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"Montauk"
Governor William Larrabee Home
Standing on a high plateau, over-looking the village of Clermont
is "Montauk". Built in 1874 by Governor William Larrabee, Montauk is
much more than a frontier mansion. It is a sentinel surrounded by
100,000 pine trees, commanding a village and a valley, gathering to
its handsome rooms the taste of the times -- the art and objects of
Europe, and a prosperous 19th Century America. The mansion
symbolized courage and success when it was built. More
important now, Montauk lives as it did then. It's eloquence is not
only in its proportions, but in the memory of times, when the home
sounded to the voices of children, and gentlemen of influence, who
talked politics and business in the Governor's library.
Mrs. Larrabee christened the home "Montauk", because the site on
which it was built reminded her of Montauk Point, Long Island, and
brought back nostalgic memories. The original radiators still serve
to heat the home. The brick was made in Clermont and the stone
quarried in the Williams quarry nearby. Miss Anna Larrabee, as
she wished to be addressed, the governor's daughter, lived there all
her life and maintained the home just as her parents had. Mrs. Julia
Allen, a granddaughter of ex-governor, has opened Montauk for a
museum so all visitors may see first hand the furnishings as they
were 100 years ago.
The museum, Montauk, and the Union Sunday School are all a part
of a "National Governor Larrabee Inc." with Mrs. Allen as overseer.
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