Damsel in distress

Little hamlet with big dreams holds a fair to preserve its heart

By ANNE WILLARD

LORDVILLE, NY — It was built by Captain John Lord—one of the clan after whom the town is named—and takes its name from John “Bluestone King” Kilgour, whose quarries were the engine driving the boomtown years in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It has stood at the junction of Abe Lord’s Creek and the Delaware River for over 150 years. During that time it has housed loggers and quarry workers, a bar—one of four that served the bustling town during its glory days—a third-floor ballroom, and a fussy mannequin whose outfit is changed monthly, and who is reputed to fall down if she doesn’t care for the current month’s couture. One of the boarders, Tommy Quinn, apparently liked it there so much that he stays on as a ghost, opening and closing doors and switching lights on and off.

When cement supplanted bluestone around 1908, the boom went bust, but Lordville’s Kilgore House has remained a keystone of the community, serving in recent years as a hub for its Independence Day festivities and the terminus of its annual parade.

And now it’s in trouble.

The flood of June, 2006 was no respecter of traditions. It pushed through the back windows of the house and swept through the ground floor, shifting foundations, caving in floors and leaving a coating of mud in its wake.

But as tiny as the hamlet of Lordville now is, the residents are not easily daunted. Led by the descendents of Catherine Lord Joyce, the woman who purchased the house in the 1930s, they will hold a “Save the Manequin House” benefit fair this coming Saturday to help get the house back in order. The name (they insist on the single “n”) is a nickname for the Kilgore House, in honor of the mannequin that has surveyed the street from the ballroom window for the past 40 years or so.

For the event, the community has lined up four bands—Dirt Farm, Stoutmen, Gambling Souls and Next Stop Willoughby—children’s activities, food, a flea market and fly-fishing demonstrations. The fair will also feature a Name the Mannequin contest, with a first prize of a signed limited edition print by Don Holton. And, of course, being located in Lordville, the fair will feature one of the most picturesque locations in the Upper Delaware River valley, directly on the riverbank, an attraction for late-season leaf-peepers.

There will also be T-shirts on sale, displaying the house’s front door, with the words “Ladies Entrance” painted above it, on their fronts, and the door that used to lead into the bar, labeled “Gents Entrance,” on their backs.

The words “Ladies Entrance” were uncovered during a renovation in the 1960s. They date to the boomtown days, when the bar in the back was not considered a proper place for females. Back then, if a woman wanted a drink, she had to come in through the front entrance and have it handed to her through the pantry door.

But Lordville’s ambitions don’t stop with selling T-shirts, holding a fair or repairing the storm damage.

“We’d like to start a historical society,” said Callie Brunelli, “and headquarter it here.” Brunelli is one of 18 descendents of Catherine Joyce Lord who now own a piece of the Manequin House—one room each. The late Joyce—whose middle and last names bear witness to her ties to the two major clans, the English Lords and the Irish Joyces, who originally settled the area—bequeathed the house to her 18 relatives, believing that “at least some of us would be too contrary to sell it,” according to Jon Buckley, another co-owner.

Like Joyce, the current owners would like to preserve the house unharmed for posterity. The family is now holding discussions as to the possibility of creating a trust that would make the house, as a historical resource, self sustaining. The historical society idea could be one part of this vision.

Another possibility being considered by the family is to promote a tourist railway that would go from Hancock to Callicoon, or perhaps further, with a stop-off in Lordville. The current Stourbridge Line between Honesdale and Hawley, says Buckley, could serve as a model.

If this dream were realized, it wouldn’t be the first time Lordville had been a tourist destination; back when rail was still king, it was one of many locations along the Delaware where, as local historian Mary Curtis puts it, “Mama and the children got out of the city for the summer and Papa came up on the weekends.”

There is another renovation project in town that would fit into this vision: the John Lord house, another prior boarding house that stands directly on the riverfront and is being remodeled by Don Holton (yet another owner of the Kilgore House) into a bed and breakfast. It also suffered some damage from the flood, but work on it has been temporarily suspended.

“Everybody has kind of put aside whatever else they’re doing to fix this house,” said Buckley, sitting in the October sun on the front stoop of the Kilgore House, “because this house is the town’s heart.”

The Manequin House benefit fair

Where: The junction of Lordville, Warren and Bouchouxville Roads. The turnoff to Lordville Road from Route 97 is approximately 15 miles north of Callicoon and 8 miles south of Hancock. Lordville may be accessed from PA via the Lordville Bridge off Route 191.

When: Saturday, October 21 from 12:00 noon to 6:00 p.m., rain or shine.

Donations: Donations may be sent to Save The Manequin House, c/o NBT Bank, 11 East Main Street, Hancock,NY 13783

T-shirts: May be purchased on line at savethemanequinhouse.com for $19.

For more information call 570/224 6915.