Stan Hywet Hall and Garden Magazine - Spring/Summer 2008 - (Page 14)

r e m e m b e r i n g m a ry s e i b e r l i n g c h a p m a n M M Lifetime Commitment A 1928 – 2007 Mary Seiberling Chapman devoted herself to family and history By Myra Orenstein ary Margaret Seiberling Chapman loved many things, but family and Stan Hywet, her grandparents’ home, topped her list. It seems that everyone who knew Mary recognized her capacity for love and commitment to her husband as well as her three children. No wonder, then, that she became so invested in ensuring that Stan Hywet be saved and ultimately recognized as a landmark. For Mary, Stan Hywet was a place where she and her cousins would explore the home’s many rooms and passages, climb on the furniture, wander the grounds and play hide-andseek using the “secret passage” between the library and great hall. This was the place where her cousins would be married, and reunions and homecomings took place. While this may sound like the lifestyles of the rich and famous, 50 years ago, everything changed. According to her daughter Harriet, “My grandfather and siblings faced a unique challenge. None had the wherewithal to maintain Stan Hywet as its history, structure and costs demanded.” In 1956, a volunteer committee for the preservation of Stan Hywet was formed. The Women’s Volunteer Administration Committee, the forerunner to today’s Women’s Auxiliary Board, prepared a handful of rooms for public tours 50 years ago. Over a period of five decades, they raised approximately $4 million and accumulated nearly a half million volunteer hours to keep the mansion in tact. Mary watched as they transformed Stan Hywet, raising her family and working with other community organizations. She became knowledgeable about its operation as a member of the Stan Hywet Women’s Auxiliary Board and by volunteering in the English Garden with the Akron Garden Club. She also learned about the organization’s finances through her father’s engagement as family trustee. By 1964, Stan Hywet was recognized as a landmark. On April 1 of that year, the six Seiberling donors signed over the last seventh of the property to the Stan Hywet Foundation, which allowed future generations of visitors to enjoy the estate. By the late 1980s, Mary was elected to the Operating Board, and she also served on the By-Laws and the Nominating committees. She recognized the significance of the partnership between Stan Hywet and the Akron Garden Club and the Women’s Auxiliary Board. Harriet recalls that her mother was pleased when the board decided to return to the original footprints of the grounds and the English Garden with help from horticulturists Warren Manning and Ellen Biddle Shipman. She became an advocate of the gardens, ensuring that the grounds were welltended and maintained to further preserve the home’s and garden’s authenticity and history as it was in the first half of the twentieth century. “She became intensely interested in preservation as she learned how rare such a home was in the United States and learned what it would take to keep it intact. She was also interested in preserving the rich history of Akron and Summit County through the auspices of the Historical Society,” Harriet explains. In her mother’s eulogy, Harriet said, “My mother lived, loved and laughed fully in life. She had her share of sorrow and challenge — the painful losses of parents and my father’s very sudden death — but even when faced with ‘an end game’ she could not ignore, she called herself blessed.” stan hywet hall 14 & gardens magazine

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Stan Hywet Hall and Garden Magazine - Spring/Summer 2008

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