Robert Frost's Vermont summer home vandalized

[trekz 7]

Robert Frost's Vermont Home Vandalized

AP - Posted: 2008-01-02 14:21:05

 

RIPTON, Vt. (Jan. 2) - A former home of poet Robert Frost has been vandalized, with intruders destroying dozens of items and setting fire to furniture in what police say was an underage-drinking party.

 

Homer Noble Farm was ransacked last week during a party attended by as many as 50 people, Sgt. Lee Hodsden said.

 

The intruders broke a window to get into the two-story wood frame building — a furnished residence open in the summer — before destroying tables and chairs, pictures, windows, light fixtures, and dishes. Wicker furniture and dressers were smashed and thrown into a fireplace and burned, apparently to provide heat in the unheated building, he said.

 

Empty beer bottles and cans, plastic cups, and cellophane apparently used to hold marijuana were also found, according to Hodsden. The vandals vomited in the living room and discharged two fire extinguishers inside the building, on a dead-end road off Route 125.

 

A cabin on the property where Frost is said to have done some of his writing was untouched.

 

No arrests have been made, Hodsden said, adding that they've tracked down some partygoers and believe they are minors.

 

The damage was discovered last weekend by a hiker who notified police at Middlebury College, which maintains the site. The property's caretaker had last been there the day before, police said.

 

Frost, a celebrated New England poet known for such verse as "The Road Not Taken" and "The Gift Outright," died in 1963. He summered at the home from 1939 to 1963.

 

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. 2008-01-02 ----------------

 

IMO the drunken fools should all be prosecuted, pay fines and restitution, do community service and be required to memorize at least three Robert Frost poems - to be recited to the judge.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

How old were these "minors" - I'm serious - don't people keep track of their teenage children? Shouldn't parents notice their children are out long hours?

 

And didn't anyone ever teach these kids that some things are wrong - and that includes destroying the property of others.

 

Trekz, these drunken fools should also have been the ones mopping up the vomit.

[trekz 7]

UPDATE:

 

Arrests made in trashing of poet's house By JOHN CURRAN, Associated Press Writer

 

NEW HAVEN, Vt. - Twenty-eight people are accused of attending a birthday party and New Year's celebration that left a farm house where poet Robert Frost once spent his summers in tatters.

 

They were all charged with trespassing and five of them with unlawful mischief — both misdemeanors — stemming from the Dec. 28 party at the Homer Noble Farm house, authorities said.

 

The farm house had broken windows, broken antique furniture and tables burned in a fireplace. Vomit and urine stained the carpeting and beer cans, cups and drug paraphernalia were left behind.

 

The damage was estimated at $10,600. Witnesses said marijuana was used, but no drug charges were filed for lack of evidence, Vermont State Police Sgt. Lee Hodsden said.

 

The destruction apparently began when a broken chair was thrown into a fireplace being used to heat the building, a furnished residence used in the summer by Middlebury's Bread Loaf writer's program, Hodsden said.

 

A cabin on the property where Frost is said to have done some of his writing was untouched.

 

Lisa Boudah, Middlebury's public safety director, said officials are reviewing plans to beef up security.

 

Frost, the author of "The Road Not Taken" and "The Gift Outright," summered at the site for more than 20 years before his death in 1963.

END ARTICLE -------------------------------------

 

I'm glad these drunken fools are going to be charged with something. I hope they are fined the maximum and I wish they were forced to each make some restitution for the damages to this literary historic site.

[Dabo Queen 0]

This is a complete tragedy to me. :)

 

"Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" is one of my all-time favorite pieces of poetry.

[mj 7]

I love many of Frost's poems, including "The Road Not Taken", "Design", and "Desert Places." ("Desert Places" is also about looking at and meditating on a snowy landscape.)

 

I think as part of their punishment they should get jailtime, and have to read all of Frost's poetry. For the type of people they seem to be, that might be punishment...but it might also be reform.