Docent at Caramoor Illuminates its Past Life
Guide Shows Visitors Around Famed Rosen Mansion in Katonah, N.Y.
Sep 20, 2009
"You create a tour based around what you like, what stands out, and you talk about it," says docent Grethe Griffin during a recent interview at Caramoor in Katonah, N.Y.
The House Museum at Caramoor
One of the first things Griffin does in introducing visitors to the house museum at Caramoor is reveal some background about the people who lived there. It was the country home of Walter and Lucie Rosen, she says, a wealthy New York City couple who were devotees of the performing arts. They acquired the estate with more than 100 acres of land in 1928. Razing an old English-style house on the property, the Rosens built in its place a 56-room Mediterranean villa with 19 bathrooms. The ten-year project was started in 1929 and completed in 1939.
Walter Rosen was an attorney who made his fortune in international finance, Griffin explains. Lucie (nee Lucie Bigelow Dodge) came from a prominent New York family. Her grandfather, attorney John Bigelow, was a founder of the New York Public Library and served as minister to France during Abraham Lincoln's presidency.
An avid collector of medieval, 17th and 18th century European furnishings and Oriental art, Walter Rosen decorated the home with rare furniture, paintings, tapestries, wall coverings and objets d'art, most of which he purchased during travels abroad.
Major supporters of concert artists, ballet and theatrical groups, the Rosens often held private concerts for guests in their huge living room at Caramoor and outdoor concerts in the Spanish Courtyard on their exquisite grounds. During the 1950s, the Spanish Courtyard had already become a noted public outdoor concert site; an additional site, the Venetian Theater, was built on the estate in 1958. In 1971 (Walter died in 1951; Lucie died in 1968), the mansion became a house museum. A new wing, added in 1974, includes additional furnishings from the couple's New York City home. The house's former living room, called the Music Room, serves year-round as a venue for small concerts.
Griffin became enamored with the home after attending a concert there several years ago. When she learned that docents were needed to give tours of the house museum's 19 rooms open to visitors, she signed on. Now in her fourth season, she volunteers at the museum one day a week. Although docents do not get paid, one great perk, she says, is they earn free tickets to summer concerts based on the number of hours worked annually.
Training for the Job of Docent
Training for the job included shadowing another docent on tour and familiarizing herself with a handbook describing each room and object including its age, origin and composition.
To give her additional perspective on how others guide house tours, Griffin visited many famed New York properties, including the Vanderbilt, Rockefeller and Franklin D. Roosevelt estates. "I picked up quite a few things from docents at these house museums," she says. "That's another way to improve yourself."
Still, her first time as a tour guide, she recalls, was nerve-wracking. "I was so afraid visitors would ask questions I couldn't answer or I would fumble with the handbook (for an answer) and wouldn't find the right page." Griffin soon learned there was nothing to fear. She took the advice of seasoned guides who reminded her she knew considerably more about the home than those in her tour group. And, of course, she says, "If they ask questions you cannot answer, be honest and say 'I don't know, but I'll look into it by the end of the tour.'"
Griffin enjoys relating the story of how Caramoor got its name. There are two theories about that, she says. One regards the property's previous owner Caroline Moore Hoyt who some guides believe named the estate by combining part of her first and maiden names. Other docents think the Rosens were so in love, they linked the Italian words cara (dear one) and amore (beloved one) to name their home. The decision as to which theory is right, notes Griffin, is left up to visitors.
"I'm still learning about the house," says the docent, who consults books in its library for further information about various objects. Walter Rosen purchased whole rooms from Italian and French nobility who owned castles which they could no longer afford to maintain, she explains. In fact, some of the ceilings installed at Caramoor were dismantled from such castles.
Although she's been leading house tours for several years, Griffin says she hasn't lost any of the excitement or passion she feels each time she guides a group. "Its up to me to make it interesting enough so people don't fall asleep halfway through the tour."
Among the objects attracting considerable attention are two theremins in the Music Room. The electronic instrument was invented in 1920 by Russian physicist Leon Theremin. Played by Lucie Rosen, the instrument emits an eerie sound when one's hands move a distance from its two metal rods that serve as antennas. Lucie was a well-known theremin player who concertized worldwide in the 1930s to 1950s, including an engagement at New York's Carnegie Hall with the Philadelphia Orchestra. As part of her tour, Griffin demonstrates how the instrument is played.
The Dos and Don'ts of Being a Tour Guide
As to offering tips of the trade for those who wish to become a docent, Griffin suggests:
- Choose a place you enjoy, otherwise your delivery can be very mechanical, "I have heard docents whose delivery is so scripted," she says, "it's boring for the audience and themselves."
- Study the material well so you're confident when showing people around. The Internet is also a valuable source to increase your knowledge on the subject.
- Don't cover up something by making up a story. Someone in your tour group might know more than you do.
- Maintain a proper decorum. Don't show up in jeans or very informal garb.
- Don't talk about yourself, and never say anything negative about the facility or its former owners.
- Go on other tours to compare docent styles and presentations.
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