After his graduation from Harvard College in 1888, Larz Anderson and his friend Malcolm Thomas started a round-the-world trip from Boston by way of Chicago and points west. Their friend Robert Forbes Perkins (no relation to Isabel) decided to go with them as far as Chicago. Once the merry band got to the Windy City, Bob suggested that they all hop on one of his father’s trains headed to Burlington, Iowa, where the Perkins family had a summer home. Bob’s father, Charles Elliott Perkins Sr. (1840-1907), was president of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

The boys arrived at the Perkins country place, “Apple Trees,” with the plan of staying only one night.  With no one else there, however, they decided to “make a bachelor hall of it,” as Larz wrote in his diary.  They had such a good time, they stayed three days instead of one.

Efforts are now underway to save the Perkins place in Burlington, Iowa.  To learn more, please visit the Facebook page Save the Apple Trees, where you will also see some photographs of the interior.

Be sure also to check out our Book Trailer – Wealth and Celebrity in the Gilded Age.

Illustration:
Apple Trees, Burlington, Iowa
Photo by Ian Poellet via Wikimedia Commons
CC-BY-SA-3.0