DUMMERSTON — If Naulakha in Dummerston is perhaps the most forgotten attraction in southern Vermont, the reason probably is because the house that Rudyard Kipling built and lived in for four years is not usually open for people to tour.
Now lovingly restored by The Landmark Trust USA to replicate how it looked when the Nobel Prize-winning author made it his home, Naulakha is available only for guests through vacation rentals.
Once a year, however, Naulakha opens its doors to children and the general public.
This year, on Thursday, April 9, at 7 p.m., The Landmark Trust USA will once again present storyteller Jackson Gillman in a benefit performance of Just So Stories, the beloved series of stories Kipling wrote while living in Dummerston.
These origin stories are among Kipling's best known works. Kipling would tell these tales over and over to his daughter, and she would want to hear them again and again exactly the same. She would say, “I want you to tell it 'just so.'” Finally he wrote them down.
The evening performance will be limited to 25, and the admission charge of $35 will include an intimate tour of Naulakha, one of 17 National Historic Landmarks in Vermont. Fine desserts and coffee will be served after the readings. Funds raised from this event will be used to support Landmark Trust's school program.
The Landmark Trust USA is a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization established in 1991 to carry on historic preservation work in America according to the model established by the Landmark Trust United Kingdom. After identifying neglected properties of architectural and historical merit, Landmark restores them using traditional skills and methods. Rescued buildings are then sustained as “living history” by making them available year-round as vacation rentals for those seeking inspiring places to stay.
“An essential component of our mission at Landmark is education,” explains Kelly Carlin, corporation manager for Landmark Trust and Scott Farm. “And what better way to teach people about Kipling and his house than through Gilman's incredible storytelling.”
Since 2000, Landmark Trust USA has engaged Gillman annually as “Rudyard-in-Residence.” Over the past 15 years, more than 6,000 area grade schoolers and their teachers have watched as he brought to life the timeless tales of the Just So Stories in the very setting where they were first told by Kipling to his daughter, Josephine.
“Three times a day for four days, Jackson brings to life the Just So Stories in the very space they were created,” says Carlin.
So enthusiastic has been the reception for these stories that the Trust has decided that adults, too, should have the opportunity.
Jackson Gillman enacts the Just So Stories through his many talents as mime, actor, songsmith and storyteller. His interactive performances are seasoned with skillful dialect, song, dance, mime and sign language.
But Kipling is only one of his stage personas.
“Performing the Just So Stories was my very first show,” he says. “I am greatly attached to it, because it is such a wonderful work. In other stories I tell, I play around with the texts somewhat, but since the Just So Stories are so perfect, I keep to Kipling's language word for word. Sadly, there had been a drop in the demand for this show until the Landmark Trust called me up and gave me the opportunity to revive Kipling's work.”
Gillman is a 24-year veteran of the New England Touring Artists Program and also served on the theater advisory panel for the Maine Arts Commission. In 2013, Gillman was featured at the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee for the fourth time. He has thrice been Teller-in-Residence at the International Storytelling Center and has performed at festivals and schools throughout the country.
In honor of Rudyard Kipling's 150th birthday anniversary, Gillman decided to take his Just So Stories show on the road and tour throughout New England. In 2014, Gillman presented The Magic of Rudyard Kipling: “Just So” as part of the fifth annual Off-Broadway United Solo Theatre Festival. Of the 130 shows from around the world, it received the Best Educational Show award.
Rudyard Kipling wrote many of his most famous works while living in southern Vermont, including Captains Courageous, the first of the Jungle Books, the beginning of Kim and the Just So Stories.
He came to Brattleboro for the first time in 1892.
“Kipling was on his honeymoon traveling around the world, with the ultimate intention of visiting in friend Robert Louis Stevenson who was then living in the South Pacific,” Carlin says. “However, he had to cut the trip short when, in Japan, he learned his bank had failed.”
Kipling's wife, Caroline, already had family in Dummerston. The author was captivated by the new country and resolved to settle there permanently.
He bought 11 acres of land from his brother-in-law and built his house, which he called Naulakha, meaning jewel beyond price. The plans for Naulakha were drawn by H.R. Marshall, a New York City-based architecture, but Kipling saw to it that its design was very much his own.
“Kipling was the most famous author in the world at the time and was a wealthy man,” says Carlin. “He could have built any kind of house he wanted, but he built one like ship, with his study at the bow.”
He wanted ride the ship of Vermont on many journeys, which he did for the four years he lived there. The main point of the house was the view. Each room takes advantage of its vistas, making the house unusually long and thin.
“There are many unusual architectural features to Naulakha,” says Carlin. “Before he built Naulakha, the Kiplings lived in Bliss Cottage, which is located on what is now School for International Training (SIT). The cottage is still on the campus, although moved from its original site.
“While there, the Kiplings had a terrible time with skunks. So Kipling resolved that when building his new home he would construct a skunk proof basement. The basement is quite a sight, looking more like a fallout shelter than any typical basement.
“Naulakha is not a typical Vermont house in a lot of ways. It is not near the road, the entrance and the hallways are at the back of the house, and the windows have an eastern view.”
Kipling left Vermont after a family feud. A very private man, he found himself on the front page of every paper in the world when he sued his brother-in-law. Kipling moved his family not only out of Vermont, but out of the United States, to a new house called Bateman in Sussex, England.
Kipling always wanted to come back to Vermont. He did once, but when crossing the Atlantic he and his daughter caught pneumonia, and she died. Memories of that journey were too painful for him, so he never returned to Naulakha.
After Kipling sold the house, many changes were made to the original design. For years, the house was abandoned. The Landmark Trust meticulously worked to bring the building back to the way Kiplings had lived in it. Many of Kipling's original furnishings are now back in the house. Of special interest, the attic on the third floor includes a billiard room and a small museum of rare Kipling memorabilia.