So, above is a map of my area. Phebe's area. Alright. So her house was situated at A (give or take 100 feet) in the above map on a hill. It's not a super high hill. Anyway, they were talking about all the views and honestly, I don't see how it's possible. Even to see the bay. According to Ms. Beekman's poem, though, they could see just that, even to be able to spot the boats coming in. Hey! I know! I need a topographical map with elevations!
Above is a closer look with the house closest to where the Beekman House was as the reference point A. No one built at the exact point where the original house and then its replacement following the fire of 1891 were. I think it was slightly up and to the left from house A.
I'm thinking of reverse looking up the phone number from the address of house A and calling and asking to just go for a walk in the woods there. That would be nice. But it would require me to be brave enough to call a stranger and ask a weird question. Oh and Hen would have to be in school. Lots of things would have to happen, let's just say. On the long term agenda, I suppose.
The house I just referred to is very very interesting, too. It was from Phebe's time period and survived. It was a Dutch house and was moved from about a mile away and it's gorgeous but small from the outside. It actually appears to be a lot like the Holmes-Hendrickson House and I think it's from the same time period. I'd love to see inside it, but I don't want to freak the people out even more, so let's put that way down on the agenda.
I would love a chance to find out in person if you can see the bay and the ships, but that would involve somehow getting a ladder or something to go 30 feet up in a tree and even before that getting permission to bring said ladder on their property. There are numerous no trespassing signs at the entrance to the property. Numerous.
In a book on the history of Middletown by Randall Gabrielan, though, there's a picture of house A at such an angle that you can see where the old driveway to the Beekman House was. And driving past today, I saw the old driveway! Oh, if only I was a braver person.
A new year's resolution, I suppose. Walk up Ruckman Hill to the site of the old Beekman House. With my camera. In the spring. OK, then. I'm doing it.
Commenting on my own post again, but I wanted this to not be part of the post. If that made any sense. So that historical romance I was writing? Phebe's love interest was a sailor of some kind. Kept him away years at a time, but kept him coming back to Middletown, too. Or near Middletown.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, now I have a mental picture of her pining for him looking out a window of her house! Watching for his ship! Or watching ships, I suppose, and wondering if one of them carried him back to her. Good gah, I'm a horrible writer, but I'm having fun. I want to give her some sort of a love life, as John seems to have been a cad and had an extracurricular love life of his own. She deserves one too. My friend Kristy said that. That Phebe deserves an Edward. I wholeheartedly agree.