100 miles north of Manhattan within the coronary heart of the Hudson Valley lies the grand Hitchcock Property, a property presently listed for a record-breaking $65 million.
The Hitchcock Property’s 2,000 acres are identified much less for its tony lodging — a bowling alley, two important homes, a tennis pavilion — than for its far-out historical past as an incubator of the counterculture motion of the Sixties.
The property, its actual property itemizing reads, “is shrouded in mystique, the topic of curiosity.”
And no surprise. It was as soon as residence to Timothy Leary, the ex-Harvard professor turned LSD-evangelizing excessive priest of the late Sixties who coined the period’s mantra, “Activate, tune in, drop out.”
Leary spent seven years there, renting the property from its oil-heir house owners William Mellon “Billy” Hitchcock and Tommy Hitchcock III, for $1 a 12 months beginning in 1963.
In an excerpt from the brand new e-book “The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Riot of Rosemary Woodruff Leary,” out April 22, writer Susannah Cahalan particulars the day-to-day life within the notorious acid commune via the eyes of its most intriguing and mysterious resident, Leary’s third spouse, Rosemary Woodruff Leary.
As charming as Timothy Leary was, when he invited her to stick with him at his experimental retreat in Millbrook, New York, Rosemary Woodruff initially refused.
However just a few months into the summer time of 1965, after the two-time divorcee had turned 30 and aged out of her job as an airline stewardess, Woodruff determined to provide it a go upstate.
Leary picked her up in his beat-up Jeep. There was champagne to drink on the street. A full moon lit their means as they drove via the ornate entryway gates of Millbrook’s Hitchcock Property.
The four-story Queen Anne Victorian contrasted majestically with the acres of gardens and darkish virgin woods. Once they received nearer, she seen the disrepair and decay that managed so as to add to the property’s grandeur.
As soon as inside, there was extra for her eyes to absorb: the carved woodwork shipped in from German masters, fading tapestries on the wall, ceilings inlaid with picket panels, a large bell on the stone terrace, plus harem- type low couches surrounded by pillows, a mattress on the ground beneath a statue of Ganesh, the area coated in books and data. A spot, as Leary would write, the place one might “discover ways to use psychedelic medicine to create a heaven on earth.”
Kids jumped on the trampoline arrange outdoors on the porch. Girls sauntered by in bikinis or with their tops off, perky breasts bouncing as they headed to the waterfall. Most hailed from the higher center class — kids given sufficient rope to really feel snug throwing away all of the bourgeois trappings that their dad and mom had labored so laborious to achieve.
Rosemary moved into the property and Leary’s mattress the following day.
Leary schooled her on his experimental commune. They practiced communal youngster rearing and experimented with vegetarianism and gardening, whereas additionally learning the results of ritualized psychedelic use. There was virtually at all times a session occurring when a dozen or so folks dropped acid concurrently with a information.
The Millbrook philosophy included facets of neuroscience with Jap faith, together with Leary’s psychological analysis at Harvard. Within the Third Ground Experiment, an individual would decide a room and sleep with whoever else selected to share their mattress. In one other experiment, folks drew straws and needed to spend every week dropping acid alone or with one other randomly chosen particular person.
Communal dwelling preparations like this have been nonetheless uncommon in 1965. Scientists, philosophers, and artists in residence labored to problem the psyche to vary conduct and rework the self. They believed that this work would reshape the neighborhood — and, ultimately, the world.
To generate profits to assist the group, Leary hosted weekends at Millbrook, the place wealthy New Yorkers would spend $75 ($700 at this time) to remain (with out entry to psychedelics). The guests would discard their social roles by changing their garments with bedsheets and do chores across the property — all the things from cleansing bogs to cooking dinner.
Among the duties have been taken critically; others have been dreamed up by the Millbrook group just for the rich guests, who didn’t understand they weren’t in on the joke.
However the actual work occurred when the guests weren’t there. Leary educated Rosemary on the artwork of “set and setting” — a time period that he had popularized — to assist form and put together one’s mindset and surroundings in the easiest way earlier than tripping.
Below his tutelage — and the knowledge he realized from over 200 acid journeys — Leary made Rosemary into the queen of “setting,” her heat and comforting demeanor grounded these within the throes of even essentially the most difficult journeys.
She let her hair develop lengthy and sewed her personal clothes, carrying smock attire lower from cloth she discovered within the communal clothes heap. She made gadgets for Leary, too, and helped type him throughout his appearances, changing tweeds with breezy unbuttoned linen shirts, if he wore a shirt in any respect.
However the tide quickly turned. Although the Millbrook locals initially embraced Leary and his Harvard bona fides, they bristled on the variety of freaks and hippies descending on the hamlet. Allen Ginsberg confirmed up along with his wild hair and unkempt beard, carrying robes. A lady shopped in a fur coat and heels, with nothing beneath.
Then Rosemary, Leary, and his two teenage kids, Jack and Susan, have been arrested on the Mexico border for marijuana possession.
The Poughkeepsie Journal devoted wall-to-wall protection to the arrest and the goings-on on the property. A resident historian penned an op-ed for the native newspaper, arguing that the drug addicts would pillage and rape the neighborhood. The president of Bennett School, a prestigious all-girls college 5 minutes from the property, threatened to expel any pupil who visited.
The neighborhood gave the DA a directive: Do away with Leary and his crew.
There was a roiling. One thing needed to occur.
A collection of busts adopted. Undercover brokers. Random stops. After which a full-on raid, headed by G. Gordon Liddy, the Poughkeepsie assistant district legal professional, who would later earn notoriety of his personal for his function within the Watergate break-in.
Although the busts have been a bust — little or no contraband was discovered on the property — the Millbrook magic was fading. Communal life had taken a toll. Huge jugs of purple wine sat beneath statues of Buddha. Kids as younger as 9 got apple cider laced with acid, some towards their will.
“There was one thing nasty within the feeling of the place, one thing furtive, sarcastic, and hostile,” Rosemary wrote.
This was very true for girls, who confronted the double customary of the period’s free love ethos. Positive, you might sleep with whomever you needed, however you’d nonetheless be anticipated to make dinner.
The dream of utopian psychedelia had ended. After three extra raids, Invoice Hitchcock, the proprietor of the property, determined to shut the psychedelic commune.
Timothy and Rosemary left for California. Many adopted. The extra obstinate of the bunch moved into the woods. “Leary retirement thrills Millbrook,” one headline within the Poughkeepsie Journal learn.
The experiment had ended.
For the previous 60 years, the property has remained within the Hitchcock household surrounded by “No Trespassing” indicators and barbed wire. Now it’s ready for a brand new proprietor to tackle its hefty $65 million price ticket and heavy historical past.
From “The Acid Queen” by Susannah Cahalan, to be printed on April 22, 2025, by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random Home, LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Susannah Cahalan.
