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Sunday, September 14, 2003
Mansion is picture-perfect
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||||||||
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YORK — Gail Berneike is fond of saying that stepping into the home of a former tire heiress is like stepping back in time. "It still feels like the past," Berneike, caretaker of Bowdoin College's Breckinridge Public Affairs Center, said of the house. The house is the former summer home of Mary Marvin Breckinridge Patterson. Patterson, known to only her closest intimates as Marvin, was a well-known journalist, photographer and beloved benefactor to the town of York. The house, built in 1905 and rebuilt in 1926-27 after a fire, still retains its original furnishings and amenities in each of its 12 bedrooms, including working call buttons to alert servants to the needs of guests. It is these old stately trappings that has attracted Hollywood. Patterson's home will become the home for a wholly different kind of matriarch, the steely Francine Whiting of the novel "Empire Falls." The estate, locally known as the River House, is one of several York County locations that will be used in the upcoming HBO adaptation of Richard Russo's novel. "The film required the presence of a large, engaging, stately mansion in which lives one of the central characters in the script, played by Joanne Woodward," said film location manager Lynn Kippax, who said the house is a perfect fit for the movie. "It had to look as if someone of influence, power and money lived there." But other than their choices of real estate, the real lady of the River House has nothing in common with the fictional matriarch that will reside in her home for about a week. During a time where women were expected to marry well and not much else, Patterson pursued a career that took her from the banks of the York River to war-torn Europe during World War II to far-flung countries such as Peru, Uruguay and Egypt as the wife of diplomat Jefferson Patterson. The granddaughter of tire magnate B.F. Goodrich, Patterson was born the same year her grandmother, Mary Marvin Goodrich, built the River House. After graduating from Vassar College in 1928, Patterson went on to the Clarence White School of Photography. She proceeded to embark on a career that would take her around the world, and her work appeared in publications such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and Life magazine. Arriving in London the day before war was declared on Germany, Patterson became one of "Murrow's Boys," a group of newscasters led by acclaimed newsman Edward R. Murrow. In a 1987 interview with the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Patterson said she was instructed to talk in a deep voice by Murrow, who told her people didn't like "women's high, squeaky voices on the air." She continued her broadcasting career until 1940, when she met Jefferson Patterson in Berlin. The two were married there that year. During the war, Patterson said she constantly expected to be imprisoned by the Germans as political tensions increased. She told a reporter later she kept a pair of sturdy rubber boots, a fur coat, a case of champagne and copy of "War and Peace" in preparation for her possible internment. The Pattersons retuned to the United States in 1958, after Jefferson Patterson retired. An ardent feminist for her time, Patterson obtain a pilot's license in Maine, according to Berneike. "She was a proper lady, but she was a fun-loving lady," said Berneike, who has been caretaker of the River House with her husband Don Bernier for the past 15 years. "If there was an adventure out there, she took it." Patterson donated the River House to Bowdoin College in 1974, after she found that she and her husband could not spend enough time in Maine. "Though I will never give up my memories, you may wonder why I am giving up my home," she said during the dedication ceremony. "It is because I want (the house) to go on living, breathing and serving human beings." Through a special arrangement, Patterson would spend about six weeks at the house during the summer, something she continued until her death in December 2002 at the age of 97. Berneike said Patterson brought six servants with her each trip, including a butler and cook. Her annual tradition was a Labor Day house party, where she invited five couples to spend the weekend. "It was an extraordinary experience," Berneike said, who was a guest one weekend. After her retirement, Patterson became a well-known philanthropist, dividing up the original 90-acre family estate to various groups. She donated another one of her properties, The Grant House, to the town in the 1970s. The swimming pool at River House, a 100-foot-diameter circular pool filled with salt water, is used by the town for swimming lessons for residents. In 1971, Patterson donated the 37 acres of land now known as Goodrich Park to the town. "She showed great confidence in the future," said Carol Donnelly, who works with the York Rivers Association. Patterson put very few limitations on what the town and college could do with the land and buildings she donated. Patterson's donations, Donnelly said, are important natural resources because they act as buffers to development near the York River. Over the past few weeks, the River House has undergone a series of minor renovations to prepare it for the movie. New curtains adorn the Green Room, the main sitting room Patterson used to entertain guests. Window treatments have been applied to one of the bedrooms, and other portraits and artifacts from the Patterson estate have been strategically placed to become part of the scenery in the film. The crew will shoot at the River House for a few days in September and October, Kippax said. There will also be some scenes shot in Ogunquit, Cape Porpoise and Kennebunkport. "This is a marvelous opportunity for Maine to tell a Maine story," Kippax said. "The house will have a definite presence in the movie." - Julia McCue provided research for this article. Staff Writer Jen Fish can be contacted at 282-8229 or at:
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