The Mount, Part Une

Well, friends, today I visited The Mount, and it was just as majestic and beautiful as I had hoped. I took so many pictures that the battery to my camera died. As a result, I have far too many pictures to put on the blog; however, I will post some of the best. Also, I am exhausted, so today's post will be more of a picture collection than a write up. I intend to visit The Mount again while I'm here, so later this week I will write a more thorough post about Wharton and the history of her house. 

The estate is about 113 acres, which Wharton and her husband bought upon her success with The House of Mirth. The Mount's website has an excellent and concise article about the history of the estate. Built in 1902, The Mount is glorious and was one of Wharton's favorite places, although she moved to France in 1911 and never lived in America again after that. The house and estate were private property until it was transformed into a girls' school in 1942. By the 1970s, the school went bankrupt, and the house was used by the Shakespeare Company until the 1990s when historic restorations began. Now, it is a registered historic home and one of only 5% of historic sites devoted to women. 

When I arrived, the docent asked me if I knew anything about Edith Wharton. When I told her I wrote my Master's thesis on her, she goes, "Oh, so you know about this house, then?" I told her yes, and I declined the offer to take a group tour. I prefer exploring things for myself, and later when I overheard the tour I was glad I declined: the information they were giving about Edith's work during World War I was so basic that my teeth were gnashing; I wanted to pipe in SO BADLY and fill in the gaps, but instead I gritted my teeth and walked to another room. Here are some shots of the entrance: 

The estate is beautiful...and Wharton designed it herself! To me, that is the really cool thing about this house and estate: not only did not belong to one of America's most important authors who was also a woman, but the author herself designed it. 

There are three floors: the first has little and was basically where guests would enter so that the butler could decide whether they were worthy of visiting; the second floor has the drawing room, library, and den, and from there is where you can access the veranda (which is exquisite!); the third floor has the bedrooms, including Edith's, Teddy's, a guest room, and Henry James's room (as Edith's mentor and best friend, he was a frequent guest). 

As you can see the staircase was elegant. Although, I have no idea why the docents running this place chose this leopard print carpet to put on the stairs. I understand having carpet, but leopard print? You know who would have despised it most of all? Edith Wharton! Especially given she often said cats were just snakes with fur. 

There was not much to photograph on the first floor, other than some servant areas. Doesn't this just make you feel like you're on Downton Abbey? Speaking of which, Edith's butler was very close to her, and he came with her when she got married and worked for her until his death. Very Carson and Lady Mary. 

Also, Edith put an elevator in her house. Pretty swanky!

The second floor is lovely and very bright. 

On the third floor is Edith's bedroom and her boudoir, which she used as an office. Teddy Wharton and Henry James had rooms, too. The museum noted that a lot of the furniture in Edith's rooms is donated, and they had corresponding pictures that were taken in Edith's day so that you could see what it really looked like. The desk, however, really was Edith's. 

Because this post is already extremely long, I'll put up pictures of the grounds tomorrow. I took an ungodly number of pictures, and I'm sure all of you will enjoy them. For now, so long!

Laura