Tag Archives: Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson’s Homesteads and her 110th Birthday Celebration

English: Pittsburgh Ninth Street Bridge, now R...

English: Pittsburgh Ninth Street Bridge, now Rachel Carson Bridge as seen from the top of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you have crossed the river from downtown to the Northside you probably know the name Rachel Carson because you have crossed the Rachel Carson Bridge.  The Rachel Carson Bridge is one of the Three Sister’s bridges, the other two bridges are named for Roberto Clemente and Andy Warhol. If you are not familiar with her work, this should give you a clue that Rachel Carson is an important Pittsburgher.

Rachel Carson was born in Springdale, just up the Allegheny river from Pittsburgh and her work as a scientist and conservationist continues to have a huge impact around the world today. She is In 1962, Carson published the book “Silent Spring” that launched the environmental movement and eventually led to a ban on DDT. Carson’s book was the catalyst for the environmental movement which led to the creation of the EPA.

There are two historic buildings that served as homes for Rachel Carson that can be visited today:

  • Birthplace – The Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, PA is where Carson was born. The house still exists today and is open for tours, educational events and this weekend will host a birthday celebration in honor of Carson’s 110th birthday.
  • Residence – The other Rachel Carson homestead is in Colesville, Maryland. This house in Maryland is where wrote “Silent Spring.” Ryan Morden visited the house in Colesville a few years ago and wrote a post, A Visit to Rachel Carson’s Other House,  about this house which was named a National Historic Landmark in 1991.

Rachel Carson Homestead, 613 Marion Ave, Springdale

Timeline of the Rachel Carson Homestead

  • 1901 – Carson family moves into home in Springdale
  • 1907 – Rachel Carson is born
  • 1929 – Rachel Carson graduates from Pennsylvania College for Women, now known as Chatham University
  • 1962 – Silent Spring is published
  • 1964 – Rachel Carson dies of a heart attack at her home in Maryland
  • 1975 – Rachel Carson Homestead Association is established
  • 1976 – Rachel Carson Homestead added to the National Register of Historic Places

More on the Rachel Carson Homestead

AUDIO POSTCARD: TURNING BACK TIME ON RACHEL CARSON’S CHILDHOOD HOME

Visit the Rachel Carson Homestead in Springdale, PA

By ccbarr (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Docent led tours of the Rachel Carson Homestead are available on Saturdays from April 22, 2017 through November 2017.

  • Hours: Homestead is open 10:30am-1:30pm, tours starts on the hour at 11am, noon & 1pm.
  • Cost: A minimum donation of $10 is requested for each adult, $3 for children.
  • Website: rachelcarsonhomestead.org
  • Social Media: Facebook Page,

Tours are also available by appointment, email Info@RachelCarsonHomestead.org for details.

Special Events at the Rachel Carson Homestead

The Rachel Carson Homestead hosts a number of special events throughout the year, especially during the summer. In fact, my first visit to the Rachel Carson Homestead was for a welcome home party and lecture from Mark Dixon and the filmmakers, who spent a year traveling to all 50 states to make a documentary, YERT – Your Environmental Road Trip. The documentary is about how people are embracing sustainability. (I wrote a blog post about their homecoming back in 2008 , You Can See a Year of Garbage at the YERT Homecoming. Yes, they carried all of the trash from the entire trip with them)

Follow the Rachel Carson Homestead Association on Facebook to learn about upcoming events.

Saturday, May 27 – Rachel Carson 110th Birthday Celebration

Rachel Carson HomesteadThis Saturday, the Rachel Carson Homestead will host a birthday celebration.

  • Saturday, May 27, 2017
  • Noon-5pm
  • Music by Earth Mama, cake, raffles,
  • Free (please rsvp by sending an email to info@RachelCarsonHomestead.org)
  • Facebook Event

More information on the birthday celebration and the involvement of Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation is available here.

 

 

 

A Visit to Rachel Carson’s Other House

Pittsburghers celebrate Rachel Carson, famed scientist who changed lives and how we look at the environment, as one of our own. Honors don’t get much bigger than having a prime bridge downtown named after you: Carson, along with Clemente and Warhol, make up our iconic Three Sisters bridges. There’s also a 35.7 mile Rachel Carson nature trail, and the Pennsylvania even named a state office building after her to house environmental protection and conservation departments.

Carson was born on a small farm in nearby Springdale. She was raised in the area and graduated from Chatham University with a degree in biology (known as the Pennsylvania College for Women at the time). But Southwest Pennsylvania actually shares Rachel Carson with the suburbs of Washington D.C. It was at Carson’s home in Colesville, Maryland that she wrote “Silent Spring,” the 1962 book that documented the health dangers of using pesticides.

Rachel Carson's home, located in a quiet Maryland suburb outside of Washington, D.C.

Rachel Carson’s home, located in a quiet Maryland suburb outside of Washington, D.C.

In true Rachel Carson fashion, Dr. Diana Post and Cliff Hall were outside the Colesville home, making a pollinator garden during my visit in May. It’s to combat the decline of honeybees. More than 40 percent of bees in managed colonies died last year. Scientists aren’t sure why exactly, but insecticides are prime suspect.

“We’re trying to give them more habitat, more special native plants. These are all plants bees could use for their pollen collection,” said Dr. Post, a retired veterinarian.

Silent Spring advanced environmental justice at a time when the powers that be assumed they could master nature. Carson focused on DDT, a chemical used to kill insects like mosquitos. It was supposed to be a solution for insects ravaging farms. It was sprayed in the suburbs as a way to prevent Typhus, which was spread by lice.

Dr. Diana Post standing where Rachel Carson had her desk. Post holds a framed picture of Carson sitting in the space more than 50 years ago. The hope is to make the picture a reality and restore this portion of Carson's office to the way she had it.

Dr. Diana Post standing where Rachel Carson had her desk. Post holds a framed picture of Carson sitting in the space more than 50 years ago. The hope is to make the picture a reality and restore this portion of Carson’s office to the way she had it.

DDT boosters downplayed, or ignored, its unintended consequences before Rachel Carson published her research. She started collecting evidence that DDT was deadly to wildlife. One detail stood out above the rest in her investigation: Birds at a Massachusetts sanctuary were dropping dead after being sprayed with DDT. Carson envisioned a global dystopia, a spring silent of songbirds.

Dr. Post, a veterinarian by training, is no stranger to chemical’s ill effects on animals. She became concerned about the weed killer known as 2,4-D and its harmful effects on dogs. She linked up with the Rachel Carson Council, an organization for like-minded individuals founded in 1965. Post eventually became executive director, then president from 1992-2013.

In 1991 Carson’s Colesville, Maryland (11701 Berwick Rd.) home was christened a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Dr. Post and Hall, who have been married for 30 years, acquired it in the late 1990’s. They founded the Rachel Carson Landmark Alliance, an organization devoted to caring for the home. Their goal is to maintain the sense serenity and wonder Carson had when she lived there from 1957 until her death in 1964.

“Many people who find out about Rachel Carson become inspired to carry on her work. Young people, college kids, even older people,” said Dr. Post, explaining why it’s important to maintain Carson’s spirit more than 50 years later.

Carson herself wrote of the fondness she had of her home in a letter to a friend: “It contributes to serenity. I do love it and everything I can find time to do inside or out gives me real satisfaction.”

The only effect denoting the significance of this home a plaque placed above a side door.

The only effect denoting the significance of this home a plaque placed above a side door.

Where the house and property are rich in Carson’s spirit, this is not a typical landmark. There are no signs directing drivers to the place, there is no parking lot, and no gift shop with Rachel Carson memorabilia. Other than a plaque above a side door, it’s just another house in an ordinary cul-de-sac community. In fact, up until 2002, Post and Hall acted as landlords and rented the home to families.

Then, in 2002, the two got a zoning exception to put a functioning office in the house and moved the Rachel Carson Council there. But, they were extremely careful not to disturb the neighbors.

“It took a lot of work,” said post about getting the exemption. “We didn’t want to alienate our neighbors with the slightest grounds. They could have objected to anything, like having extra cars parked outside. We had to be very careful.”

Being a National Historic Landmark obliges the owners to host an open house once a year to the public, and that’s about it.

“If you own a property as a private individual, it’s like a precious burden,” said Dr. Post. “It’s your fun thing, and if you get a kick out of it, great, enjoy yourself. And Cliff and I do. We love immersing ourselves in stuff about Rachel Carson.”

They get around 300 visitors a year. Some come for the annual open house, which typically happens in May (near Carson’s birthday) or occasionally school groups come for field trips. They have ambitions to make restorations to the interior of the house and restore it to what it look liked in Carson’s day.

View from Rachel Carson's living room window

View from Rachel Carson’s living room window

“She sat in front of this window, “ said Dr. Post describing the window, which faces an area of expansive growth. “That area was designated by Rachel Carson to stay wet under foot for the birds and the frogs. Every owner since then has kept it wild.”

While the nation’s nearby capital overflows with monuments large and small, Carson’s house is an overlooked gem. Pittsburghers who find themselves in the D.C.-area should put it on their list of places to see.

Dr. Post welcomes visitors, and would like to see more: “Anybody wants to come are encouraged to. All they have to do is call or email.”

You Can See a Year of Garbage at the YERT Homecoming

Step in to the blog time machine or click here to go back to June 2007.  A group of folks held a kick off event right here in Pittsburgh for a Year long Your Environmental Road Trip (aka YERT).

Well it is a whole year later and the YERT crew is coming home.  to celebrate there is a family friendly FREE party filled with fun for everyone at the very appropriate venue of the Rachel Carson Homestead.

YERT Homecoming
Saturday August, 9, 2008, 3-7pm
Rachel Carson Homestead

  • Come learn about their trip to all 50 states where they interviewed over 800 people about environmentally pressing issues.
  • I am intrigued by this statement “We’ll also have ALL of our garbage from the year on display for you to admire or critique if you like.” – I can’t really imagine what it would be like to bring my trash along with me.
  • The infamous “Bag Monster” will make an appearance for the kids.

Check out the YERT blog for lots more info from their trip – inlcuding the story of the 4th YERT Member – Baby Bailey who was born on July 19th!

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