Pine Mountain Settlement School
Series 05: GOVERNANCE – Board of Trustees
Series 09: BIOGRAPHY – Board of Trustees, Staff
Series 10: BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Mary Rockwell Hook, Architect
Correspondence 1921
014c. [Open House] Showing front entry stairs on rocks and fireplace chimney. mccullough_I_014c
- July 18, 1921 Katherine Pettit to Mary Rockwell Hook.
“Ever since you and Captain Hook came, I have wanted to tell you how glad we were that you did come, and how sorry I was that you did not stay longer, and now you are probably out in Colorado and will forget all about us, and your little house upon the rocks [Open House]
You would be so interested in the enthusiasm that Captain’s book was aroused in our boys for baseball, and I wish you could hear them as they play out on the playground these days.
I have been asked to find out about the Sweeney Automobile Tractor School. Will you tell me if it is a good place for a boy to go to learn, and is it one of the best of its kind?
…. [What follows is the prelude to what became known as the “Story of Andy’s Gun” …]
I must not close this letter without telling you of my latest, New experience. The other day, one of the boys who used to be here at the school, came back, all the way from Cutshin to see me and to ask my advice about something that was troubling him. It seems that last. Tuesday, his brother was shot and killed., and, according to the unwritten law of the community,kinfolk who do not set out immediately and kill the murderer or a member of his family are looked upon as cowards. On the other hand, to kill the man who killed his brother, Andrew says means the beginnings of a feud, for which he does not want to be responsible. I was on the porch of the Big Log House, talking to a new house mother, when Andrew came up to me, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Miss Pettit, do you think I ought to kill him or not?” It was a strange experience for me. What interested me most was the thing that lurked in the back of his mind — to be empowered in the eyes of his friends and neighbors on Cutshin, or to start a feud and bear all the tortures of the life that would follow. I could only advise him to pray for forgiveness for the man who killed his brother.
Faithfully yours, - October 21, 1921. Ethel de Long Zande to Mary Rockwell Hook.
She came and went! That seems to me to be the solemn truth, as the quotations from the children at Sunday School every week.
You are a dreadfully tantalizing person, not to stay with us longer than it would be. Time to let you get out an afternoon tea for us. For instance, we haven’t had one this year, and of course, we all know that your sandwiches are the most marvelous concoctions that ever were.
I am enclosing you the minutes of the Board meeting which you can file in your official documents. Please take time to write us about the Spanish House. Yours, which is to be begun on the first of November. Also, tell us whether Ingram gets the judgeship. In which case, I imagine the house will not be begun. Also, if you have found a dressmaker anywhere in the United States who would sew for me? Let me know.
Please come for longer next time. On the other hand, if you cannot stay longer— don’t leave us out on one of those round-the-world tours of yours in six days. What a naughty you were to pay your board bill! We are accepting it, however, as a sign of your continued interest in Pine Mountain, with thanks, and are applying it this morning to a grocery bill of. $3,300-and-something.
Yours ever, - December 15,1921. Ethel de Long Zande to Mary Rockwell Hook.
What do you think has happened? A lady is going to give us $7,000 to build a Chapel in memory of her aunt, who left her the money for philanthropic purposes.
Luigi Says that won’t build much, if we make it of stone. My ideas went soaring when I thought of that money and I am cautioning you now not to let yours do that same thing, For you will be set upon by my husband. But do put your wits to work and send us suggestions, pictures, etc., so that we can decide where we want it, and what we want it to be. Don’t you think the Schoolhouse Hill is the place for it? If we build it of stone with asbestos shingles? Will you object to stone up there by Laurel House? If you do., I don’t know where we can put the Chapel as every other place that I know of is already planned for. I think it should have the capacity. Of 200.. Would you like to build it so that there could be a bell tower and a clock sometime? I am just dying to see. Lots and lots of pictures of little chapels, So that we can decide on something that will be appropriate to our country. In other buildings, In thoroughly Restful and satisfactory. I hope you aren’t too busy to think about it right away, and put down whatever ideas you may have yourself, and send any pictures that make interest you.
May this Christmas, the first in your own home with a husband, be a perfectly delightful one! I was ever so much pleased to get a greeting from your father last night, with one for the school also.
Always affectionately,
GALLERY – MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1921
MARY ROCKWELL HOOK
MARY ROCKWELL HOOK Correspondence 1913-1977 Guide
