FOHW's Annual Appeal Letter -- 2024

Eleven years ago, when three community volunteers teamed up to reopen an overgrown nature preserve along Princeton Ridge, we held to the premise: “Restore it, and they will come.” 

Today, people of all ages come to the preserve—not just for a peaceful walk among the trees but also for diverse events and activities that have breathed new life into Princeton’s first nature preserve. What was once abandoned is now a beloved place of community, discovery, and joy.

FOHW’s efforts to restore this special place go hand in hand with an innovative approach to stewardship and programming. In the cultural zone of Herrontown Woods–composed of the Veblen House, Cottage, and Botanical Art Garden–we go beyond a passive human presence to actively collaborate with the landscape in a way that is healing for both nature and people.

Through our rallying cry, “Incrementalism!”, we have made the critical links and preparations needed to take the next step in “restore it and they will come,” including at last the rehabilitation of the Veblen House and Cottage.

• Completed undergirding Veblen House for future public assembly, and began stabilization work on the Cottage, with detailed architectural drawings to rehabilitate and utilize both structures.
• To FOHW’s ongoing partnerships with Gratitude Yoga and the Princeton Public Library, built new collaborations with the Princeton Public Schools, ceramicists at the Arts Council of Princeton, and Grow Little Gardener.
• Hosted hundreds of visitors at the third annual FOHW Earth Day celebration, the autumn outdoor concert, and new events—Year of the Wood Dragon Festival and Fairyland Halloween—as well as hikes on history, plants, mushrooms, and geology
• Completed the Voulevarde—a scenic boardwalk and pergola crafted from wood milled on-site, which connects the Botanical Art Garden to the Veblen House.
• Established the Princeton Salamander Crossing Brigade, engaging students and community volunteers to protect amphibians crossing Herrontown Road during spring mating season.
• Strengthened stewardship with trail improvements and invasive species removal, hiring our first grant-funded summer interns
• Created a Tour of Trees.

One comment often heard is that Herrontown Woods is not a static park. Along with the dynamism of nature, changing through the seasons, there’s always something new to discover in the Botanical Art Garden, and now on the Veblen House grounds as well. Building community through stewardship, we continue to host the popular monthly May’s Café, where coffee and conversation blend in a forest opening filled with native wildflowers.

Our community of volunteers, hikers, donors, supportive local leaders, and a dedicated Board are on the way to realizing a vision that began with Oswald and Elizabeth Veblen. Your support will help us to restore and maintain the preserve’s trails and flora for posterity, teach and learn about its natural and cultural heritage, and build a center where people of all ages engage creatively with nature, art, and history.

Making a Table Out of Local Wood

Recently, a student at Princeton University named Frankie reached out. He had taken part in a tour of Herrontown Woods we gave in October to professor Andy Dobson's class on the Ecology of Fields, Rivers and Woodlands. Each student does a special project, and Frankie wanted to build a table out of local wood. He's from California, and has memories of a table his grandfather once made out of a slice of redwood. More than ten feet across, the slice had taken a day to cut by hand.

We arranged for Frankie to come on a day when our chainsaw virtuoso Victorino was working at Herrontown Woods. Lacking a car, Frankie took the 606 NJ Transit bus from Princeton University up to Princeton Community Village, then hiked through Herrontown Woods to meet us at Veblen House at 7:30am. 

Victorino first showed Frankie some tables he had made from a fallen maple tree. 

One invaluable service Victorino and his assistant Wilbur do at Herrontown Woods is to fell dead trees that pose a hazard along trails. After some discussion, it was decided to take a slice of wood from one of the many ash trees that unfortunately have had to come down.

The markings of insects added interest to the grain. The tree rings tell the story of the tree's life before it succumbed to an introduced insect, the Emerald ash borer.

With remarkable precision, Victorino cut legs for the table and discussed with Frankie various ways to attach them to the bottom. Having lived and traveled in various latin american countries, Frankie could easily converse in Victorino's native tongue. 

On a wintry day, brisk and bright, the whole adventure made us as happy as Frankie, as we gave him a lift back to the university with his freshly hewn table kit. 

Seed Collecting Event Captured by Local Journalist in the Making

Recently, a beautifully crafted article about Herrontown Woods appeared in The College Voice--the student newspaper of Mercer County Community College. The article, entitled "The Barden at Herrontown Woods hosts wildflower seed collection for springtime blooming," was written by Jill Weiner for her first big assignment as a new journalism student. She had originally intended to write about the Friends of Herrontown Woods more broadly, but instead captured the spirit of our enterprise in her account of a seed collecting event we hosted as part of October's Sunday morning May's Cafe.

Mathilde Burlion, on the right in the photo, teaches gardening workshops at Herrontown Woods, both at the Barden and up at May's Garden near Veblen House. Part of Mathilde's mission is to reconnect kids with the land and all it provides us with. (photo by Inge Regan)

At the event, FOHW board member Inge Regan helped kids associate the seeds with the plants they turn into. Inge, a physician, is on a mission to cure kids and society generally of what can be called "plant blindness." She has been learning plants one at a time, and wants to help others do the same.

Thanks to Jill for telling the broader community about our work.

A Free Little Library at the Barden

Step behind the sturdy kiosk that greets you at the trailhead at Herrontown Woods' main parking lot, and a world of books opens up. This Little Free Library, stored in a cabinet beneath the kiosk's protective roof, is part of a global network meant to inspire readers who may find a personally relevant book on these shelves.

The nearly 200,000 Little Free Libraries around the world are created and maintained by volunteers. In our case, that would be Laura Heil of Montgomery, NJ, whose son-in-law Adrian has been a FOHW board member. My indelible first impression of Laura came during a workday, when she showed up with a chainsaw to help clear fallen tree limbs. Creating and maintaining this mini-library shows another dimension of her devotion to the community. 

Though this quiet, unassuming collection of books doesn't call out for attention, and may be missed by those passing by to walk the trails, its location is particularly auspicious given the many places to sit and read at our Botanical Art Garden. The Barden, as we call it, is many things to many people, but with two shelves of books at the ready, the Barden becomes an outdoor library, with many little nooks for cozying up with a good book. 

Thanks to Laura for realizing and maintaining this vision. In her own words:

"The Little Free Library is regularly cleaned up and organized, and restocked with new titles for kids and adults.  Fiction, nonfiction, cookbooks, craft books, children's board books  as well as paper, books for teens, and copies of Nat Geo for kids are all in here!  I have been doing this since the beginning of the LFL."

Fairyland Halloween Brings Delight

It was a trick to pull off the first ever Fairyland Halloween at Herrontown Woods, and a treat to witness the joy and whimsy that it brought to the grounds of Veblen House. 

The "magical and spooky adventure" began with a fairy treasure hunt, followed by decorating pumpkins and skeletons. 

May's Garden, site of Grow Little Gardener classes run by Mathilde Burlion and Andrew Thornton, played a big role in the festivities. At some point, the kids got to trade their found treasures into candy. 

Mathilde and Danni Zhao were two of the organizers of the event, along with Inge Regan, who took the photo. Andrew played the facilitator extraordinaire. 

Fabulous fall colors cooperated to make the grounds truly feel like a fairyland. (Photo by Inge Regan)

Participants made lanterns to carry on their "spooky lantern walk" back down to the Barden 

After the skeletons had collapsed in exhaustion from all the attention and fun, we stayed on our feet long enough for a group photo (below). 

Beech Forest Painting Donated to Veblen House

A bit of serendipity grew out of tragedy recently. After seeing a Town Topics letter I wrote about the tragedy of Beech Leaf Disease, and another written by Wendy Mager of Friends of Princeton Open Space, Jim Firestone decided it would be highly appropriate to donate a painting he had acquired long ago to the Friends of Herrontown Woods. Jim wrote his own letter to the editor, telling the story. 

It's a lovely painting of a beech forest by William Eyden, Jr., an Indiana painter known for his paintings of beech trees. 

We had a celebratory photo session outside Princeton Makes. That's Jim Firestone on the right. Jim grew up in Princeton, and remembers Einstein stopping by on occasion to visit his parents. 

On the left is artist Robert Hummel, who expertly repaired and refurbished the painting. Robert has painted many images of Princeton, including one of Veblen House. Robert shared some research he had done on Eyden, Jr, who had won many awards for his landscape paintings. Both he and his father, who had moved to the U.S. from Germany in 1866, specialized in painting beech trees. Though Eyden, Jr's home base was in Richmond, Indiana, he lived and painted for a time in North Carolina, and also in NY City. Biographies of father and son are pasted below. 

We plan to ultimately exhibit Jim's refurbished painting in a refurbished Veblen House. One remarkable coincidence: Eyden, Jr. studied for a time at the Art Students League in New York City. Kate Cory, also a painter of landscapes, one of which once hung above the mantel at Veblen House, also had studied there. Nice to think they might have known each other. 

Thanks to Jim Firestone and Robert Hummel for this beautiful gift to the Friends of Herrontown Woods.

BIOGRAPHIES 

William Eyden, Sr

Born in Hanover, Germany, William Arnold Eyden came to the United States in 1866 with his mother, who died on the voyage. He traveled to Massillon, Ohio to live with an uncle. After his marriage he moved to Richmond, Indiana where he a studio at 2100 East Main. His mother was an artist and the source of his only instruction in art.

Early in his career, he painted genre scenes but later turned to painting landscapes almost entirely. He like many of the founders of the Richmond Group artists favored the beech trees. He lived in Buffalo, New York for a short time but returned to Richmond in 1904, where twelve of his landscape paintings were on view in the window of Ellwood Morris & Co. His pupils included Randolph Coats and his two sons, William and Walter.

William Eyden, Jr.

The Eyden names have been familiar to almost anyone with interest in the world of Indiana art. Eyden inherited his artistic talent from his father who was born in Hanover, Germany. He studied from John Bundy, Charles Hawthorne, Daniel Garber and William Merritt Chase at the New York Art Student League. In addition to being a talented painter, Eyden was an accomplished violinist. He studied with Fredrick Hicks, professor of music at Earlham College. For eleven years, he operated a gallery/studio in Greenwich Village, painting many New York street scenes. Yet despite his travels, his favorite subject matter would be the woodland scene of beech woods. During his lifetime, he won numerous awards and honors, including a one-man show of his work in 1968 at McGuire Memorial Hall art galleries. On the closing day of the exhibition, he gave a painting demonstration. He was a consistent exhibitor in the Hoosier Salon and participated in the first salon held in Chicago. Additional info about William Eyden, Jr. can be found at askart and findagrave.

A Memorial Bench Honors the Legacy of Kurt Tazelaar

Herrontown Woods received an extraordinary gift this fall, when John Tazelaar and Jeff Bergman came down the walkway to Veblen House carrying a very special and very heavy bench.  

Designed and built by Jeff, the bench honors the foundational volunteer work Kurt Tazelaar did in Herrontown Woods, beginning in 2013. Kurt died in August, 2023, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. It was heartening to hear at his memorial service that his last ten years, much of it spent working at Herrontown Woods, often with his wife Sally, were his best. He was an original, talented and insightful in so many ways. Kurt believed in building trails using large stepping stones that will still be serviceable fifty years from now, and Jeff built this very sturdy bench with that ethic in mind.

Through this bench, the trails, and through our memories, Kurt's legacy at Herrontown Woods will live on.

Volunteer Highlights -- Robert Chong

Along with our Sunday morning stewardship sessions at Herrontown Woods, we also have volunteers come at other times of the week to help with particular projects. 

A great example of this is Princeton Junction resident Robert Chong. A skilled carpenter, Robert has been helping us with all sorts of repairs and building projects. Recent much appreciated interventions include repairs to the gazebo at the Barden, repair of a garage door spring, and

 

adding a roof to a shed extension. The roof, donated by another friend of the woods, Perry Jones, will channel rainwater to a rainbarrel that Robert recently contributed to FOHW. With this added collection capacity, we'll have more water stored, the next time a three month drought comes along.

When we needed a mini-shed to store tools at Princeton High School, where we take care of native plants growing in two detention basins, Robert offered to build it out of scrap wood we've been collecting. That one, too, will collect rainwater to sustain new plantings.

Robert's wife, Shefali, is on the FOHW board. We're grateful for the skill and positive attitude they bring to all they do for Herrontown Woods.

Boy Scouts Help Out at Herrontown Woods

Thanks to Felix and Oliver Robbins, and their father Dylon, for doing some community service during two of our Sunday morning workdays at Herrontown Woods. They are members of Scout Troop 43. 

Wielding loppers, they helped cut border privet in a woodland near the boardwalk, part of a corridor that we are managing for native species. We took advantage of the lack of rain over the past two months to access this normally soggy area. Along with gaining skill at using loppers, they also learned to distinguish between the nonnative privet and the native blackhaw Viburnums. 

Ultimately, we'd like to create a plank trail through the woodland to access a preserved meadow that borders Herrontown Woods. Clearing the invasive shrubs is the first step to create access. 

The Robbins family and their fellow scouts in Troop 43 have helped out on multiple occasions, including an eagle scout project by Leone Robbins. 

Princeton University Students Visit Herrontown Woods

Again this fall, we provided a tour of Herrontown Woods to students taking Professor Andy Dobson's Princeton University course on the Ecology of Fields, Rivers, and Woodlands. His course, now in its second year, has more than doubled in size, speaking to the growing interest in local nature.

It was a chance to speak of many things: the Veblens' founding role in preserving open space in Princeton, the biological richness of a forest clearing, the vernal pools that draw frogs and salamanders in the spring, the perseverance required to quell a giant clone of wisteria, the joy of bringing back native species like Hearts a' Bustin' and Butternut. 

For more on this highly commendable connecting of students to the nature residing all around them in Princeton, here's a writeup on last year's visit and the students' presentations. 

We can also thank Andy for letting us Princetonians know about the extraordinary annual gathering of chimney swifts in town.