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Some Recollections of Summer Days in the 1920's
at West View Farm
An artist's view of West View Farm in 1938
by Ruth M. Rasey Simpson
As a young girl in the 1920's, Ruth Rasey Simpson was employed by Henry and Vina Harwood as the hired-girl at West View Farm. Now a noted Vermont author, here she shares with you a behind the scenes glimpse of what went into keeping the Farm's frequent visitors content and comfortable.
Dorset in the 1920's, West View was a highly regarded dairy farm, owned
and operated by Henry J. Harwood, a descendant of the earliest Dorset settlers
in the 1760's. His wife, Vina conducted a summer guest home in the spacious
white farmhouse, set well back from the road, on the tree-shaded grounds.
Guests were mainly professional people, some retired, from New York or New
Jersey. Most stayed two weeks, some only one, during July and August. A
few others made reservations during September and October. Weekly rates
were about $25 per person.
Usually eight or ten women and/or men comprised the West View maximum. Some
arrived and left in their own cars, dusty from the unpaved road that passed
the house. Others came by railroad to Manchester Depot, six miles away,
and were transported to the house by a taxi or by Henry, if his busy farm
schedule permitted.
Accommodations consisted of four bedrooms and one bathroom on the second
floor, plus one with a shared bath, opening off the lower front hall. The
owners bedroom was directly behind this, opening from the sitting room.
A room for the "hired girl" was at the head of the back stairs.
Farm helpers lived in nearby homes of their own. Vina did all of the cooking,
but she was assisted in the rest of the work by one "hired girl".
This also included the daily washing of over 100 glass quart-size milk bottles
and numerous half pint cream bottles in the set tubs of the laundry. Her
wages were $7.00 a week, plus tips, which were usually about $8.00 weekly.
The guest dining-room, with a scenic bay window, opened off the sitting-room.
Behind it was the family dining-room, and behind that was the big kitchen.
Its great, black, wood-burning cookstove included the firebox, a big oven
for baking, a reservoir for heating water, a top with six griddles, and
above, a warming-oven. Attached to this stove was a 30-gallon hot water
tank. On the opposite side of the kitchen was a three-burner kerosene stove
with a portable oven. This stove was usually used to prepare supper, especially
on hot afternoons. A huge "ice box" (refrigerator), a marble sink,
two rockers, and a table loaded with magazines and the weekly newspapers,
completed the kitchen furnishings.
The family meal schedule consisted of breakfast at 6:30 or 7:00 o'clock,
following the morning milking; dinner at noon; and supper at 5:00 p.m. preceding
the evening chores. Guest meals were served from 8:30 to 9:00 a.m., 1:00
to 2:30 and 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. Some of Vina's specialties included Vermont
cheese fondue; peanut butter bread; fresh peach or berry shortcake, with
thick (not whipped) cream, blueberry or apple pie; white or "gold cake
with maple sugar and buttermilk frosting; angel or sponge cake with whipped
cream; and roast beef with potatoes roasted in the pan, served with rich
brown gravy. Favorite vegetables were Golden Bantam or Evergreen sweet corn,
served within 20 minutes after being picked in the big garden behind the
house; or Burpee's Long Podded peas, gathered from the same garden and served
within an hour.
Perhaps the Harwoods' most famous delicacy was their maple ice-cream. For
this, Vina cooked a custard of milk, eggs, cornstarch, and light amber maple
syrup from the farm sugar orchard. After it was cooked, she added an equal
quantity of heavy cream, "well stirred in." The mixture was then
frozen in a hand turned freezer, where the custard container was set in
a tub of crushed ice mixed with salt.
Sweet peas, nasturtiums, asters, poppies, and golden glow were among the
flowers gathered from the posy beds for table bouquets. Each table was equipped
with snowy, meticulously ironed linen damask cloth and napkins, crystal
condiment containers and goblets, silver plated utensils, and gold banded
white china. Every Sunday morning, the white percale sheets and pillow cases
were changed. These usually retained some of the fresh fragrance from having
been dried on the backyard clothesline. Laundry was done in a hand-turned
washing machine, copper boiler heated on the oil stove, and two spacious
"set tubs" equipped with a hand turned wringer. If Monday was
rainy, wash day would be the first drying-day that followed. Water was supplied
by the never-failing spring "on the hill".
Guest wrote letters, visited and rocked on the front porch, listened to
Victrola records or read in the sitting-room; napped in their chambers,
played croquet on the lawn, or went for walks in the fields and pasture
or even up the mountainsides. The beautiful mountain vista, exhilarating
fresh air, superb meals, long nights of quiet sleep, and the atmosphere
of uncomplicated friendliness provided a placid, but genuinely renewing,
way of life.
The watercolor paintings on this page were painted by Elsa Bley in 1938. Elsa was a New York artist who spent summers at West View Farm. After many return visits, Elsa became a Dorset resident. In 1992 Elsa died and generously left her house to the Dorset Historical Society.
Inn at West View Farm
2928 Route 30 || Dorset, Vermont 05251
Toll Free Reservations: 800-769-4903
802-867-5715 fax: 802-867-0468
Christal Siewertsen, Innkeeper
Raymond Chen, Chef
stay@westviewfarm.com
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