which was the keynote of Mr. Olmsted' | + | |
- | deemed necessary by him to mark the park as New Haven' | + | |
- | Frederick L. Ford, then the city engineer, was an active participant in this | + | |
- | project. But the park will f ail as a //War Memorial// until the obelisk is | + | |
- | erected, to complete Mr. Olmsted' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Two other parks have also come to New Haven Seymour' | + | |
- | Congress having authorized the Secretary of War to dispose of Federal | + | |
- | reservations no longer useful for defensive purposes, it was reported to Mr. | + | |
- | Seymour that certain business interests were in correspondence with the War | + | |
- | Department regarding the purchase of the Fort Hale reservation of some thirty | + | |
- | acres on the east shore of New Haven harbor, with the idea of buying it and | + | |
- | converting it into an amusement park. Fearful that while the "City Fathers" | + | |
- | were resting in fancied security, such a sale might take place, Mr. Seymour | + | |
- | acted on his own personal responsibility. In June, 1921, he induced Colonel John | + | |
- | Q. Tilson, M. C. for this District, to introduce a bill into Congress | + | |
- | authorizing the Secretary of War to transfer the title of the reservation to the | + | |
- | city of New Haven as a permanent memorial to Captain Nathan Hale. Mr. Seymour | + | |
- | agreed at the same time to provide speakers when the bill came to a hearing | + | |
- | before the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | A little later, also at Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | Congress a bill f or the cession to the city of the small Federal reservation | + | |
- | known as " | + | |
- | came on for hearing on January 17, 1922. As previously agreed, Mr. Seymour made | + | |
- | careful preparations for this hearing. He even succeeded in enlisting the | + | |
- | services of Chief Justice Taft, who broke all precedents by participating in a | + | |
- | Congressional hearing, The hearing had begun when, quite unannounced, | + | |
- | Justice entered the room. Everyone present rose, and none was more surprised | + | |
- | than were the members of the Congressional Committee to find the Chief Justice | + | |
- | before them. Mr. Taft spoke briefly for New Haven and f or Hale. He then | + | |
- | withdrew, and the hearing was resumed at a high pitch of enthusiasm. Both bills | + | |
- | were reported out favorably, and ultimately the Fort Hale reservation was ceded, | + | |
- | for strategic reasons, to the State of Connecticut, | + | |
- | New Haven, in recognition of the services of Hale to his country; while the | + | |
- | Lighthouse Point reservation, | + | |
- | cession without payment, was ultimately bought by the city. Nathan Hale Park | + | |
- | (for so the former tract was renamed), though the title is in the State, is | + | |
- | cared for and managed as a part of the New Haven Park System. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Though the success of these park projects was due to Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | was still greatly disappointed at the failure of his project to have New Haven | + | |
- | adopt city planning in a larger way, and he determined not to retire without one | + | |
- | further effort. He, therefore, again on his own responsibility, | + | |
- | 1924, petitioned the Board of Aldermen to bond the city f or the purchase of a | + | |
- | tract of eighty acres which adjoined the Lighthouse Point Reservation and which | + | |
- | included a relatively short but fine beach washed by unpolluted salt water. | + | |
- | After an intensive campaign of some months, in which he was ably assisted by | + | |
- | Bernard Greenberg, Esq., and the late much-lamented Frederick W. Campbell, both | + | |
- | then members of the Aldermanic Board, this project was put through. The | + | |
- | property is now known as Lighthouse Point Park. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | The very first intimation that the city-improvement plan, proposed by Messrs. | + | |
- | Gilbert and Olmsted, was to include the cutting of an imposing street or | + | |
- | approach, leading from the railway station to the center of the city, to | + | |
- | intersect with Temple Street or College Street, caused an immediate rise in all | + | |
- | real estate valuations in the long neglected region through which such an | + | |
- | approach was planned to pass. These valuations had risen so far before the city | + | |
- | was prepared to take any action in this matter that the cost became prohibitive, | + | |
- | and that outstanding feature of the plan had to be abandoned. | + | |
- | necessity of a more direct route between the railway station and the city was so | + | |
- | evident that Mr. Frederick L. Ford designed the " | + | |
- | called, which involved the removal of the old armory and necessitated other | + | |
- | expensive purchases of realty. This route, as designed by Mr. Ford, has now been | + | |
- | executed and has already demonstrated its value, but is still seriously | + | |
- | handicapped by the projection into it of the building containing the showroom | + | |
- | and store of the New Haven Gas Light Company. The removal of this obstruction | + | |
- | must take place before the full advantage of this new route is manifest. This | + | |
- | improvement must be credited to the city-planning movement inaugurated by Mr. | + | |
- | Seymour. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Thus ended Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | for New Haven, but not his public activities. In 1907-08, Mr. Seymour was the | + | |
- | " | + | |
- | Museum opened without charge to the public on Sunday afternoons, and the great | + | |
- | Newberry organ played for a restricted season on Sunday afternoons. These | + | |
- | privileges, which were ultimately granted, have been taken advantage of, year | + | |
- | after year, by throngs of people, and are still continued, with mounting | + | |
- | interest and attendance. Being tax-exempt, Mr. Seymour argued that the use of | + | |
- | these great instruments of pleasure and education would help to bridge the gap | + | |
- | between "Town and Gown" and it is believed that they have measurably answered | + | |
- | that purpose. Later appeals to the President and Fellows of the University to | + | |
- | open the Carnegie Swimming Pool to men during the summer months, when the | + | |
- | students were away, and to extend to the public the use of the University | + | |
- | Library, under restrictions, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | In the forepart of 1909, Mr. Seymour was the leading spirit in a campaign to | + | |
- | have the New Haven elms sprayed to get rid of the elm-leaf beetle pest and to | + | |
- | bring bef ore the community the advisability of placing the whole subject of the | + | |
- | care and replanting of trees under the direction of a superintendent of trees or | + | |
- | city forester. To this end, Mr. Seymour published in the issues of the //New | + | |
- | Haven Sunday Register// and //New Haven Sunday Union// of March 21st and 28th | + | |
- | and of April 4th, 1909, a comprehensive historic review of the elms, which for a | + | |
- | century had made the city world-famous as the "City of Elms." City Hall was | + | |
- | opposed to the appointment of a superintendent of trees, but resistance was | + | |
- | overcome, and on March 15, 1911, Mr. George | + | |
- | Yale School of Forestry, class of 1910, received the appointment. With what | + | |
- | energy and judgment he filled the once, until he left it January 1, 1929, to | + | |
- | become Superintendent of University Planting, is well known. In the //New Haven | + | |
- | Sunday Union// of April 4th, 1909, appeared a highly-diverting cartoon by | + | |
- | Howard Freeman, in which Mr. Seymour, beset with gigantic beetles, was shown on | + | |
- | the top of a towering stepladder, belaboring an elm with a $10,000 feather | + | |
- | duster! | + | |
- | + | ||
- | In 1904 Mr. Seymour subscribed $200 to a fund to repaint the North Church, | + | |
- | stipulating that the woodwork should be painted white, rather than again in | + | |
- | several contrasting shades of brown. Just before the actual painting was begun, | + | |
- | Mr. Seymour was besought by the committee to "cut the string" | + | |
- | subscription. This he firmly refused to do, on the ground, as he declared, that | + | |
- | he would not participate in the further disfigurement of David Hoadley' | + | |
- | design of a red brick fabric, with a belfry, frontispiece, | + | |
- | woodwork, but when a compromise was tendered him, under which the belfry was | + | |
- | to be painted white, he readily accepted it, knowing that if the community could | + | |
- | once see the incomparable belfry painted white, with dark louvres, the painting | + | |
- | of the frontispiece and cornice white would automatically follow, and it did. | + | |
- | Mr. Seymour also strenuously urged the removal of the paint from the beautiful | + | |
- | Flemish bond brickwork of the church, but that point the "First Citizen" | + | |
- | not yield. However, much had been gained. At this time, Mr. Seymour was | + | |
- | permitted to direct the entire redecoration of the interior of the church, in | + | |
- | the vestibule of which he erected a handsome tablet to the memory of David | + | |
- | Hoadley, the architect and builder of the fabric. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | With this success behind him, Mr. Seymour in 1909 opened a campaign for the | + | |
- | restoration of Center Church to its original exterior appearance. Though this | + | |
- | project was endorsed by Mr. Cass Gilbert, the architect; by Dr. Maurer, the | + | |
- | minister of the church; and by other high officials of the society, a | + | |
- | determined faction opposed the plan with a bitterness scarcely believable. Mr. | + | |
- | Seymour' | + | |
- | idea that an // | + | |
- | intolerable! Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | church or school or whatever, accepting exemption from taxation, became by that | + | |
- | act alone an object of public concern and the proper subject of criticism on the | + | |
- | part of each and every taxpayer. All of the churches on the Green stand there by | + | |
- | the sufferance of the town. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Happily, the opposition, unable to //finance// a reactionary plan to repaint the | + | |
- | woodwork and brickwork of the church in contrasting tones of gray, failed, and | + | |
- | in 1912, when the repainting of the church became imperative, Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | of removing the paint from the brickwork and painting the woodwork white was | + | |
- | carried out. The result was a revelation to the community. No one had properly | + | |
- | seen Center Church as designed by Ithiel Town since 1845, when its superb | + | |
- | Flemish bond brickwork was first lost to view under a coat of paint. This new | + | |
- | gospel rapidly spread to Hartford where the paint was soon removed from the | + | |
- | brickwork of Bullfinch' | + | |
- | 1912 Mr. Seymour placed a slate tablet in the vestibule of the church in memory | + | |
- | of Ithiel Town, and has very recently secured for the church his portrait by | + | |
- | Spencer, now hanging beside the tablet. In Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | much opposition, but none so bitter as that attending the removal of the paint | + | |
- | from the brickwork of Center Church. He hopes that it will not be long before | + | |
- | the paint is removed from the beautiful Flemish bond brickwork of the North | + | |
- | Church. In 1924-25 Mr. Seymour directed the redecoration of the meeting house in | + | |
- | Woodbridge. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | of the better class led him to secure for the New Haven Colony Historical | + | |
- | Society the Palladian window of the once-famous Dyer White house on the | + | |
- | northwest corner of Orange and Center streets; the fine staircase, front doors, | + | |
- | and some paneling, from the James Abraham Hillhouse mansion ( 1765), familiarly | + | |
- | known in greatly-disguised form as "Grove Hall"; and the superb wrought-iron | + | |
- | posts and railing which ornamented the entrance of the Nathan Smith house, | + | |
- | designed and built about 1816 by David Hoadley, on Elm street facing the Green, | + | |
- | later known as the " | + | |
- | in the new Historical Society Building, while the wrought-iron posts and railing | + | |
- | from the Nathan Smith house have been used in front of the building, designed by | + | |
- | J. Frederick Kelly. Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | the exquisite portico, now one of the treasures of the Metropolitan Museum, of | + | |
- | the house designed and built about 1800 by David Hoadley for Judge Simeon | + | |
- | Bristol, which occupied the site of the Ives Memorial Public Library. It was | + | |
- | also Mr. Seymoor who began the agitation which led to the removal of the | + | |
- | pyramidal cap that so long disfigured Trinity Church, designed and built about | + | |
- | 1812 by lthiel Town, on the New Haven Green; and it was through Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | protracted efforts that the two so-called "' | + | |
- | the Yale School of the Fine Arts, were secured from the New Haven Water Company | + | |
- | when it demolished the famous Curtis-Rose house of about 1710 in North Branford. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Interested from boyhood in portraits and portrait painting, Mr. Seymour was the | + | |
- | " | + | |
- | John F. Weir for the Yale School of the Fine Arts on his retirement; in having | + | |
- | Mayor Chauncey Jerome' | + | |
- | and the late Samuel Hemingway' | + | |
- | the Second National Bank. He has presented a copy of Duche' | + | |
- | Samuel Seabury (Primus Episcopus Americanus), | + | |
- | Calhoun, to the University, both now hanging in the great Dining Hall in the | + | |
- | Bicentennial Buildings. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | In 1897 the late Mrs. Mary Russell Mann, of Branford, presented to Mr. Seymour | + | |
- | the original doors of Parson Russell' | + | |
- | passage to the founders of Yale when they met and, according to tradition, | + | |
- | placed books upon the parson' | + | |
- | the foundation of a college in this colony." | + | |
- | the University in 1901 and, now hung as the entrance of the "1742 Room" in the | + | |
- | new University Library, they are believed to be the earliest existing relics of | + | |
- | any Yale building. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | led him to erect several tablets on his own account. They include a tablet to | + | |
- | Captain Charles Churchill (by Frank Crawford Boardman), and one to Captain | + | |
- | Robert Wells IV (by Lee Lawrie) in the Congregational Meetinghouse in Newington | + | |
- | -- both of bronze; tablets to Captain Nathan Hale in Battell Chapel, to Ithiel | + | |
- | Town in Center Church, to David Hoadley in the United Church-all three of slate | + | |
- | designed by the late Henry Charles Dean; an engraved wrought-brass tablet to | + | |
- | Deacon Richard Hale, the father of Nathan Hale, in the Church at Coventry, | + | |
- | Connecticut; | + | |
- | slate, erected by the Church Society to Governor Simeon Baldwin in the United | + | |
- | Church, New Haven. Mr. Seymour was also the prime-mover in the erection of a | + | |
- | tablet to his friend, Professor Edward T. McLaughlin, in Battell Chapel, and | + | |
- | secured Russell Sturgis, Jr., to design the tablet. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | A lifelong interest in Captain Nathan Hale induced Mr. Seymour to buy, in 1914, | + | |
- | the neglected and abandoned birthplace of the patriot in South Coventry in | + | |
- | Tolland County -- a stately farmhouse built in 1776 by Nathan' | + | |
- | Richard Hale, who incorporated in it a fragment of the actual birth house built | + | |
- | by him on substantially the same site in 1746. The farm contained three hundred | + | |
- | and two acres of which fifty were added to the acreage after Deacon Hale's death | + | |
- | in 1802. Mr. Seymour reconditioned the mansion with knowledge and taste, | + | |
- | gathered furnishings of Connecticut origin for it, including some pieces of | + | |
- | immediate Hale interest, such as Hale's army trunk. In order to protect the | + | |
- | property, Mr. Seymour bought in 1925 another farm on the opposite side of the | + | |
- | highway, with a house of about 1720 in which Hale's "good grandmother Strong" | + | |
- | lived and died. This house is now called " | + | |
- | that early group of settlers of Coventry, including the Strongs, who removed | + | |
- | there from Northampton, | + | |
- | This old fabric has also been reconditioned and furnished. The present property | + | |
- | of nearly a thousand acres is now being managed on principles of practical | + | |
- | forestry under the direction of Mr. George A. Cromie. Apart from their historic | + | |
- | interest in connection with Hale, both of these homes are of marked interest to | + | |
- | the students of early Connecticut domestic architecture. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | erection in 1913 of a statue of Hale, who was of the Yale Class of 1773, on the | + | |
- | 01d Campus of Yale College -- a sustained effort of sixteen years and " | + | |
- | only after many vicissitudes. | + | |
- | near the Hale mansion in Coventry Mr. Seymour has erected a bronze replica of | + | |
- | it. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | In 1925 the Federal Government, through Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | something over two years, issued a half-cent Federal stamp bearing the head of | + | |
- | Pratt' | + | |
- | issued. In a very real sense, these stamps, freely circulating everywhere from | + | |
- | coast to coast, have made the nation " | + | |
- | presented many framed life-sized photographs of the head and bust of Pratt' | + | |
- | " | + | |
- | + | ||
- | A collector nearly all his life, particularly of early New England furniture, | + | |
- | Mr. Seymour has not only furnished his house in New Haven and his two houses in | + | |
- | Coventry with antique furniture and household goods, but has on deposit in the | + | |
- | Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford an extensive collection of early pieces, | + | |
- | including many specimens of seventeenth century oak, as well as some painted | + | |
- | pine chests. It has been his aim to collect only pieces of Connecticut origin. | + | |
- | In the main he has specialized in pre-Revolutionary household things, and he is | + | |
- | regarded as no mean authority in that field. He has also on deposit in the | + | |
- | Atheneum a small collection of old silver, and in the Hale Mansion he has | + | |
- | brought together a consider- able collection of early Connecticut folk-pottery | + | |
- | (made in New London and Norwich), and a collection of the painted basketry of | + | |
- | the Mohegan Indians. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | In 1931 Mr. Seymour presented to the town of Newington as a memorial to his | + | |
- | mother and her family, a tract of about twenty acres of farm land, to be used | + | |
- | primarily as a playground, the land being a fragment of the farm occupied by her | + | |
- | Churchill forbears since the early days of the Colony and including the site of | + | |
- | the mansion, which was built in 1761 by his great-great-grandfather and was | + | |
- | noted for the beauty of its highly-ornamented front doorway. This gift of land | + | |
- | in Newington was the outgrowth of Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | Haven' | + | |
- | helped so much to increase. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour traveled in England and Scotland in 1889, on the Continent in 1905, | + | |
- | and again on the Continent (by motor) in 1909 and in 1911. In 1900 he went with | + | |
- | a party headed by the late Prof . Charles E. Beecher, then Director of the | + | |
- | Peabody Museum, to witness the snake dance of the Moki Indians, and visited the | + | |
- | Grand Canyon of the Colorado, the Painted Desert, and the Petrified Forest. In | + | |
- | 1901 he went around the world with the Hon. Gifford Pinchot, whose errand was to | + | |
- | secure material for a report to President Roosevelt on the forest resources of | + | |
- | the Philippine Islands. Arrived at Manila after crossing Asia on the newly- | + | |
- | opened Trans-Siberian Railway, they were the guests at the old palace of | + | |
- | Malacanan of the Governor General and Mrs. Taft. Mr. Taft placed his official | + | |
- | boat, the //Alava//, at their disposal, and they made an extensive tour of the | + | |
- | Islands, taking in Sandakan in Borneo as a side trip. They returned home //via// | + | |
- | Japan and the Hawaiian Islands. At that time, few persons had seen as much of | + | |
- | the Islands as Mr. Pinchot and Mr. Seymour saw on this trip. In Manila Mr. | + | |
- | Seymour renewed an acquaintance with Mr. Taft which was to grow into a close | + | |
- | lifelong friendship. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour has found, as he often says, that "the way of the reformer is hard," | + | |
- | calling, as it does, for continuous study, for constant sacrifice of time and | + | |
- | patience, and above all for a philosophical spirit to bear frustrations, | + | |
- | derision, and disappointments. Looking backward, he regrets most of all the | + | |
- | failure to realize what was an important feature of the improvement plan | + | |
- | advocated in 1907 by Messrs. Gilbert and Olmsted, the creation of a park- | + | |
- | bordered marginal highway extending along the harbor front of New Haven, | + | |
- | providing near access to the water from the center of the city, and a route | + | |
- | for east and west traffic that would have avoided the center of the city and | + | |
- | relieved congestion. One has but to look at a map of New Haven and note the | + | |
- | vacant acres back of the railway station, to realize what New Haven daily misses | + | |
- | in convenience of transportation, | + | |
- | close to the sea, are deprived of the advantages and pleasure of it. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | As little fruitful as Mr. Seymour' | + | |
- | considering the time, energy and labor invested in them, and as compared with | + | |
- | his hope of benefits to proceed from them, if in reasonable measure realized, he | + | |
- | has at least the sustaining consciousness that he is on "the side of the | + | |
- | future." | + | |
- | + | ||
- | As a member of the State Commission of Sculpture, Mr. Seymour some years ago | + | |
- | advocated memorials in the Capitol at Hartford to John Brown of Osawatomie and | + | |
- | to Harriet Beecher Stowe, both natives of Connecticut and both outstanding | + | |
- | contributors to the cause of human freedom. This proposition never got to the | + | |
- | public, and what the public reaction would have been is a matter of speculation | + | |
- | ; but he mentioned the matter to Colonel Osborn, who said, "Until the pen drops | + | |
- | from my palsied fingers I will oppose in the columns of the // | + | |
- | a proposition to erect any memorial to John Brown in the Capitol at Hartford'' | + | |
- | At the same time the late Professor Henry Augustine Beers said, "I will use my | + | |
- | pen as long as I can write to forward your proposition to erect a memorial to | + | |
- | John Brown in the Capitol. You remember that Emerson said, 'John Brown has made | + | |
- | the gallows as sacred as the cross.'" | + | |
- | + | ||
- | The foregoing account of the author' | + | |
- | ago for a different purpose, and it is included here at this time perforce | + | |
- | because, as the result of a shock suffered by the author two years ago, he has | + | |
- | been unable to go through his papers and files for the preparation of an account | + | |
- | of his abilities, which if written to-day would be far less detailed. | + | |
- | Nevertheless, | + | |
- | purchase in Coventry of the Joseph Huntington Parsonage, built about 1764, in | + | |
- | which Nathan Hale was prepared for Yale College. Another is the erection, with | + | |
- | suitable inscriptions, | + | |
- | with Nathan Hale and one marking the site of the first house built in Coventry. | + | |
- | Another is erecting a suitable monument in the town of Bolton to mark the | + | |
- | forgotten grave of Ralph Earl, the Revolutionary portrait painter. Still others | + | |
- | are the employment of an expert to recondition a number of early portraits in | + | |
- | the possession of the Connecticut Historical Society and the commission of a | + | |
- | well-known American artist to paint a portrait of his friend, Chief-Justice | + | |
- | Taft, for the Robing Room of the United States Supreme Court Building in | + | |
- | Washington. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour was a member of the Mayor' | + | |
- | of New Haven and a member of the committee for the erection of a Cenotaph to | + | |
- | Theophilus Eaton, the first Governor of the New Haven Colony. During the | + | |
- | Tercentenary year he compiled and published a brochure entitled " | + | |
- | Governor Eaton." | + | |
- | Nathan Hale," this at the suggestion many years ago of the late Professor Thomas | + | |
- | R. Lounsbury of Yale. At present he is preparing to erect at the Birthplace a | + | |
- | monument to his veteran riding horse, who died nearly a year ago, a horse so | + | |
- | highly educated, so great a gentleman, that he seemed deserving of a Latin | + | |
- | inscription, | + | |
- | + | ||
- | | D M | | + | |
- | | THOMAS HOOKER BONES | | + | |
- | | 1907-1937 | + | |
- | | EQUI BENE MERITI | + | |
- | | GENERE NOBILIS DOCTRINA INSTITUTI VIRTUTIBUS ORNATI | + | |
- | | INGENUI LIBERALIS HUMANI | + | |
- | | S T T L | | + | |
- | | HOC MONUMENTUM PONENDUM CURAVIT | + | |
- | | GEORGIUS DUDLEY SEYMOUR | + | |
- | | MDCCCCXXXVIII | + | |
- | + | ||
- | A list of the major portion of articles which Mr. Seymour from time to time has | + | |
- | published on early Connecticut architects and their work has been included in | + | |
- | the appendix to this history. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Mr. Seymour is a Congregationalist and in politics a Republican. He received the | + | |
- | honorary degree of M.A. from Yale College in 1913. and the degree of L.H.D. | + | |
- | from George Washington University in 1921. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | //Clubs// -- Dissenters, Graduates, Elizabethan, | + | |
- | ; Cosmos, Washington ; Century, Coffee House, Yale, and Ends of the Earth, New | + | |
- | York. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Vice-president Connecticut Historical Society; member New Haven Colony Historical Society; honorary member Chicago, Mattatuck (Waterbury), | + | |
- | + | ||
- | \\ [[start|Back to the Home page]] | + | |
book/george_dudley_seymour.txt · Last modified: 2018/01/01 16:53 by jims