Shadowcliff’s Peace Room-The Story of the Fellowship of Reconciliation

Barons of Broadway Series #14

Welcome back to our fourteenth episode of the Barons of Broadway. Today, we return to Shadowcliff, built in 1921. In 1957, eight years after the death of Shadowcliff’s Baroness Eleanor Manville Ford, a remarkable group dedicated to peace and non-violent protest made Shadowcliff its home base. Founded in America in 1915, the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) spearheaded anti-war and civil rights campaigns among many other causes. Famous FOR members include Nobel laureates Jane Addams and Martin Luther King Jr and noted civil rights activists Bayard Rustin and James Farmer. FOR members also formed the ACLU in 1915 and CORE, the Congress for Racial Equality, in 1947. The list of Nyack village members would fill this entire article.

“This is the house where Martin Luther King would have slept. Were it not for an assassin in Memphis in 1968, our nation’s Nobel Peace Prize-winning champion of nonviolence would have made it to Nyack. The purpose of his visit would have been to commune with the Fellowship of Reconciliation.”

Bill Batson, Nyack Sketch Log

Batson’s image of the Fellowship of Reconciliation

Founding of FOR

Henry Hodgkin, an English Quaker, and Friedrich Sigmund-Schultze, a German Lutheran, founded FOR on the eve of World War I with a mission to work together for peace even though their countries were at war. In 1915, 68 pacifists formed the American branch, which included future Nobel laureate Jane Addams and peace activist A. J. Muste. FOR took up the challenge of trying to keep America out of the war. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) grew out of FOR’s program for conscientious objectors.

Mural of activist A. J. Muste on a Nw York building.

Notable Early Efforts

In 1918, FOR established the Brookwood Labor College in Katonah, NY in conjunction with the American Federation of Labor. FOR staffers James Farmer and George Houser, along with Bernice Fisher, founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1947. The two groups sponsored the first Freedom Ride against racial segregation.

James Farmer, FOR member and CORE founder

Civil Rights

FOR remained at the forefront of the nonviolent civil rights protests over the years. FOR member Glenn Smiley, a white Methodist minister and the first resident of FOR at Shadowcliff, rode with Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy on the first interracial bus ride in Montgomery, Alabama, after the Montgomery Bus Boycott started by Rosa Parks in 1955.

Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story – A Comic Book

Cover of the 1957 FOR “comic book”

In 1957, shortly after moving to Shadowcliff, FOR published Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story to publicize the message of integration. Al Capp and other artists worked on this remarkable “comic book”. FOR printed and distributed some 250,000 copies. John Lewis, a famous civil rights legislator, said the comic book “was like a blueprint” for understanding nonviolent, direct-action protest techniques. Reading it today, reminds us of the great debt our country owes to Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, and others for moving the country out of the Jim Crow era.

“You have done a marvelous job of grasping the underlying truth and philosophy of the movement”

Martin Luther KIng, Jr.

Sample pages from the Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story

FOR Moves to Shadowcliff

Eleanor Manville Ford built Shadowcliff. Photo circa 1925.

As FOR’s need for more office and meeting space grew, they looked to move out of their cramped quarters in Manhattan. Conrad Lynn, a civil rights attorney who worked in real estate, identified Shadowcliff as a potential home base in 1957. FOR paid less than the asking price and acquired the mansion for $35,000. After Eleanor Manville Ford’s death, a live-in translation service occupied the 44-room estate. FOR filled the house quickly. At one time, some of the 40 beds on the second and third floors had to be converted into offices during the Vietnam anti-war protests.

Local Conflicts

The relocation of FOR was not without its conflicts. During the heyday of air raid drills, civil defense inspectors declared Shadowcliff to be the finest bomb shelter in the entire country. It turned out Eleanor Manville Ford had installed a fourteen-inch-thick reinforced concrete ceiling between the basement and the first floor to prevent fires. Al Hassler, Executive Secretary of FOR, firmly turned down its use as a public shelter. Hassler put up a sign: “This House Has No Fallout Shelter. Peace is our only security.” The sign went viral among American pacifists.

For over 18 years, FOR and Upper Nyack battled over their religious property tax exemption before FOR won an exemption. Housed within a strong conservative bastion of 1950s Rockland County, residents expressed reservations about a liberal religious pacifist organization in their midst. Others, under the influence of McCarthyism, insisted that FOR was under the control of the Soviet Union. FOR was undeterred by these early conflicts and later became an important part of the community. Tea magnate Stephen Leeman and the owner of High Tor vineyards, Richard Voigt, became early members.

The Peace Room

FOR Peace Room in its early days. Photo Courtesy of Historical Society of Rockland County in South of the Mountain, 1993, #1

In 1958, Paul and Jo Peabody helped organize the Peace Room located in the former first-floor front parlor. It became a symbolic center for important FOR actions. Here, in 1963, Alabama civil rights leaders met with the National Council of Churches. During the meeting, they learned of the fatal bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. In the Peace Room, FOR helped coordinate two massive anti-war mobilizations in Washington to demand the withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam. Decades later, the Nuclear Freeze movement had its beginnings here in the 1980s.

A nuclear freeze march in Washington DC

Leaving Shadowcliff

Shadowcliff in 2015.

Over the years, FOR continued the fight against racial injustice, poverty, and war. By 2017, FOR had become a more geographically dispersed organization, and the need for a central location in a digital world lessened. FOR moved its headquarters to Stony Point.

FOR headquarters in 2024 in Stony Point, NY

An Unending Saga

FOR’s work didn’t end with their exit from Shadowcliff. We are constantly reminded of the long reach of FOR. For example, in June of 2024, James M. Lawson, Jr. passed at age 95. FOR member Lawson helped coordinate the Freedom Riders, who endured beatings and arrest while touring the south in 1961 to fight for integration of public transit. Also, he was chief strategist for the Memphis sanitation worker’s strike when King was assassinated. Lawson is but one example of the determined nonviolent actions that changed America forever.

James M. Lawson, Jr.

Barons of Broadway Series

#1 The Magnificent Saga Of Larchdell

#2 Revisiting Underclyffe–A Lost, Gilded Age Mansion

#3 The Adriance Era At Underclyffe Manor

#4 The Flying Dutchman Lands at Underclyffe Manor

#5 The Saga of Rivercliff”s Storied Resdents

#6 The Winding Saga of River Hook

#7 Unveiling Water Crest

#8 The Legacy of Belle Crest: From Clockmakers to Tennis Champions

#9 Greenland In Upper Nyack

#10 The Wonders of Widewater

#11 The Dynamite Baron- Wilson P. Foss Legacy at Under Elms

#12 Atlas Acres – The Botanist in Under Elms’ Garage

#13 The Baroness of Shadowcliff

Mike Hays lived in the Nyacks for 38-years. He worked for McGraw-Hill Education in New York City for many years. Hays serves as President of the Historical Society of the Nyacks, and Vice-President of the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. Married to Bernie Richey, he enjoys cycling and winters in Florida. You can follow him on Instagram as UpperNyackMike.

Editor’s note: This article is sponsored by Sun River Health. Sun River Health is a network of 43 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) providing primary, dental, pediatric, OB-GYN, and behavioral health care to over 245,000 patients annually.