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Frost Vandalism Update

Ripton, Vermont - January 7, 2008

Ten days ago, vandals caused thousands of dollars of damage to poet Robert Frost's summer home in Addison County. Now the clean-up is almost complete.

Vermont State Police say a 17 year old from Ripton planned that destructive party at Frost's home, using booze purchased by a 22 year old from the nearby town of Middlebury to serve as many as fifty people between 15 and 22 years old.

It is a road less traveled. In fact, the path to poet Robert Frost's summer home is almost never traveled. Especially not in the winter because the property is not open to the public.

"My first sense was shock," says Frost scholar Jay Parini.

But as many as fifty people traveled the road between Christmas and New Years, many underage. They turned the treasured site where Frost would come for serenity and contemplation into an "Animal House"-- breaking glass to get in, trashing furniture and dishes, spraying the contents of a fire extinguisher on the walls and carpet.

"This was pretty bad. The fire extinguisher dust was the worst part of the whole thing. It gets into every crack and crevice and takes a long time to get out of here," explains Kelly Trayah of Middlebury College Facilities Services.

Middlebury College now maintains Frost's Homer Noble Farmhouse, as it's known, only really using the site in the summer, for the Bread Loaf School of English, where the celebrated writer once taught. The vandals weren't very creative writers, scrawling "this is the party," in dust on the door. And the filth they left behind shows it was a raucous party-- broken beer bottles and cups everywhere, their contents producing puddles of vomit staff has worked hard to remove.

"That's pretty offensive. Just the historic value of the books and everything we're cleaning," says Trayah.

"This is one of the most important places in Robert Frost's life," explains Parini.

Parini wrote the book on Robert Frost. The biographer explains the Pulitzer Prize winner started visiting this part of Addison County in the 1920s to write and recharge.

"He loved Ripton, Vermont. He loved Bread Loaf Mountain," says Parini.

Outrage from Frost's sizable fan base has poured into Parini's office-- in the form of emails from as far away as Chile, and this one, from England. "I was so sorry to hear about the damage to the house. What an awful shame," reads Parini.

The good news is that awful shame is mostly fixable. The damage to the farmhouse is estimated at $10,000 but that figure may rise. After the clean-up is completed, Middlebury plans to discuss beefing up security. They'll consider alarms and more patrols to protect this landmark of creativity from future destruction.

"It doesn't show much respect at all," says Trayah.

Now police are still interviewing those party-goers. They haven't made any arrests yet but say they're making progress. This is of course a tricky case because there are simply so many people involved-- again-- around fifty.

If you know anything about this incident Vt. State Police in New Haven would like to hear from you at 802-388-4919.

Jack Thurston - WCAX News