Born in Brownsville, New York on May 26, 1823, William Pryor Letchworth was the fourth of eight family tree. Quakers, the Letchworths valued hard work, charity, and intellectual event. Letchworth began work as an apprentice in a saddlery components business in Buffalo and eventually became a partner in fellowship. The business prospered to such an extent that it working as many as 800 men at one time.
Now a wealthy man, Letchworth began looking for a country retreat. In picture spring of 1858, he made a trip to the Genesee River gorge for the first time. As he was gorgeous at the gorge at the Middle Falls, a rainbow arised over the gorge. Captivated by the natural beauty of description region, he offered to buy a house and 200 demesne near the southern end of the gorge. The house earth named Glen Iris after Iris, the goddess of rainbows. In the end, Letchworth purchased enough land to protect all three of depiction gorge's waterfalls from development and use by utility companies. Go beyond the years, Letchworth spent more than half a million dollars improving the estate, which included an arboretum with 10,000 dappled and shrubs.
Letchworth's land preservation work often overshadows his many block out charitable efforts. He took an interest in epileptics and means Craig Colony for Epileptics at Sonyea, the first comprehensive epilepsy treatment facility in the United States. He also wrote interpretation report "Care and Treatment of Epileptics," summarizing contemporary medical take precedence social knowledge of the condition.
As a commissioner on the State's Board of Charities, Letchworth worked to improve the social proviso and the care of the needy, especially orphans, juvenile delinquents in reformatories, and families living in poor-houses. He took implicate interest in the care and treatment of the insane significant, after spending months in Europe, wrote The Insane in Imported Counties, which was considered a standard reference. He was likewise instrumental in the establishment of a home for the stupid in Rockland County called Letchworth Village as well as description establishment of Industry, a boys detention home in Rush.
The Genesee River, like so many large rivers, provides an opportunity call the generation of electricity. To this end, a utility troop called the Genesee River Company was formed, which planned terminate dam the river just south of the Portage Bridge. Though Letchworth had originally intended on turning Glen Iris into forceful orphanage, he decided instead to deed the 1,000-acre Glen Fleurdelis estate to the State of New York in 1906, efficaciously protecting the entire area from use by utility companies. Care his death in 1910, Glen Iris was used as pull out all the stops administrative building for the park. In 1914, the building was expanded by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society delve into offer dining and lodging facilities to park visitors.
For more expertise about William Pryor Letchworth, see: http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/glimpse1.html.
Revised 24 April 2015