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{{Short description|New York estate}}
The '''Hitchcock Estate''' in [[Millbrook, New York]] is a historic mansion and surrounding grounds, associated with [[Timothy Leary]] and the [[psychedelic movement]]. It is often referred to in this context as just '''Millbrook'''; it is also sometimes called by its original name, '''Daheim'''.
The '''Hitchcock Estate''' is an historic mansion and surrounding grounds in [[Millbrook, New York]], associated with [[Timothy Leary]] and the [[Psychedelia|psychedelic movement]]. It is often referred to in this context as just '''Millbrook'''; it is also sometimes called by its original name, '''Daheim'''.


The {{convert|2300|acre|km2|adj=on}}<ref name=Redmon/> (or {{convert|2500|acre|km2|adj=on}})<ref name=Mewborn/><ref name=Stace/> estate was purchased in stages by assembling five farms,<ref name=Redmon/> beginning in 1889,<ref name=Stankus/> by German-born [[acetylene gas]] mogul Charles F. Dieterich (1836–1927),<ref name=Stace/> a founder of [[Union Carbide]].<ref name=Redmon/> In 1912 [[Addison Mizner]] designed<ref name=Redmon/> the four-storey<ref name=Simmons/> 38-room<ref name=Independent/> mansion which Dieterich named "Daheim" ("The Home Place").<ref name=Stankus/><ref name=Stace/> Featuring turrets, [[veranda]]s, and gardens,<ref name=Simmons/> the late-Victorian mansion has been described architecturally as [[Queen Anne style architecture|Queen Anne style]] or Bavarian [[Baroque architecture|Baroque]].<ref name=Stace/> The estate also featured a large gatehouse, horse stables, and other outbuildings.
The {{convert|2300|acre|km2|adj=on}}<ref name=Redmon/> (or {{convert|2500|acre|km2|adj=on}})<ref name=Mewborn/><ref name=Stace/> estate was purchased in stages by assembling five farms,<ref name=Redmon/> beginning in 1889,<ref name=Stankus/> by German-born [[acetylene]] gas mogul Charles F. Dieterich (1836–1927),<ref name=Stace/> a founder of [[Union Carbide]].<ref name=Redmon/> In 1912 [[Addison Mizner]] designed the four-story<ref name=Simmons/> 38-room<ref name=Independent/> mansion which Dieterich named "Daheim" ("Home").<ref name=Hojnicki/><ref name=Stace/><ref name=Stankus/> Featuring turrets, [[veranda]]s, and gardens,<ref name=Simmons/> the late-Victorian mansion has been described architecturally as [[Queen Anne style architecture|Queen Anne style]] or Bavarian [[Baroque architecture|Baroque]].<ref name=Stace/> The estate also featured a large gatehouse, horse stables, and other outbuildings.


Ownership of the estate passed from Dieterich's heirs to oilman [[Walter C. Teagle]] and then to the Hitchcock family.<ref name=Hojnicki/> Siblings William Mellon "Billy" Hitchcock, Tommy Hitchcock III, and [[Margaret Mellon "Peggy" Hitchcock]], heirs to the [[Mellon family|Mellon]] fortune (children of [[Tommy Hitchcock Jr.]], grandchildren of oilman [[William Larimer Mellon Sr.]], and great-great-grandchildren of Mellon fortune founder [[Thomas Mellon]]), who were familiar with Timothy Leary's work and Leary personally, gave the estate over for use by Leary<ref name=NEHS/> in 1963.<ref name=Stace/> Peggy Hitchcock was director of Timothy Leary and [[Richard Alpert]]'s International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF)'s New York branch, and her brother Billy rented the estate to IFIF (later re-named the Castalia Foundation).<ref name="Lee1992">{{cite book |last1=Lee |first1=Martin A. |last2=Shlain |first2=Bruce |date=1992 |title=Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD : The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oq8djFLFL0C |publisher=Grove Press |pages=97–98 |isbn=978-0802130624}}</ref>
Ownership of the estate passed from Dieterich's heirs to oilman [[Walter C. Teagle]] and then to the Hitchcock family. Siblings William Mellon "Billy" Hitchcock, Tommy Hitchcock III, and
Margaret Mellon "Peggy" Hitchcock, heirs to the [[Mellon family|Mellon]] fortune (children of [[Tommy Hitchcock Jr.]], grandchildren of oilman [[William Larimer Mellon, Sr.]], and great-great-grandchildren of Mellon fortune founder [[Thomas Mellon]]), who were familiar with Timothy Leary's work and Leary personally, gave the estate over for use by Leary<ref name=NEHS/> in 1963.<ref name=Stace/>


Leary and the group he gathered around him lived at the estate and performed research into [[psychedelics]] there. Leary wrote (with [[Ralph Metzner]]) the 1964 book "The Psychedelic Experience" at the mansion.<ref name=Stace/> People who lived at the estate included [[Richard Alpert]] and [[Maynard Ferguson]], while the numerous visitors and guests included [[R. D. Laing]], [[Alan Watts]], [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Charles Mingus]], and [[Ivy League]] academics.<ref name=Stace/> [[Ken Kesey]] and the [[Merry Pranksters]] visited in their bus [[Further (bus)|Further]].
Leary and the group he gathered around him lived at the estate and performed research into [[psychedelics]] there. The Castalia Foundation also hosted weekend retreats on the estate where people paid to undergo the psychedelic experience without drugs, through meditation, yoga, and group therapy sessions.<ref name=Lander/> Leary, Alpert, and [[Ralph Metzner]] wrote the 1964 book ''[[The Psychedelic Experience]]'' at the mansion.<ref name=Stace/><ref>{{cite book| last1 = Leary | first1 = Timothy| last2 = Alpert | first2 = Richard|last3 = Metzner | first3 = Ralph|title = The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead| publisher = Penguin Classics| page = 11| date = 2008| isbn = 978-0141189635}}</ref> People who lived at the estate included Richard Alpert, [[Arthur Kleps]], and [[Maynard Ferguson]], while the numerous visitors and guests included [[R. D. Laing]], [[Alan Watts]], [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Charles Mingus]], [[Helen Merrill]], and [[Ivy League]] academics.<ref name=Stace/> [[Ken Kesey]] and the [[Merry Pranksters]] visited in their bus ''[[Furthur (bus)|Furthur]]'' but were unable to meet with Leary.<ref>{{cite book| last = Leary| first = Timothy|title = Flashbacks| publisher = Heinemann| page = 206| date = 1983| isbn = 0434409758}}</ref> [[Nina Graboi]] described Millbrook as "a cross between a country club, a madhouse, a research institute, a monastery, and a Fellini movie set. When you entered you were greeted by a sign that asked you to 'kindly check your esteemed ego at the door.'"<ref>{{cite book|last=Graboi|first=Nina|title=One Foot in the Future: A Woman's Spiritual Journey|date=May 1991|publisher=Aerial Press|page=164|isbn=978-0942344103}}</ref>


During Leary's residence at the mansion (1963 – 1968) the culture and ambiance there evolved from scholarly research into psychedelics to a more party-oriented atmosphere, exacerbated by an increasing stream of visitors, some youthful and of the [[hippie]] persuasion.<ref name=Stace/> The mansion was the target of drug raids.<ref name=Simmons/> Leary and his group were evicted in 1968; Leary moved to California.<ref name=Lander/>
During Leary's residence at the mansion (1963–1968) the culture and ambiance there evolved from scholarly research into psychedelics to a more party-oriented atmosphere, exacerbated by an increasing stream of visitors, some youthful and of the [[hippie]] persuasion.<ref name=Stace/> The mansion was the target of drug raids.<ref name=Simmons/> Leary and his group were evicted in 1968, and Leary moved to California.<ref name=Lander/>


The mansion was later boarded up and fell into disrepair including structural degradation, but after about two decades of effort it is ({{asof|2016|lc=y}}) habitable although not modernized. It is still owned by the Hitchcock family<ref name=Stace/> and is not open to the public. In 2003, [http://hudsonia.org/ Hudsonia Institute] scientists discovered on the estate a circumneutral bog lake (a spring fed [[calcareous]] body of water that usually supports the vegetation of both acidic [[bog]]s and calcareous [[marsh]]es), rare in the area and worthy of preservation.<ref name=Stankus/>
The mansion was later boarded up and fell into disrepair, including structural degradation. But after about two decades of effort by the late architectural historian John Foreman, whose tenancy was conditional on his undertaking its restoration and preservation, the house is ({{asof|2016|lc=y}}) habitable although not modernized.<ref name=Independent/><ref name=Hojnicki/> It is still owned by the Hitchcock family.<ref name=Stace/> In 2003, Hudsonia Institute<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hudsonia.org/|title=Hudsonia Ltd.|publisher=}}</ref> scientists discovered on the estate a circumneutral bog lake (a spring fed [[calcareous]] body of water that usually supports the vegetation of both acidic [[bog]]s and calcareous [[marsh]]es), rare in the area and worthy of preservation.<ref name=Stankus/>

In April 2024, Peggy Hitchcock, who was considered to be the family's scion, died.<ref name=sciondies /> In the time following her death, Peggy was also acknowledged to have been the one who persuaded her brothers to let Leary rent a room at the mansion.<ref name=sciondies>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/us/peggy-mellon-hitchcock-dead.html|title=Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Who Helped Timothy Leary Turn On, Dies at 90|first=Penelope|last=Green|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=May 2, 2024|accessdate=May 3, 2024}}</ref> It was reported that her brother Tommy, and also a half brother Alexander McLaughlin, died in 2023.<ref name=sciondies />

==See also==
* [[Meditation]]
* [[William Westerfeld House]]


==References==
==References==
{{reflist|refs=
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=Mewborn>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonlife.com/backissues/archives/03mar/real_estate.php |title=Real Estate News |author=Mary K. Mewborn |date=2002 |work=Washington Life Magazine |accessdate=July 3, 2016}} {{Better source|reason=It's just the real estate news, it's not like it's being pored over by hordes of fact checkers|date=July 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Mewborn>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonlife.com/backissues/archives/03mar/real_estate.php |title=Real Estate News |author=Mary K. Mewborn |date=2002 |work=Washington Life Magazine |accessdate=July 3, 2016}}</ref>


<ref name=Stace>{{cite web |url=http://staceface.net/blog/?p=519 |title=Millbrook Revisited |author=Stacey Scewczyk |date=May 13, 2014 |work=Staceface.net |accessdate=July 3, 2016}} {{Better source|reason=It's apparently just some random person's blog |date=July 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Stace>{{cite web |url=http://staceface.net/blog/?p=519 |title=Millbrook Revisited |author=Stacey Scewczyk |date=May 13, 2014 |work=Staceface.net |accessdate=July 3, 2016}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=It's apparently just some random person's blog |date=July 2016}}


<ref name=NEHS>{{cite web |url=http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/surprising-list-of-10-new-englanders-turned-on-by-timothy-leary/ |title=Surprising List of 10 New Englanders Turned On By Timothy Leary |date=2013 |publisher=New England Historical Society |accessdate=July 3, 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=NEHS>{{cite web |url=http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/surprising-list-of-10-new-englanders-turned-on-by-timothy-leary/ |title=Surprising List of 10 New Englanders Turned On By Timothy Leary |date=2013 |publisher=New England Historical Society |accessdate=July 3, 2016}}</ref>


<ref name=Simmons>{{cite web |url=http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/bob-simmons-on-timothy-leary-and-the-millbrook-%E2%80%9Ctouch-of-evil%E2%80%9D/ |title=Bob Simmons on Timothy Leary and the Raid on Millbrook |author=Bob Simmons |date=February 19, 2012 |work=The Local – East Village |publisher=New York Times |accessdate=July 3, 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Simmons>{{cite web |url=http://localeastvillage.com/2012/02/19/bob-simmons-on-timothy-leary-and-the-millbrook-%e2%80%9ctouch-of-evil%e2%80%9d/ |title=Bob Simmons on Timothy Leary and the Raid on Millbrook |author=Bob Simmons |date=February 19, 2012 |work=The Local – East Village |publisher=New York Times |accessdate=July 3, 2016}}</ref>


<ref name=Independent>{{cite web |url=http://www.themillbrookindependent.com/content/john-foreman-1945-2016 |title=John Foreman 1945 – 2016 |author= |date=April 5, 2016 |work=Millbrook [New York] Independent |accessdate=July 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118041554/http://www.themillbrookindependent.com/content/john-foreman-1945-2016|archive-date=January 18, 2017}}</ref>
<ref name=Stankus>{{cite web |url=https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00883.html |title=Hitchcock estate home to rare scientific finds |author=Janine Stankus |date=December 26, 2008 |work=Zwire |accessdate=July 3, 2016}} {{Better source|reason=Not clear what's going on here, but it appears to be just an email, but then it is a posting of what appears to be an actual article, but then the publisher of that seems to be "Zwire" which doesn't exist and isn't archived. So I dunno but we do want a better source here. |date=July 2016}}</ref>


<ref name=Stankus>{{cite web |url=https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg00883.html |title=Hitchcock estate home to rare scientific finds |author=Janine Stankus |date=December 26, 2008 |work=Zwire |accessdate=July 3, 2016}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Not clear what's going on here, but it appears to be just an email, but then it is a posting of what appears to be an actual article, but then the publisher of that seems to be "Zwire" which doesn't exist and isn't archived. So I dunno but we do want a better source here. |date=July 2016}}


<ref name=Lander>{{cite web |url=http://wrldrels.org/profiles/LeagueForSpiritualDiscovery.htm |title=League for Spiritual Discovery |author=Devin Lander |date=January 30, 2012 |work=World Religions and Spiritualities Project |accessdate=July 4, 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Lander>{{cite web |url=http://wrldrels.org/profiles/LeagueForSpiritualDiscovery.htm |title=League for Spiritual Discovery |author=Devin Lander |date=January 30, 2012 |work=World Religions and Spiritualities Project |accessdate=July 4, 2016}}</ref>


<ref name=Redmon>{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.com/news/2011/sep/14/park-lane/ |title=Park Lane |author=Michael Redmon |date=September 14, 2011 |work=Santa Barbara Independent |accessdate=July 4, 2016}}</ref>
<ref name=Redmon>{{cite web |url=http://www.independent.com/news/2011/sep/14/park-lane/ |title=Park Lane |author=Michael Redmon |date=September 14, 2011 |work=Santa Barbara Independent |accessdate=July 4, 2016}}</ref>

<ref name=Hojnicki>{{cite web |url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/timothy-leary-hitchcock-estate-millbrook |title=Timothy Leary's Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York, May Be the State's Strangest Home |author=Carrie Hojnicki |date=July 28, 2017 |work=[[Architectural Digest]] |accessdate=February 4, 2018}}</ref>
}}
}}


{{Timothy Leary}}
{{coord missing|New York}}
{{Ram Dass}}
{{coord|41.79179|-73.68517|type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-NY|display=title}}


[[Category:Houses in Dutchess County, New York]]
[[Category:Houses in Dutchess County, New York]]
[[Category:1889 establishments in New York]]
[[Category:1889 establishments in New York (state)]]
[[Category:Psychedelia]]
[[Category:Psychedelia]]
[[Category:Timothy Leary]]
[[Category:Timothy Leary]]
[[Category:Addison Mizner buildings]]
[[Category:Ram Dass]]

Latest revision as of 10:00, 10 June 2024

The Hitchcock Estate is an historic mansion and surrounding grounds in Millbrook, New York, associated with Timothy Leary and the psychedelic movement. It is often referred to in this context as just Millbrook; it is also sometimes called by its original name, Daheim.

The 2,300-acre (9.3 km2)[1] (or 2,500-acre (10 km2))[2][3] estate was purchased in stages by assembling five farms,[1] beginning in 1889,[4] by German-born acetylene gas mogul Charles F. Dieterich (1836–1927),[3] a founder of Union Carbide.[1] In 1912 Addison Mizner designed the four-story[5] 38-room[6] mansion which Dieterich named "Daheim" ("Home").[7][3][4] Featuring turrets, verandas, and gardens,[5] the late-Victorian mansion has been described architecturally as Queen Anne style or Bavarian Baroque.[3] The estate also featured a large gatehouse, horse stables, and other outbuildings.

Ownership of the estate passed from Dieterich's heirs to oilman Walter C. Teagle and then to the Hitchcock family.[7] Siblings William Mellon "Billy" Hitchcock, Tommy Hitchcock III, and Margaret Mellon "Peggy" Hitchcock, heirs to the Mellon fortune (children of Tommy Hitchcock Jr., grandchildren of oilman William Larimer Mellon Sr., and great-great-grandchildren of Mellon fortune founder Thomas Mellon), who were familiar with Timothy Leary's work and Leary personally, gave the estate over for use by Leary[8] in 1963.[3] Peggy Hitchcock was director of Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert's International Federation for Internal Freedom (IFIF)'s New York branch, and her brother Billy rented the estate to IFIF (later re-named the Castalia Foundation).[9]

Leary and the group he gathered around him lived at the estate and performed research into psychedelics there. The Castalia Foundation also hosted weekend retreats on the estate where people paid to undergo the psychedelic experience without drugs, through meditation, yoga, and group therapy sessions.[10] Leary, Alpert, and Ralph Metzner wrote the 1964 book The Psychedelic Experience at the mansion.[3][11] People who lived at the estate included Richard Alpert, Arthur Kleps, and Maynard Ferguson, while the numerous visitors and guests included R. D. Laing, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Mingus, Helen Merrill, and Ivy League academics.[3] Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters visited in their bus Furthur but were unable to meet with Leary.[12] Nina Graboi described Millbrook as "a cross between a country club, a madhouse, a research institute, a monastery, and a Fellini movie set. When you entered you were greeted by a sign that asked you to 'kindly check your esteemed ego at the door.'"[13]

During Leary's residence at the mansion (1963–1968) the culture and ambiance there evolved from scholarly research into psychedelics to a more party-oriented atmosphere, exacerbated by an increasing stream of visitors, some youthful and of the hippie persuasion.[3] The mansion was the target of drug raids.[5] Leary and his group were evicted in 1968, and Leary moved to California.[10]

The mansion was later boarded up and fell into disrepair, including structural degradation. But after about two decades of effort by the late architectural historian John Foreman, whose tenancy was conditional on his undertaking its restoration and preservation, the house is (as of 2016) habitable although not modernized.[6][7] It is still owned by the Hitchcock family.[3] In 2003, Hudsonia Institute[14] scientists discovered on the estate a circumneutral bog lake (a spring fed calcareous body of water that usually supports the vegetation of both acidic bogs and calcareous marshes), rare in the area and worthy of preservation.[4]

In April 2024, Peggy Hitchcock, who was considered to be the family's scion, died.[15] In the time following her death, Peggy was also acknowledged to have been the one who persuaded her brothers to let Leary rent a room at the mansion.[15] It was reported that her brother Tommy, and also a half brother Alexander McLaughlin, died in 2023.[15]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c Michael Redmon (September 14, 2011). "Park Lane". Santa Barbara Independent. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
  2. ^ Mary K. Mewborn (2002). "Real Estate News". Washington Life Magazine. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Stacey Scewczyk (May 13, 2014). "Millbrook Revisited". Staceface.net. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c Janine Stankus (December 26, 2008). "Hitchcock estate home to rare scientific finds". Zwire. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  5. ^ a b c Bob Simmons (February 19, 2012). "Bob Simmons on Timothy Leary and the Raid on Millbrook". The Local – East Village. New York Times. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  6. ^ a b "John Foreman 1945 – 2016". Millbrook [New York] Independent. April 5, 2016. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Carrie Hojnicki (July 28, 2017). "Timothy Leary's Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook, New York, May Be the State's Strangest Home". Architectural Digest. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  8. ^ "Surprising List of 10 New Englanders Turned On By Timothy Leary". New England Historical Society. 2013. Retrieved July 3, 2016.
  9. ^ Lee, Martin A.; Shlain, Bruce (1992). Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD : The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond. Grove Press. pp. 97–98. ISBN 978-0802130624.
  10. ^ a b Devin Lander (January 30, 2012). "League for Spiritual Discovery". World Religions and Spiritualities Project. Retrieved July 4, 2016.
  11. ^ Leary, Timothy; Alpert, Richard; Metzner, Ralph (2008). The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Penguin Classics. p. 11. ISBN 978-0141189635.
  12. ^ Leary, Timothy (1983). Flashbacks. Heinemann. p. 206. ISBN 0434409758.
  13. ^ Graboi, Nina (May 1991). One Foot in the Future: A Woman's Spiritual Journey. Aerial Press. p. 164. ISBN 978-0942344103.
  14. ^ "Hudsonia Ltd".
  15. ^ a b c Green, Penelope (May 2, 2024). "Peggy Mellon Hitchcock, Who Helped Timothy Leary Turn On, Dies at 90". The New York Times. Retrieved May 3, 2024.

41°47′30″N 73°41′07″W / 41.79179°N 73.68517°W / 41.79179; -73.68517