A FREE FAMILY OUTING AT THE FELLS!
Here's something for the whole family, as they say! The library has day passes for Deering residents to visit the Fells estate and gardens at Lake Sunapee. Trustees of the Deering Public Library have taken out a subscription to The Fells. This subscription provides free entry passes to this lovely estate. Two family passes are available for each day of the week until next June. Each pass allows admission of two adults and accompanying children under 18.
The Fells was the estate of John Milton Hay who purchased the approximately 1000 acres early in the 1890's. John Hay began his career as a poet but became Abraham Lincoln's secretary. As secretary to Lincoln, he became an intimate associate of the president during one of the darkest periods of our nation's life. Hay was a Washington resident and political commentator who rubbed elbows with the likes of Mark Twain, Henry James and Bret Harte. Along with his close friend Henry Adams and his wife Clover and others he lived in the Lafayette Park area of Washington, close to the White House. This group of people were very influential in politics of the day as well as being socially very tight, living the life of America's Gilded Age. John Hay's last job was as secretary of State for Theodore Roosevelt. He died in 1905. Hay bought the old farm with the idea that he and his friends would all live together in the country setting but after Clover Adams' suicide that plan failed and Hay kept the land as his personal retreat. The name 'The Fells' reflects Hay's Scottish ancestry and refers to the rocky soil found on the farm. John and Clara Hay's son Clarence was an amateur horticulturalist who developed the famous rock garden, which has now been restored to the splendor of the 1920's.
Today a visitor can see the Hay house as it was developed by his son and his wife, and the rock garden. A large part of the Fells is conserved by the NH Society for the Protection of Forests and another large tract is a National Wildlife Refuge. Throughout the year there are special exhibits. All in all the Fells is a great place to spend the day or afternoon.
More information and directions can be found at the website of the Fells www.thefells.org
Free day passes for Deering residents to visit the Fells can be reserved by contacting Deering Library trustee Gary Samuels at 464-3143 or by email at samuelspatty@gmail.com. The passes should be returned the day after the visit so that they can be available to other residents.
