A Home Place (1940s?)

New England 100 years ago spring oak leaves big as a squirrel's [Music] foot Indian corned the sea a new economy and a new order hence the Home Place The Citadel of that new order for out of that new economy thus grounded in the culture of maze arises the American Farmstead stronghold of human Liberty at first no doubt it was a frail and pitiable little Fortress we are not even sure as to its structure but it was probably tles and do like the poorest HS of old England of that day and thatched with bark or brush or perhaps with reads or even cornstalks its chimney we suspect was made of sticks and Clay it was a makeshift its clay chinking ill suited to meet the rigers of the New England winter but it served its purpose soon this hobble is supplanted by a real house the frame is of heavy H Timber the chimney Girt the summer beam presently we have a farmhouse that is a fortress indeed the early American New England [Music] Home framed with heavy Oak and weather barded with clear White Pine in appearance almost identical with frame houses still standing in Old Essex and middle sex many of these early New England farmhouses have stood sta for over 300 years in the Plymouth area several fine examples of early construction remains this house built by William harow is exceptionally well preserved note the Gamel roof the building now called the hollow House was built by William Hollow a little [Music] later the John Bradford House built in 1675 at Kingston Massachusetts oldest frame house in America and family at dadam Massachusetts the present rambling structure is the result of several additions to the original [Music] House assault box house a type peculiar to very common salian feature of the early New England farmhous chimney stack at the base of which is the great har the source of warmth and cheer throughout the cold Northern winter alar of the comforting and savory domestic rights where the bean porridge was cooked the haunch of venison roasted the pone of Indian meal baked focus of the home life of the pioneer household perennial Wellspring of inspiration for song and story The ha as sublimated in the New England tradition Remains the symbol of all that is wholesome and fundamental in our civilization so deeply impressed on the American mind that in these days when the standard of living is measured in kilowatt no flimsy Bungalow is complete without its small and Smoky imitation of some 200y old fireplace no Penthouse fully equipped without its Little cast iron copy of this Hickory backl law the structure G about this glamorous Heth was and is the New England Home Place it stands for square to the Earth an example of honest workmanship plain yet beautiful in its austere Simplicity a strong fortress rought out of the fruits of a Stony and recalcitrant soil by painstaking and Frugal husbandry rought is the word and bear in mind that rought now just as it was then is the past participle of the good old verb to [Music] [Laughter] [Music] work another Shore a warmer strand other crops other Customs provincial Maryland Home of religious freedom tobacco golden staple of the Chesapeake necks from these same Fields where the Maryland farmer of our own day harvests his crop Hogs heads of the leaf Rumble down the rolling roads to Anapolis to Port Tobacco to Old Bladensburg once busiest of poic Landings [Music] this is Bostwick 1746 provincial seat of the Lis family overlooking the battlefield of Bladensburg note the unique butress at first these homes were Aller and unadorned like this very old farmhouse on the eastern shore of Maryland this is hamen also on the Eastern Shore one of the oldest brick houses in America built by by Thomas Martin in 1663 the climate here is mild so the chimneys are placed at the Gable ends of the house in the older frame houses the chimney above the fireplace stood away from the wall the older small dwellings are distinguished by a characteristic box Eve enclosing the overhanging ends of cross beams a 17th century frame house with brick ends known known locally as a brick Ender another example of the very early Maryland brick Farmhouse Clifton built in [Music] 1735 with the Advent of the Georgian style about 1720 There Rose along both shores of the Chesapeake in Virginia as well as in Maryland a succession of magnificent rural homes that for chased Beauty dignity balance and charm have not been surpassed last since in this country if indeed anywhere in the world scores of these 18th century farmhouses still stand to shame the 19th century Architects and jigsaw Fiddlers who have since defaced the American scene survival of another age of a mode of living as irretrievable as that of the Hesperides these lovely Georgian and pre Georgian houses of the Chesapeake are a precious architectural Heritage fortunately many of them have fallen into the hands of persons who realize their historical significance Tulip Hill seen here is one of the most carefully preserved of the Cavalier Mansions it was built in 1745 Riverdale near Bladensburg this was one of the seats of the cvit [Music] family lrange near L pla Maryland is a glorified brick Ender this house was built by Dr C General Washington's family physician his lordship's kindness gift of the Earl of Shrewsbury to Young Henry Darnell and his bride an Talbert the pigeon house and Architectural odity wood law near Mount Vernon in Virginia General Washington's wedding gift to Nelly custus rosberg Inn 1798 recently restored by the University of Maryland a splendid example of the architecture of its period montelo home of the American Farmer who was also an architect the designer of this now historic Shrine and author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson home of that other Virginia farmer who is first in the hearts of his countrymen Mount Vernon on the pomac from this Hallowed Ground General Washington rode away on many a mission of historic significance needless to say this Virginia Farmhouse will be preserved as long as the Republic stands [Music] while Cavaliers were building along the coast less opulent Pioneers were occupying the pedmont country the shenendoa the Brandy Wine the susuan valley the hills of New Jersey and New York in the foothills of the Blue Ridge in Virginia Rose such farmhouses as this the two chimney house with long front porch the Prototype of the most widely distributed and perhaps most truly indigenous type of American farm house house in Lowden County Virginia perhaps 150 years old but as good as when it was new meanwhile farther north immigrants from the low countries created an important contribution to the domestic architecture of the world the Dutch Colonial House apparently unlike anything known before in the old world this quaint and lovely type is singularly satisfying to the lover of the unpretentious and homelike in domestic architecture note the characteristic and graceful curve of the roof as it slopes to the projecting Eaves [Music] called Pennsylvania Dutch Farmhouse built by moravians and other immigrants from Bohemia and Germany is the center of the typical Pennsylvania Farmstead perhaps as substantial and as well integrated as any Farm Plant to be found anywhere the wall manure yard is a characteristic feature these solid and beautiful Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland houses were built for Keeps the walls are massive the masonry was laid by men who took pride in their work with due care such a house should stand for a thousand years all this built and maintained to our own day from wheat and corn and Timothy the old fundamental rotation used in a conservative and exceptionally skillful husbandry from wheat and corn and Timothy Hay and hard work [Music] [Music] it took more more than 150 years for the tide of settlement to Creep from the coastal plain to the crest of the alany mountains in the next Century the Pioneers swept 3,000 M farther [Music] river river river go down the river down the river down the oh the river is up the is deep the wind and wherever the Pioneer went in Ohio Indiana Kentucky Tennessee his first permanent home was modeled after a Scandinavian type that Swedish settlers brought to New Jersey thus to millions of folk in the highlands and the Central Valley the old old home place now mostly a mere memory is the Log Cabin built of horizontal logs a type practically unknown to the very early English settlers Abraham Lincoln was born in a one room cabin like this the Prototype of all the early settlement homes in the Midland then developed the double Log Cabin the Mansion of the frontier and then in due time a whole brood of frame houses that even to this day are home to millions of Americans two chimneys Center Hall long front porch thousands of houses like this still stand in Ohio Kentucky Indiana Tennessee Aransas Missouri sometimes the Log Cabin goes big house like this old farmhouse in the mountains of Georgia more often it survives as the home of the Highlander or of the Negro sharecropper a humble home but still a home that has its points this Evergreen bush in the yard this folks is the Cape Jasmine and these to all intents and purposes are the equivalent of gardinas that sell for $5 a dozen on Fifth Avenue in 1796 2,400 years after the panan was built at Athens Benjamin Latrobe came to America and became the founder of the Greek Revival hence the home place with a pediment Hawking all the way to the Acropolis witness Arlington the Lee Mansion once the home of General Robert E Lee hence home places in the classic style like the old lineer house at Madison Indiana which authorities have called the finest example of this type in the [Music] north The Hermitage built by General Andrew Jackson in 1835 near Nashville too Monumental to be all altogether homelike these old pillared houses at least have dignity and a certain auster charm while many of the less pretentious Greek Revival farm houses are attractive and comfortable homes note this house near Cazenovia New York with its broad White Pine architrave and its very formal Portico Southern Michigan Central Ohio these houses were built mostly of clear White Pine they will last they represent a distinctive and pleasing type an asset to the American scene and should be [Music] preserved in the South especially in Louisiana the Greek Revival flowed into its most Splendid manifestation here out of sugar cane and coton was brought a type of Plantation Home in its own way as Splendid as the Maryland or Virginia Manor House witness Oak Alley with its Long Avenue of venerable Live Oaks here we have the Greek Revival happily exemplified in a structure massive enough to justify its heavy pillars this Mansion has been cherished and preserved but some have not built during that same year in which Oak Alley was built in the same style also with 28 Doric pillars and galleries above and below flanked by beautiful twin pigeon years now like the Mansion itself falling into irretrievable ruin Uncle Sam plantation house is one of the saddest sites to be seen between Cairo and the Sea for it is doomed presently the levy will be moved back then the next great flood will sweep the Mansion down the river far older than the showy Mansions of the golden era of the 30s and 40s and far more homik is the colonial Creole house built by the early Spanish and French settlers of Louisiana note the Simplicity and dignity of this old home in the aradian country another typical aradian Farmhouse this is the home of Louis oo the Gabriel of Longfellows evangelin a larger House of this attractive type near Huma Louisiana many of the early Creole homes were essentially manor houses the seats of owners of vast plantations this is a Melancholy example of such a home in the final stages of Decay note the characteristic construction thus a historic home of singular Beauty and char on that somebody built with diligence and pride is left to molder to dust in the high arid country of the Far West we find a house that is far older than colonization the simple and beautiful poblo type which has come down to us from the Aborigines of the Southwest a house admirably designed to serve its purpose in that region a home place well worthy of the name [Music] over the sieras is another home place of peculiar charm and fitness the Spanish Henda Bano Margarita near San Diego an exceptionally well preserved example of this type Rancho Santa Fe a smaller House of the Spanish period also very well preserved the mission of Capistrano happily exemplifies this beautiful style of architecture a style that would of course be wholly out of place in a colder [Music] climate and so we reach the Pacific having seen the home place in its strictly material aspect now let's go back and look deeper counting the cost and trying to weigh the spiritual significance of this old home place of ours we look into the past and wherever we look we see folks [Music] working men trapping Fox and Martin men and boys clearing land men ring shingles men plowing women and girls cting and spinning wool boys trapping muskrats men harvesting wheat threshing with [Music] flail women drying pumpkin leather boys and girls picking berries women making apple butter leeching Li and making soap men fighting over water holes trailing cattle hering sheep working to build and maintain the Home Place working early and late 10 12 16 hours a day when the need arose and a bewildering variety of tasks some easy and pleasant some merely hard many gruelling and exhausting but all taken together astonishingly important we would all starve in short order if these jobs were left undone for long but they are always done year in and year out always for poor pay in terms of cold cash and too often without benefit of many blessings of civilization dear to human hearts no kitchenet no Murphy bed no delicates no garbage man no Street piano no fire escape no Steam Laundry no chlorinated croin water no spiffy tiled band no Cabaret no cocktail lounge no Penthouse no penthouse n [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] w [Music] [Music] no no Penthouse but Mark that the home place is the Prototype of all pen houses the pattern of all those wistful looking imitation home places city folks build among the chimney pots and though it lacks some of the sprightlier blessings of urbanity the Home Place does have certain advantages as a fixed place of Abode for human beings for example a garden you can't do this in a window box the air that circulates here wholly unconditioned though it be is definitely sweeter to the human nostril than the air that blankets any place served by the garbage man The Smoke House considering the magic that may be rought with hickory smoke is not a bad offset for lack of a penthouse not bad and don't forget the spring Beyond question the spring provides something far cooler and more palatable than any chlorinated City water too bad somebody has to toted is admittedly an oldfashioned place down to the Earth advantage that no steam heated hole in a high brick wall can ever have and so ladies and gentlemen we give you the home place this mountain Farmstead and all the other American farmsteads from sea to Sea the Home Place fixed place of Abode of the American Farm family and by far the most important of American institutions make no mistake about this whether built of mud and straw or of bricks in Flemish bonds the Home Place Remains The Citadel of our liberties for the folks who have built the home place and who live there are the Bedrock of our national structure the social ballast that is our shest Safeguard against the Triumph of any tyranny on our Shores and let's make no mistake either about the importance of the home place as an institution or about its cost for its cost admittedly has been very great from now on its maintenance is likely to be a tougher job than we thought bear in mind that the home place is not obtainable through any Grant or dispensation that it is something you cannot buy with money [Music] no you cannot buy the Home Place the Home Place must be created it must be wrought it must be won by unstinted individual expenditure of sweat and elbow grease sometimes of blood it must be maintained from generation to Generation by unremitting individual Endeavor and sacrifice [Music] and therein lies its profound significance its incalculable worth the home place is priceless because it has been paid for by such lavish outlay of sweat and blood in a word by work in the final Reckoning nothing gained in any other way is worth anything at [Music] all [Music] [Applause] I I [Music]