Along the West River in West Rock Ridge State Park, a short distance north of Amrhyn Field in Westville, is a neglected stone structure about 10 feet wide and five feet tall at its highest point. The structure has no identifying information to offer any clues about its identity and purpose.
The center section is the tallest, flanked by side walls about three feet tall, which, in turn, are framed by a lower wall about two feet tall, finally ending at both sides with a stone wall about one feet high. Extending from the center section is a stone platform. From the river side of the structure, the walls are somewhat higher because the ground slopes toward the water.
I discovered the first details when I came across (and purchased) a postcard entitled ““Margaret Fisher Memorial Fireplace, West Rock Park”, which shows the fireplace with a person dressed as an Indian kneeling in front of it. The back of the postcard, which has a postmark of Aug. 11, 1944, describes the park, not the fireplace. The caption reads, “West Rock, rising to an elevation of 410 feet, was acquired as a park in 1891. Its summit is reached by beautiful winding roads and gracious curves. At the top is Judges Cave where the three Judges Whalley, Dixwell and Goffe took refuge after condemning Charles the First to death.” [Correction to the postcard: Dixwell never hid out at the cave.]
This postcard is titled "Margaret Fisher Memorial Fireplace, West Rock Park, New Haven" and was published by Tichnor Quality Views, Reg. U.S. Patent Office, Made only by Tichnor Bros. Inc., Boston, Mass.
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| This April 2019 photo of the Margaret Fisher Memorial Fireplace is from the Teal Trail, also providing a view of the West River. To the left of the photo is a small rough water area caused by large rocks in the river. |
Fireplace Discussed in Park Board Minutes
The postcard told me the name of the fireplace, but left me wondering, “Who was Margaret Fisher and why did they build a fireplace in her memory?” The answer came much later as I was reading through the minutes for the New Haven Board of Park Commissioners. The March 11, 1921 minutes indicate that “Murphy, McGill and Hamlin, Architects” wrote a letter to the Park Superintendent Gustave X. Amrhyn (for whom the ballfield near the fireplace is named) “pertaining to the Fisher Memorial Fireplace which the Camp-Fire Girls in New Haven wish to have a erected at West Rock Park.”
The board voted to refer the matter to the West Rock Park Committee “to investigate and report back to the Board” with the understanding that “no expense shall fall on the Park Commission and that no special privileges or priority as to the use of the memorial to be erected be granted to any person or persons without the consent of the Commission; and that permission for the use of the Memorial shall be granted only on application to the Superintendent.”
At the April 8, 1921 meeting, it was reported, “The West Rock Park Committee submitted a sketch with plan and specifications for the erection of the Fisher Memorial Fireplace by the Campfire Girls of New Haven. It was voted that the report of the Committee be approved and permission granted to erect the fire-place on the site proposed.”
As part of his monthly report on June 10, 1921, Amrhyn wrote, “A very attractive fire-place has been erected in West Rock Park near the River and directly under the cliffs, by the Camp Fire Girls in memory of the late Miss Margaret Fisher, one of their members. The dedication services were held on June 5th, when the structure was turned over to the City of New Haven and accepted by President [Theodore S.] Woolsey of the Park Commission.” As a historic note, the Parks Department was constructing the last portion of Regicides Drive and the parking lot at the South Overlook during 1921.
The only other reference to the fireplace in the minutes came on October 19, 1945, when the Park Superintendent Walter L. Wirth wrote this in his monthly report describing work of the department’s mason, commenting about his work installing “new concrete-wooden slab benches in place of the present rotted ones” in four locations across the parks, including eight at West Rock Park. “He has also made repairs at the Margaret Fisher Memorial fireplace at the base of West Rock and has repaired the stairway leading from the base to the summit of West Rock. He is now working repairing the giant stairway leading from Rice Field to the summit of East Rock.”
Margaret Fisher Biography
At this point I knew the Camp Fire Girls of New Haven had the fireplace constructed in 1921 to honor Margaret Fisher, but I was still wondering, “Who was Margaret Fisher? Why was she being honored?”
The breakthrough clue came from the website https://www.knowol.com/information/connecticut/old-pictures-new-haven-ct/titled “24 Amazing Old Images Reveal Forgotten Historical Treasures of New Haven, CT” The site displays 24 historic postcards of New Haven, including five from West Rock, with details about each postcard. This and other sources were used to write the following section.
Margaret (April 30, 1894-Nov. 7, 1919) was the daughter of Professor Irving Fisher (Feb, 27, 1867-April 29, 1947) of Yale University, and Margaret Hazard Fisher (May 31, 1867-Jan. 8, 1940), whom he married on June 24, 1893. Daughter Margaret was showing signs of mental problems by 1918 and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Professor Fisher had her treated by Dr. Henry Cotton at the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton (now called the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital).
Cotton subscribed to a discredited theory called focal sepsis that mental illness resulted from infections in the body. Believing that removing infected tissue would resolve the problem, Cotton removed portions of Margaret’s bowel, and colon, eventually resulting in her death from a treatment-related infection on Nov. 7, 1919 when she was 25 years old. Even after Margaret’s death, Fisher still believed in Cotton’s theory.
Andrew Scull, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Science Studies at the University of California, San Diego, published a book on Henry Cotton called Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine in 2005, wrote an article called “Desperate Remedies: Embrace of a Deadly Cure” published on the Princeton University website on May 11, 2005. The article describes Cotton’s work and includes many details about Margaret Fisher’s treatment and subsequent death on Nov. 7, 1919.http://www.princeton.edu/paw/archive_new/PAW04-05/14-0511/features1.html
Professor Irving Fisher Biography
I had not heard of Irving Fisher, who apparently was a famous and brilliant mathematician, economist, and inventor. The New World Encyclopedia states that Fisher earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale in 1888, and then a doctoral degree in economics in 1891. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Irving_FisherI checked multiple websites and none stated the subject area for his bachelor’s degree. According to the website for the Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Fisher taught at Yale from 1890-1935, starting in the Department of Mathematics, then moving to the Department of Political and Social Science, and ending his career in the Department of Economics. https://cowles.yale.edu/archives/irving-fisher
He made a fortune when he invented an index card filing system in 1910, and later lost most of that money, as a result of the Oct. 28, 1929 stock market crash. He has famously had to live down his predictions against the market. The New York Timespublished an article on Sept. 6, 1929 with the very long title: “Babson Predicts ‘Crash’ in Stocks, Says Wise Investors Will Pay Up Loans and Avoid Margin Trading. Fisher View is Opposite, Declares No Big Recession in Market is Due, Because Inventions are Adding to Wealth”. Article: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/09/06/95992621.pdf
Statistician Roger Babson offered his views first, predicting that a stock market crash was inevitable, saying “More people are borrowing and speculating today than ever in our history. Sooner or later a crash it coming and it may be terrific.”
In response, under the subtitle “Fisher Denies Crash is Due.” Fisher was quoted as saying, “Stock prices are not too high and Wall Street will not experience anything in the nature of a crash,” whom the article described as “one of the nation’s leading economists and students of the market.” He was further quoted as saying, “none of us are infallible,” clarifying his statement by saying, “There may be a recession of stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash.” He said prosperity and increased earning power related to mass production and inventions.
In an Oct. 16, 1929 New York Timespublished an article entitled “Fisher Sees Stocks Permanently High; Yale Economist Tells Purchasing Agents Increased Earnings Justify Rise. Says Trusts and Sales Finds Special Knowledge, Applied to Diversified Holdings, Shifts Risks for Clients.” The lead to the article reads, “Stock prices have reached ‘what looks like a permanently high plateau,’ Irving Fisher, Yale economist, told members of the Purchasing Agents Association at its monthly dinner meeting at the Builders Exchange Club, 2 Park Avenue, last night.” Later in the article, Fisher commented, “I agree with Roger W. Babson that many market operators had better get out of debt and out of margin account, that there is some unwarranted speculation, and that the market may be at its peak now and for several months to come.” Article: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/10/16/96000134.pdf
Despite this poor prediction, Fisher is well regarded for his intelligence, research, and writings in mathematics and economics. In his biography published in the Library of Economics and Liberty,” it states that current economic models of interest and capital are based on his principals. The lead to the entry reads, “Irving Fisher was one of America’s greatest mathematical economists and one of the clearest economic writers of all time.” http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/bios/Fisher.html
Fisher Gravesite at Evergreen Cemetery
The three Fishers are buried at Evergreen Cemetery, which is located on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard (Route 10) in New Haven, north of Route 1 (Columbus Avenue). The cemetery names the internal roads, which makes it earlier to find a gravesite. The cemetery’s website (www.evergreencem.org) yielded the section name of Forest Avenue and Plot 369.
Within a five-minute walk on April 17, 2019, I found the gravesite, which consists of a stone about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide with the name Fisher. Near the road are the individual headstones (about a foot in height) for the family, from left to right, Irving Fisher, Margaret Hazard Fisher, and Margaret Fisher. The site is located to the rear of the Evergreen Memorial Crematory building, near the junction with Pine Avenue.
The cemetery records state that their son Irving Norton Fisher is also buried in the plot, but I did not see his stone. The son wrote a biography of his father in 1956 titled “My Father, Irving Fisher.” The book may be available to read at this website: https://archive.org/details/myfatherirvingfi00fish/page/n1The son was born in 1900 and died May 17, 1979. They also had a daughter Caroline, who married Dr. Charles Baldwin Sawyer, who studied the element beryllium. https://www.manhattanprojectvoices.org/oral-histories/baldwin-sawyers-interview
Getting back to the fireplace, the records do not state who paid for the fireplace, whether it was the Camp Fire Girls or the Fisher family. Perhaps the answer may be found in the book My Father, Irving Fisher.When I can track down a copy of this book, I will read it and may find the answer there. I think it safe to say that given his wealth at the time that Irving Fisher paid for the memorial.
Camp Fire Girls and Fireplace Location
The organization is now known as Camp Fire and according to its website, www.campfire.org. Camp Fire Girls was started in 1910 when it was founded by Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick and his wife, Charlotte Vetter Gulick to provide girls with outdoor learning experiences, which boys had. The organization became co-ed in 1975, and evolved its name over time to the present Camp Fire name. The organization does not have a Connecticut council in 2019. I could find no information online regarding when the New Haven council ceased operations, when the fireplace was used, and when it was essentially abandoned.
The postcard shows features that are missing from the current fireplace, or have been damaged over time, including large stones on the wall at the top of the fireplace, metal brackets to hold a pot over the fire, bricks in the fireplace area, and a stone patio in front of the fireplace and wall. I cut down the invasive winged euonymus near the fireplace, and will attempt to place back some of the stones that have fallen off it. I would also like to sweep away the dirt to see if I can uncover the terrace underneath, assuming it still exists.
To reach the fireplace, follow these directions. From the footbridge over the West River, turn left and head north with the river on the left and the ballfields on the right, following the Blue-Yellow blazes of the Westville Feeder. A short distance into the woods, an unmarked trail heads downhill toward the river. The fireplace is on the left along the river in about 250 feet. The total distance from the bridge is 0.2 miles.
Other Postcards for West Rock Park
There are five West Rock postcards out of 24 New Haven postcards on the website https://www.knowol.com/information/connecticut/old-pictures-new-haven-ct/
titled “24 Amazing Old Images Reveal Forgotten Historical Treasures of New Haven, CT.” Each postcard has a description on the website, and I give my comments on the picture in the paragraph below.
On this website, Postcard 20, “Footpath, West Rock Park, New Haven, Conn.” shows a set of stairs on a trail. These stairs are on the Red Trail, which was called the “Laurel Path” in the park records. Postcard 21, “Wintergreen Falls, West Rock Park, New Haven, Conn.” shows Wintergreen Falls, located behind the parking lot along Wintergreen Avenue at the West Rock Nature Center entrance. Postcard 22, “View From Baldwin Drive, West Rock Park” is a view toward Lake Dawson and Glen Lake in Woodbridge from the overlook at the junction of the Regicides and Purple Trail off Baldwin Drive. Postcard 23, “Judges Cave, West Rock Park” shows the cave when it still was encircled by a tall iron fence. Postcard 24, “Margaret Fisher Memorial Fireplace, West Rock Park” shows the fireplace with a person dressed as an Indian kneeling in front of it.
I have this and many other postcards, some with contemporary views as a comparison, on my website: https://westrocktrails.blogspot.com/p/west-rock-historic-postcards.html
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