Reviving Davis Cottage
Image: “The favorite summer sport begins” (L-R) Shirley’s cousin Joan Wilson Ipsen, Shirley Stevens French, Shirley’s brother, Winthrop Jr., and father, Winthrop Stevens, in the family rowboat built by Allen Davis (1934). Winthrop’s favorite family tradition was to take a Lake Myosotis swim with his children every year on May 31 to mark the a aaabeginning of the season. Shirley also recalls a hand-cranked swimsuit ringer in the family a aaaboathouse used to dry the old-style woolen suits.
originally published in the Spring 2022 edition of Myosotis Messenger
“Memories are facts that have been dyed, trimmed, and rinsed so many times that they come out almost unrecognizable to anyone else who was in the room.” -Mary Beth Keane, Ask Again, Yes, Shared by Shirley Stevens French
Longtime Huyck supporter Shirley Stevens French is the great niece of Preserve founders Edmund Niles (ENH) and Jessie Van Antwe rp Huyck (JVAH). Shirl ey's grandmother, Anna Louise Van Antwerp Stevens, was Jessie Van Antwerp Huyck's sister. Born in 1929, Shirley has many memories of the Preserve's early years and what seemed an idyllic childhood of summers in Rensselaerville, where her great Uncle Edmund had been raised and her family continued to be deeply involved. Here, we share and record her stories from a recent sit down, especially as they relate to the Preserve's current project to improve our trails and boat launch and to restore Davis Cottage.
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Davis Cottage, the small, white building just north of the boat launch area, has been used by the Preserve for education programs and, in recent years, for storage of equipment. Built in 1946, the building was originally the summer home and headquarters of Allen Davis (1886-1965), the caretaker for the community campground envisioned by Edmund Huyck and created by Jessie Van Antwerp Huyck and Shirley's father, Winthrop (Win) Stevens in the early years of the Preserve. Win, the nephew of ENH and JVAH, was the first secretary of the Preserve and a devoted supporter of the village community. The campground, composed of about twenty canvas tents on wooden platforms on the east side of Lake Myosotis, existed until 1966. Shirley remembers the camps serving, at least in part, as a country getaway for workers from the Huyck family's mill where her father served as personnel manager. Workers came to Rensselaerville from what was then known as F.C. Huyck and Sons, Kenwood Mills in Rensselaer for fresh air and a healthy setting away from the city. Shirley recalls her father saying, “We come to enjoy fresh air, and others should be able to, too.” It was the creation of the camps that opened the lake to the public for the first time
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Shirley's family's home was on Pond Hill Road below Uncle Ted (ENH) and Aunt Jessie's (JVAH) house (now the Huyck House at the Carey Institute for Global Good). Even as a young girl of nine, she would walk up the hill unchaperoned to enjoy a day on the lake. The majority of boats on the lake were canoes, and it was mostly canoes that were stored in the family's boathouse near the mighty red oaks that still stand as sentinels between the beach and the dam. Some others had sailboats. Allen Davis, who Shirley recalls as a “dear, caring, quiet man who was dedicated to the well-being of others,” supplied the lake with rowboats. In fact, one might argue that he began the public boat program on the lake, building a fleet of rowboats that were mostly available to campground residents for rent from the launch area outside the cottage. Many men enjoyed fishing from those boats. Shirley was fortunate to have her very own tiny version of an Allen Davis-built rowboat painted with its name “Little Toot.” She was always under the watchful eye of Allen and Helen Davis and the campground residents as she rowed Little Toot solo on the lake. “I remember losing an oar once overboard and someone came out and helped me.” Little Toot was a little tippy, but Shirley points out that she always wore her lifejacket! At the end of a good day boating, Shirley often ended with milk and cookies provided by the Davises or a cold glass of water from the well behind the campground. Shirley's fondness for those days on the lake stayed with her through adulthood. Shirley told us that when starting her family with late husband Robert French, “I insisted all my children learned to row.”
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In case readers wonder if the rocky shoreline, which is the enemy of many current day boaters, especially when launching a new boat on a windy day, was an equal adversary then, Shirley says, “The rocks were always a challenge for launching boats,” but they also provided the material for many rock skipping competitions. “Flat, thin rocks were a prize. Kids would get at least five skips. Some got even seven, eight, and nine. It was a real skill, almost like throwing a frisbee today.” In those earlier days, there was a ramp and dock down from the cottage to launch boats (see photo).
Allen Davis' keen awareness of his surroundings and the natural world had another early and long-lasting impression on Shirley and many others who knew him. Shirley recalls lessons on moss, trees, and fishing. “Uncle Ted was a great fly fisherman, and Allen Davis taught me how to fish. He always had a can of worms ready.” Shirley said. The Preserve's plans to create a trailside interpretive center to serve as a spot for lakeside education programs and outreach for boaters and other lake visitors is a fitting use of this building that Allen Davis called his summer home. Shirley is overjoyed by the project and says we “couldn't be using the house for a better reason.”
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Davis Cottage in the 1950s with
boat dock in the foreground |
Our trail initiative also strikes a personal chord for Shirley who reports that trail work at the Preserve in the 1930s and '40s was performed by “summer” and local men. Win Stevens, who designed the Preserve with Aunt Jessie and other early leaders, was integrally involved in the creation of the trails. According to Shirley, “Win awakened the idea of sharing the Preserve with the community.” She describes her father's trail blazing events as big community affairs for men and boys. Often, the work was followed by a game of baseball. Lake Trail West is one of the trails our current project identified as a high priority for improvement. Shirley remembers that trail being built and what a significant accomplishment that was. Being part of the trail action was a rite of passage for boys and something she yearned to be a part of. Shirley saved her allowance for two years and finally earned enough to buy a pair of overalls (long pants were, at that time, unheard of for girls and women – “but necessary in the briars,” Shirley says) from Rice's store on Main Street (now the Palmer House). At last, she joined the trail crew alongside her father.
Huyck Preserve board minutes from September 20, 1946 describing the building of Davis Cottage
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We are glad to be taking on the significant work of restoring our trails, boat launch, and Davis Cottage. The hard work and vision of Edmund and Jessie Huyck, Win Stevens, Allen Davis, other early leaders, and the community who came together out of a shared love of this place should be remembered and honored as we carry the torch (and take up shovels and loppers) with a renewed pledge to continue the work they began over 90 years ago.
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Recreational Improvements– Updates, News, and Acronyms Explained!
originally published in the Spring 2022 edition of Myosotis Messenger
The Huyck Preserve's 12+ miles of trails are carefully maintained by Huyck Preserve staff and volunteer trail stewards, but over time, high foot trafc, extreme precipitation, hydrologic changes, and other factors can cause damage that negatively impacts user experience and surrounding natural communities. In December 2020, the Huyck Preserve was awarded a NYS Conservation Partnership Program (NYSCPP) grant (with funds from the NY Environmental Protection Fund, administered by the Land Trust Alliance, in coordination with the state Department of Environmental Conservation) aimed at designing recreational improvements throughout the Preserve. That project will be completed soon and has had several incredibly important results.
The first goal of the NYSCPP project was to design critical repairs to the Lower Falls Trail and the Lake Myosotis Boat Launch. The Lower Falls Trail suffers from erosion and drainage issues and is no longer ADA compliant. Similarly, the shoreline at the boat launch area is severely eroded, making it difficult for users to easily launch kayaks and canoes and threatening the water quality of the lake. The Preserve hired Wilderness Property Management (WPM) to create plans for solutions to these problems. Designs for the Lower Falls Trail include improved drainage systems, retention walls, slope stabilization, trail surfacing with gravel, and grading. A dedicated boat launch has also been designed with a gravel trail across the existing grass leading boaters to the water's edge where they will enter the water at a graded launch edged in stone.
In the spring of 2021 WPM completed a full evaluation of the Preserve's trail system, incorporating the input of Preserve members and visitors who formed a focus group for the project. The assessment yielded a trail improvement plan with a prioritized list of future projects and potential remedies. Some of those tasks can be done in-house as time allows (for example, Ordway Trail), while other work will require additional funding to hire professional trail builders (for example, Lake Trail West).
Perhaps as significant as the trail and boat launch improvements, the NYSCPP project has also yielded a new trail map. Not only is the paper map improved, showing more details especially in the Falls Trails area, but we now have our first digital trail map! The map is georeferenced, meaning it will show visitors where at the Preserve they are currently standing. We've also created interpretive content linked to the map – information on the Huyck Felt Mill, Wheeler Watson Cemetery, and Lincoln Pond Farm. A tree guide and invasive species brochure can be accessed through the map. Clickable features provide information on each trail including distance, level of difficulty, and key points of interest. Visitors will also notice that the trails on the maps are now color-coded, one suggestion that came out of the Wayfinding and Trail Marking Plan created by WPM. Over the next year, we will add colorcoded paint blazes to mark each trail at the Preserve. This colored blazing method is the recommended system for safety (it makes following a trail easier even if one doesn't have a digital map), and trail blazes are long-lasting, easily touched-up, and cannot be stolen. The rest of the Wayfinding and Trail Marking Plan will be actualized in future trail work.
One of the most important outcomes of this project has been that the designs created in the NYSCPP project positioned us for a successful application to the Recreational Trail Program (RTP). (Hold on while more agencies and acronyms are explained and linked to our trail improvement funding successes!) The RTP is a program of the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration and, in New York State, it is administered by the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. RTP applications are made through the Regional Economic Development Council (REDC) which awarded more than $81 million in round XI funding to 97 shovel-ready projects across New York State at the end of 2021. The RTP was one of 11 REDC programs in round XI, and the Huyck Preserve was one of 13 entities receiving RTP funding, and one of only two nature preserves (other recipients included municipalities, counties, and snowmobile organizations). Our project, entitled “Implementing Trail Designs for Enhanced Public Access,” was also one of only five to receive the maximum award ($250,000). With these funds and matching Huyck Preserve funds, we will construct the improvements to the Lower Falls Trail and Lake Myosotis Boat Launch designed in the NYSCPP project.
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The RTP will also fund the restoration of Davis Cottage, the small white building near the boat launch, and convert it into a trailside interpretive center focused on lake-based public education and stewardship programs. The center will be an accessible building and will feature our first rooftop solar installation. The RTP grant has a maximum length of five years. We are currently working on getting federal approvals and expect construction to begin in spring of 2023 – this may feel like a long time from now, but we think you'll agree it will be worth the wait!
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