Episode #5: Testimonial Gateway

Quaker testimony is best understood as the public witness of an inward faith of both individual and community. It is the consequence of one’s relationship to God and the outworking of that relationship in one’s life.  – Eric Moon, Friends Journal

The magnificent Testimonial Gateway set at the foothills of the Shawangunk Ridge was for 50 years the entryway to Mohonk, at first by horse and carriage (a 2 ½ hour trip to the hotel) and later by car. Bestowed upon Albert and Eliza Smiley for their 50^th wedding anniversary in 1907 by their devoted Mohonk guests, the gateway cost $20,000–$500,00 in today’s dollars– collected in contributions of as little as $10 by more than 1,200 people.  Since 1980, the gateway has also served as logo for Mohonk Consultations, a non-profit organization started by Keith Smiley, seeking solutions to local and global concerns through dialogue at Mohonk.

MOHONK CONFERENCES

Mohonk Consultations follows the tradition started by Albert K. and Eliza Smiley, and later carried on by Daniel and Effie, who hosted well-attended and illustrious conferences at Mohonk from the late 1800s until the advent of World War I.   These included 21 conferences on International Arbitration which sought a global alternative to war, as well as 34 conferences on Native American policy which sought social reforms to governmental treatment of Indians.   

Quakers do not separate religious and secular life, believing that all life should be lived ‘’in the spirit.”  Friends have always believed that what was most important was how faith was lived out collectively in the world.  The Quaker testimonials (beliefs) regarding peaceful means to settle disputes and the equality of all people under God required of the Smileys that they take personal responsibility for demonstrating these beliefs through action.

INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS

In addition to being a “guesthouse,” the Smileys envisioned Mohonk to serve as a politically neutral place from which people of influence might discuss the best way forward for humanity.   Though limited as all humans are by the constraints of race, gender, class, religion, and historical era, the Smileys invited the greater world to their doorstep with generosity, in the name of making a better society. 

It was fascinating timing that on the commemoration day for the Gateway: July 8, 1907, the second Conference on International Arbitration at the Hague in the Netherlands was taking place.  This was referenced in the day’s proceedings, as the previously-held Mohonk Conferences birthed ideas and outcomes which had direct influence all the way across the ocean at the Hague.  Seen in this way, the Testimonial Gateway served as the literal symbol of the relationship between Mohonk and the world, between inner belief and public practice.  

CHANGES IN THE COUNTRY

As a marker of Albert K. and Eliza’s 50-year marriage, the gateway also served a marker of time and change in America.  Judge George Perkins, speaking on behalf of the fund-raising committee, noted the changes in the country over the period from 1857 to 1907.  Chief among these was the advent of railroads, uniting the Atlantic to the Pacific and effectively disappearing the frontier.  Those 50 years of radical change in this country also included the acquisition of California and the addition of Texas to the Union, through the much controversied Mexican War.  Not to mention that “the bloodiest civil war of all history was fought and the union of our states and our people made everlasting.”  Technological advances included trolley cars, telephones, motor cars and wireless telegraphy throughout this 50 year period.  

Well over 100 years later, it is sobering to consider the present time—the country as divided by opinion as it was before the Civil War, social unrest paramount and environmental devastation at a global tipping point. The last 50 years have also meant faster technological advances than at any period in human history.   It is a time when many of us wonder and despair about the capacity of humanity to unite and do good for the benefit of all.

RESTORING THE GATEWAY

With this in mind, it is particularly fulfilling to see that the Gateway not only still stands, but is in the process of being lovingly restored by the Mohonk Preserve, whose land it occupies today.   Made from Shawangunk Grit, it was clearly built to last, and continues to symbolize symbiotic relationships– between Mohonk and the Preserve, between village and mountaintop.  The view from both the valley bottom (standing in the Gateway looking up the beautiful Oak Allee) to the ridge, as well as from the top (looking down from the SkyTop Road) is one of generous continuity of town, field and mountain, and beckoning to connect with nature.  In the tradition of the Smileys, the gateway continues to encourage people to consider their relationship to the land and to the greater world.  Though the days of worldwide influence at Mohonk have shifted to more regional efforts, the invitation continues through Mohonk Consultations to “come talk it over at Mohonk,” hosting conferences and forums on subjects such as solving the waste crisis and promoting food justice.

I trust that many generations of men will pass through that portal and climb the mountain through fine scenery, over well-built roadways and find on the height not only a well ordered hostelry, but more—a home where warmest greetings will be extended and friendships cultivated; still more that eminent men shall meet here to discuss great national and international questions that pertain to the betterment of the world; and above all that the Omnipotent Creator and Ruler of the Universe, whose tender compassion notices a sparrow’s fall, may be fitly honored and reverenced by both hosts and guests till the solid stone gateway shall crumble into dust.  

-Albert K. Smiley, July 8, 1907

Louisa Finn is a fourth generation Smiley family member. She is Secretary for Mohonk Consultations, Speech/Language Therapist, and poet. Her mother, Patricia Smiley Guralnik, directed the Festival of the Arts at Mohonk following the death of her husband, pianist Robert Guralnik. As a child, Louisa spent many days visiting her grandmother, Rachel Orcutt Smiley, who, in her later years, lived in Mohonk’s tower room 271. Currently, Louisa enjoys spending time in the Mohonk Archives, and reading the letters of her ancestors. Their words help to confirm her strong sense of the value of place, and inspire her to share the way past voices can instruct the present, and the future.

The post Voices from the Archives appeared first on Mohonk Mountain House .

Episode #4: Passing the Baton

2021 will be forever etched in my mind, not only because of our country’s climb out of COVID, but because it is the year my mother, Patricia Smiley Guralnik, and her big brother, Lucius Gerow Smiley, died within one week of each other. Though 15 years separated them, they chose the same exit time in late January; mom in a sweet yellow room at my home at the foot of Mohonk Mountain, and Gerow aged 98 in his longtime apartment in Redlands, CA, the Smiley’s other home.

There went a living legend and his adoring little sister, and there went Smiley Generation 3,  leaving us members of Generation 4 faced with the keening awareness of mortality, as well as the responsibility of shouldering their loads, wearing their shoes if they fit, and heeding their voices.  Ex-poet laureate and Native American Joy Harjo said, “Every generation is a kind of person.” There’s a basic ground from which they spring. Though the personal differences abound, perhaps their collective message can be discerned as though from one voice.

GEROW

As a little girl, I thought of my uncle Gerow as a cowboy. This was confirmed by a trip I made at 11 years old to stay with him in California, where he worked as a large animal veterinarian. On that trip I went with Gerow on his vet visits, which included watching him give 100 cows pregnancy tests. He took me canoeing down the Russian River. His was a world of physicality, unlike the world of my parents. Born into “the greatest generation,”Gerow had a can-do confidence, a sense of entitlement and power, a clear-thinking optimism, and a certainty about how he saw things. Though Gerow stepped in and out of involvement at Mohonk over the years, his persona made his impact on Mohonk bigger than life, from his willingness to fix anything he found broken, to his care and knowledge about every aspect of the land, to his strong opinions about how everything should be done. 

MOM

My mother was opposite. Born when her mother (Rachel Orcutt, aka Mrs. Francis Smiley) was 41, Mom was fond of labeling herself “a mistake.” She felt confined by the expectations placed on her growing up at Mohonk, and longed to escape. She felt “lesser than” her entire life, as though she never measured up. In spite of that feeling, Mom prevailed, serving as a Mohonk Trustee for many years, and continuing to manage the Festival of the Arts (started by my dad in the late 1980s). She was a much-loved member of the family, and known for her offbeat wild-card nature and fondness for cocktails and gambling.

SMILEY GENERATION 3

The Smiley family is famously known for a strong introverted streak. But if there were extroverts in Generation 3, they were in the Francis Gerow line (my grandfather).  Rachel (Rachie) Matteson served as social hostess for decades, remembering details about guest’s names, families and past-times from year to year. The art of social conversation was hers.  Likewise for her younger siblings. Many were drawn to Gerow’s charismatic straight-shooting curiosity which he leveled at everyone, from employees to presidents; and to Mom’s funny outspoken vulnerability. Both were open and accessible, inviting people into relationship. Gerow would hold court in Office  7 on the Ground floor of the hotel, or on the porch at the Laurels (Smiley family home), and Mom could be found often in the Carriage Lounge, or in her later days in local eateries where she would talk to anyone, particularly those with life challenges for whom she had ultimate compassion.

There is an ecological tenet which states “diversity leads to stability”. It’s true for soil; the more active the life forms, the more vital the dirt. It’s true for gardens and forests as well—the diversity of species making the system function more efficiently, with less energy needed from the outside. If this tenet is applied to Smiley Generation 3, the children of Francis Gerow and Rachel, and Albert II and Mable (the two couples of Generation 2 who remained at Mohonk for their whole lives), a clear diversity is revealed.

Though they were each complex people, describing each one’s strengths or passions with one brush stroke might look like this:

Daniel (1907-1989) – Naturalist/Environmentalist

Albert Keith III (1910-2001) – Quaker Ideals/World Peace Advocate/Writer

Anna (1914-2001) – Pitching in wherever needed

Rachel (1920-2010) – Social hostess/Interior and garden Design

Gerow (1922-2021) – Land Stewardship/Systems management

Francis (1925-2010) – Reverence

Patricia (1936-2021) – Music/arts/ Entertainment

What a diverse garden Generation 3 has planted for us! I’d particularly like to highlight those family members in this list that did not have as clear a role at Mohonk—both Anna, who left fairly early for a life in California, and Francis (Franny), who lived in Mexico for much of his adult life. Anna, as a young woman, “pitched in wherever needed” at the hotel. This included secretarial duties, as well as unusual tasks such as tending to an outbreak of cluster flies and adjusting all the clocks in the hotel to align. Fitting in where needed is, in my experience, often a role that young women in particular find themselves in, and though modest sounding, it is a role that requires a strong ego, great flexibility, and frequently “holds the space” for business to proceed. Franny was known to the family as “a sensitive soul,” so much so that his Cousin Alice made a special effort to look out for him, seeing that he needed extra tending to. Being in his presence one was struck by the special quality of a person who is tuned in on a different level to life; a kind of reverence. I venture that sensitive souls exist in all families, and in many cases, help the family to access its collective heart.

I truly enjoy noticing that these qualities (and others) continue to run, more or less, through the ongoing Smiley generations, and likely will in those who haven’t shown up yet. Given this natural diversity, this stability in the system, I offer this remembrance in appreciation. It serves as a reminder to ourselves to continue to cultivate and include the diverse voices that grow naturally in our Smiley family business as we evolve, in the name of health, vibrancy, and long-lastingness.

Louisa Finn is a fourth generation Smiley family member. She is Secretary for Mohonk Consultations, Speech/Language Therapist, and poet. Her mother, Patricia Smiley Guralnik, directed the Festival of the Arts at Mohonk following the death of her husband, pianist Robert Guralnik. As a child, Louisa spent many days visiting her grandmother, Rachel Orcutt Smiley, who, in her later years, lived in Mohonk’s tower room 271. Currently, Louisa enjoys spending time in the Mohonk Archives, and reading the letters of her ancestors. Their words help to confirm her strong sense of the value of place, and inspire her to share the way past voices can instruct the present, and the future.

The post Voices from the Archives appeared first on Mohonk Mountain House .

Lead Aesthetician  |  The Spa at Mohonk Mountain House

Whether you’re out on the trails, enjoying some barbecue, or just relaxing, summer means getting outdoors. But no matter how you choose to have fun, the sun will likely be a factor. So it’s important to keep in mind how best to protect your skin. Try our top 5 tips to keep your skin in S-H-A-P-E this summer.

Sun Protection

Make sure you are applying an SPF daily. We recommend mineral SPFs that are reef safe. Pay close attention to the areas we too often forget about: our ears, lips, and neck. Be mindful about re-applying, especially after sweating, swimming, and any time you’re in the sun for long stretches.

Hydrate

Always carry a bottle of water with you. Keep snacks that are high in water content nearby, such as melons. Use a hydrating mist: a great choice is our Stone Crop Hydrating Mist. It pulls water into your skin, and provides calming and cooling after sun exposure.

Antioxidants

Vitamins C and E are great all year long, but especially in the summer to fight signs of free radical damage due to environment and lifestyle. They will help to even out the skin, as well as tighten, brighten, and tone. Vitamins C and E can be found in fruits, vegetables, and nuts—excellent snack options on a summer day.

Protection

Wear a hat, sunglasses, and UV protective clothing. Stay in the shade as much as possible, especially when using electronic devices—the reflection from the screen amplifies the sun and increases your exposure.

Exfoliate

With summer, there is always an increase in sweat and sunscreen. So it’s important to exfoliate the skin once or twice a week to keep your pores clear and your complexion bright. After wearing masks so often during Covid, you may find your skin has become a bit dull or clogged. A great way to offset that is with a deep cleansing facial such as our Arctic Berry Enzyme treatment. For ongoing care, we recommend an at-home product you’re already comfortable with. If you don’t already have a go-to skincare regimen, we recommend Eminence Organic’s Turmeric Energizing Treatment.

With these 5 tips, your skin will maintain its healthy glow. So there’s no reason to skimp on fun in the sun in the summer of ’21.

Learn more about our award-winning Spa at Mohonk Mountain House!

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Episode #3: Eliza and Effie—Sisters in Grief and Love

In order to understand the special relationship between Eliza and Effie Smiley, you need to understand that their respective husbands, Albert K. (Mohonk’s founder) and Daniel, were half-brothers born almost 30 years apart to the same father, Daniel Smiley (the 1^st) of Vassalboro, Maine. After the death of Daniel’s first wife Phoebe in 1853, he married Dorcas Hanson, who gave birth to their one and only child Daniel (my great grandfather, and literal “father” to the Mohonk Smiley family line).

PROVIDENCE

Mohonk’s founder, Albert K. Smiley, acted as surrogate father to the young Daniel (the 2^nd), grooming him to be a scholar and a gentleman. When Daniel brought his young bride-to-be Effie home to meet Albert and wife Eliza, it was love at first sight between Effie and Eliza, the new sisters-in-law. The reasons for this were likely complex as with any relationship, but in this case there was a sense of providence.

Eliza Smiley

Eliza’s otherwise fortunate life had been marked by a great sadness when her only child, Annette, died at age 5 from an illness in 1863. Eliza fell ill too at the time, and by all accounts never fully recovered, physically or emotionally. Albert and Eliza never had another child. Though Eliza carried on with a productive and in many ways fulfilling life, there is a lingering sadness evident in pictures of her, an almost perceptible hole in her heart.

It’s comforting then to consider the joy that Eliza must have felt upon Effie’s entry into her life in 1881. Imagine the wonder at discovering that your new beloved “sister” was born in the same year as your lost child. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to not project the left-over love and motherly intention for the child onto the newcomer, and perhaps to secretly think “this is what our Nettie would have been like.” Eliza expresses this emotion clearly in a letter to Dorcas in 1883, on the eve of the birth of Effie’s first child, Albert (the 2^nd).

“Albert and I feel very Grandfatherly and Grandmotherly – thou will have to divide the honor with me – Isn’t God good to send me them instead of Nettie?”

SISTERLY LOVE

For Eliza, Effie filled the deep hole left by Nettie’s death. For Effie, Eliza provided a sweet, calm, and stable presence lacking in her own family. Effie’s family had been burdened by emotional and physical illness, and Effie grew up expecting little and giving everything. Effie was described by her own mother as “the only green spot in my patch of weeds.” As the support to her own family, Effie grew up without an anchor of her own. Eliza, 30 years her senior, provided a port in the storm, someone to whom she could express her emotions, and often her loneliness. This letter from August 5, 1890 demonstrates the depth of feeling Effie had for Eliza:

“Dear, sweet, loving and lovely sister and mother mine – what has thee not been to me – more necessary and precious to me every day …after thee left and the next morning especially at thy usual time of coming in to see us, I kept looking up and before I could realize thee was gone – think Sister Eliza will be here in a minute – Oh! Thee has no idea how it seems without thy dear self – and I hope thee can never realize.”

Effie’s words are so heartfelt, expressing an intimacy and reliance reserved for the deepest relationships, as to almost blur the boundaries between self and other. This reliance would be expressed again and again as the two “sisters” shared their lives at Mohonk and in Redlands, California (the Smileys’ winter home) and wrote to each other whenever separated.

Effie Smiley

SISTERLY GRIEF

As fate would have it, Eliza would also have a turn to comfort Effie through the death of a child. Baby Daniel, born to Daniel and Effie in 1891, only lived 5 weeks before succumbing to a respiratory illness. In a letter dated 1892, during a time when Daniel was away, Effie shares her grief with Eliza, acknowledging the guidance she receives from knowing that Eliza understands her pain.

“The solid fact of my heartache and loneliness, which sometimes seems almost too much, remains….Thee can not know how it helps me along to think that thee is one who really understands and appreciates what a real hardship it is to me to have Daniel so long away, or away at all,…there is only one who knows really how hard it is.”

In an unusual correlation, the building trades use a metaphor which I find resonant when thinking about Effie and Eliza. “Sistering joists” is done when a floor is sagging, and the support joists underneath are strengthened by adding an extra matching beam to a damaged or inadequate one, then attaching the two together with screws or nails. This seems about right when thinking of these two Smiley women, whom fate tied together in a mutually supportive manner, bolstering each other through loves and losses.

Louisa Finn is a fourth generation Smiley family member. She is Secretary for Mohonk Consultations, Speech/Language Therapist, and poet. Her mother, Patricia Smiley Guralnik, directed the Festival of the Arts at Mohonk following the death of her husband, pianist Robert Guralnik. As a child, Louisa spent many days visiting her grandmother, Rachel Orcutt Smiley, who, in her later years, lived in Mohonk’s tower room 271. Currently, Louisa enjoys spending time in the Mohonk Archives, and reading the letters of her ancestors. Their words help to confirm her strong sense of the value of place, and inspire her to share the way past voices can instruct the present, and the future.

The post Voices from the Archives appeared first on Mohonk Mountain House .

Episode #2: Garden Musings

In a private office on the ground floor of Mohonk Mountain House live grand old bookshelves lined with Daniel Smiley’s collection of garden books. Though I’ve not read them, the imposing presence of their sheer mass has often made me wonder if my own gardening obsession is a genetic inheritance. Gardeners have a particular kind of vision and determination, at times seeming to border on madness, when weather, critters, bugs, and soil conditions all conspire against the intended outcome. Among those who love to cultivate plants, these obstacles are never enough to dissuade from the sense of abundance, beauty, and joy that the garden can provide. I’ve observed, as well, a strong redemptive spirit in many fellow workers of the soil, not the least my Smiley ancestors!

AMBITION

Frederick Partington, a Mohonk guest, observed this about Albert K. Smiley’s garden pursuits:

“Getting the land may have been the hardest thing Mr. Smiley ever did – but taming it gave him the greatest delight of his life. He did not rest until he had coaxed into blossom nearly 20 acres of that hopeless slope of the mountain.”

That would have been in 1888, when wagonloads of fertile soil from the surrounding property were transported to create the formal garden. Thousands of plants were cultivated, from ornamental trees to flowering bushes like Rhododendron and Hydrangea, fruiting plants like gooseberry and raspberry, and many varieties of flowers including Peonies and Roses (two Smiley favorites). Among the treasures to be found in the Mohonk Archives are personal notebooks with lists of numbered beds and the flowers they should contain.

Victorians were passionate about the science of botany, and the learning of plant names and characteristics were considered essential knowledge for the educated. Sarah Smiley, sister to Albert K. and twin brother Alfred, infamous for being a female preacher in the early 20^th Century, recommended the following plants in the year 1880. The list is interesting not only for the number and variety of the flowers contained, but her understanding of the particularities of their care.

Heliotrope, Sweet Alyssum, Double Hollyhock

Verbenas need new soil and ashes, Pinks

Sweet Peas (Painted Lady best, Crown Prince Prussia

and mixed varieties) Pansies (bed sunk and well composted

Cow manure) White Double Gladiolus, must not be manured

Except old manure and leaf soil, plant deep water when young

HUMILITY

That same year, 1880, Sarah wrote and published a book, Garden Graith: Talks Among Flowers in which the garden serves as metaphor for her passionate spiritual beliefs. Here she makes the connection between the struggles of gardening and the hard work of evolving as a human being.

“And so my joy has come, not from the placing of a perfect gift in my hands, but through slow triumphs over many obstacles – so turning at last desolation into beauty. Yet even thus have I learned most. My garden redeemed is a truer microcosm of the world of human hearts.”

Thank you, Sister Sarah – there’s hope for all of us! Sarah’s words help me to consider how the garden may “grow us” rather than the other way around. The patience, persistence, and humility required in the garden help us to develop these qualities in ourselves, as well as the hopefulness inherent to garden planning.

It is this quality that is most apparent in two typed notes I discovered between Albert K. Smiley, Jr. and his mother Effie in January 1916. Albert, manager of Mohonk at the time, was clearly surprised by the arrival of 2,000 Gladiolus bulbs in the dead of winter. Effie’s response demonstrates her advanced planning for Spring, including the all-important consideration of fresh cut flowers for the hotel.

I love the image of the 2,000 bulbs lying in boxes during that Winter of 1916, just as the United States was considering involvement in World War I. It communicates a kind of prescient optimism and determination of normalcy: “the show must go on.”

Effie’s appreciative knowledge of the cultivars she was ordering also reminds me of a more recent ancestor, Rachel Matteson. Aunt “Rachie” was clearly endowed with the Smiley Garden artistry. She was known during her tenure at Mohonk for her masterful ability to create flower arrangements, a skill relatable to any work of art, involving design, color, and feeling. Rachie’s arrangements were distinct for their simplicity, playful freshness, and delight in color. Rachie would place arrangements around the hotel in locations meant to lift the eye and the spirit. They were not just superficial decorations, but more like small expressions of the whole world of “Mohonkness.”

REVERENCE

Pressed flowers were another way that people demonstrated reverence for plants in the Victorian era. It was not uncommon for people to stick a flower or leaf between the pages of a book they were reading, either to preserve it for the future, and/or to document the memory of a special day or moment.

Recently, some Smiley family members and I were looking through Daniel Smiley’s book collection in the Family Parlor at Mohonk. I opened a hundred-year-old book belonging to Daniel’s wife Effie (my great-grandmother) and discovered a pressed leaf and flower.

The discovery made me take a breath and pause a moment to receive this communication from across a century. I traced the shape of the leaf and imagined the vibrancy of color long since faded. Who put it there? What were they thinking? The celebration of one particular moment was communicated by an ancestor through the faded, flattened body of a plant, making me feel the temporary nature of existence, and our fragile connection to the past and future. Birth, growth, flowering, death. All of humanity’s grand visions are, after all, accomplished moment by moment—a vast garden created flower by flower.

Louisa Finn is a fourth generation Smiley family member. She is Secretary for Mohonk Consultations, a Speech/Language Therapist, and poet. Her mother, Patricia Smiley Guralnik, directed the Festival of the Arts at Mohonk following the death of her husband, pianist Robert Guralnik. As a child, Louisa spent many days visiting her grandmother, Rachel Orcutt Smiley, who, in her later years, lived in Mohonk’s tower room 271. Currently, Louisa enjoys spending time in the Mohonk Archives, and reading the letters of her ancestors. Their words help to confirm her strong sense of the value of place, and inspire her to share the way past voices can instruct the present, and the future.

The post Voices from the Archives appeared first on Mohonk Mountain House .

Episode #1: “Love controls all things”

When I first read one of my Great-Grandmother Effie’s letters in the Mohonk Archive, over a year ago, I was struck by an overwhelming sense of the softness and power of the language she used to communicate with her family. It was as though my ear was hypnotized by the sound of her words, making evident what seemed to be missing or lost from much of the communication of our present time. Most prominent was the difference between the use of “thee” and “thy” to express “you” and “your.” A gentle respect and love, a deference, is implicit in these terms.

Effie Smiley (far right) at the dedication of Sky Top Tower in 1923. In this “Voices from the Archives,” Effie has written to her son Bert (in the middle, sporting a bowtie) to smooth over tensions with Francis, his brother (far left). Photo courtesy of the Mohonk Archives.

CHALLENGING TIMES

We are living in a time when even the most harmonious of families find themselves challenged by the pressures that the pandemic has put upon them. The outer world is no longer easily accessible, and people everywhere have been spending a lot of time in close circumstances with a chosen few, or have been unfortunately separated from loved ones for long periods of time.

This has forced both an individual and collective reckoning of “what matters most,” and people everywhere are considering what their personal and societal legacies will be. That is perhaps most true for people in the middle years of life; a category I find myself in.

A family business such as Mohonk has always had its particular challenges and benefits. Conflict among family members is to be expected, compounded by the ever-present pressures of the changing world. This pandemic has caused many businesses to fold, or at the very least to entertain the notion that survival may not be possible.

I think of Great-Grandmother Effie as the “mother of Mohonk.” Her many thousands of letters, written daily to her children and others, exude a wide perspective on life, love, and the business of Mohonk; and truly reflect the resilience of a family, in the way that only a mother can offer.

THE PEACEMAKER

In this letter of March 25, 1922, written almost 100 years ago (just four years removed from the 1918 global flu pandemic), a 64-year-old Effie writes from Canon Crest in California (the winter home of the Smileys), to her son Bert, age 39 who was running Mohonk with my Grandfather Francis, age 33 at the time. Clearly there had been a conflict between the two brother managers, relating to the “wireless” technology of the time, and the threat of extreme weather. (Fears relating to wireless technologies are nothing new, and as radio signals were relatively new at the time of this letter, the thought that they might attract lightning was not uncommon.) Listen to the peacemaking skills Effie applies to the situation:

“I hope and trust that the wireless matters are working out all right – I am sure that Francis is more than willing to follow thy leadership – but that he was simply excited and alarmed and perhaps a little sensitive that thee didn’t talk it over with him – as he now has the immediate care of that department. Perhaps none of you may have known that some older members of the family – not only Father but Uncle Albert have been scared on the subject of lightning – Uncle A. told me frequently that he was “confident” that some time or other there would be a dreadful accident with or from lightning. I am sure it was this fear and knowing Father’s caution about the untried scientific processes which caused the undue excitement…. But Francis too much appreciates thy and Mabel’s exceptional love and kindness and devotion, especially in these past weeks, to him and Rachel, to consciously place thee in a humiliating position or assert any such thing as it seemed to thee that he did – unless he were thoroughly fearful of Father’s feeling about it —. Don’t let the exceptional thought take root, Dear, for there’s nothing there but real love – count it as not said — I know that it was only the flame of excitement only, which never would happen again. He is now suffering over it, not realizing at all what he conveyed.”

REASSURANCE

The letter is rounded off by Effie’s strong-willed assertion of family devotion above all, and how the survival of Mohonk depended upon it. In this passage, she names all four of her children and their spouses, as she contemplates her own and her husband Daniel’s death:

“There are very few hours of my life when I am not holding all our dear children close in the hands of God – and I can truly say the same of dear Father – we none of us realize when we do hurt by words of undue zeal —

What can we all learn from the fervent but gentle power of Effie’s love for her children, her family, and the “dear house” of Mohonk? A loving mother’s wide vision, and ability to see past the passions of the moment in favor of a longer view, with the supportive faith that real love brings, seems like an essential missive for the times we find ourselves in; for our own relationships, and the very ships we find ourselves sailing on.

Louisa Finn is a fourth generation Smiley family member. She is Secretary for Mohonk Consultations, a Speech/Language Therapist, and poet. Her mother, Patricia Smiley Guralnik, directed the Festival of the Arts at Mohonk following the death of her husband, pianist Robert Guralnik. As a child, Louisa spent many days visiting her grandmother, Rachel Orcutt Smiley, who, in her later years, lived in Mohonk’s tower room 271. Currently, Louisa enjoys spending time in the Mohonk Archives, and reading the letters of her ancestors. Their words help to confirm her strong sense of the value of place, and inspire her to share the way past voices can instruct the present, and the future.

The post Voices from the Archives appeared first on Mohonk Mountain House .

Overnight guests at the Mountain House can see these masterpieces in person through the end of December. And everyone else can view them all online. Once again, we are also fundraising for the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley—this year, we are hosting an online fundraiser, and we hope you will contribute—from those who do, 10 lucky winners will receive $100 Mohonk gift cards. And all of the money raised will go to feed the hungry in our region.

You can see videos of each of the six creations our All-Stars submitted HERE. And while you’re there you can vote for your favorite—voting ends 12/23, so be sure to get your vote in soon. On the same page, you’ll see information about our fundraiser.

For the first time in our competition, we featured a theme—Victorian Holidays, to complement our own holiday décor and Victorian era origins. And this year, we’d like to take you behind the scenes and introduce you to the competitors themselves, so you can see in-progress photos, hear their thoughts about the process, their inspirations, challenges, and more.

MEET THE COMPETITORS

2020 Gingerbread Entry: A Christmas Carol

LIZ & ANNA BLACK

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

This is Liz & Anna’s fourth year participating in the gingerbread competition. Dickens’ classic Victorian tale, A Christmas Carol, served as inspiration. “We have so many hours of fun planning and executing our piece,” they say. And we can see why. Anna created each fondant sculpture by hand (characters, bed linens, food, candles, rug, and so much more), and shaded them with edible dust. Liz planned the architectural aspects and built the gingerbread panels and the other gingerbread elements (bed, nightstand, chimney, etc). One of the reasons Liz & Anna love the competition is to see what everyone has created on gingerbread day. And we love to see their work, too! Enjoy some in-progress photos from “A Christmas Carol.”

2020 Gingerbread Entry: A “Picture Perfect” Christmas

BRUNK BUILT—KEVEN & JESSYKA BRUNK

A “PICTURE PERFECT” CHRISTMAS

Keven and Jessyka are in their fourth year of the gingerbread competition. They were inspired by Grandma Moses’ paintings of New England towns and landscapes, designing their piece to mimic a painting or postcard, using size and perspective to create the tableau. One of the more challenging aspects of the conception and construction involved perspective—using the layering of flat architectural elements to create the illusion of three dimensions and depth of field. This year, Keven and Jessyka tried a new technique, making silicone molds from real rocks and then utilizing the molds to create stones from gum paste, hardened and cut to size. They airbrushed with food coloring, and crafted the stained glass windows and frozen pond using isomalt. They painted a landscape background to tie together the overall design.

2020 Gingerbread Entry: Here We Go A Caroling

GEORGE & MARYANNE MUSCOLINO

HERE WE GO A CAROLING

The Muscolinos have competed through all five years of the Hudson Valley Gingerbread Contest. They have been crafting gingerbread houses together for more than 25 years, giving them to soup kitchens, their grandchildren’s schools, and in the last few years displaying them in the children’s department of their local library. They chose carolers outside a Victorian home as their inspiration, and George’s homebuilding background proved handy for figuring out how to structure the complicated roof lines. Maryanne chose fondant over sugar for the decorations, deciding that ease of travel would be key. She made over 500 fondant “slate” tiles with a small cookie cutter, and 400 more tiny tiles for a gazebo roof. Their biggest challenge was the windows, which had to be done twice—when the weather grew humid and warm, the original windows melted! The final windows cover the melted ones.

2020 Gingerbread Entry: Victorian Christmas House

RACHEL HUNDERFUND

VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS HOUSE

Rachel Hunderfund is competing for the third time in the Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition. She loves creating her masterpieces at home and then experiencing the fun tension of the drive to the Mountain House, hoping nothing breaks apart. She chose a three-story Victorian-style house for her design with stained glass windows, featuring a brown gingerbread front and an open back providing a view of white inside rooms. The rooms are inhabited by an abundance of felines, crowding around the Christmas tree, and perched on beds and chairs by the tables. For the construction, she found the inside stairs to be the toughest challenge. For her details, she utilized icing, gum paste, and modeling chocolate. She made the little creatures from modeling chocolate and gum paste.

2020 Gingerbread Entry: Classic Victorian Mansion

BRENDAN IMBARRATO

CLASSIC VICTORIAN MANSION

Brendan is entering his fourth Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition and enjoys coming up on the day of the event to meet new people and explore the Mountain House. He was inspired by his vision of a Victorian house all decorated for Christmas. He built the structure from gingerbread, and used food dye to grey the walls. His windows were made with isomalt, and he gave them a frosty effect on the inside to achieve the sensation of a cold-weather holiday. Trees and shrubs were constructed with Rice Krispies Treats and icing, and he made the railings and pillars with white chocolate. His main challenge was creating all the tiny details like the grain on the chair or the texture of the walls, to give the mansion as realistic a look as possible.

2020 Gingerbread Entry: A Victorian Fabergé Egg

LISETTE LUCAS

A VICTORIAN FABERGE EGG

This year is Lisette Lucas’ second in the Gingerbread Competition. She loves the time spent creating, the excitement at the drop off when she can see what everyone else has made, and the chance to enjoy a day at the Mountain House. Her inspiration came from watching the documentary Faberge: A Life of Its Own. She decided to craft her own Faberge-like gingerbread egg. She found her greatest challenge was taking a simple concept and creating enough intricate details to yield a truly impressive effect. She utilized gingerbread, Rice Krispies Treats, fondant, royal icing, sprinkles, gold leaf, and edible color markers. The result is almost a trompe l’oeil effect: perched on a table in the Grove Parlor of the Mountain House, her Victorian Faberge Egg resembles an exquisite element of Mohonk’s décor, and it almost takes a second look to realize you’ve happened on one of this year’s gingerbread masterpieces.

We want to thank this year’s All Stars for gracing us with their amazing creativity, and we encourage you to donate to our Food Bank of the Hudson Valley fundraiser and vote for your favorite gingerbread masterpiece HERE!

The post Behind the Scenes of our 5th Annual Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition appeared first on Mohonk Mountain House .

The Mohonk Bulletin of October 29, 1918 referenced a season of war and illness

1918 AND 2020: PANDEMIC YEARS

To us, the coronavirus has made 2020 feel like no other year before it. But way back in Mohonk’s 49^th year, on the cusp of its first half-century, the Mountain House faced another deadly pandemic: the 1918 flu. We looked back into our Archives to see what records we could find about life on the mountain 102 years ago, when—just like today—the whole world grappled with a devastating virus.

In those days, Mohonk produced a weekly bulletin. Our Archivist Nell Boucher sent us some highlights, referencing what was then called “the Spanish flu” as the only country reporting on the virus was Spain (other countries were operating under wartime press censorship). On October 12, 1918, the Mohonk Bulletin reported: “Spanish influenza not yet seen at Mohonk but ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’” Tellingly, just one week later, the bulletin indicated “Seven cases of Spanish influenza are all quarantined and receiving medical attention.”

Nell sent us a page (pictured above) from the final edition of that year—October 29, 1918 (back then the Mountain House closed each season in November until the following summer.) The words of the bulletin speak to the difficulty of the times. Bear in mind that not only was the flu raging across the world, but World War I, known then as “the Great War,” would end just 12 days later on November 11, 1918.

The year is referred to as “… a season fraught with problems and obstacles, overshadowed throughout by the tragedies of the greatest of all wars, and closed amid the nation-wide scourge of a dread disease.” And the bulletin’s closing line reads today with the same heartfelt urgency as it did when first written 102 years ago:

“That next season may open in a greatly changed world, we fervently hope. If, however, a shadow still hangs over humanity, no less cheerfully will Mohonk accept its share of the work of lifting that shadow.”

None of us know when the shadow of the coronavirus will lift. But we do know that we must all continue to do our best to keep each other safe. May the Mohonkers of 1918 be an inspiration to keep us going in our own time.

The Masked Golfers of 1918?

Nell also sent us this intriguing picture postcard. If you zoom in, you can see that everyone is masked except the gentleman who’s lined up to swing. And they even have their masks fully covering their noses and mouths—a requirement, too, in the Mountain House today. While we can’t be 100% sure that this dates from 1918, Nell can date it between 1916 to 1930. Our Golf Cottage (seen in the background), underwent an addition in 1915 that is visible in the postcard image. And the white border around the image was a picture postcard style used up to 1930. So it seems quite possible that our golfers are masked because of the 1918 flu pandemic. The next time you join us on the mountain, take a trip down to the Spa display case, where you can see artwork from this very picture postcard.

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Sarah Smiley
1830-1917 (Generation 1)

Sister to Mohonk’s founder, Sarah was a member of the party when the Smileys first picnicked at Lake Mohonk in the summer of 1869 before Albert purchased the property and established the Mountain House. Sarah was well-educated and began working as a teacher in 1849. In 1865, after the Civil War, she traveled to the South to be a relief worker. This experience, and others, inspired her to become a preacher, one of the most famous of her time and a controversial figure—as women in those days were largely prohibited from that profession. She made waves as an evangelist, as well as in her work supporting women’s rights—insisting that women could study the scriptures themselves, without the help of men. Sarah traveled across the U.S. and Europe on speaking tours and authored three books. She was a fervent activist and advocate for human rights and anti-materialism, participated in over 30 conferences held at the Mountain House and spoke at two Mohonk Conferences on International Arbitration.

“I went to relieve human suffering.” At one Mohonk Conference, Smiley spoke of her time as a relief worker in the South after the Civil War: “Just at the close of the war, I gave about three years of my life to this cause. And I look upon them as those that educated me most.”

Effie Smiley
1858-1951 (Generation 1)

The matriarch of Mohonk—the current members of the Smiley family are all her descendants. Married to founder Albert Smiley’s half-brother Daniel, Effie served as Albert’s secretary and provided advice for guidance on key matters to both Smiley brothers. She brought grace to her role as hostess, meeting notable guests, including presidents and foreign ministers. Effie had a deep love for nature and would often drive Albert by carriage around the grounds for inspection; after his death she took on management of the Victorian Show Garden. She shared a common drive for making the world a better place and participated in early Mohonk Conferences. Guests, employees, and family members were impressed with her kindly spirit, gentle manner, and strong supportive qualities. Seymour Stone captured all of these characteristics in Effie’s portrait, which hangs in the Parlor alongside her husband’s, complete with her favorite flowers, peonies.

To learn more about Effie Smiley, visit HERstory.

Mabel Craven Smiley
1883-1972 (Generation 2)

Mabel first came to Mohonk as a guest in 1884 and annually spent her summers at the resort. She was a competitive athlete, evidenced by her many trophies from Mohonk events ranging from golfing to the annual Mohonk regatta. Mabel married Effie’s eldest son, Albert (affectionately known as “Bert”)  and in addition to raising their children Dan, Keith, and Anna, she held numerous management roles at the resort. In 1920, Mabel founded the Mohonk School in the Mountain House during the resort’s off-season as a means of using the facilities without inconveniencing guests while educating the children residing at Mohonk in the winter. (Photos of the Mohonk School are featured in our Grove building section). She was instrumental in the management of the housekeeping department and was keenly concerned about employee well-being and organized many extracurricular activities for staff, some of whom lived on property. In 1963, Mabel made the founding monetary contribution that established the Mohonk Preserve, enabling thousands of acres of land to remain forever protected from development.

To learn more about Mohonk Mountain House History, visit mohonk.com/history
For over 150 years, Mohonk has been owned and operated by the Smiley family.

To learn about the current Smiley family, visit mohonk.com/stories
Profiles include “Family Stewardship”, “From Generation to Generation”, “Our Quaker Roots” & “A Musical Legacy”. These shorts also feature Mohonk footage from the earliest days of video.

For more on Mohonk and the Smiley family, please see the book MOHONK AND THE SMILEYS: a National Historic Landmark and the Family That Created It by Larry E. Burgess, available in our Gift Shop and our online store.

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The show is set in the year 2033, where the dying can choose for their souls to be uploaded into a virtual afterlife. Mohonk Mountain House serves as the location for Lakeview, the fictitious afterlife resort and the primary setting for the series. It was a pleasure to work with the cast and crew. The filming took place in November of 2017 and took 4 days to complete (then sprinkled with quite a bit of “TV magic” during post-production).

We are so excited about being featured as a version of “heaven” and can’t wait to binge-watch all ten episodes of the series’ first season on Amazon Prime Video which debuts Friday, May 1.

If you’re looking to catch more glimpses of Mohonk on screen, don’t miss season 5 of SHOWTIME’s TV series, Billions. The episode “The Chris Rock Test” was shot on property in December 2019. Click here to view the trailer and be sure to tune in to SHOWTIME on May 10 to watch the full episode!

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