Saturday, February 9, 2013

Presentation on Veblen House Feb. 10, 11am

As part of tomorrow's programming for this last weekend of te 2013  Princeton Environmental Film Festival, I'll give my presentation on the legacy of Princeton visionary Oswald Veblen and the 1920 prefab house, 1870 farm cottage, and 95 acres of Herrontown Woods nature preserve he and his wife, Elizabeth, left to Mercer County. The presentation starts at 11am Sunday, Feb. 10 at the Princeton Public Library.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you, Steve, for a deeply thoughtful exploration of the house, the people, the land, of the knitting together of environments--both physical and cerebral--and of cultures, of the importance of love, and of Strange Math.

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  2. A worthy endeavour. Thanks for compiling and presenting the history of the Veblen House and its donors and former occupants, as well as the site's present status, predicament, and potential.

    Future possibilities may be difficult to achieve, however; unlike decades and centuries prior, in recent years Princeton collectively has begun turning its back on some of our own history and in fact institutionally ridicules many efforts of citizenry to protect, preserve, and retain historical sites and services for the benefit and enjoyment of all.

    So, best of luck with all potential ideas. But unless we rally together to give similar treatment to other presently endangered (if not already destroyed) Princeton icons, there is little reason to expect different outcome with this one.



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  3. I know this presentation was two years ago-- but I have a question, since I wasn't there. What is the condition of the Veblen house now? Is it along a path through the woods that I can follow? Is the house abandoned, or is someone living there? Is it a historical site? Is it illegal to visit it? Thanks :)

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  4. There is a house and a cottage. Veblen used the cottage, which originally was an 1875 farmhouse, for his study. The cottage is at an intersection of trails in Herrontown Woods. The house is east of the cottage through an opening in the fence, and is all part of publicly owned Herrontown Woods. It has not been given official historic status, though was determined to be of national significance due to Veblen's having lived there. If you'd like to know more, please contact me via the email in the "About Me" section of this website.

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