Photographs
of "The Broken Home" (2001)
James Merrill's
Childhood Home in Southhampton
A big house with expansive grounds, for a
solitary self-conscious child to wander around in. The parents are away or
preoccupied, so the servants must suffice.
The house has been chopped up into condo
units, but remains intact from a distance. In the photo of the front, the
"music room" (i.e., the "ballroom" wherein The Changing
Light at Sandover arrives at its final triumph) is marked by the smaller
pillared entrance, off the circular drive. Inside (I peeped in), it has been
stripped of the baronial glory that you see on the original book jacket for CLS.
It functions as a public room, for rent.
In the back view, you see the
rent-an-awning which has been set up outside the rear door of the "music
room." To the side, big card-board boxes were full of empty champagne
bottles. So, the party never ends, even if not as JM envisioned.
I know that the rose garden dates back to JM's
time, because there is a family photo of my father as a child, about 3 years?,
posing therein, with long golden ringlets. You see the side of the rose garden,
to the right, in the rear photo with the awning.
--Photographs and Text by Bruce
Merrill
The Southampton Ballroom from the Cover of The Changing
Light at Sandover
