Mom & Dad Caching with Tyler on Wednesday 8/14/2008

Wednesday we decided to go caching so we got a bunch of caches and headed for Middletown, CT. We took Tyler with us seeing as Alexis had a sleep over at a Maddy's house and he was home all alone. We headed up Rt 66 and found our first cache at a Park & Ride near Portland, CT. The cache was really hidden to high for Tyler to find it so I made the grab. Next cache was at a local restaurant and Tyler foind it with no problem. We drove into Middletown and found our next cache hidden in the rafters of a gazebo, which again was to high for Tyler to find. Next cache was also located at a Harbor Park Restaurant which sat on the banks of the CT River. I found this cache as Tyler was looking all around it and couldn't spot it.
Next was a puzzle cache, "Bite Me in the Graveyard" located in the New Farm Hill Cemetery and the Old Farm Hill Cemetery. The first part of the puzzle was in the new part of the cemetery and you had to find 3 different gravestones and gather some information from them and then figure out the final stage coords from the numbers. Tyler gathered the info and I plugged the coords into the GPS and off Tyler and Mom went to find it while I got the car. The final stage was in the old section of the cemetery and Tyler and Mom found it quickly as I was taking pictures of all the old grave markers. The new section of the cemetery was opened in 1853 and the earliest grave marker that I could find was 1726 in the older section so it had to be at least that old.
Then it was off to Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate where we found 2 caches located on the trails around the mansion grounds. The first was in a tree along the Olmstead Carriageway and the second was in the woods under a log off one of the trails. Then we walked back and looked around the mansion and its grounds. The mansion is a 16,000-square-foot house situated on 103 wooded acres. It is currently owned by the City of Middletown and is operated by the Long Hill Estate Authority. From its formal classical nucleus to the naturalized wilderness of its forest, literally every square foot of the Estate was shaped by the ideas of Colonel Clarence S. Wadsworth and his architects. After marrying Katharine Fearing Hubbard, Col. Wadsworth began amassing acreage in the western part of Middletown that would eventually become his 600-acre estate. Starting in 1900, thousands of trees and shrubs were planted to change pastures and orchards into a naturalistic woodland setting around the mansion. Dense nursery plantations were established and mature specimen trees were planted. Some pasturage was left in its natural state and open areas were set aside for a lawn tennis court, the great lawn south of the mansion, and formal gardens. John Charles Olmsted played a major role in the design of the Estate. The full extent of Olmsted’s influence on the final design is not really known, but the firm’s well known approach to landscape is evident. The mansion’s architect was Francis Hoppin, who was classically trained at Brown University, M.I.T., and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He became known for his country estates, most notably The Mount, Edith Wharton’s 1902 home in Lenox, Massachusetts. The contract for the house was let to the Dennis O’Brien Construction company, a Middletown firm, at a cost of $90,000.00, a considerable sum even then. The use of reinforced structural concrete and fireproofing, considered a relatively new technology at the time, had rarely been used in residential buildings. Construction of the house began in 1908 and was ‘completed’ around 1911. The Wadsworth family was in residence at Long Hill in the spring and fall, but maintained homes in New York, Palm Beach, Bar Harbor, Chicago, and Bermuda. The Colonel died in 1941, bequeathing the Estate to the Rockfall Corporation, a philanthropic, non-profit organization he established in 1935, devoted to the establishment and preservation of woodlands, wild lands, and open space. In 1942 the Rockfall Foundation honored his wishes by giving 267 acres (1.1 km²) on the west side of Laurel Grove Road to the State of Connecticut to become Wadsworth Falls State Park. The Wadsworth family maintained Long Hill until 1947, when it was sold to Our Lady of the Cenacle, an order of nuns who used it as a retreat center for 40 years. During that time the house was expanded and the land was subdivided. After being sold to a developer in 1986, the Estate was resold to another developer who planned to subdivide it into housing lots. His plans failed and he filed for bankruptcy in 1988. The bank that repossessed the Estate did not adequately secure the building and it was not long before vandals, satanic worshippers, and homeless people frequented the house. In 1990 a fire was started in the East Ballroom that nearly destroyed the house. The heat was so intense that the steel used in the west side of the house punctured through the concrete. Had the Colonel not used reinforced concrete the structure would not have survived. In 1994 the City of Middletown purchased the Estate and the remaining 103 acres for $1,000,000.00. Over the next two years the City evaluated and developed plans to restore the building and grounds. Over $5.6 million dollars had been expended to restore the mansion.
Then we were off to Indian Hill Cemetery ,Circa 1850, and a cache located at the top of the hill in a pine tree which Tyler found easily all alone. This was a large cemetery with many many old gravesites and a lovely chapel at the entrance. I could not find out any info on any of the cemeteries we visited today, unfortunately. Our next cache was along Main St at the Veteran Memorial Green, which again Tyler found by himself. Then we were off to Veteran's memorial Park and a cache in a tree in the woods. Next we drove to Cromwell, CT and picked up a pair of shoes for Corinna at a repair shop and then we found our last cache of the day at the Cromwell Memorial Town Green under a rock hidden under a pine tree. We did try and find another cache at the Burying Grounds Cemetery Circa 1712, which we couldn't locate but did see many many old grave sites all around the cemetery. Again we couldn't find any info on this cemetery which had many many Revolutionary War grave sites also.
We stopped at DQ on the way back for lunch and Mom and Tyler had ice cream and I had a burger and a Blizzard. We drove back to the house and Mom did our logs and I showered and then worked on the blog and maps. We had dinner consisting of cheeseburgers, sausage patties, corn and home fries. Then we watched the Olympics for awhile and it was off to bed for me. Well time to say adios until next time and we love you all.


Picture List:1-Mom & Tyler in front of their mansion, 2,3,4,5-The Wadsworth Mansion, 6,7,8-The Olmstead Carriageway, 9,10-Amur Cork Tree, 11-The Indian Trail, 12-The Stage-Coach Route, 13,Brownstone Features on the Estate, 14-The American Revolution at Long Hill, 15-The Story of the Landscape, 16-The Story of the Forests on Long Hill's Slopes, 17,18-Stone Stiles in a "Working Landscape", 19,20-Pond Area Restoration, 21,22-The Old Burying Grounds Circa 1712/13,