Retro Curious Rebellious: The Revival

Strange how such a darling parcel of the world can cause such a stir in our modern world. During the Retro Revival’s field trip to the Duke Estate this past weekend, we couldn’t help but document two rather ‘big deal’ questions:

1. Why does Duke Farms take pride in their famous Phalaenopsis Doris, yet display none of the three they allege to have?
2. If one of the arguments from the trials of the mansion from the Duke Foundation was that a structure has to “convey the work of a master” architect to be significant, why is the Horace Trumbauer Greenhouse suffering wood rot, extensive damage, and obvious neglect?

So let’s start with part 1. The phalaenopsis Doris, as described by its very caretakers from decades past, is an all-white orchid with round petals. Sounds easy right? See them in shoprite all the time? Not exactly, dears. The difference between the P. Doris and a common white orchid is that the middle, near the stamen is also moth white. A common orchid that you can find both in the stores for your home and in the orchid range at Duke Farms has a distinctive yellow center to each of its flowers.

Another curious marker that we foind at the orchid range during our media escapade was the labels on individual plants that were similar to the P. Doris we sought after. Take a look at these fine flora to see the differences:

PhalaeNOT DORIS (This gallery is owned by RetroRevival)

Trying to Bring back Doris?

All white but not a phalaenopis….

Now let’s shift our attention to another section of the property. The Garden of Nations was torn apart in 2008 because (according to savedukegardens.org) the executive director at the time explained that the time of display gardens is behind us, or something to that nonsensical effect. The structure that encased the spectacular gardens, however, is still standing. It was built in 1917 following the design of the renowned Horace Trumbauer. Commissioned by James B. Duke, the plans were initially carried out to house crops for the family to eat at their estate home. Upon his death, Doris found great solace in her father’s creations and during the middle of teh 20th century, she modified the conservatory to become a series of display gardens to honor her father’s legacy at Duke Farms. The gardens were first opened to the public in 1964, and continued in such a fashion until 2008. It is well known that many individuals of significance visited the gardens.

Of course, following the dismantling and closure, the struture was left in a state of extreme decay. Following Hurricane Sandy, most of the remaining Italianate Garden was destroyed to a point where the foundation had it removed completely. It is currently used in part for storage of the farms’ spare electric buggies. Foliage has been left to grow rampant, and some of the glass has either fallen in and shattered or is missing altogether.

The Garden of Nations, and the Duke Insignia

Garden of Nations Neglect

Horace Trumbauer’s work being sentenced to decay

Garden of Nations

Wood Rot (This Gallery is owned by RetroRevival)

Dr. Emily Cooperman’s testimony on the mansion on the property cites that in order for a struture to qualify for historic significance, the structure “must convey the work of a master”. Well, Dr. Cooperman… We found one. And both Duke and Trumbauer would be sickened at the way that its treated. The cherry picking ends with the house. We can’t allow this to go any farther. “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” (Closing Time, Semisonic). Please help us bring Justice to Doris.

Many of you are wondering where an activist movement can go from here once the mansion is demolished. Suggestions have been made and while the DORIS group is continuing their good deeds, the Retro Revival has made some contributing decisions of its own. In addition to reporting on the progress of the beloved estate, the authors of the RRBlog have committed to several mini-causes. Here is a brief synopsis of each:

A Dance for Doris: Every so often, the Retro Revival will take a request for a song and a charity in need that fits into the Duke legacy (animals, conservation, botanical education, medical research, etc) and we will choreograph a dance to perform at the estate. Sponsorship will be accepted and all proceeds will go to the charity.

Pastiche Picnics: Due to the infamous quote of the architect historian from the Trials of Doris, the mansion was frequently referenced as a ‘pastiche’ of different styles. In the same respect, the staff of the Retro Revival will join with members of DORIS to host picnics in the park (Duke Farms or Duke Island Park). These will feature food, entertainment, and networking capabilities for community members and DORIS in fair weather.

In the meantime, we have noticed several new signs have popped up across the property’s gates. As if in reflection of the magnificently unflattering work of the foundation in the demolition of the residence, these signs now include “Private Propery” and “No Drones” as well as “Out of Order”. Charming, really. Post your pictures of the signs on our Facebook page! We will be reading up on whether or not the foundation purchased the airspace above the estate to discourage legally-operating drones. Fortunately, the photographs from the excellent remote pilot are still available from his previous airtime excursion via http://www.nj.com/somerset/index.ssf/2016/03/group_claims_doris_duke_mansion_still_largely_inta.html

Various other events and volunteer opportunities will be announced as they arise. Stay tuned~ we will be posting the Letter To Doris in a few days! At the end of the weekend, we will also be publishing an analysis of Trumbauer’s work and some other oldies but goodies!!! Stay Curious and stay involved! #JusticeForDoris

Our first photo gallery (Owned by RetroRevival) from our day out in the fields at Duke Estate; the local icon of controversy and irony in absentia of the benefactor’s beloved home~ Enjoy, darlings.

Another exclusive from the RetroRevival!!! The stay was rejected by the appellate division while an appeals process is contrived. Sadly, this may be the end for the beautiful gilded age mansion, but it is only the beginning of the reforms for the estate. This week the increasingly successful grassroots organization, DORIS, (for the preservation of the Doris Duke mansion in Hillsborough New Jersey) has chosen to take a new approach to addressing the necessary reform needed at the estate, Duke Farms. The group organized a media campaign calling for the resignation of the Farms’ executive director, Michael Catania. This information was gathered over the weekend and the group permitted us to be the first informants of this radical new approach to the debates.

Catania, who has worked as the director for two years, has alleged several claims while in township hearings and county court alike regarding the condition, facts and overall significance of the Main Residence that were later refuted or otherwise proven incorrect. This individual failed to provide any exhibits or documented evidence of his work that verifies the research done for adaptive reuse of the house, mold or asbestos complications/remediation, or his expertise on any of the chief complaints surrounding why the demolition is permissible.

Under his care, the farms underwent its second most historic case of negligence ever. Since the haphazard dismantling of the Garden of Nations in 2008 the foundation has never received so much public outcry. Certainly this outrage was not expected to have come this far, let alone succeed in its processes. Mr. Catania is responsible for the estate and its employees given his occupational position. Especially as of recently, he has become extremely defensive of the slightly-demolished structure, going as far as calling a K-9 unit of the police force to ask a professional, licensed, and legally operating drone pilot to go away. There was no conflict and no legal consequences were drawn. Catania is also notable for getting ‘building permits’ issued for the removal of architecturally significant pieces within the house when he was not granted a demolition permit. His deceit and lack of transparency does not reflect well on the foundation and their work. It was under his permission that the Main Residence at the Duke Estate was permitted to fall in March 2016. But we must forbid the Duke Estate from being in the wrong hands any further. Mistreatment is not permissible.

Do you agree with the suggested resignation of the Duke Farms director? Check out the DORIS group’s Twitter and Facebook campaign #CanCatania
Add your comments and this hashtag with #DukeFarms and @DorisDukeFdn so they will see how you feel! Share this with everyone and encourage them to engage in End the injustice and keep Doris and her loving father JB’s legacy alive. Be a part of the difference and make history with us! Most importantly, Save Duke ESTATE!

After a weekend of excitement in the grassroots, Doris Duke supporters have flooded the Internet. They seek reform in every possible dimension after seeing the destruction that the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is so interested in providing. Not only to protect the house, these citizens and dedicated supporters have now chosen to turn and ask questions about the people in charge and question the authority that a charitable foundation bred by a conservationist has to destroy the home of their original benefactor.Among the bustle rises the new lawsuit in appellate court. The parties will again produce their claims but this time… both plaintiff and defendant will present in front of three judges in a panel from the state of New Jersey. This is monumental and has made strides in the grassroots movement. It eliminates, or at least sharply reduces, any influence of small-town politics on the determination of how this case will resolve. It is extremely uplifting to the writers at Retro Revival to hear the news that superior courts have already ruled to protect the house.

Thank you especially to all those who are reading carefully- We thoroughly appreciate the resonating influence of asking the hard questions in this increasingly-intricate case to save the Estate!

Here’s what you can do to help get the right questions answered! Send in a complaint form to the New York State Chaities Bureau. Since the Doris Duke Charitable Foudation is hosted in New York City, the state receives their complaints even though the estate in question is in New Jersey. The form is available through our Facebook.com/Retrorevivalblog page. All you have to do is add some information to your form and mail it into the address on the top. Consider this the letter writing campaign you’ve all been waiting for! Hopefully this will trigger an investigation to clear up any potential problems within the whole charitable trust for the future. Its due time to honor the estate, the house, and the beautiful baroness benefactor that made all this possible. Stay curious and send in those forms! For any questions regarding how to fill our this form, email us at retrorevivalist@gmail.com.

This is another exclusive of the Trials of Doris! Only from the Retro Revival, this article serves as the post-hoc review of this weekend’s DORIS activities.

So what happened to turn the tables 180 degrees? How did the grassroots manage to put up their Dukes?  At around midnight of March 6th, 2016, Judge Allison Accurso granted a ‘stop work’ order by the courts, and these papers were left to be delivered by the members of DORIS themselves. At approximately 6:45am the same morning, four members including representing attorney David Brook visited the residence of the executive director, Michael Catania, on the estate with copies of the court order in hand.

From there, Mr. Catania was skeptical of the intent of the perceived ‘enemy’, and in this hesitation, called local authorities to the scene. Once the police arrived, the protocol for the court order was explained in their presence to ensure the communication was clear and mediated. There were charges hopefully to be pressed against the DORIS members for trespassing, but law enforcement was kind enough to document that these citizens of the grassroots movement were acting as officers of the court, and their action of serving these papers was in perfect compliance with the laws. The anger and dismay radiated across the property and its staff throughout the day.

Our own Mr. Dylan had taken a stroll through the property hours after the papers were served to try to see the state of the house  from the pedestrian-accessible paths, and all regularly open paths were blocked off. Dylan also noticed DFF trucks following him and reporting on his whereabouts. The only view left of the house on pedestrian accessible roads are severely obstructed by trees with limited view, any and all previously open paths going near the house are restricted, limiting  a lot of the other sights on the estate that Ms. Duke wanted available to the public. (Header picture courtesy of RetroRevival).

The real question is why did duke farms close half the park to public access when everyone already knew what was going on? Surely their response would be ‘safety’ and to ensure ‘no one does anything stupid’. But think critically, dear readers. What do they truly have to hide? Why would they hide their actions if they are proud and confident? Sounds like shame to us at the Retro Revival. Ask questions, darlings- Stay curious!

GOOD MORNING DARLINGS! YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST AT THE RETRO REVIVAL BLOG:

THE MANSION AT DUKE FARMS IN HILLSBOROUGH, NEW JERSEY WILL NOT BE DEMOLISHED AS OF MARCH 6, 2016!

In this incredible turn of events the grassroots movement known as DORIS (Demolition of Residence is Senseless), sought an emergency court order to stop the demolition of tobacco heiress Doris Duke’s primary residence in the late evening hours following the beginning of its destruction on March 5th. Summarily, the representing attorney for the group, David Brook, successfully acquired a temporary halt to all actions on the estate’s mansion through the Appellate Division and a corresponding judge. It will be tried again and details are pending…

On Saturday, March 5th, demolition began on the iconic estate house, but damages were contained to the less historic, midcentury creation called the Hollywood Wing, whose construction was largely influenced by Duke’s second husband, Porfiro Rubirosa. The ancestral home built upon the Veghte Farmhouse is still intact.

So what now? Let your voice be heard! Put up your Dukes and join in the fight to save the Duke Estate!

Dorisduke1932@gmail.com

https://www.change.org/p/duke-farms-foundaton-preserve-the-duke-mansion
https://www.gofundme.com/dorisdukemansion

https://www.gofundme.com/dorisdukemansion

Like us on Facebook.com/retrorevivalblog
And follow us on Twitter @retrorevivalist

*All mentions of HTHPC are intended to exclude Tim Stollery who on public record has stated “I keep going back to the fact that Doris Duke had properties all around the world and she considered this one to be her home. If you look at the coach barn, and Buck Dukes’ desk is there, and the walk in safe, if the coach barn is Buck Duke, then the house is Doris, and yeah maybe it’s a little odd, maybe it’s a hodgepodge… It was called a white elephant, but it’s Doris Duke’s white elephant. She’s like (pause) you look at that wall over there and Ana Case (Opera Singer), and there’s a football player and an Olympic athlete, but Doris Duke, she’s known throughout the world, and we have her house here. I’m sorry but in my opinion, and I respect everybody else’s opinion, I respect the work that all the folks at Duke Farms do, but I’m gonna vote no, that we can’t knock down this house, we should fix it up so that we can teach future visitors, we have lots of visitors that come to Duke Farms for the environmental stewardship, and it’s an amazing place, but in my opinion it would be better if we kept the mansion, so I’m gonna vote no..”
“I vote no, and history will judge us, and I think this is a mistake guys.”

We come to you, our readers, with somber, yet hopeful spirits. We have been awaiting the court decision by Judge Yolanda Ciccone and upon reading her decision we found out that she DENIED the case made by D.O.R.I.S. Furthermore she stated that; “DFF’s expert advised HTHPC on all seven criteria…through Mr. Catania and Dr. Cooperman’s testimony, as well as DFF’s councils closing argument, the record below is filled with bases that support HTHPC’s decision making process” (Ciccone pg. 4), They did not. Nor did they provide documentation proving their claimed “decade of research for alternative uses”. If the statements made by these individuals during the proceedings had documents supporting their claims then one could make such an argument, but as a witness to both the proceedings of which the record mentioned was made, and to the egregious amount of denial being exhibited by judicial parties involved in the appeal process that D.O.R.I.S. is in, I can say with confidence that, no, the DFF and the individuals representing these bodies did not go the extra mile and find, or present to the courts, evidence of their claims, and even went so far as to fabricate events that never occurred on the record.

Furthermore, Ciccone stated; “HTHPC had adequate basis in fact and opinion to approve the demolition,” They did not, at least not where documentation and preservation of fact is involved, “and acted in conformity with the appropriate law when approving DFF’s application. It would be inappropriate for the Court to substitute its own judgment of the evidence for the judgment of local citizens with an intimate knowledge of the community’s interest in preserving historic sites” (Ciccone pg. 4). The HHTHPC may have intimate knowledge of interests of the Somerset county community, and it’s interests, but William J. Willard Esq. so eloquently stated, “It doesn’t matter what Doris wanted. It doesn’t matter what the general public thinks” (before the final town meeting in which HTHPC voted to demolish Doris’s home, 6:19-6:26). Despite their presumed intimate knowledge of the interests of their voting public, they chose to not only disregard the wishes of the woman who donated land where Somerset County College stands today (Doris Duke), but they also have disregarded the voice of their own citizens.  The community of Somerset County is VERY interested in preserving the Duke Mansion, yet the HTHPC has ignored their voices.

A member of the HTHPC even felt like dozing off during the proceedings, “Plaintiffs contend that a member of HTHPC was sleeping during the hearings. If this council member were to have been asleep during the hearings, it would be prudent that someone in attendance take immediate action to notify all involved. It is improper for the Court to overturn HTHPC’s decision on the basis that certain individuals claim that a member was sleeping ” (Ciccone pg. 4-5). It would have also been prudent of the council member to not have fallen asleep in the first place, not only that, speaking out of turn would also have evoked a scolding from HTHPC council upon the person who acted “prudently by notifying all involved”. In this same line of reasoning, if the public is expected to alert all involved to the matter, yet “the decision to allow for public comment is discretionary” (Ciccone pg. 5& N.J.S.A. 10:4-12 (a)) which legal position then takes prescient in this case? If public comment being permitted is discretionary then how can the public bring to council’s attention that a council member has fallen asleep during proceedings?

Doris’ home is again in the crosshairs of the foundation that she had created upon her death, and at the moment there is nothing preventing the demolition of her historic, and very unique home. With all of the oversights that we as a voting public, and many of our readers as members of the Somerset County community, and broadly speaking, American voter, it would be refreshing to see a federal investigation of The DFF, and the DDCF as part of this process as a means to verify the goings on in these organizations.  One can hope, but on that bittersweet note I leave you with this thought,  “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius.

Despite the opinion of Judge Ciccone, and the actions of the HTHPC, DFF & DDCF, history will remember their actions, and likewise history will remember that D.O.R.I.S. stood up against these bodies, that everyday people of many ages, political positions, localities, cultures, and beliefs came together to fight injustice that the powers that be are letting happen.

The mansion was demolished within 12 hours of the ruling, with a black Mercedes and dozens of security vehicles surrounding the doomed landmark. Is this the end? Certainly not. This simply means that the WORLD IS WATCHING to change the second life of the Duke family legacy. After all, in loss we find new beginnings. DORIS and its members will continue to fight for the justice of the Duke legacy. Thank you for your dedicated reading. Stay curious, darlings.

10/15/15 HTHPC meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIN3hLSydEg&feature=youtu.be
Save the Duke Mansion(Director’s Cut): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvssmxkweGI
Click for: Judge Ciccone Opinion