Students follow in Washington’s steps at Van Cortlandt House

Posted

Clarification appended.

Let’s say it is October 1776. You are lucky enough to be part of America’s high society; but unlucky enough, depending on how you see it, that you have to take a stance on whether it’s wise to dissolve the political bands which have connected you with your mother country. Ah, well. At least the carriage ride out of the reeking city, up Albany Post Road and into the wide country is an invigorating one. Your friends the Van Cortlandts always show good hospitality at their plantation mansion.

The long road lands you in front of the Van Cortlandts’ Georgian-style mansion after nightfall. A few torches illuminate rows of small Celtic-looking masks on the front of the house as you walk in. Is the lion at the far end of the building encouraging, or mocking you? A Medusa with a snake coming out of one of her eyes is definitely not a friendly sight here beyond the outskirts of urban life. There must be something funny about the Van Cortlandts!

After a morose indentured servant relieves you of your travel things, music from a pianoforte summons you to a parlor where you find men and women doing a country dance. Here is what you came for! Happiness, levity, life itself! You toss off your coat and prepare to hop in without even introducing yourself. But then a tall, wig-less man turns and faces you and your smile goes blank as you remember why you came here, having to make a tough decision….

The imagination is wont to run wild during a visit to the Van Cortlandt House, which has hosted visitors not personally acquainted with the Van Cortlandts since the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York gained a license to operate the building as a museum in 1896. The Colonial Dames are a historic preservation, service and educational non-profit group.

Van Cortlandt House Museum, Laura Carpenter Myers, Michael Grillo, George Washington, Shant Shahrigian
Page 1 / 3

Comments