Teen party damages Frost summer home

Author: Kelly Janis

"He loved it there," said Donald E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing Jay Parini - author of Robert Frost: A Life - of the Homer Noble Farm in Ripton, Vt., where Robert Frost resided during his stay at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. "It was isolated. It had wonderful fruit trees. It had some fields. And it had wonderful forests behind it."

In Robert Frost: A Pictorial Chronicle, the poet's former managing secretary, Kathleen Morrison, details Frost's decision to purchase the farm from the Noble family, former cattle and sheep farmers and purveyors of their own maple syrup.

"Whatever apprehensions we felt, the situation would be ideal for our children," Morrison wrote. "They could swim, fish, learn about rabbits, raccoons, deer and harmless snakes - our son even had an unsupervised confrontation with a bear - and all this without the organized formalities of camp life."

"For him, it was the ideal farmhouse," Parini said.

This idyllic façade was dealt a staggering blow on Dec. 28, when the College-owned farm on which Frost summered from 1939 to 1963 incurred an estimated $10,000 worth of damage in the wake of what police described as a "large underage drinking party."

Police say vandals shattered a window to gain entrance to the farmhouse and proceeded to destroy tables, chairs, pictures, light fixtures and dishes, torch wicker furniture in the fireplace to warm the unheated building, discharge two fire extinguishers and urinate and vomit inside the building and on the surrounding property.

"I've been here for 20 years and I've never seen anything like this," said Sgt. Lee Hodsen of the Vermont State Police in New Haven. "Of course, there have been underage drinking parties before. But, usually, they take place in a field or in the woods, and they just leave some empty containers. Nothing of this magnitude."

According to a Jan. 7 press release by the state police, the approximately 50 partygoers - ranging from 15 to 22 years of age - have been identified, and are undergoing continued interviews and investigation. In particular, the police have identified the 17-year old Ripton resident who allegedly planned and organized the party - originally conceived of as a joint New Year's Eve and birthday celebration - as well as the 22-year old Middlebury resident who furnished underage attendees with significant quantities of alcohol, neither of whose names have been released.

The act of vandalism against the farm - officially designated as a National Historic Landmark - has resonated strongly with those possessing ties to it.

"We are dismayed [by] the event," wrote Carole Thompson, director of the Robert Frost Stone House Museum in Shaftsbury, Vt., in an e-mail. She noted that the occurrence is not the first of its kind. Several years ago, the home in Derry, N.H. where the poet and his family resided for 11 years while he experimented with poultry farming and wrote in his spare time was defaced by spray paint.

The College's own community of poets voiced similar sentiments.

"[The Homer Noble Farm] is the most precious thing owned by the College, by far," Parini said. "Robert Frost is the voice of America, and New England especially."

"Whether you call it a sacred place or a shrine, it's very rich culturally, and physically, and in its literary history," said Executive Director of College Mental Health Services and Associate Professor of English and American Literatures Gary Margolis. "It's a very special place."

Both Margolis and Parini reminisced fondly about the occasions on which they have stayed at the Homer Noble Farm during the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.

"I would take baths in Robert Frost's bathtub," Parini said. "I would imagine him standing at the sink shaving, while I lay in the tub. The place is certainly haunted by Robert Frost."

So, should the perpetrators fear the poet's vengeful ghost?

"I think it's extremely unlikely these teenagers had anything against Robert Frost," Parini said. "It's no conscious effort to defile a sacred property. It's a kind of ignorance."

Thompson agreed.

"These things don't have anything to do with Frost," she wrote. "It's just bad behavior of kids taking advantage of a situation."

Still, Margolis pointed out, the particular situation of which they chose to avail themselves is disturbing.

"It's not uncommon that high school students have parties and look for places to party," he said. "But given that apparently these are local high school students, somehow I wonder, where's the disconnect? If they grew up around here, they would know that the place is somehow special, even if they didn't know all of the facts. If you know a place is special in a particular way - even if you're out to have a good time, or party - how come somebody in that group of 40 or 50 people didn't say, 'hey, you know, let's just stand in the field and drink. Do we really have to break into this place?'"

The shockwaves of the teens' decision have extended widely.

"It's interesting to me that this story has gone around the world," Parini said. "I just got an e-mail from a friend in Chile who said this story was on the front page of their newspaper. Frost is beloved around the world."

Thompson said her organization has received numerous expressions of concern in the wake of the vandalism, including a phone call from one of Robert Frost's granddaughters. In addition, she has fielded e-mails from both local residents and Frost aficionados from across the nation, many of whom adamantly insist upon a decisive response.

"Prison is too good for them," wrote Oakhurst, Calif. resident Jan Claire of the perpetrators in an e-mail to Friends of Robert Frost. "They should be made to pay back every cent of damage they caused, and their parents as well. And in Vermont of all places. The most perfect place in the country to raise a family."

According to Hodsen, the penalty for likely charges of unlawful trespassing, vandalism and underage drinking will be determined by the state's attorney.

"These kids need to take responsibility for what they have done," he said.

Aside from punitive matters, however, many view the event as an opportunity to cultivate positive results.

"I hope this prompts Middlebury [College] to install a security system," Thompson wrote. "At least they can install a locked gate to keep out vehicular traffic, which will repel delivery of party supplies."

Parini agreed. "It's extremely crucial that the College reconsider its security measures up there," he said. "The house was basically unsecured, or else this couldn't have happened."

Hodsen expressed doubts, however, about the feasibility of eliminating the site's vulnerability altogether. "We live in Vermont," he said. "We can't put a 24-hour watch on that spot." What may be possible, he said, is the installation of an alarm which, in the event of trespassers, would alert the College's Department of Public Safety, who could dispatch police to respond as necessary.

"But given where it is," Margolis said, "the state police and the town police are still a half hour away."

Ultimately, to Parini, the vandalism registers as an apt means of initiating a constructive dialogue.

"There are many ways this could be used as a teaching opportunity to talk to the nation about the value of poetry," he said.

Margolis agreed, suggesting that disciplinary action against the perpetrators should entail more than merely shelling out financial restitution.

"I would hope they would build in more than that," he said. "I would hope there would be an educational component, an opportunity for them to learn about this place they were just in, a place unique to where they live. And maybe they would have to write a poem about it."