The Early Days

Early Days  |  Radio Built  |  Studio Museum  |  Fireplace

By James Mandracchia, Librarian
Akin Free Library, Pawling, New York

(Extracted with permission from “A History of Civilization in Stone: Lowell Thomas Fireplace”)

One of Tela Cook’s many contributions to Quaker Hill has been the donation of the Hurds Corner mini park and the renaming of the site, Lowell Thomas Park. A plaque was placed at the site with the following inscription:

In Loving Memory of
Lowell Thomas
1892 – 1981
Famous World Traveler, Author,
Radio Commentator and
55 Year Pawling Resident.
This site was donated by Mrs. Tela Cook
As a Tribute to Honor Our Friend and Neighbor
For His Generous Contributions and Foresight
To Preserve the Pawling Community.
He Made a Difference in Our Lifestyle
Which We Will Always Cherish.

As Rev. Ralph Lankler wrote in his biography of Mr. Thomas in 1990, “The residents of Quaker Hill were fortunate to have Lowell Thomas settle in their community.” Lowell and Frances Thomas came to the hill in 1926. They bought the house known as Cloverbook (a thirty-seven-room frame house built by Isaac Akin) on Quaker Hill Road.

At that time the largest property owner on the hill was the well-known New York real estate operator, Fred F. French. The vast domain of some two thousand acres was at the north end of Quaker Hill, which included Lake Hammersley (named for the Hammersley family who had been given a special grant by Queen Anne nearly three hundred years ago), a handsome Georgian mansion built by Mr. French, a number of farms, and miles of wooded acreage. The total value of the estate in 1935 was approximately 1.5 million dollars.

In 1936 Mr. French died of heart failure, after losing his fortune during the “Great Depression.” Mrs. French decided to put the estate up for sale. A firm of high-pressure developers devised a plan for sale of the land in small inexpensive lots with access to the lake as a promotion for newspaper subscriptions (The New York Mirror). Knowledge of this scheme came to Mr. Thomas just as Mrs. French was about to sign for the sale of the land to the developers. Mr. Thomas, realizing the seriousness of the situation, put out a plea to local property owners willing to cooperate in a bid for the French estate. No help was found.

Lowell Thomas decided to “plunge into the purchase himself, with the help of his radio sponsor Sun Oil Company in assuming a $350,000 bond and mortgage. He and Sun Oil Company signed the papers which had been prepared for the real estate developers.” Quaker Hill was saved from the hands of those who had no interest in the beauty and tranquility of this “Shangri-La.”

Mr. Thomas began to work out a conservative plan to sell-off large tracts of land, near, but not on the lake. Two large fields he turned over to the then young District Attorney of New York City, Thomas E. Dewey. He renamed the lake, Quaker Lake, and set up a Quaker Lake Association which allowed forty or more existing owners or new entrants to Quaker Hill the opportunity to purchase seven lots, each with defined access to Quaker Lake’s beach and waters.

The golf course was the next obvious use of some of the land. Rev. Ralph Lankler said, “It all happened when he acquired the French property. While surveying it on horseback he came to a hilltop where one could look forty miles in every direction. He said, ‘What a spot for a golf course.’ And that is what he decided to do.” At the time that Mr. and Mrs. Thomas had moved here, the hill boasted a huge hotel called the Mizzentop, with a golf course as an important adjunct. However, it was a short course, fairly picturesque, but not exactly exciting with its three holes. So even though he was not a golfer at the time, he decided to build the new course and then later learn how to play. A golf course layout was designed by Robert Trent Jones. It officially opened in 1940 with Archibald McLean serving as the newly formed country club president.

At one edge of the big field there was a tumble-down old barn. He was advised to take the hopeless wreck down. But with that he called in an architect named George Kosmak, and he proved to be a man of imagination. He converted the cowstalls downstairs into an office for a pro shop and a dining room and kitchen. He transformed the old haymow into the ballroom. It was in that room that Mr. Thomas decided, at long last, to erect the famous “History of Civilization Fireplace.”

Note: Learn more about the history of Quaker Hill through the Quaker Hill Series of local history booklets available at the Akin Free Library (845-855-5099) and through visits to the John Kane House and Lowell Thomas Center and to the 1764 Oblong Meeting House.

The Akin Free Library, located at 397 Old Quaker Hill Road in Pawling, was erected in 1898. It has been in use as a free library since it opened June 18, 1908. It is owned by the Akin Hall Association and is the site of The Historical Society Museum, which houses a fine collection of Quaker Hill memorabilia, including turn of the century (19th – 20th) photographs, Quaker period clothing, hats and costumes, and early farm implements. The library also houses the Olive Gunnison Natural History Museum and an impressive collection of source documents, genealogies of early families, books by local authors as well as a contemporary literature section and an area of children’s books, old and new.

The John Kane House, 126 East Main Street in Pawling, was purchased in 1982 by the Historical Society of Quaker Hill and Pawling to serve as a museum, illustrating the history of Pawling and past revolutionary life styles. The Lowell Thomas Center was established to feature the memorabilia of this most exceptional man. The oldest portion of the Kane house, dating back to 1740, was used as the headquarters of George Washington during the autumn of 1778.

Another site of historical significance near Quaker Hill Country Club is the 1764 Oblong Meeting House, given in 1936 by the Society of Friends to the Historical Society of Quaker Hill and Pawling with the stipulation that the Society of Friends be given permission to hold its annual meeting therein each year. The meeting house is located on Meeting House Road just east of Old Quaker Hill Road. The great historical importance of this over-200-year-old building is found in the fact that it was the place where the first effective action against slavery took place in 1767, nearly one hundred years before President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Eleven years later, in 1778, General George Washington used the building as a hospital for his ailing troops. The Oblong Meeting House has remained virtually unchanged for the past two centuries.