Description
Laurel Hill Day, Saturday, August 26, 2023, Laurel Hill Park Rostrum, Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
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The Laurel Hill Association to Feature Noted Forester Starling Childs at Laurel Hill Day, August 26th
For the past 170 years local Stockbridge residents and other friends have gathered in front of a rock outcropping in Laurel Hill park located behind the Stockbridge Town Offices. This year the keynote address will be delivered by Starling (Star) Childs. Childs has spent a lifetime managing forest lands and teaching young people about the challenges facing them.
“We are delighted to have Star speak at Laurel Hill Day. He has had a distinguished career as a hands on forester and as an advisor to his alma mater’s Yale Forest School . Star’s expertise, insight, and easy, humorous manner guarantees that our program will be especially engaging this year.”
Childs in Great Mountain Forest in Northwestern Connecticut
Childs in Great Mountain Forest in Northwestern Connecticut
Childs has worked with state and local governments as well as many private clients to assess and administer their lands for ecologically sensitive development, forestry and wildlife management, recreation, natural resource extraction, bio-energy and land conservation strategies.
His specialty areas include hydrology, sediment and erosion control, land and forest restoration, mineral and aggregate resource extraction, and the emerging markets related to the science of carbon sequestration and forest offsets.
Childs has helped to finance and launch several successful enterprises in historic building renovation and adaptive reuse, biomass power generation, advanced water treatment technology, energy conservation, telecommunications, iron sand and rare earths mineral exploration, and even yogurt production and sales, the latter being the most successful with Stonyfield becoming a nationally known brand.
He has served as Chairman of the External Advisory Board of the Global Institute for Sustainable Forests at Yale Forest School and currently serves on the advisory board of the New England Forestry Foundation. Childs is a 1976 graduate of Yale College and holds a BS degree in Geology and Geophysics and a Master’s degree in Forest Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. After graduating in 1980, he worked for Great Mountain Forest, a family owned working forest in Norfolk, Connecticut.
For the past thirty years, Childs has served as a founding board member and officer of the Great Mountain Forest Corporation which is a 501(c)(3) operating foundation that oversees scholarly research and educational programs as well as the ongoing, long-term management of his family’s 6,500 acre working forest and wildlife preserve in northwestern Connecticut.
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Laurel Hill is the Association’s signature property. It was the site of the first meeting, and was the first property acquired by the Association. Laurel Hill is a heavily forested, oak-studded hill in the center of Stockbridge. An open glen slopes away from a rock cliff that acts as a natural sounding board. This property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Stockbridge Main Street Historic District.
In 1834, Judge Theodore Sedgwick and the Sedgwick family purchased the Laurel Hill property in a deed from J.E. Woodbridge, to preserve it for public use to avoid the threat of development. The family was ahead of its time. At the start of the main access trail there is a boulder with the inscription: “LAUREL HILL THE GIFT OF THE SEDGWICK FAMILY 1834.”
On Wednesday, August 24, 1853 the first meeting was held in the glen (see painting pictured below) and the Association was born. It was the doing of Mary Hopkins Goodrich, great-granddaughter of first missionary Jonathan Sergeant. Ever since, the glen has been the site of the Association’s annual anniversary exercises—Laurel Hill Day.
In August 1878 the Laurel Hill property was conveyed to the Association by all of the heirs-at-law of Judge Theodore Sedgwick. The deed contains the following: “…and dedicated the same to the use, benefit, and pleasure of the public, intending that the same be protected and preserved forever for that purpose…”
Trails. The main trail goes from the rear of the Town Offices west parking lot up to the open glen. It continues around the back side of the hill down to Memorial Bridge at the Park Street cul-de-sac. A steep offshoot goes up to the summit.
Stone Rostrum. In 1905, a stone platform, seat, and rostrum were constructed in the glen, up against the rock cliff. They were dedicated as a memorial to Henry Dwight Sedgwick, president of the Association from 1881 to 1904. Sculptor Daniel Chester French (Lincoln Memorial) donated the design work; sculptor Augustus Lukeman (Stone Mountain in Georgia) executed the plans. On the front of the platform is a bronze tablet: “IN MEMORY OF HENRY DWIGHT SEDGWICK FOR MANY YEARS PRESIDENT OF THE LAUREL HILL ASSOCIATION BORN AT STOCKBRIDGE AUGUST 6 MDCCCXXIV [1824] DIED AT ROME, ITALY DECEMBER 26 MCMIII [1903] ERECTED BY HIS FRIENDS”.
Butler Seat. At the summit of the hill is a large, semi-circular granite seat, facing west toward Monument Mountain. It was given in 1928 by Mrs. Prescott Hall Butler as a memorial to her husband. On the rear is carved: “IN MEMORY OF PRESCOTT HALL BUTLER MDCCCXLVIII [1848] – MDCCCC [1900]”. Butler was a law partner with Joseph Choate and C. F. Southmayd—all three built estates in Stockbridge.
Adams Inscription. On the south side of the hill, on the trail section going from the glen to Memorial Bridge is a boulder with carved inscription: “THIS PATH IS A MEMORIAL OF LUCIUS S. ADAMS, M.D. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN 1804-1880.” Adams was president of the Association from 1855-1880. He had great influence on many of the early decisions and improvements.
Musgrave Seat. Just a short distance to the right of the rostrum is a seat cut into the rock, given by Lady Musgrave, the former Jeanie Field. On the back is carved: “ON REVIENT TOUJOURS”, which translates: “We will always return”. On the seat skirt is “MUSGRAVE”.
Size. 8.1 acres
