Isaac Patch, the nephew of APA, passed away on May 31, 2014.  Patch was with Piatt Andrew when he passed away on the morning of June third, 1936 in the Garden Room at Red Roof.

Ike Patch writes of his experiences of life in Gloucester in the early 1900's and offers several glimpses of Uncle Piatt in two of his several books Closing the Circle and Growing Up In Gloucester.  Patch writes of APA's circle of friends as well as his memorable experiences with APA visiting Washington D.C. and a dramatic airplane flight from Chicago to New York.  Here is a link to "Big Ike's" obituary.

Above is a photo looking out of the doors of the Garden Room onto the upper terrace.  This is the spot where Andrew lay in a hospital bed as Ike Patch held his hand while he passed away.  This is the only room of Red Roof to survive.  Mercer tile adorns the floor.  Photo courtesy of Axel Jansen.

A. Piatt Andrew Inspector General of the American Field Service.  Photo taken in Paris after April 1917.

The English actor H. B. Warner was a frequent guest at Red Roof in 1912 and 1913.  Warner's wife was killed in a automobile accident on April 20th, 1913 and Warner fades from APA's daybook.  Another English actor was soon to enter the Eastern Point Group-Leslie Buswell.  Warner may be best known today for his appearance in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life as Old Man Gower or as himself in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard.

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!