Partygoers Vandalize Robert Frost's Home

Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet Laureate's Farmhouse Ravaged By Revelers

(CBS/AP)  A former home of poet Robert Frost in the U.S. state of Vermont has been vandalized, with intruders destroying dozens of items and setting fire to furniture in what police say was an underage drinking party.

Homer Noble Farm, a former Frost residence that's now a historic landmark, was ransacked late Friday night during a party attended by up to 50 people, Sgt. Lee Hodsden said Monday.

The intruders broke a window to get into the two-story wood frame building - a furnished residence open in the summer - before destroying tables and chairs, pictures, windows, light fixtures and dishes. Wicker furniture and dressers were smashed and thrown into a fireplace and burned, apparently to provide heat in the unheated building, he said.

Empty beer bottles and cans, plastic cups and cellophane apparently used to hold marijuana were also found, according to Hodsden. The vandals vomited in the living room and discharged two fire extinguishers inside the building.

Police found empty alcohol containers and vomit on the floor, reports CBS News affiliate WCAX-TV.

Robert Frost's farm is a historic site owned and maintained by Middlebury College.

No arrests have been made, Hodsden said, adding that they have tracked down some partygoers and believe they are minors.

The damage was discovered Saturday by a hiker who notified police at Middlebury College, which maintains the site. The cabin's caretaker was last there at 10 a.m. Friday, police said.

Frost, a celebrated New England poet known for such verse as "The Road Not Taken" and "The Gift Outright," died in 1963. He summered at the home from 1939 to 1963.

[mitywhity]

That''s it. It''s official. CLASS has died - put that on the cover of TIME. Yes, Paris Hilton, thug-rap, and the constant pursit of the vagabond look in fashion has signalled the death of all that is classy in America. Sad.

[jennmarie620]

I have never felt the need or desire to destroy someone''s property - either sober, or when drinking with friends. Robert Frost is the main reason that I fell in love with not just poetry, but the written word ... and why I have pursued Literature and Linguistics in college as an adult. He''s why I read my to daughter and son every single day and have instilled in them the driving need to read a book.

Destroying a historic home of his is akin to destroying Walden Lake in my opinion - and I agree that class has died in this country.

All the more reason I am ashamed to call myself human anymore.

[slim1h2o]

MityWhity at 09:35 AM : Dec 31, 2007

I agree,, And, I can''t beleive I mentioned him in one of my posts,,just last night,,"talking" with toolmangler.
About one of his poems,,Titled,,"The Woods".

Kids nowa days have no respect!!

[barbaraf4]

Today''s youth has no respect for themselves, and even less for others and others'' possessions. Everything comes to easy and without a price. My neighbor''s 8 year old received an MP3 player last Christmas and a Nintendo and a cell phone, this Christmas. If we stay on this curve, it will be a car, next Christmas (for a 9 year old).

[soldat44]

I have never felt the need or desire to destroy someone''''s property - either sober, or when drinking with friends. Robert Frost is the main reason that I fell in love with not just poetry, but the written word ... and why I have pursued Literature and Linguistics in college as an adult. He''''s why I read my to daughter and son every single day and have instilled in them the driving need to read a book.

Destroying a historic home of his is akin to destroying Walden Lake in my opinion - and I agree that class has died in this country.

All the more reason I am ashamed to call myself human anymore.

Posted by jennmarie620 at 09:58 AM : Dec 31, 2007

I couldn''t agree more with you Jenn. I also have very fond memories of reading Mr. Frost in grade school.

Please keep calling yourself ''human'' as it is people like you who add ''class'' to these trying times.

Keep the Faith.

Mark

[slippy54]

Vandals are the scum of the Earth, the very antithesis of civilization and humanity.

[watcher269-2009]

It is probably the Christian Right vandals bookburners club. Happens all the time - the little bible thumpers get 1 beer in them and start destroying things they don''t believe in - and just after Church on Sunday too.

You know that Bush has never been to Vermont - so this was probably his and Cheney''s doing. It''s all their fault anyway.

[Razzl]

I hope the Vermont judge is clever enough to include memorizing Frost''s work as a part of the punishment for each perp. Having 50 new young people become experts on his poetry should provide a pool of 21st-century Frost scholars in his home state after the youthful indiscretions are worked out...

[cyberdjs4]

Sounds like a rip-roarin'' good time.
Like the days of my youth.
It''s good to see that some things will never change.

Seriously though;
How do you expect our youth to learn respect when the adults have trouble with it?

Don''t blame the kids for what they see, think, and hear when the adults are the ones creating this stuff in the first place.

[luciamia1]

Aside from all the crazy rhetoric that passes for opinion here, let me say this: the Vermont State Police are the best and they will track these people down. I am a Vermonter who loves Robert Frost and the legacy he has left to us. I am so saddened by this senselessness. But so much of the world has gone mad.
Here''s to VSP Troop C and their excellent Troop Commander, Lt. Notte. Go get ''em, Dave!

[jetlizhan]

how sad - robert frost is a legend. stupid underage drinkers - in day ''day'' we just had loads of fun being together and saying stupid things - not malicious vandals!!! shame on them. put their young @sses in jail!

[trumpetstuff]

I agree with MityWhity, the first person to comment. How sad indeed.

My prayer is that someday these sad and angry times will fade into history, and that there will be a widespread revival of respect and decency in America - in our behavior to each other and also to other countries.

[luciamia1]

I stand corrected. Make that Troop C-New Haven and Lt. Thomas Noble. Still the same great outfit. Please find these criminals.

[katdav50]

Obviously, these kids have learned from their parents. Parents are a kids best friend. I hear all the time from parents whose kids get in trouble, "My kid wouldn''t do that, they''re a good kid." Instead of backing authority, they back the kid. Take responsibility, be a parent not a friend.

[berniepeders]

You can''t reason with these young idiots that vandalize our nation- they just don''t care what anyone has to say.
And when they are caught and prosecuted, the punishment is way too lenient. I think extermination is the only alternative we have left. Pax vobiscum

[gkc99]

Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village, though.
He will not see me stopping here,
To write my name in yellow snow.

[neenga]

A few years ago a new home was being built in our city by a couple from another state. It was in an upscale neighborhood and was near completion. Teenagers had a drunken good ole time in the house one night and ended up burning the house down. Their parents are wealthy and a couple are high-powered lawyers. The kids were never held accountable and it was hushed up almost immediately. Don''t be surprised if this is shoved under the rug as well.

[nothappyatall]

"Having 50 new young people become experts on his poetry should provide a pool of 21st-century Frost scholars "

They are too busy getting high and drunk, like most kids today- worthless and useless, sickening what they did to this historic house.
A good punishment would be a court ordered destruction of their own bedrooms and personal property- they come home from school to find their bedroom and everything they owned- computer, video games, bong, clothes all SHREADED and heaped into a pile in the middle of the room, with liberal quantities of fresh dog chit and raw sewage sprinkled about the room.

See how they feel then :)

[mandylou4u]

O.K., they destroyed property, underage drinking, and probably a host of other illegal things. Where are their parents? I hope they are reading this, I think maybe the parents should be punished in some way. Not necessarily taken away from "raising" their children, but some sort of punishment so that they don''t let their kids act like retards. Parents will be harder on their kids if they are pushed and they have to do something they don''t want to do. I remember when I was in school, we had early morning d-hall and I think my mom suffered more than my brother did for that punishment. My mom sure was harder on him after that, and guess what? he became a better kid cause mom didn''t let him goof off anymore.

[excoachken]

They were "just stumbling through the woods on a binge drinking evening." Who said all the rednecks were in the south?

[toolmangler-2009]

one sad part of this is the perps that did this may well grow out of the stupidity of destruction for fun and at some point later in life, hate that they did this terrible thing, but it will be too late then.

[Krazcarl]

You mean with all the debree that these scoundrels left befinf they couldn''t get a few prints. I''m from Me. there are many summer homes and camps there the vast majority of folks don''t care if you break in as long as you don''t destoy anything went on some camp raids myself don''t worry it was 30 years we destryed nothing got a fire going had an OK time and cleaned our mess up mostly, These folks live in these house maybe a month or 2 a year. Did know one fellow that used to leave behind a fifth of Jack Dainles with poisen in it out in public view never liked that man after that seeking shelter from the cold is one thing but destoying property is anothe plus with snowmobiles up north it''s just to easy.

[katdav50]

The parents will never come down on the kids as they are too busy being the kids best friend and best friends don''t turn on each other. Parents, wake up, do your job as a parent not as a friend. After raising 2 kids, I was the parent, not a friend. I taught me kids about responsibility and consequences and if they did something wrong, to accept the consequences. If my kid got mad because another adult yelled at them, I didn''t have much sympathy because something was happening. They also got into trouble by me. Thanks to my neighbors and all of us working together, we managed to raise a neighborhood of kids who turned out really good. I''m proud of them. We didn''t give the kids a chance to get into trouble and we know where they were until they moved out or went to college.

[jetranger7]

Should of Broke into "HENRY KRATZs" House or Mansions - WWW.WARONGREED.ORG - and fun there, lots and lots of Expensive Fun there !!! WWW.WARONGREED.ORG // WWW.WARONGREED.ORG // WWW.WARONGREED.ORG

[ghwab1949]

Good grief. One hopes the authorities catch every last one of the culprits and that they are severely punished (that is, jailed) for stupid destruction like this.

[mudrose-2009]

Today''s youth - ignorant, arrogant and all with a sense of entitlement. Someone should throw up in their mouths.

[actiscenei]

Once police catch these a*******, as punishment each kid should stay in the local jail until they can recite a dozen or so of Frost''s best-loved poems (most appropriately "The Road Not Taken")!

[Krazcarl]

mudrose kids were pulling *** when I was kid and were talking the 70''s this is not knew was hoping the next generation would be smarter...I''m getting old..

[michellem99-2009]

I am a Mainer. I used to walk by the Longfellows childhood home in Portland Me alot as I lived in Portland in the 70s. I loved it as is is history . Jennmaine I hope yer kids have a love for yer lessons and will live them. I was taught it is not yers and ye got no business pulling that. We were taught to leave the public loo cleaner than ye found it. How we live saids how we were raised. By their selfishness robs others the enjoyment of this land mark..There is no need for this behaviour..none.

[sgtrds]

This is one of those cases where when they catch all the smart as*sed little SOB''s that did it they get some sort of public humiliation, like a good whipping in a public square.

[Krazcarl]

You folks have to realize unless these homes are elebarate most leave them unlocked better than having the door kicked in you don''t leave a house by the lake unattened for 10 or 11 month out of the year and expect no one will bother anything. I don''t expect that at my house and I seldom leave. Most of these folks are rich or trying to look that way. In New England when the weather gets cold half the houses are unoccuipied put some anti-freeze in the camode shut of the water till next summer. This was not home invasion it was just plainly stupid.

[kevzgrl]

To SgtRDS: Unfortunately, in today''s society, the parents of these "children" who committed this act will protest, "MY child wouldn''t do anything like THAT" and hire expensive lawyers to get them off with no or minimal punishment, and what lesson have the "children" learned? They will get a gentle pat on the hand and a "We know you didn''t MEAN to cause any harm. Please don''t do it again" and what lesson will the little idiots have learned??? Read the posts by "jh6379" - that would have been a SWEET LITTLE PARTY? Young people today, hearing about this, think it''s funny that their peers did something this "sweet" and "sick". There is a disconnect of a horrible sort in our youth - they don''t see something like this as being wrong at all, and it started at home when they were children, with the parents not giving them the guidance and attention and DISCIPLINE they need. Unfortunately, these kids WON''T get a public whipping or other punishment - it will be a pat on the hand and "Don''t do it again".....

[Krazcarl]

kevzgl...Don''t blame everthing on someone else sometimes you have to show backbone and take respondsibty, it''s a cop out to blame your failures on others. I dought any of these parents encouraged this behavior they were drunk high and raised cane.

[gmond]

Kids have a party and wind up trashing the place. That''s really newsworthy.

[michellem99-2009]

crzmeat years ago my mother she left the family house unlocked if she went to store and this was a small town. I was visiting for holidays. I asked for the key to lock the door. I told her *yer dumb as yer need to lock yer door. I don''t care if yer know the whole town. Lock it.* She is in senior housing and I bet her door is locked.
There are rich folks there. There are poor ones like my people. Ihave heard that line *my child would not do that*. Yer wrong. When they get with their mates ye have no idea what he/she will do. Yer raise them right if ye raise them at all. Most don''t.