Letters Written Home From France in the First Half of 1915  was comprised of letters written by APA to his family and edited by his friend and Eastern Point neighbor Henry Davis Sleeper.  The book was published in an edition of two hundred and fifty numbered copies bound in paper wraps.  There were also five lettered copies.  This book along with With the American Ambulance Field Service in France,  Friends of France and Diary of Section VIII were used by the American Field Service to help in fundraising, recruiting, and creating sympathy for the French war effort.

The letters give a vivid description of Andrew's impressions as he starts at the American Ambulance becomes a driver in Dunkirk and rises to become the Inspector-General for the ambulance sections of the American Ambulance Field Service.  A digital copy can be found here  http://www.ourstory.info/ (you may need to go to the library section and find it if the link does not completely connect).

Three copies of the book are pictured above.  On the Left is the title page of a leather bound copy from Red Roof.  Center top is one of the five special copies inscribed by Henry D. Sleeper to former AFS driver and author Leslie Buswell.  Below is one of the two hundred and fifty numbered copies (no. 210) inscribed by Sleeper in February 1917.  A typescript for the book can be seen on the right of the photo.  

                                                                      The library or "dugout" was added to the house in 1909 (Red Roof was built in 1902).  The rooms, which consist of the main library and two small rooms on either side of a short hallway that leads from the house, are meant to be fireproof.  The walls were cinder block, the shelves metal, and the roof terra cotta.  I estimate that there were approximately five thousand books in the house with shelves of various design in almost every room not just the dugout.  History, philosophy, economics, politics, literature, money and monetary issues, and art all were to be found on the shelves giving an insight to the mental scope of APA.  The above photo is courtesy of Axel Jansen taken May 2007.

 

 

Above are before and after photos the top photo taken in 2010 and the bottom taken in 2012.  I plan on posting more about the dugout and APA's book collection and even hope to post a partial inventory.

 

This is the first of a series of short videos I made while walking around Red Roof May 2010.   The digital video starts in the dining room overlooking Gloucester Harbor and finishes in the library--affectionately know as the 'dugout'.   This clip is not professional.

Above is a second short digital clip.  This clip goes from the pewter room down the hallway to the garden room and out onto the upper terrace overlooking the bay

    

The third short digital clip explores the rear grounds of Red Roof.  The clip starts on the upper terrace and goes down to the Mexican terrace through the covered boat house and out by the salt water pool.  Harry Sleeper's Beauport can be seen in the distance.

 

 

 

 

Leslie Buswell and APA France 1915.  This is a high quality scan so click on it!

Red Roof was the Gloucester Massachusetts home of Congressman A. Piatt Andrew.  Andrew was born in La Porte Indiana in February 1873.  Andrew died at Red Roof in June of 1936.  Red Roof was built to his own specifications and design on Eastern Point overlooking the Gloucester harbor. 
After his death Andrew's sister maintained the home as a memorial to her brother.  The house remained in the family until recently, remaining largely untouched since 1936.

I plan to use this site not as a biography but a memorial to the house and its founder though photographs and objects.