The Key to a Canadian Dungeon

 

Hi, friends!

Welcome back to the Key Room blog. I’m here once again to bring you the virtual key room experience, so get ready for an exciting historical journey.

Today’s key is one that I picked out of our International section which hosts keys from all around the world, but this one in particular only requires a short visit to our Northern neighbor. It comes from Newfoundland, the easternmost province of Canada, but since the key dates back to 1741 let’s just call it one obscure portion of the British Empire. Back when Britain’s American colonies were growing rapidly and nearing the door of independence, Newfoundland was barely a blip on the British radar. It was used only as a fishing port until it was organized into an official colony in 1825, and until then the British crown discouraged permanent settlement there. Still, settlers found ways of keeping order in their distant colony, and the key I’ll show you today is a relic of Newfoundland’s very early justice system.

It unlocked the door to a dungeon in the basement of the Court of Oyer and Terminer in the settlement of Harbour Grace. The Court of Oyer and Terminer was distinct from other courthouses in the province because it was specifically used to deal with capital crimes and the most serious offenses. Any crime apart from treason could be tried and decided there. The court officials and judges in charge of sentencing those convicted were often naval officers since during this time Newfoundland was governed primarily by the navy. As the 18^th century progress, Newfoundland’s civil government grew and non-military governors were instituted, but in 1741 there were still few of those in place. Generally, this time period in Newfoundland is regarded as fairly lawless and marked by conflict, and maybe the presence of a dungeon in the basement of the courthouse for capital crimes is an indicator of how criminals were dealt with in the early days of the colony. There is plenty to be left to the imagination, but this key is a pretty exciting piece of history to have here in Estes Park and brings us back to a much less institutionalized world.

On your next visit to the Key Room, come see all our keys from around the world, and you’ll find even more stories from distant cultures and eras. It’s even more fun in person.

Goodbye for now,

Rachel

Key Room Museum Curator

Hello, everybody!

I'm so glad that you decided to join me in exploring another key from our huge collection! Today, I think I'm going to talk about a key from one of my favorite cities, New York. I stumbled across this key, and it is actually pretty incredible. The key is from the original Plaza Hotel in NYC.

The Plaza Hotel that stands today was opened in 1907, but the original Plaza Hotel stood in the same spot for 15 years before that. We received a letter with the key for the Plaza from J. P. Herndon, Jr. in 1948. In the letter, he said that the key was the only souvenir he had from the original Plaza and he wanted to see it prominently displayed in the Baldpate's key collection.

Today, The Plaza Hotel is one of the most celebrated, elegant hotels in America and is frequented by business leaders, socialites, movie stars, and artists. It was once said, "Nothing unimportant ever happens at The Plaza." When The Plaza opened, it was reported to be the greatest hotel in the world. Bernhard Beinecke, Fred Sterry, and Harry S. Black were the men who had the dream for the current Plaza Hotel. Construction of the 19-story building took two years at a cost of $12 million, which was a lot of money in those days. No cost was spared in the attempt to create a hotel with the opulence of a French chateau. The Plaza was so well known that Ernest Hemingway advised F. Scott Fitzgerald to give his liver to Princeton and his heart to The Plaza.

Fitzgerald used The Plaza in some of his novels, including The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda, were devoted patrons of The Plaza. The hotel is featured in Baz Luhrmann's film adaptation of the novel, as well as other movies, including Plaza Suite, The Way We Were, Barefoot in the Park, Funny Girl, Cotton Club, and Home Alone II: Lost In New-York. The hotel's movie debut was in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 classic, North by Northwest.

Check out this link for an interesting video about The Plaza and The Great Gatsby:
http://www.theplazany.com/the-great-gatsby/

I hope you join me again soon for another advanture in the key room!

Have a great day!

Margie
Key Room Museum Curator

Bringing the Beach to Baldpate

If there’s one thing I think I’ll miss while spending the summer in Estes Park, it’s the ocean. There aren’t very many things as relaxing as walking barefoot along the sand and hearing the waves rhythmically crashing at the shoreline, and not many things as freeing as diving into them to cool off from the warmth of the sun. I love the sounds and smells, and the hot sun that soaks into your skin, and eating shrimp and scallops and sipping lemonade. Sometimes I just get lost thinking about it.

Sadly the ocean doesn’t quite reach to 9,000 ft, but here in the Key Room we have plenty of keys to unlock that kind of paradise, so sit back with me and let’s enjoy the beach as best we can.

Ahh, the Royal  Victoria Hotel. Once located in Nassau on the appropriately named Paradise Island, it was the luxurious gem of Bahaman tourism. This delightful getaway was built during the American Civil War, but burned down in a fire in 1971. Though this key no longer unlocks a room with a view, what stand in place of the hotel now are the Royal Victoria Gardens. There the remaining ruins of the hotel have been overgrown by a sprawling botanical garden that demonstrates the natural beauty of the tropics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now I'll take you to the other ocean and to the island of Maui. This key is to the Napili Kai Beach Resort on Napili Bay. Napili Bay is considered to have of the most beautiful beaches in Hawaii and I would guess that it has probably been used as a screensaver a few times. This sunny resort wraps along the coast and offers ultimate relaxation with access to snorkeling, swimming, and beautiful sunsets.

 

Finally, here is the key to the Palmas del Mar Resort in Humacao, Puerto Rico on the eastern coast of the island. Palmas del Mar is the largest and most famous resort in Puerto Rico and has on its property over 20 tennis courts, 2 golf courses, and a riding center. The best parts, in my opinion, are its multiple beaches and gorgeous views, but who doesn’t love a good tennis match once in a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I hope today’s keys have made you feel a little closer to the sun and sand. Someday soon I’ll be back in the waves, but here at the Baldpate we have our own kind of paradise. Come visit us if you get the chance and you’ll find your relaxation in the fresh mountain air and the view from the porch swing.

If you make it our way tonight at 7pm, you’ll get a special treat as we’ll be hosting the second in our Summer Enchanted Evenings series. Tonight Scott Rashid, a local bird rehabilitator and wildlife expert, will be sharing a presentation on hummingbirds and offering an up close view of one of the smallest species of birds on earth. If you’ve visited the Baldpate hummingbirds before then you certainly won’t want to miss this opportunity to learn a little more about them.

Hope you see you all soon,

Rachel

Key Room Museum Curator

Hello, everybody!

I hope you are all doing well on this beautiful day, and I hope that all of the fathers out there are having a great Father's Day!

Today, I was reading through letters that we keep in a filing cabinet. These letters are ones that were sent with donated keys. I found one letter that was particularly interesting. As I was searching for the key that went along with the letter, I discovered another related key. The first key was donated by John E. Tidwell, and his letter says that the key was to "Number 10", a prison car, which was used by United States Marshals in transporting prisoners from the United States Jail at Muskogee, Oklahoma to penitentiaries in Leavenworth, Kansas, Columbus, Ohio, and Jefferson City, Missouri. The key was given to Tidwell by E. H. Hubbard, the Chief Deputy United States Marshal for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.

The related key that I found was actually donated by E. H. Hubbard himself. He also sent a letter with his key, and both letters are dated on July 23, 1936. Hubbard writes that he decided to donate a key after hearing about the collection from J. E. Tidwell. Hubbard's donated key was used in the United States Jail at Muskogee, Oklahoma to unlock cell locks. Hubbard says that the jail was built by the United States Government during 1902. Many notorious criminals, including bank robbers, train robbers, murderers, and kidnappers, have been incarcerated in this prison. I'm going to talk a little bit about some of these prisoners, Bill Doolin, Al Jennings, Henry Starr, Dewey Gilmore, and Rufe McCain.

Bill Doolin was an American bandit and founder of the Wild Bunch, an outlaw gang that specialized in robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas during the 1890s. When the Wild Bunch was taken down by three Deputy U.S. Marshals and Bill Doolin was killed, one of the members, Richard West, joined Al Jennings and the Jennings Gang. The Jennings Gang was not very successful. The Gang conducted a series of failed train robbery attempts, one of there last being a case where they blew up an entire train car, only to find that there was no money in the train's safe. Interestingly Al Jennings also worked as an attorney and in politics, and he later became a silent film star. Henry Starr might have been the most successful of the robbers that I have mentioned so far. He robbed more banks than both Bill Doolin's Gang and Jesse James's Gang put together. He started robbing banks on horseback in 1893 and ended up robbing his last in a car in 1921. He stole over $60,000 in more than 21 bank robberies.

Dewey Gilmore and Rufe McCain are both criminals who eventually ended up at Alcatraz. From the mid 1930s until the mid 1960s, Alcatraz was America's premier maximum-security prison, located on Alcatraz Island, one and a half miles offshore from San Francisco. Dewey Gilmore, a kidnapper, was sent to Alcatraz shortly after the death of another inmate, Joseph Bower. Bower tried to make a nearly impossible escape and was shot down. Bower was the first person to try to escape after Alcatraz Island became a federal prison. Other criminals at Alcatraz at this time included Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly. Another criminal who ended up at Alcatraz after spending time in the the jail in Muskogee was Rufe McCain. McCain was confined in cell 14-D at Alcatraz for over three years after an escape attempt. Cell 14-D, a place where rebellious prisoners were confined in total isolation, is the most famous cell for being haunted. When McCain was released from the cell, he murdered another inmate. It is said that cell 14-D had done irreparable damage to his psyche.

I hope you enjoyed learning about these two prison keys as much as I did! I'm constantly discovering new fascinating keys here in the Key Room. If you have a favorite key, please let me know so I can learn about it, too!

Have a great day!

Margie
Key Room Museum Curator

The "City of Denver"

Welcome back Key Room fanatics!

I hope you’re all enjoying this sunny Saturday afternoon and maybe contemplating the expanse of the Baldpate Key Collection while you sip iced tea on a porch swing in the mountains. If you are, or if you need a little inspiration, I’m here to highlight another one of our fascinating keys for you.

Today I walked over to panel 10 on our left side wall where we have a large assortment of keys relating to transportation and all the planes, trains, and automobiles you can think of, and I picked one out that struck me as pretty interesting. It was donated by the Union Pacific Railroad Company in 1936 and is the key to a train called the “CITY OF DENVER.” Unfortunately for all of us, John Denver never wrote a song about this train, but it’s notable for reasons of its own. “The CITY OF DENVER” made the very first 16 hour daily service voyage from Denver to Chicago on June 18, 1936 which set the record for the fastest long-distance train route in the world. Before its historic journey, the fastest train schedule between Denver and Chicago took 25 hours making the “CITY OF DENVER’s” route 9 hours faster; a revolution in efficiency that the Union Pacific advertized would “save a business day.”

And like a true champion of the rails, the “CITY OF DENVER” had both speed and stamina. It dominated the competition and ran the fastest route from Denver to Chicago for nearly 20 years. It was not until 1953 that Union Pacific Railroad Company updated its route in favor of a lighter, faster engine. That’s quite an achievement for one little train.

So how does the “CITY OF DENVER” compare to the trains of today? Well, it really isn’t too far behind. On the 16 hour route from Denver to Chicago, the “CITY OF DENVER” averaged about 65 miles per hour, and although most modern AmTrak trains are capable of higher speeds, there is a 79 mph speed limit set for most American routes. Since rail travel has been changing, however, many trains are blowing that number away. Bullet trains average about 200 mph and even that number continues to increase with new technologies.

If you come by the Key Room you’ll be able to see even more keys from American railway history and plenty of other industries as well. There’s lots to be learned and discovered.

Until next time,

Rachel

Key Room Museum Curator

Friday the 13th

On this unique day, being it is Friday the 13^th as well as there being a full moon scheduled for tonight, I figured it was detrimental that I would write on a key that has a unique history because of its owner and the origin.

Edgar Allan Poe has been and probably will be one of the most influential and famous authors from the American Romantic Movement in the first half of the 19^th century. Born in January of 1809, Poe was soon orphaned by an abandoning father and a mother who died of unknown causes by the time he was two years old. He was then taken in, but not ever officially adopted, by John and Frances Allan. Although he lived with them and was raised by them, John Allan and Poe constantly fought about debts that came from gambling and for the secondary education of Poe.

And this is where the uniqueness of the key of this particular blog comes from. We have in our possession at the Baldpate Inn, the key to the dorm room where Edgar Allan Poe resided during his first and only semester at the University of Virginia in 1826. He was only able to attend for one semester due to the money issues with his “adopted” father, but during his time, he seemed to make an impression on the University of Virginia. The Raven Society, a tribute and historical group to Poe and his writings, has preserved Poe’s dorm room at the University of Virginia, room number 13 on the West Range. In fact, the entire building has been marked as a historic site.

Now after Edgar Allan Poe left the University of Virginia, he joined the army and eventually went to West Point after the death of his “adopted” mother although he failed out and became fully convinced that he wanted to be a poet and a writer. After this confirmation he went on to publish the wide variation of short stories and novels that many have heard of through our various English and Literature classes. Some of the more famous works of Edgar Allan Poe that seem to fit with the significance of Friday the 13^th and the mysteries and superstitions that seem to accompany it are The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, and even The Black Cat.

While there are some that are still very superstitious, I hope that this post doesn’t sway anyone from going about your normal routines today. Yet, I would ask that if anyone does have any spare time today, maybe read a tale or two from Edgar Allan Poe and not only enjoy the slight chill that may crawl up your spine as you read it, but also the literary abilities and works that Poe was able to add to literature. I leave you all with a final quote from one of the happier of Poe’s writings, Eleonora, “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.”

Until next time,

Jake

Baldpate Key Room Curator

General Sherman and Seven Pines

Happy Thursday!

In today’s edition of the Key Room Blog, I’ll be bringing you a little bit of history from my great home state of New York. To tell you the truth, I was a little sad when I first came to the key room and saw that New York’s keys only occupy a meager fifth of one of our ceiling panels, but just a few minutes of inspection made me realize that our small section is still a mighty one. Today’s key for example comes from Yonkers, NY and its story alone involves beautiful mansions, a family of New York bankers, and one of the Civil War’s most famous generals.

 

 

It is labeled “The key to Gen. Sherman’s Wine Cellar ‘Seven Pines’” and its namesake is probably someone you’ve heard of before. General  William Tecumseh Sherman fought for the Union Army in the Civil War and is most famous for the military campaign of 1864 nicknamed “Sherman’s March to the Sea” during which he enacted a harsh “scorched earth” policy and burned down everything in his path from northern Georgia to Savannah. The march amassed more than $100 million in property damage and is one of the primary reasons that Gone with the Wind is so sad. After the Civil War ended and Ulysses S. Grant became President of the United States, he appointed Sherman Commanding General of the Army in 1869.

 

 

But General Sherman is not really the key’s owner as one might assume. The wine cellar at “Seven Pines” in Yonkers, NY actually belonged to New York City banker John Bond Trevor. The Trevors were a wealthy and extremely influential family that settled in the suburb of Yonkers in 1861 and are most famous for building the Glenview Mansion; a Victorian style estate that is now listed as the John Bond Trevor House and a part of the Hudson River Museum.

 

 

 “Seven Pines” was the Trevor family’s residence before they moved into the Glenview Mansion and was originally named Edgewater. Its name changed when General Sherman visited the Glenview as a guest and suggested that Edgewater be changed to Seven Pines after the battle of Seven Pines which took place in Virginia during the Civil War. In honor of him, the house’s name was changed and General Sherman was able to leave his mark on the Yonkers community.

 

 

The couple that made the donation to the Baldpate Inn, Mr. and Mrs. Howard B. MacDonald, add a bonus layer of historical significance to the Seven Pines key. They also hailed from Yonkers, NY and Mrs. Howard B. MacDonald held local musical acclaim under the name Georgia Graves. Though we do not know the exact year that this key was donated, this newspaper article from 1939 puts the MacDonalds into historical context and tells us a little bit about the contralto Georgia Graves and her musical career.

 

 

This key which is wrapped up in a long history of famous names and places is just one of the many gems that can be found hanging from the key room ceiling here at the Baldpate. If you’re in the area, just swing by and I’ll help you find your own state’s claim to fame.

Hope to see you all soon,

Rachel

Key Room Museum Curator