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Books

The Tuxedo Historical Society offers the following books about the people, history and architecture of Tuxedo and Tuxedo Park:



Tuxedo Park: The Historic Houses

Sonne, Christian R. and Hempel, Chiu yin, co-editors

Published by Tuxedo Historical Society, 2007

$85

The first and only book that examines the architecture of Tuxedo Park, a Hudson Valley community only forty miles north of Manhattan but normally not accessible to the public. This gated enclave is famous for its Gilded Age mansions designed by well-known architects including Bruce Price, Carrere & Hastings, McKim, Mead & White, and Warren & Wetmore. Wall Street Titans, Robber Barons and scions of blue-blooded colonial families made this place synonymous with upper-class living in the first three decades of the 20th century. The tuxedo jacket was first worn there and Emily Post drew inspiration for her book Etiquette from manners she observed while living in Tuxedo Park. The book features 230 photographs on some 60 historic houses taken by well-known landscape and architectural photographer, James Bleecker. It also provides a succinct social history of the community from its founding in 1886 to 1945, amply illustrated by vintage postcards and photographs.





The World with a Fence Around it

Rushmore, George

Reprint of book first published by Pageant Press, Inc., 1957

 $32

Written by the son of Tuxedo Park’s first doctor, who grew up in the 1890’s and early 1900’s, this book contains his personal reminiscences, as well as those of some of his contemporaries, plus the story of the founding of Tuxedo Park.






Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

Conant, Jennet

Published by Simon & Schuster, 2002



$26

A well-researched book by the granddaughter of James B. Conant, President of Harvard and wartime scientific advisor to President Roosevelt, it tells the life story of one of Tuxedo Park’s most prominent residents, Alfred Lee Loomis, who built in Tuxedo Park a laboratory in the former Spencer Trask House, now the Villa Apartments. There, he pioneered experiments on ultrasound, which led to the development of radar.





The Architecture of Warren & Wetmore

Pennoyer, Peter & Walker, Anne

With foreword by Robert A.M. Stern

Published by W.W. Norton & Co., 2006

Copies signed by the authors

$60

This illustrated book, with magnificent new color photographs, as well as numerous black and white archival ones, chronicles the work of Warren & Wetmore, one of New York’s most important late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural firms, best known for their work on the Grand Central Station. In Tuxedo Park they designed the Tennis Clubhouse of the Tuxedo Club and three private houses, two of which still stand.





Polar, The Titanic Bear

Spedden, Daisy Corning

Introduction by Leighton H. Coleman III

Illustrations by Laurie McGaw

First published by Little, Brown & Co., 1994

$18

This is one of the more poignant stories of the Titanic. The Spedden family – Frederic, Daisy and their young son, Douglas – were Tuxedo residents and avid travelers who had the misfortune to book passage on – but luckily survived – the ill-fated ship. Daisy penned this account in 1913 as a Christmas present for Master Douglas and wrote it from the perspective of his inseparable companion, a Steiff bear named “Polar”. This captivating book is richly illustrated with family photographs and mementos as well as with McGaw’s award-winning Edwardian-style watercolors. In another twist of survival, Daisy’s original manuscript was rescued by Mr. Coleman from the contents of a trunk about to be discarded.



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