Caramoor

On a windless evening early in July several hundred automobiles nosed into the main gate of an estate in northern Westchester, climbed the half-mile of curving driveway through a tunnel of rhododendrons, and parked neatly on emerald lawns beneath the oaks and maples. The twelve hundred occupants got out of their cars and made their way past a couple of tables where ladies were handling reserved tickets for a concert. A policeman turned to one of the ladies and said, in a tone of pro-found astonishment, “They like the music!”

Caramoor, the estate of the late Walter T. Rosen, is almost two hundred acres of ineffable beauty. The main house, begun in 1930 and completed in 1939, is styled after the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Five hundred persons can sit in its interior patio for programs of chamber music; the music room can accommodate almost as many. Beginning in 1946 Mr. Rosen, an accomplished pianist, and his wife Lucie sponsored an annual music festival at their home for a select group of friends and music-lovers. It became a tradition, one that Mr. Rosen did not want to limit to his lifetime. After his death the whole estate was placed in the Walter and Lucie Rosen Foundation, Inc., and supplemented with an endowment that runs well into seven digits. The Caramoor festival would hereafter be open to the public. But where would the public be seated?

WR

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William F. Rickenbacker

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On a windless evening early in July several hundred automobiles nosed into the main gate of an estate in northern Westchester, climbed the half-mile of curving driveway through a tunnel of rhododendrons, and parked neatly on emerald lawns beneath the oaks and maples. The twelve hundred occupants got out of their cars and made their way past a couple of tables where ladies were handling reserved tickets for a concert. A policeman turned to one of the ladies and said, in a tone of pro-found astonishment, “They like the music!”

Caramoor, the estate of the late Walter T. Rosen, is almost two hundred acres of ineffable beauty. The main house, begun in 1930 and completed in 1939, is styled after the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Five hundred persons can sit in its interior patio for programs of chamber music; the music room can accommodate almost as many. Beginning in 1946 Mr. Rosen, an accomplished pianist, and his wife Lucie sponsored an annual music festival at their home for a select group of friends and music-lovers. It became a tradition, one that Mr. Rosen did not want to limit to his lifetime. After his death the whole estate was placed in the Walter and Lucie Rosen Foundation, Inc., and supplemented with an endowment that runs well into seven digits. The Caramoor festival would hereafter be open to the public. But where would the public be seated?