The Postcard
A postcard bearing no publisher's name. It was posted in Cos Cob, Connecticut using a Two Cent stamp on Tuesday the 18th. June 1912 to:
Mrs. R. Rowe,
26 Tregeseal,
St. Just,
Cornwall,
England.
Tregeseal East is a heavily restored prehistoric stone circle around one mile northeast of the town of St. Just in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The nineteen granite stones are also known as The Dancing Stones.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Mother,
This is the city of New
London about 100 miles
from here where I was
spending the day on
Sunday last.
With love to you all,
Tom."
Branford House
The Branford House is located in Groton, Connecticut on the campus of UConn Avery Point, which rents it out for events.
Branford House was built in 1902 for Morton Freeman Plant, a local financier and philanthropist, as his summer home. He named it after his hometown of Branford, Connecticut.
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on the 23rd. January 1984.
When built in 1902, Branford House cost $3 million - an incredible sum of money at the time. Plant shunned the high society of Newport, and chose instead the wide views of Long Island Sound available at Avery Point.
Branford House was designed by Plant's wife Nellie (who had a Sorbonne education in architecture) and built by Robert W. Gibson. Although the outside was built in the Tudor style, the interior was a patchwork of various styles - "Gothic, Baroque, Renaissance, Classical, and even Flemish" - desired by the Plants.
The house included a two-story fireplace surrounded by a clothes-drying conveyor belt, a then-rare elevator, and other architectural curiosities like doors leading into exterior walls.
Plant fancied himself to be a 'gentleman farmer,' and built vast agricultural facilities on the grounds. These included huge greenhouses (including one to store his tropical plants during the winter), a 22,250-square-foot (2,067 m2) cow barn, poultry enclosures, and fruit and vegetable fields.
The estate totaled more than 70 acres (0.28 km2), including carpentry and plumbing shops, a boarding house, and other buildings. Bothered by its smell, Plant bought the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company on nearby Pine Island and replaced it with an orchard where his grandchildren played.
Plant died in 1918; the estate passed through his son, then his daughter-in-law before being sold for just $55,000 at auction in 1939. The state of Connecticut acquired the property, and passed it to the United States Coast Guard. The Coast Guard built Avery Point Light in 1942, though it was not lit until 1944.
Because of the war the lavish grounds were bulldozed into the water to make room for barracks for a training center; the house became offices and executive quarters. The west wing was used as the base chapel until it was destroyed by fire in 1963.
In 1967, the property was transferred back to the state for use as a satellite campus of the University of Connecticut, though the buildings were largely in poor condition. By the 1980's the house needed millions of dollars of renovations which UConn could not afford.
There was discussion of a private developer turning it into a conference center, or of the town taking over the property. However ultimately UConn carried out the renovations to the house, which were completed in 2001.
The house is not in regular academic use; UConn rents it out for events. The second floor of the Branford House is home to the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art.
A New Dirigible Height Record
So what else happened on the day that Tom posted the cad to his mother?
Well, on the 18th. June 1912, the French dirigible Conte and its crew of six ascended to a record height of 9,922 feet.
The previous record had been 7,053 feet, attained on the 7th. December 1911.
And Explosion in Colorado
Also on that day, an explosion at the Victor-American Fuel Company mine at Hastings, Colorado, killed twelve coal miners.
A. W. Verrall
The 18th. June 1912 also marked the death at Trinity College, Cambridge of A. W. Verrall. He was 61 years of age when he died.
Verrall, who was born in 1851, was British academic, noted for his unorthodox interpretations of the classics.