Lathrop Brown
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Lathrop Brown (February 26, 1883 – November 28, 1959) was a
United States Representative The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
from
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. Born in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, he graduated from
Groton School Groton School is a Private school, private, college-preparatory school, college-preparatory, day school, day and boarding school located in Groton, Massachusetts, United States. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church (United States), Episcop ...
in 1900 and from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 1903, where he was roommates with
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
. He engaged in the real estate business and served in Squadron A of the
National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...
of New York, for five years. He was keenly interested in
eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...
.


Government service

He was elected as a
Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...
to the Sixty-third Congress (March 4, 1913 – March 3, 1915) and unsuccessfully contested the election of
Frederick C. Hicks Frederick Charles Hicks (originally Frederick Hicks Cocks; March 6, 1872 - December 14, 1925) was an American banker and politician who served as a United States representative from New York from 1916 to 1923. Biography He was born in Westbury ...
to the Sixty-fourth Congress. He was special assistant to the
Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...
from March 1917 to October 1918, and served as a private in the
Tank Corps An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other armou ...
during the
First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. He was joint secretary of President
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
's Industrial Conference in 1919 and was a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...
s in 1920, 1924, and 1936. He studied
monetary theory Monetary economics is the branch of economics that studies the different theories of money: it provides a framework for analyzing money and considers its functions (as medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account), and it considers how ...
at the Graduate School of Harvard University from 1928 to 1932. The family lived in a series of houses beginning on
Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
where Brown bought a 100-acre estate on St. James Harbor where they raised and raced horses. They commissioned Archibald Manning Brown to design a large, modern country house, although they never lived in it. (It's now known as the Knox School). While Brown served in Congress and as the assistant to the Secretary of Interior, they lived near the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
in Washington. They later moved to
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, then ''The Windmill'' on
Montauk Point Montauk ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in East Hampton and Suffolk County, New York, on the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. As of the 2020 United States census, the CDP's population was 4,318. The CDP encomp ...
, and
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
.


Purchase of ranch in Big Sur

In 1924, the wealthy Brown and his wife Hélène Hooper Brown, who at age 15 in 1910 inherited $10,000,000 and became an orphan at the same time, visited
Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Carmel Highlands and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Range, Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from th ...
, California, seeking some wild land on which they might build a house. They bought the Saddle Rock Ranch totaling 1,600 acres from pioneer
homesteader Homestead may refer to: *Homestead (building), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses * Nguni homestead, a cluster of houses inhabited by a single extended family, typically with a kraal ...
Christopher McWay, after which Julia Pfieffer Burns leased some land for cattle. Hélène became a good friend of Julia until the latter died in 1928.


Build Waterfall House on coast

The Browns first built a redwood cabin on the cliffs across from McWay Falls, which at the time fell directly into the ocean. It was located where the Waterfall Overlook is today, but the location then and now is often shrouded by a marine layer of cold fog. The Carmel-San Simeon Highway was completed in 1937, and in 1940 the Browns constructed "Waterfall House" to replace the cabin. The multi-story house had a 16 foot wide marble staircase at its base and fine furnishings. An ornamental brass fish, a large gold octopus with long tentacles, and a compass rose were inlaid in the entryway. They decorated the home with art by
Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...
,
Dufy Dufy is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Jean Dufy (1888–1964), French painter * Raoul Dufy Raoul Dufy (; 3 June 1877 – 23 March 1953) was a French painter associated with the Fauvist movement. He gained recogn ...
and
Gauguin Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...
. Very large windows overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Hélène Brown's bedroom was the only room with a direct view of the waterfall. The small room was painted entirely black and had gold stars on the ceiling. One large window looked out on the falls. The bathroom adjacent to her bedroom was finished in a deep blue tile inlaid with gold, and mirrors were mounted and positioned to create endless reflections. Behind the house were terraced gardens and a caretaker's cottage. The house was sited about halfway down the cliff from the newly completed highway. To reach it, visitors boarded a short
Funicular railway A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to opposite ends ...
. It was a beautiful contemporary building, But the house experienced the same weather conditions as the cabin before it. The Browns wanted a home out of the fog's reach.


First electricity on coast

Hans Ewoldsen, the Saddle Rock Ranch foreman, built a
Pelton wheel The Pelton wheel or Pelton Turbine is an Impulse (physics), impulse-type water turbine invented by American inventor Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead w ...
on McWay Creek in 1932. He worked in the machine shop of the highway construction crew, using hand-split redwood from the canyon and other materials he bought. The undershot wheel ran a 32-volt generator and was the first electric power in the Big Sur area. It supplied power to three residences, a blacksmith shop, and the Funicular railway.


Construct Tin House inland

In 1944, during World War II, they decided to build a house three miles inland on a ridge high above the fog. War-time rationing of vital supplies - included building materials - meant some ingenuity was required for the project. A side impact of the rationing was that gasoline was in short supply, forcing some gas stations out of business. The Browns saw opportunity in adversity and bought two abandoned gas station buildings. They selected a site on a ridge 1,960 ft (597m) above the coast, built a road, hired a crew to haul the deconstructed tin gas stations up the steep road, and paid an architect to assemble a home using those various parts. When complete, the distinctive, modern house had bold lines, along with a kitchen, living room, and quarters for a maid. The family called it the "Gas Station" house, although it later become known as "Tin House". The home had spectacular views. The main windows in the large living room looked not out to sea, but up and down the coast. A wall was constructed facing due west to block the intense, direct rays of the afternoon sun. The living room was richly painted in blue. Despite the beautiful sights above the reach of the fog, legend has it that the Browns only spent one night in the new residence. They hadn't anticipated the metal siding and roof expanding and contracting with the day-time heat and night-time cold, and the unexpected, noisy popping and creaking from the tin siding was unacceptable to the Browns. After a sleepless night, they never returned. Brown was elected to the sheriff's
posse Posse is a shortened form of posse comitatus, a group of people summoned to assist law enforcement. The term is also used colloquially to mean a group of friends or associates. Posse may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Posse'' (1975 ...
of
Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is ...
in 1947. A story exists that Tin House was built as a vacation getaway for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In actuality, Lathrop Brown and Franklin Roosevelt were childhood friends and each other's best man when they married. But FDR never visited the Tin House. Lathrop and Hélène left Big Sur for Florida in 1956, where Lathrop died in 1959. In 1961, Hélène Hooper Brown donated the entire property to the state, stipulating that it be used as a park and named for her good friend, Julia Pfeiffer Burns, a "true pioneer." She included the requirement that Waterfall House be converted into a museum within five years to house Big Sur history, otherwise that it be razed. For several reasons this was not accomplished and the mansion was demolished in 1966. The Waterfall Overlook of
McWay Falls McWay Falls is an waterfall on the coast of Big Sur in central California that flows year-round from McWay Creek in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, about south of Carmel, into the Pacific Ocean. During high tide, it is a tidefall, a waterfa ...
was built on that spot. Visitors to the site today can view the remnants of the home's landscaping, including palm trees. The Pelton wheel is on display as well.


Later life

Brown was a member of a committee to supervise the Graduate School of Public Administration of Harvard University in 1954 and 1955.


Death and burial

He died in
Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the List o ...
and was cremated; the ashes were interred in Abbey of the Light, Manasota Memorial Park,
Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in and the county seat of Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located in Southwest Florida, the southern end of the Tampa Bay area, and north of Fort Myers, Florida, Fort Myers and Punta Gorda, Florida, Punta Gord ...
.


Legacy

His home at
Nissequogue, New York Nissequogue () is a village in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The village population was 1,564 at the 2020 census. The Incorporated Village of Nissequogue is located entirely within the Town of ...
, known as Land of Clover, was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1993.


References


External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Lathrop 1883 births 1959 deaths Groton School alumni American eugenicists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) Politicians from New York City United States Army personnel of World War I Big Sur 20th-century New York (state) politicians 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives