gan his college studies at old Trinity
(now Duke) hui later transferred to John
Hopkins in his endless pursuit of
' things of the mind.' He taught briefly
at the University of North Carolina, es¬
tablished the Slate Chronicle (later
taken over by Josephus Daniels), was a
w riter for such papers as the St. Louis
Gazelle and AVir York World, and edi¬
tor of both the Forum and The Atlantic
Monthly. Through it all his themes were
education and social reform, and he fol¬
lowed the philosphy of Thomas Jeffer¬
son as the “star in his heaven."
Л
Success In England
His success in England might be con¬
sidered a "natural". He was a lover of
good English w ho hated bad writing in
Despite hi* voluntary exile. Wallet Hines Page's love
ol his native slate never waned, and he asked to be
relumed to The Sandhills ol North Carolina lor linal
burial. His tomb is located in Aberdeen. Moore
County. (North Carolina Collection. UNC Library at
Chapel Hill)
any form. He also had a deep appreci¬
ation for British literature and history,
realizing the significance of both in that
understanding between Americans and
British that was so important in World
War I and. in World War II. as well.
He was for 30 years a friend of
Woodrow Wilson, for w hom he served
as ambassador to England almost until
his death. He did. however, become
somewhat alienated from both the
President and Congress over the issue
of the entrance of the United States into
World War I as an ally of the British.
Always one who loved North Caro¬
lina deeply, despite his voluntary exile
from it. Page had asked to be buried in
the Sandhills. He became seriously ill
in London in 1918 and sailed for home
on the "Olympic" with both Lord Bal¬
four and Lord Cecil there to see him
off. He reached Pinchurst b\ private
10
railroad car. after a brief slay in a New
York hospital, and died there on De¬
cember 21. He was buried at Aberdeen
on Christmas Eve.
Both the King and Queen of England
sent notes of condolence, and a tablet
in his memory was later placed in West¬
minster Abbey — along with those of
only two other Americans, the poets
Longfellow and Lowell.
Thus the story of a great North Car¬
olinian who seems to have been better
known and better loved abroad than he
was in his native state.
English Speaking Union
At historic Dartmouth I louse, located
in the Mayfair section near the U.S.
Embassy, he is still remembered along
with other famous Americans about
whom there is a wealth of information.
Portraits also include those of Presi¬
dents Lincoln. Harding and Franklin D.
Roosevelt, the latter a gift of the Amer¬
ican Women's Club. A painting of "The
Washington Ancestral Home" hangs in
another room which houses the Adlai
Stevenson Memorial Library. It is made
up of 200 books with appropriate in¬
scriptions given by friends who each
selected a book that he thought Steven¬
son might enjoy.
The house on Charles Street was
owned from 1755 to 1774 by the Dow¬
ager Duchess of Chandos. Marchioness
of Carnarvon, the second and third
Dukes of Chandos and Marquises of
Carnarvon. Ollier owners were Mar¬
quis of Bute. Admiral Ferguson, and the
Earl of Dartmouth. The mother of the
first born Baron Dartmouth was first
cousin of George Washington’s great¬
grandmother. they say. if you care to
figure that one out.
When Lord Rcvelstokc bought the
house he combined it with another and
added a French facade to the simple
Georgian brickwork. Original, now
rare, walnut French paneling was com¬
bined with more of the Louis XIV
period. He brought the entrance pillars
from St. Petersburg, and the Belgian
marble staircase was carved in Bel¬
gium.
The house was opened as English-
Speaking Union headquarters on
Washington’s birthday. Feb. 22. 1927
and has been a mecca for hundreds of
E-SU members from North Carolina
and other states ever since, as well as
visitors from all over the world.
One of its chief missions has already
been that of promoting friendship and
understanding and stressing those fac¬
tors most important in determining the
relationship between two great nations.
Chapel
Hill's
"Famous
Flower
Ladies"
The future looks auvlliiii”
IhiI rosy for ail olfl Frank¬
lin Street tradition.
№/
JI.1I H ICK F
К
They’re constantly surrounded by
bright red. orange and gold flowers,
broad smiles and happy chatter, but all
is not as it seems, say Chapel Hill’s "fa¬
mous flower ladies."
It’s a hard life and flower ladies are
a vanishing breed, they say.
"When we’re gone, that's it." said
Rosie Bell Stone, who has spent the
past 50 years selling flowers just off of
Chapel Hill’s busiest thoroughfare.
Franklin Street. "We don’t have daugh¬
ters who want to do this. It’s too much
work for the younger women." adds
Stone, who calls peddling flowers "a
It was Stone’s mother, the late Ellen
Reeves, who introduced the daily sale
of fresh flowers to Chapel Hill. "About
60 years ago. my mother started taking
flowers with her to sell on Main Street
in Durham. She was going through
Chapel Hill one morning on a wagon
when a woman saw the flowers and ran
after the wagon for about a block to ask
if she’d like to sell some of them." Af¬
ter that. Stone said, her mother left her
in Chapel Hill to sell flowers while she
sold items at Main and Market streets
in Durham. Long after such street sales
ended in Durham, the business
bloomed and flourished in nearby
Chapel Hill.
Many Are Gone
The ranks of the flower ladies in
Chapel Hill have dwindled in the past
couple of decades. "There were 18 of
us at one time." Stone said. On a recent
day. only four flower ladies occupied
their allotted spaces in the North Caro-
THE STATE. FEBRUARY
19Я6