Reply #14: Hildene

[cali]

Hildene, located at Manchester in the U.S. state of Vermont, was the summer home of Robert Todd Lincoln and his wife Mary Harlan Lincoln. He was the eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln.

Robert Todd Lincoln first visited Manchester, Vermont at age 20 in the summer of 1863 when he, his brother Tad, and their mother stayed at the nearby Equinox House to escape the heat of Washington.

The name Hildene means hill and valley. Completed in 1905 in the Georgian Revival style, Hildene is located on a 300 foot promontory overlooking the Battenkill Valley and a greensward called "The Meadows", the latter a part of the property which is used for horseback riding and outdoor events. A formal garden in the form of a Gothic cathedral's stained glass window was planted in 1907. The window pattern is defined by privet hedge and filled with mixed borders of annual and perennial flowering plants providing the multicolored "stained glass." The garden is especially noted for its collection of over 1,000 herbaceous peonies. In 1908 an Æeolian pipe organ was installed at a cost of $11,500.

Hildene remained occupied by descendants of the Lincoln family until 1975, when the next to last descendant of the Lincoln-Harlan family, Mary Lincoln Beckwith, granddaughter of Robert and Mary, died there. In 1978 the non-profit organization, the Friends of Hildene, purchased the property and began restoration of the house, outbuildings and gardens.

Hildene is furnished almost entirely with Lincoln family furniture, and contains artifacts belonging to Robert Todd Lincoln and his parents. In 1980 the Friends of Hildene restored the Æeolian pipe organ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildene