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J. Robert Oppenheimer
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 4:30 pm
by soxfan22
So I was kicking around the book store today during lunch, and came across a biography on J. Robert Oppenheimer titled "American Prometheus". Newsweek called it "The Definitive Biography" on Oppenheimer, and continued "Oppenheimer's life does not influence us...It haunts us.".
Maybe some of you have already read this...The reason I am posting it here is because there is an entire chapter dedicated to his life while on St. John in the mid-50's. It is Chapter thirty-nine, and is titled "It Was Really Like a Never-Never-Land".
A passage that I found interesting:
"During their first few visits, the Oppenheimers returned to their small guest house at Trunk Bay on the north shore of the island, owned by Irva Boulon. But in 1957, Robert bought two acres of land on Hawksnest Bay, a beautiful cove on the northwest tip of the island. The site lay just below a towering hump-shaped outcropping of rock known ironically, at least for Robert, as "Peace Hill". Palm trees dotted the cove's gently sloping white sand beach and the turquoise waters were filled with parrotfish, blue tang, grouper, and the occasional school of barracuda.
In 1958, Robert hired the eminent architect Wallace Harrison - who had helped design such landmarks as Rockefeller Center, the United Nations building and Lincoln Center - to design a spartan beach cottage, something of a Caribbean version of Perro Caliente. However, the contractor Robert hired for the project poured the foundation in the wrong spot - perilously close to the water's edge. (He claimed a donkey had eaten the surveyor's plans.) When finally built, the cottage consisted of one large rectangular room, sixty or seventy feet long, sitting atop a slab of concrete. The room was divided only by a four-foot high wall, setting off the sleeping area from the rest of the cottage. The floor was covered with pretty terra-cotta tiles. A well-equipped litchen and a small bathroom occupied the back of the structure. Shuttered windows let sunlight pour into the cottage from three sides. But the front of the cottage, facing the cove, was completely open - to the cove and to the island's warm trade winds. The house thus only had three walls, with a tin roof designed to roll down to cover the front of the structure during the hurricane season. They called it "Easter Rock", after the large, egg-shaped rock that sat perched atop Peace Hill.".
"American Prometheus" by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, pgs 566-567
Obviously, even without the St. John connection, this man's life story is a compelling one.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:20 pm
by PA Girl
I learned a little bit more about STJ history today! How basic and quaint "Easter Rock" sounds in comparison to the villas of today.
I found the chapter written by Mrs. Gibney about the summer the Oppenheimers lived with them to very interesting too. The name of the book escapes me now.
The water was up to the porch and washing inside the Oppenheimer house during out Jan 05 visit.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:50 pm
by Pete (Mr. Marcia)
When we first started coming to STJ, the wrought iron gate at the entrance to the property used to have his name on it. Sadly, vandals have made off with most of the letters. (It's the gate outside Gibney.)
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 7:53 pm
by Bandit
Pete (Mr. Marcia) wrote:When we first started coming to STJ, the wrought iron gate at the entrance to the property used to have his name on it. Sadly, vandals have made off with most of the letters. (It's the gate outside Gibney.)
I think I know where a "p" a "t" and two "e"'s went.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:26 pm
by Pete (Mr. Marcia)
Goof...there is no "T" in Oppenheimer. And, that's the only reason I didn't go for it...um, that and it would be wrong.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:31 pm
by soxfan22
Pete (Mr. Marcia) wrote:When we first started coming to STJ, the wrought iron gate at the entrance to the property used to have his name on it. Sadly, vandals have made off with most of the letters. (It's the gate outside Gibney.)
It took us I guess until our third visit to the island until we stopped at the iron gate and walked down. Once there, I couldn't believe what we had been missing. For some reason, the water there always strikes me as more blue, more clear than elsewhere (though the water as we know is like that everywhere on STJ). My wife saw a crab crawl out of a hole in front of the cottage that she said was so big that it looked like it could've eaten her.
We've never been down to Gibney, though I know Sherb always speaks highly of it. Maybe next time...
PA Girl...I know...the history of this island always amazes me.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:30 pm
by iowaguy
Thanks...interesting to read.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:51 pm
by California Girl
Thanks for posting that Sox! It was really very interesting!
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:00 pm
by hugo
The irony is somewhat lessened by the fact that the name"Peace Hill" was not commonly used for that point of Hawksnest until Julius Wadsworth gave it to the Park, several years after Oppie's death. (It was Wadsworth's name for it, and a requirement of the gift that the Park call it that. ) Easter Rock is not on that hill, Erva Boulon was not Irva, and that's just one short passage...
The book was interesting, but the writers did such a poor job with the accuracy of the St. John material, it makes one wonder about all of it.
Posted: Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:57 pm
by soxfan22
hugo wrote:The irony is somewhat lessened by the fact that the name"Peace Hill" was not commonly used for that point of Hawksnest until Julius Wadsworth gave it to the Park, several years after Oppie's death. (It was Wadsworth's name for it, and a requirement of the gift that the Park call it that. ) Easter Rock is not on that hill, Erva Boulon was not Irva, and that's just one short passage...
The book was interesting, but the writers did such a poor job with the accuracy of the St. John material, it makes one wonder about all of it.
Wow - that's good to know, Hugo. I have only read that chapter, having bought the book this afternoon, and now I'm wondering if I should bother reading the entire thing.
Thanks for setting it straight on the St. John chapter.
Hugo - the authors also spend some time on the relationship between the Gibney's and the Oppenheimers. The long and short of it is that Mrs. Gibney really had no use for Mr. Oppenheimer. In fact, according to this book, at one point she left the island bound for Boston, telling her children that she would return "only when the lunatics go". Apparently after that there was squabbling between the two families over beach rights, etc.
Another island relationship that is discussed is that between Oppenheimer and Ivan and Doris Jadan. Ivan was a Russian who refused to join the Communist Party, and had emigrated from West Germany to the US...Are you familiar with these folks? Their story sounds interesting (if true), in that they visited the island in 1955, and upon arrival, Ivan said "I stay here".
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:06 am
by bubblybrenda
An interesting piece of STJ history. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:30 am
by LysaC
(He claimed a donkey had eaten the surveyor's plans.)
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:04 am
by hugo
The Oppenheimers were extremely polarizing people. The American Prometheus book does bring that out fairly well, although it's rather blindly adulatory of Robert in spite of reporting an endless litany of bad behavior.
The Jadans were an important fixture of St. John life for many decades.Ivan's tenor stayed in fine shape... Doris made their Cruz Bay home into a museum after Ivan's death; unfortunately, since her death about five years ago, the museum remains closed. There is a lot of information on the web, if you google Ivan Jadan.
The Grande Bay development has blocked the Jadan's ridgeline property, it is Jadan heirs that are in the forefront of the various lawsuit.
For many of us here, it's not just he land, but the history of the land that makes these mega-developments so very offensive.
"St. John People" has both Nancy Gibney's and Doris Jadan's memories of Oppenheimers, from very differing perspectives.(Highly recommended to read the whole book, if you have genuine interest in the island.)
The building on the beach, by the way, is not the original house, which was destroyed by hurricanes and vandalism, but it is on the ill-advised "footprint "of that cottage, rebuilt by the VI Government--and even less esthetic than the original.
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:10 am
by soxfan22
Thanks Hugo...As people have said here a million times, it is always nice to have your local expertise on the history of the island. I will grab a copy of the book you mentioned as well (St. John People).
Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:26 am
by soxfan22
As Hugo mentioned, if anyone is interested, here are a couple of links related to Ivan Jadan...
http://www.ijadan.vi/
This one (below) is from TIME Magazine from March of 1950! I believe long before the Tenor arrived in St. John, but after his emigration to the US from Soviet Russia via West Germany. This piece provides a short though interesting look at his life in Soviet Russia as a "non-member" of the Communist Party.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 62,00.html