Grey Towers Oct 30 2014

From the Water Wheel, we drove to Grey Towers, an historic site, in Milford which is the mansion once owned by Gifford Pinchot, two time governor of Pennsylvania and the first director of the Forest Service.  The estate encompasses a total of 303 acres and 48 buildings in all.  We were too late for the guided tour through the mansion, but we enjoyed our walking tour around the grounds of the main residence.

 

The property was dedicated as an institute for conservation studies by JFK 2 months before his death in 1963.

 

Beautiful arrangements of flowers and gourds were positioned everywhere.

And towers covered with ivy

 

John & Plish viewing an album that showed exterior "then and now" photos" of the estate.  Check out the window shutters...why did they have a quarter moon carved in them?  Wasn't that a sign for an outhouse?

 

Bob says, "Now, this is a door!" looking at the heavy carved wood and iron door handle and hinges.

 

and I say, "Now this is a comfortable seat!"

 

More fall arrangements

 

The back view of the mansion

 

Plish & John at the upper garden

A closer look at the upper garden.  There were stone/concrete sculptures of turkeys on the garden walls.  On the horizon is New Jersey near High Point.

This is part of the moat that was around the mansion

And this is the plaque outside the "finger bowl" which was an outside dining area designed by Gifford Pinchot's wife, Cornelia.

 

This is the arched entry to the finger bowl

and this is the finger bowl.  I wondered out loud if anyone got so drunk he/she ended up falling into it.

But one of the docents who was nearby overheard me and assured us that the Pinchots were tea-totalers; and although Gifford's brother-in-law who lived on the estate was not, there is no record of anyone diving into the bowl.  Frankly, I think what happens in Grey Towers stays in Grey Towers.  On a side note to 6 degrees of separation, the guide was wearing an FSU hat, and turns out he grew up in Ft Myers and has served at 17 different national park sites.