Grey Towers National Historic Landmark

The Pinchots who owned Grey Tower were an impressive family. James and Mary, who had the house built in 1886, were supporters of the arts and contributed to many projects for the good of the general public. Of their three children, Gifford is the best known, serving as the head of the newly created Division of Forestry from 1898 to 1905 but Antoinette, who organized and ran a hospital in France during WWII and Amos, who co-founded the ACLU, also inherited the Pinchot's altruistic spirit.

James Pinchot was concerned about the destructive logging practices in the US and passed that concern onto Gifford who studied forestry and later promoted conservation and small scale logging. Working together with President Theodore Roosevelt they tripled the size of the national forests to more than 170 million acres. Gifford was fired in 1910 from his position of Chief Forester in the US Forest Service by President Taft and worked to get his hand picked successor, William Greeley, into office - a big mistake for the management of our forests. Greeley pushed for aggressively fighting forest fires while at the same time promoting policies that allowed large scale logging.

Gifford Pinchot and Cornelia Pinchot moved into Grey Towers after their marriage in 1914 and lived there until they died - Gifford in 1946 and Cornelia in 1960. Cornelia remodeled both inside and out, adding gardens, a playhouse, and the unique water dining table where serving platters of food floated to the seated guests. She was also an active supporter of women's rights, educational reform, child labor laws, and birth control. 

In 1963 Grey Towers was donated to the forest service by Gifford's and Cornelia's son also named Gifford. The house which is normally opened for guided tours, is still closed due to coronavirus. The grounds are opened sun-up to sun-down.

 

The gates to the parking lot on the grounds were already closed for the day when we arrived so we parked in the very small lot on Owega Turnpike, just south of the main driveway, and walked/rolled up to the house. I do not recommend this. It's not a long walk, about 1/2 mile, but it's very steep. The area around the house is fairly accessible. There's a ramp to the porch and front entrance so I assume that the first floor is accessible. The larger portion of the grounds and forest are too hilly for wheelchair access.

The parking lot on the grounds has long spaces where RVs will fit. It's still a hike up the road to the house but visitors with mobility problems may be dropped off at the entrance plus there are two accessible parking spots near the house where shorter RVs will fit. Grey Towers  41.32768, -74.81691