November 14, 1939
 
My dear Lewson:
 
          I come to you in the hope that your memory goes 
back to the time when you were an infant in my arms at 
Hyde Park.
 
          We are about to put up a new post office building 
in Hyde Park village and it has been suggested that we copy 
the plan of "The Red House" built by Dr. John Bard about
1765and torn down by Mr. Langdon in 1875.
 
          There is a sketch of it in a manuscript book kept 
by Mr. Ed Braman -- a tiny pen and ink sketch showing a 
square center, two stories high and one-story wings on the 
north and south.
 
          We would much like to find the original site of 
this house and perhaps dig down to get its orginal
dimensions.
 
          Some people describe it as having been in the
field east of the Post Road and just north of St. James' Church
and what was then the church rectory. Other people say it was
north of the road into the Langdon or Vanderbilt farm buildings
i.e. where Mr. Langdon built his superintendent's house.The farm 
entrance lies, as you know, immedieately north ofthe field
which, in turn, is north of the church property.