After we sold Brewery Ommegang and before I rejoined Don in working on our importing business, I took a hiatus from beer. We moved from Cooperstown (Central NY) to Troy (Hudson Valley) so that our daughter, Claire, could attend the Emma Willard School. She got a great education. So did I.
I decided to see if I could bring entrepreneurial skills to non-profit management. Shortly after arriving, there was a job posting in the Troy Register for the position of Executive Director of a women’s retreat on Lake George.I had never heard of the place but was intrigued. I applied, got the job and so commenced work tackling deferred-maintenance on some ten buildings, developing programming for the summer session, getting the place on the national register, applying for grants, staffing the place, and raising funds for this - the last surviving example of a Progressive Era women’s retreat. My predecessor, Sheila Rourke, successfully redefined the mission for a new generation and did a brilliant handover. An Emma Willard pal, Melissa Salmon, came on board as house manager. Summer intern, Katie Jarvis destined to become a history professor at Notre Dame, helped compile a history of the property. My Troy neighbor the textile artist Barbara Todd (more on her work later) joined the board and helped organize a giant fundraiser called Threads of Wiawaka. We featured women designers of New York State. My friend Silda Wall Spitzer was the keynote speaker and had the audience in tears by the end of her talk. I went from toiling in the back slapping male-dominated beer world, to the nearly exclusive company of women. There was one great guy on campus, the property caretaker, Joe Wylie. It was really hard work, but mostly wild fun.
Anyway, as a result of running Wiawaka (and while simultaneously serving as a trustee of the Emma Willard School) I learned a lot about women’s history, Troy history, labor history, Adirondack history and most importantly what it takes to age happily if you are woman. These were lessons learned from the wise Wiawakans of advanced age: Know when you need to take time for yourself, and do it. Have a necessary passion. Cherish your true friends. Maintain a connection to and respect for the past - but do something prepare the way for a better future for those who come after you. Simply profound and profoundly simple.
The “holiday house” had been founded by Trojan philanthropists for female immigrant textile workers in Troy’s shirt collar industry. Troy was known as the “city of women”. The campus is a twenty six acre parcel (the largest property in use for public good in the Adirondack Park) developed in the 1850’s as a resort. In 1902 for a dollar and a bouquet of flowers it passed from the hands of Katrina Trask (who founded Yaddo) to Mary Fuller - Wiawaka’s creator and guardian spirit. An early guest was Georgia O’Keeffe - but that is a story for another day.
The great great granddaughters of the immigrant textile workers continue to frequent and support the place. Thing is they are college professors, aerospace engineers, artists, lawyers and doctors. The textile workers have left the scene, but in their place scholarshipped guests are grandmothers who are primary caregivers of school-aged children, women who have loved ones who are incarcerated, women who have been victims of domestic abuse.
I had that experience of overseeing Wiawaka at an inflection point in my life. Through Wiawaka I found renewal, a deeper appreciation people who do not have an easy path, an abiding respect for the pioneering women of the progressive era, and a love of textiles and the people who make them. In a more perfect world, every region would have a Wiawaka - a place for women to gather for affordable holidays, where eating is communal, learning experiences are shared across economic, social and age barriers. Communal quilting and poetry writing workshops were two of the mainstays. That there is only one surviving example of such a place in North America is a crying shame.
So my intent is to fill the house with textiles made by women. More on that in a future blog post about women textile artists of Vancouver Island and a bit beyond.
The Adirondack Park - Image provided by Unsplash