Date: Tue 28-Jul-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: AMYD

Quick Words:

Hildene

Full Text:

Hildene Sidebar

The Lincoln Connection

Launched 18 years ago, the Hildene Show, running in alternate years with the

nearby Dorset event, stages its July event as a benefit for the Friends of

Hildene. Forbes & Turner also hosts a Hildene show each fall, and this year's

date is September 12.

Robert Todd Lincoln, the only one of Lincoln's three sons to survive to

maturity, first became enamored with Manchester as a young man when he and his

mother summered at the posh haven for the privileged, the Equinox Hotel, in

1863. Some 40 years later, after serving as Secretary of War, minister to

Great Britain, and later, president of the Pullman Company, he returned to

Vermont to purchase a large tract of land and built Hildene as his summer

residence.

Hildene was occupied by members of the Lincoln family up to 1975, when Abraham

and Mary Todd Lincoln's only grandchild and Robert's daughter, Mary Beckworth,

passed away.

Now a nation landmark, the magnificently restored Robert Todd Lincoln's

Victorian estate and formal gardens is open from May through October and again

through the Christmas season, attracting over 50,000 visitors each year.