Preserving culture: a conversation at the Norfolk Library
Betsy Vorce and preservationist Edward F. Gerber, trustee of Historic New England.
Jennifer Almquist
Ann Havemeyer, Director of the Norfolk Library and Vin Cipolla, President and CEO of Historic New England.Jennifer Almquist
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Dick Hermans in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton's Main Street in 1985.
Photo provided
A highlight of the event will be New Yorker cartoonists Liza Donnelly and Michael Maslin, who will create simple, impromptu drawings inside the main store.
Hermans is the daughter of Oblong co-founder Dick Hermans, who opened the store in 1975 with a vision of creating a welcoming space for lovers of good books and music. With a $10,000 loan, he and founding partner Holly Nelson opened their first 400-square-foot shop on Main Street — now home to Demitasse.
As the business grew, Oblong expanded into Harold’s Apparel – now Cottage+Camp – in 1981, and eventually purchased its current building, then an antiques store. The staff walked the books across the street by hand during the move. Oblong Jr., located next door in what was once a shoemaker’s storefront, came later, as did a second location in Rhinebeck.
Dick Hermans, left, and Suzanna Hermans pose for a picture together in the Oblong Bookstore on Millerton's Main Street.Photo provided
Today, Suzanna Hermans is a second-generation owner of Oblong Books. Her parents met at the bookstore, and she has fond memories of going to preschool in the mornings and spending afternoons roaming the shelves with her father, always with a book in hand. As soon as she could see over the counter, Hermans would assist customers, recalling how exciting it was to finally be old enough to take credit card payments. “My dad was smart enough not to push me into it and let me come back to it naturally,” she said of taking over the family business after college.
A lot can happen to a local business over the course of half a century. Navigating shifts in technology, consumer behavior and the broader economy, it’s no small feat that Oblong has not only endured but become an iconic fixture of the community. “Bookstores have had ups and downs over the years, and we’ve been there to see most of them,” Hermans said.
In the 1990s, the rise of big-box chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders contributed to a steep decline in independent bookstores across the country. According to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the number of physical bookstores in the U.S. dropped from 13,136 in 1992 to just 6,448 by 2016.
The emergence of eBooks and Amazon further disrupted the industry. “They devalued books and taught consumers that books mean nothing,” Hermans said, adding, “Amazon will continue to be a challenge for us on a national scale.” Oblong has compensated for that by offering online purchasing and a digital storefront.
More recently, bookstores are facing the threat of censorship and efforts to limit access to books. “Today, things are crazy, and there are a lot of communities that are working very hard to ban books — including queer stories — from stores and libraries,” Hermans said. “We’re seeing a lot of freedom of speech and freedom to read issues as our next challenge, but I hope we’re shielded from that here in Millerton.”
Through it all, Hermans said it has been the support of the local community that helps Oblong weather these industry-wide changes.
“One thing that spans the whole length of it is our incredible staff that has worked for us over these last 50 years,” Hermans said. Since its founding, Oblong has employed more than 200 people — many of whom have stayed for five to 40 years. “Folks tend to stay a long time, which is an incredible testament to their admiration for bookselling,” she said. “But we also work really hard to be a great place to work.”
Even a casual walk through the store reveals the passion of its booksellers. Handwritten staff recommendations known as “shelf talkers” and colorful hand-drawn displays embody the charm and personality of an independent bookstore while a diverse, up-to-the-minute selection reflects the store’s commitment to a high-quality bookstore experience.
“Our staff picks are truly special,” Hermans said. With 24 booksellers across the two locations, each with their own distinct tastes, the result is a diverse and unique collection of recommendations. Hermans said the store’s “shelf talkers” are among Oblong’s most popular features. Some recommendations sell 20, 50 or even 100 copies — books that are often overlooked elsewhere.
Over the decades, Oblong has also become a destination for top-tier literary events featuring celebrity authors, local favorites and emerging voices. “We love our authors,” Hermans said. “We’ve built up a reputation that you can send your best-touring authors here to the Hudson Valley and they’re going to sell their books at our events.”
She adds that there is an “incredible depth” of literary talent in the region. Oblong now participates in approximately 150 events per year, an impressive number for an independent bookstore.
Though much has changed, the heart of Oblong Books remains the same: books, music and community. Originally called Oblong Books and Records, a section for vinyl and CDs can still be found in each location — a nod to the store’s musical roots.
“A lot of our shoppers are hardcore music lovers and people who like the novelty of buying a record or an LP,” Hermans said, noting that while music doesn’t drive profits, it remains part of the store’s identity. Her mother is a musician, and her father, “in all of his spare time,” she jokes, is a DJ for a folk radio show on WKZE.
Fifty years in, Oblong remains a cultural cornerstone of the Hudson Valley — not just a store, but a gathering place, a literary sanctuary and a celebration of the written word.
Dick Hermans is a member of the board of LJMN Media, publisher of The Millerton News.
Opulent furnishings and decoration ranging from Asian statues and paintings to Gulf Oil gas station signs adorn the mansion at the Hitchcock Estate.
Photo by Charlie Greenberg
However, correct details about what had become of the house in recent years remained difficult to find. It remained clear, though, that the Hitchcock Estate was no ordinary house for sale.
Billy Hitchcock and his brother Tommy purchased the 2,087-acre property, which is roughly one-seventh the size of Manhattan, in 1963. Psychedelic pioneer Timothy Leary famously came to live in the house after being introduced to Billy through his sister Peggy Hitchcock.
There are so many rooms in the main house that some of the smaller ones lack a clearly-defined purpose.Photo by Charlie Greenberg
Following Leary’s time in the estate’s main house, it fell into disrepair and was boarded up. After undergoing some restoration by historian John Foreman, Tommy finished repairing the house to a liveable but not modernized state.
“My brother did a wonderful job fixing the big house and putting it back together,” Billy Hitchcock said. Tommy handled the maintenance of the estate and lived on it part time. However, upon his death in 2023, there was nobody to coordinate the property’s extensive maintenance needs, prompting the Hitchcock family to list the estate for sale, Billy said.
While the Hitchcock Estate is best known for its role in the psychedelic awakening, that period reflects only a small part of the broader segments of American society between which the estate serves as a nexus.
The estate has attracted numerous illustrious occupants throughout its history. The estate’s builder, Charles F. Dieterich, was a German-born industrialist who made his fortune in the acetylene gas business, building the estate to remind him of his native Bavaria; Charles Mingus wrote the song “Peggy’s Blue Skylight” about Peggy Hitchcock after visiting.
Old and new money, creators of and rebels against the establishment each have passed through the estate, leaving psychedelic artwork and Gulf Oil memorabilia testament to past times behind the open landscapes and ornate architecture.
Some of the smaller bedrooms in the main house are quite liveable and ordinary. TommyHitchcock III’s restoration efforts are visible in the newly-painted walls and trim.Photo by Charlie Greenberg
Often overshadowed by his involvement with Leary is Billy Hitchcock’s prominent lineage. Billy’s mother, Margaret Mellon Hitchcock, was the daughter of Gulf Oil founder William Larimer Mellon and the great-granddaughter of Mellon fortune founder Thomas Mellon.
Billy’s father, Tommy Hitchcock Jr. was referred to in 1956 by the New York Times as the greatest polo player in the history of the sport. Tommy Jr. was also F. Scott Fitzgerald’s inspiration for the character of Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby.
“My father was a pilot in the First World War. He was shot down by the Germans and escaped all by the time he was 19,” Billy said.
In World War II, too old to be a combat pilot, Billy said, Tommy Jr. was a test pilot for fighter planes when he was killed in an aircraft test.
The Hitchcock Estate has its own parallel history with that of the Village of Millbrook, with the scope of events and personalities it attracted seemingly beyond those that unfold on the other side of Route 44. But the estate today has a much quieter appeal about it.
Entering the estate from its far less conspicuous and more frequently used entrance on Valley Farm Road, it is not difficult to see what appealed to prominent people throughout the years looking for a getaway that existed apart from the rest of the world and their substantial places in it.
The main estate house on the Hitchcock estate in Millbrook was constructed in the late 19th century by German acetylene gas magnate Charles Dieterich.
At 14,000 square feet, the main house at the Hitchcock Estate was comparatively modest when architect James E. Ware added onto an existing farmhouse on several occasions to create the Bavarian-inspired building in the late 19th century. At 34 rooms, however, the scale of the house, and indeed the entire property, is not something that is commonly seen in Millbrook today.
Large estates built around distinctive mansions were a more typical sight in Millbrook at the time the Hitchcock Estate was built, but years of structure fires and property subdivision have made them increasingly rare. Regardless, the estate was unmatched in scale even at the time of its building.
The Bavarian influences on the main house and property’s smaller buildings, stone walls and patios give the property a surreal feeling of being in an abandoned fairy tale. Few people see the property today beyond the farmers and caretakers who keep it up — Billy Hitchcock, now in his eighties, lives in Texas and other members do not visit often, he said.
Tommy Hitchcock III’s restoration work is evident. Freshly painted, the main house looks quite tidy with the exception of some overgrown trees around the veranda. Windows broken during the Leary years have been replaced, though the house’s more ornate leaded glass windows remained intact.
It is a one-mile drive, without leaving the Hitchcock property, from the main house to The Bungalow, a second mansion on the property constructed by architect Addison Mizner in 1912. At 10,000 square feet, The Bungalow is not as intimate as the name suggests. It was designed by Addison Mizner of Palm Beach, Florida fame and was the home of Tommy and Billy Hitchcock when they were in residence.
“We all love the property,” Billy Hitchcock said. “We’re sorry to be letting it go after 60 years.” Given the estate’s large size — 900 acres larger than the Village of Millbrook — Hitchcock understands the interest the community has in its sale. “It’s hard to say where this is going to come out,” Hitchcock said, though he is committed to selling the property to someone who understands its value to the community.
Granted, there few more knowledgeable than Mr. Hitchcock about the ways something personal to a small number of influential people can in turn become important to countless others beyond the inner circle.
