Notes from my Knapsack 10-10-19

Notes from my Knapsack 10-10-19

Jeff Gill

 

Greek Revival and humane renewal

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Ann Lowder recently stepped down as executive director of the Robbins Hunter Museum after a baker's dozen years of service.

 

Thirteen lucky years were good for the Avery Downer House and the museum which Robbins Hunter, Jr. bequeathed to the community. We will miss her, but she's earned a little extra spare time to pursue her grandchildren and other interests.

 

I got to meet her soon after the village bicentennial in 2005, and we had much to talk about around the characters of both Granville and of that remarkable architectural gem – previous Robbins Hunter Museum directors, and Robbins Hunter himself, whom she knew.

 

Avery House Antiques has a near-legendary history in this community, but those were raucous and cluttered days when that business was in the heart of the village. Today the grounds and interior are peaceful and orderly, as well as welcoming, and that's in no small part due to the personality as well as the leadership of Ann.

 

We started talking early on about Victoria Woodhull, whose memorial was one of Robbins Hunter, Jr.'s last additions to the Greek Revival gem on Broadway, his way of saluting the national bicentennial coming in 1976, so he honored the first woman to run for President of the United States by putting her figure into a clock tower, at the top of the hour gliding out to regard the state of the nation from her balcony.

 

Some weren't sure that this was an animated monument that suited a Greek Revival masterpiece, but Ann saw her way clear to restore and renew not only the clock, but our local appreciation of Victoria Woodhull, bringing both local and national speakers in to share aspects of her remarkable story.

 

And it occurred to me, as we honored Ann Lowder's story, that in many minds was the recent premier of the "Downton Abbey" movie. It's set in 1927, and that happens to be the year in which Victoria Woodhull died at the age of 88. We often talk of her first 44 years in the United States, but the fact of the matter is that she lived another 44 years as a grand lady in a manor house at Bredon's Norton, just up the road from Tewkesbury Abbey where her only other memorial can be found, behind the high altar.

 

Dowager Countess Violet at Downton Abbey is 85 and unwell in 1927; the very real Victoria Woodhull was in her last decades a fascinating mix of both her and Lady Cora, the American bride of Lord Grantham. Woodhull didn't marry a lord, but she came close, and got a house filled with servants and a role in an abbey that, from a distance, doesn't look too far off of Highclere Castle where the TV show and movie was shot.

 

Ann, I noted at her retirement fête, combined the strength of Mr. Carson the head butler, and the grace and humane gifts of Mrs. Hughes, the housekeeper, in how she brought the staff and board and volunteers and guests of the Avery Downer House together for so many wonderful events.

 

But for most of us, she will always be our Lady Mary, beautifully greeting one and all as we came to see what the Robbins Hunter Museum had to share next. We honor her best by carrying on!

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's looking forward to the next 170 or so years of our local history! Tell him what you're looking ahead to at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.