Over the years, some posts on this blog showing my great-aunt Gerda visting the Manville Estate Hi-Esmaro in Pleasantville, New York, have generated some interesting email replies from readers previously unknown to me, who have been able to confirm or add to my guesses.
One such email I think I failed to post about when I got it, as it happened to arrive at a very busy time in my life. It got put aside and I only recently found it again. To get it more in context with other related posts on the blog, I will "back-date" this post to when I received the email - July 2014. (My other posts from 2014 are also about Gerda.)
In my post Summer in Pleasantville, 1933 (2012-09-04), I posted photos of Gerda from Pleasantville 1933. She was then (and onwards) working as lady's maid/housekeeper for Estelle Manville-Bernadotte and her Swedish husband count Folke Bernadotte. From other sources I learned that Folke Bernadotte did visit the United states in 1933, representing Sweden at the World's Fair in Chicago. So it was logical that the whole family (with two small children at the time) would then also take the opportunity to visit Estelle's parents in Pleasantville.
In that previous post, I also included this image from a book, that I found online:
Now to the email from Keith Walsh, sent to me in 2014. He writes that he grew up in Pleasantville in the 1970s, and since then has done much research on the Pleasantville era of the Manville family and the former estate itself; and continues:
The black and white image of the two houses for your original post dates from around 1918. The house on the left was Charles B. Manville's home (Hiram's father) and the house on the right was Hiram Manville's before the mansion was built in 1924 on the same spot.
I can confirm for you that the pictures of Gerda sitting on a circular brick wall were photographed is at Hi-Esmaro's south garden. The flag in the background flew from a knoll near the mansion.
I am attaching for you two views of the mansion and garden where Gerda posed: one from 1925, and the other taken by me in 1978 shortly before both were demolished.
Thank you so much for this contribution, Keith!
It's wonderful to know what the house itself look like.
It's wonderful to know what the house itself look like.
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to include it on the blog.
