Mansion Tour
Stop 9.1: Christmas Decor
Design by Mary Ellen Dwyer with Jane Dwyer
Mary Ellen Dwyer transforms flora and fauna into a lavish Christmas scene celebrating a few of Augustine Van Wickle’s favorite things. Augustine loved birds so much her room is covered with them, literally! And her love of roses was never more evident than at her debutante party in 1917, when she wore a dress of “silk covered with a layer of white tulle, with pink roses caught between the layers”.
Stop 9.2: Augustine’s Wedding
Augustine married Quincy Adams Shaw in 1919. Quincy was a mining engineer and one of Boston’s most eligible bachelors at the time. The wedding ceremony was held at the Old South Church in Boston where William McKee was a deacon. Estelle Clements wrote:
“The church and the house were lovely with flowers, the bride was lovely. Her dress perfect, and her expression as she turned down the aisle exalted with happiness so wonderful that people caught their breath as at the sight of something not of this world.”
Stop 9.3: Augustine’s Life After Blithewold
Augustine and Quincy Shaw had two daughters named Augustine and Marjorie. The Shaws divorced in the 1930s, and Augustine married Robert Toland and moved to Pennsylvania.
Augustine was a fine athlete all her life, and played tennis until the age of 75. She loved adventure – spending a month on a dude ranch in Wyoming, hiking into the wilderness of the Canadian woods to live in a log cabin, as well as chartering a sailboat and cruising for several weeks out of Marblehead. She also loved swimming, diving, golfing, skiing, shooting, fishing and horseback riding. At home she passed on her love of books, gardening and knitting to her children. She was an active member of the Auxiliary of the Philadelphia Episcopal Hospital.
Augustine died in 1977, one year after her sister Marjorie. Her daughter, Augustine Shaw (always known as Dee) died in 1988. Her second daughter, Marjorie Shaw Jeffries lives in Massachusetts and visits Blithewold often.
Stop 9.4: Sail Boat
A friend of Augustine’s made the sail boat model for her around 1912. It remained in this room until Marjorie died in 1976, at which time Augustine’s daughter, Marjorie Shaw Jeffries, inherited it. It was returned to its familiar place in Augustine’s room at Blithewold – a generous gift from Mrs. Jeffries.
Stop 9.5: Furniture and Decorative Arts
The chest of drawers between the windows is American Eastlake style, characterized by simple, straightforward lines, with incised patterns and moldings for decoration. The style was developed by Charles Locke Eastlake. The tall chest to the left of the windows, along with the dressing table and the bed, are of a Neo-Classical style, using ancient classical ornamentation like laurel wreaths, urns, and swags.
The lovely watercolor by the bed is “Dogwood Branches and Bees”, painted by Paul de Longpre in 1895, and the oil painting above the bookcase is of “Sara Ito”, Augustus Van Wickle’s Japanese Spaniel.