Mansion_rev8.qxd - National Park Service

During this year, renovation of the Carriage Barn into a
visitor center and park offices was completed, and several
minor additions were made to the Mansion grounds to
facilitate public access, including railings, signs, benches,
and outdoor lighting. Today, the National Park Service
provides public access to the Mansion grounds through
guided tours, and continues to allow free public access to
the adjoining Mount Tom forest, maintaining a Billings
family tradition that had existed for generations.
ENDNOTES
1
In March 2000, a parallel CLR (Site History and Existing
Conditions) was prepared for the forested Mount Tom lands
entitled “Cultural Landscape Report for the Forest at Marsh-
Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.” It was
prepared by the University of Vermont in conjunction
with the National Park Service and the Conservation
Study Institute.
2
The Billings Family Archives are the property of The
Woodstock Foundation, Incorporated, and are located at
Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont.
3
The origin of the name “Mansion” is not certain, but it may
have started with townspeople: see Vermont Standard, 23
December 1886. The term was used by the family during
Frederick Billings’s lifetime; the earliest known use is in the
Billings Farm Memo Diary, September 1885, Billings Farm &
Museum Archives. In 1890, the year of Frederick Billings’s
death, “Mansion” was used to identify the Billings house in
the inventory of the estate’s buildings: “Buildings on property
of the Estate at Woodstock, Vt. October 1st 1890,” Billings
Family Archives. The word “grounds” was used by the Billings
family to identify the landscape around the Mansion as early
as 1870: diary of Julia Parmly Billings, 24 June 1870, Billings
Family Archives.
INTRODUCTION
7