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TLS, one page, 5.75 x 8, personal letterhead, December 31, 1917. Letter to his cousin, Benjamin Rockefeller (or 'Rockafellow'), president of the Rockefeller Family Association. In full: "I thank you for your kind message of sympathy on the destruction of my Forest Hill home. Happy memories clustering around it cannot be taken from us. We have much to be grateful for." In fine condition. Accompanied by Rockafellow's retained copy of his letter to Rockefeller, signed "B. F. Rockafellow," in part: "Accept my sincere regrets over the loss of your beautiful Forest Hill Home, and surprise that after all your kindness to people, and benefactions to mankind, that any human being should have had a heart to so grievously wrong you." Also includes two contemporary color postcards depicting John D. Rockefeller's grand Forest Hill residence.
The recipient, Rockefeller's cousin Benjamin Franklin Rockafellow (1835–1926), served in the Civil War, went West and fought Indians, and developed the Rockvale and Brookside mines in Colorado; for eight years, Rockafellow served as president of the Rockefeller Family Association.
Located in Cleveland, Ohio, Rockefeller’s Forest Hill estate, originally purchased in the 1870s as part of a failed health-resort venture, evolved into the family’s beloved 700-acre summer retreat, complete with formal gardens, a lake, recreational grounds, and miles of wooded paths. The mansion served as the center of Rockefeller family life for decades until its tragic destruction by fire in 1917—a loss that, as Rockefeller noted, could not erase the “happy memories” it held. Though the home was never rebuilt, the property’s legacy endured: portions were later transformed into Forest Hill Park, while another section was developed into the architecturally distinctive Forest Hill Historic District by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
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