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Anna Hartwell Lusk (January 8, 1870 – August 21, 1968) was an American socialite during the Gilded Age.

Early life

Anna Hartwell Lusk was born in New York City on January 8, 1870, the daughter of Prof. William Thompson Lusk and Mary Hartwell (née Chittenden) Lusk.

Her mother died, aged 31, when Anna was 1 year old. A 13-day-old sister, Lily Adams Lusk, died in September 1871, a year and a half after Anna's birth. Chittenden Memorial Library at Yale University was built in honor of Anna's mother. Among her surviving siblings were elder brother was Dr. Graham Lusk (a physiologist and nutritionist), who married Mary Woodbridge Tiffany (a daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany); Mary Elizabeth Lusk, who married journalist and author Cleveland Moffett; and Dr. William Chittenden Lusk, who, like Anna, did not marry. Her father was an Adjutant-General in the United States Volunteers during the Civil War.

Her maternal grandparents were Mary Elizabeth (née Hartwell) Chittenden and U.S. Representative Simeon B. Chittenden. Her paternal grandparents were Sylvester Graham Lusk and Elizabeth Freeman Lusk (née Adams).

Society life

In 1892, Anna, listed as "Miss Lusk", was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.

In 1907, Lusk purchased land from the Paul Smith Hotel Company and hired architect Grosvenor Atterbury to design a "camp" for her, in the Queen Anne style, on Upper St. Regis Lake in New York's Adirondack mountains, adjoining the camp of her brother, known as "Camp Comfort" in Brandreth Park. The camp, which was opened in 1908, " be one of the most elaborate and extensive of the entire chain of lakes" and featured a two-story living hall with a "monumental fieldstone fireplace." Anna sold the camp to Dr. and Mrs. A. S. Chase of New York around 1921.

Personal life

Lusk, who did not marry, died at age 98 in Guilford, Connecticut, where she had lived for many years, on August 21, 1968. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx.

References

Notes

1. Mary Elizabeth (née Hartwell) Chittenden (1815–1852), was the daughter of Sherman Hartwell, himself the nephew of American founding father Roger Sherman and his first wife, Elizabeth (née Hartwell) Sherman.

Sources

1. ^ Patterson, Jerry E. (2000). The First Four Hundred: Mrs. Astor's New York in the Gilded Age. Random House Incorporated. p. 218. ISBN 9780847822089. Retrieved 31 July 2018.
2. ^ "Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased During the Academical Year Ending June, 1897 Including the Record of a Few who Died Previously Hithero Unreported" (PDF). Yale University. June 29, 1897. p. 38. Retrieved July 27, 2009.
3. "S.B. CHITTENDEN'S WILL" (PDF). The New York Times. June 25, 1889. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
4. Dwight, Benjamin Woodbridge (1871). The History of the Descendants of Elder John Strong, of Northampton, Mass. J. Munsell. p. 596. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
5. "CHITTENDEN, Simeon Baldwin – Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
6. "Death of Mr. WM. T. Lusk; He Was President of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College" (PDF). New York Times. June 13, 1897. p. 2. Retrieved July 27, 2009.
7. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
8. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
9. Homberger, Eric (2004). Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age. Yale University Press. pp. 199, 289n.99. ISBN 0300105150. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
10. "ADIRONDACK CAMPS NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARKS THEME STUDY" (PDF). npshistory.com. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
11. ^ Pennoyer, Peter; Walker, Anne; Stern, Robert A. M. (2009). The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 270. ISBN 9780393732221. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
12. Social Register, Summer: Contains the Summer Addresses of Residents of New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Baltimore. Social Register Association. 1904. p. 239. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
13. "FAWN BEGS TO BE ADOPTED". The New York Times. 19 Jul 1908. p. 45. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
14. "MOUNTAIN SPORTS ARE NOW IN FULL SWING". The New York Times. 14 July 1907. p. 47. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
15. "Powerboat Flyers Primed for Battles on Upper St. Regis". New-York Tribune. July 3, 1921. p. 32. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
16. "GUILFORD". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. August 31, 1919. p. 62. Retrieved 1 February 2019.

• 1870 births
• 1968 deaths
• American socialites