You can tell that today’s Mystery Photo is an older house because of the massive chimneys, meaning it took plain, everyday wood to heat this structure. Look at all the brick in these chimneys? Now figure out where this house is located. There are few identifying clues around! Send your answer to elliott@brack.net and include your hometown.
The most recent Mystery Photo wasn’t some older building in Europe, though it may have looked like it. George Graf of Palmyra, Va. recognized it immediately. “That’s Gray Towers National Historic Site (aka Gifford Pinchot House or The Pinchot Institute) is located just off U.S. Highway 6 west of Milford, Penn. The house was built in the style of a French château to reflect the Pinchot family’s French origins and overlooks the Delaware River. Almost all the materials came from local sources. Hemlock timbers were floated down the Delaware on rafts from Lackawaxen, and another river town, Shohola, provided the bluestone and windows.
“It is the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, first director of the United States Forest Service and twice elected governor of Pennsylvania. Gifford married Cornelia Bryce in August 1914 and the couple began spending their summers at Grey Towers. She realized that their developing political careers (she ran for Congress three times), required changes to the house to make it more suitable for entertaining. At her behest, many alterations were made to the original first-floor plan. The most significant involved merging the dining and breakfast rooms to create a large sitting room, and similarly enlarging the library by adding the living room to it. In 1963 the house and property were donated to the Forest Service; it is the only U.S. National Historic Site managed by that agency.”
The photo came from Lee Klaer of Duluth. Others recognizing the photo include Robert Foreman, Grayson; and Lou Camerio, Lilburn.
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