M&D Trip

[Paul Mackin]

Good suggestion, Richard. To save my own possible future embarrassment when going to the Newark in Delaware, may I ask if it is pronounced NEW ARK as a professor from U of Delaware I once  ran into at a meeting told me. Before I had always thought it was said just like the place in New Jersey--that somebody once said you couldn't crack with a pick. Tom Hayden, Rap Brown or another of them sixties' cats????

			P.

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From: 	RICHARD ROMEO[SMTP:RR.TFCNY at mail.fdncenter.org]
Sent: 	Monday, March 31, 1997 3:47 PM
To: 	pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: 	M&D Trip

Howdy Foax:  I'm back from Texas and boy are my arms tired.  Anyway, not 
sure I'm resubscribed (please respond to me directly as well as to list 
just in case) yet but just thought a possible p-list meeting could be at  
The Deer Park Inn (108 W. Main St. near University of Delaware, Newark; 
302-731-5315).  Why Newark?  I might have posted this before:

_From All About Beer_
 Sep 96 issue

	Near the University of Delaware in Newark, you'll find the Deer Park
                 Inn (108 W. Main St.; 302- 731-5315). The present 
building is believed to
                 be on the site of the St. Patrick's Inn, built in the 
mid- 1700s. A favorite
                 resting place for travelers passing through Newark, the 
inn housed Charles
                 Mason, Jeremiah Dixon and their team of surveyors in 
1764. The
                 Mason-Dixon line, which divided Pennsylvania and 
Maryland, became
                 famous as a line of demarcation between free and slave 
states. Rumor has it
                 that an old Mason and Dixon border marker was once in 
the Deer Park's
                 basement. During the American Revolution soldiers used 
the inn, and George
                 Washington may have been one of them. Another 
illustrious lodger was Edgar
                 Allan Poe, who stayed there in 1843. As he was 
attempting to descend from
                 a carriage at the inn, he allegedly fell in the mud, 
and, according to the tale,
                 was so upset that he put a curse on the building. 

                 Fire destroyed the original building in 1851. James S. 
Martin built the Deer
                 Park Hotel that year and named it after his farm, which 
in turn was named for
                 a grove of deer that often filled the nearby landscape. 
The original structure
                 was red brick and had four stories and was built 
entirely of materials from
                 Newark. Jacob DeHaven was the first proprietor of the 
Deer Park, and the
                 hotel housed a women's seminary for twenty years. The 
building's basement,
                 according to legend, was part of an underground network 
during the Civil
                 War. Rooms rented for $1.50 in the late 1880s, and 
permanent residence
                 cost $10 a month. 

                 The Deer Park had a succession of owners until 1976, 
when ERG Inc.
                 purchase d the building. Changes included an expanded 
menu, Sunday brunch
                 and Sunday night jazz, a new bar, restoration of the 
original red brick, the
                 addition of a new, Victorian-style porch, remodeled 
kitchen, bathrooms and
                 dining area, and the removal of panel walls to reveal 
the original oak
                 woodwork. 

                 The main barroom has a comfortable, grungy feeling, as 
patrons sit on stools
                 around a worn, formica-and-wood, square-shaped bar. 
Wainscoting runs up
                 the walls. Draft choices recently included a Stoudt's 
product and a Pete's
                 product and mainstream domestics, with nearly 100 micros 
and imports
                 available by the bottle. The windows and door are kept 
open in summer to let
                 breezes in, and ceiling fans whirl. 

                 Diners can sit out on the covered porch or in one of 
several dining areas. The
                 menu emphasizes Mexican and Tex-Mex food, with an 
assortment of
                 sandwiches, burgers, fajitas and a Cajun crawfish 
quesadilla among the
                 offerings. Nothing is over $10. The Deer Park Inn is 
also open for breakfast. 

Equidistant from both NYC and DC, would be a nice place to raise a few to 
celebrate.  I'm thinking a Saturday before the end of the April.  Whadda 
ya think?  Anyone interested.  I'm thinking of driving down if anyone 
wants a ride from the NYC area.

Another M&D note:  look for the Feb 1964 issue of _American Heritage_ 
Magazine.  There's a good article on Mason & Dixon.  I found it in the 
Houston Public Library.  Every major public library should have _American 
Heritage_ available.  (RedBug--thanks for intro to M&D's Journal--I found 
a copy at the Dallas Public Library--know any astronomer/surveying 
experts?)    
Last question:  anybody know of any good books detailing the state or a 
snap shot of scientific discovery of 18th century science.  I've just 
bought _Longitude_ but it's pretty slim.             

Richard Romeo
Coordinator of Cooperating Collections
The Foundation Center-NYC
212-807-2417
rromeo at fdncenter.org