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Greenwood Director, Bill Young, August 2003
24 August 2003
Greenwood, Hudson, Quebec

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"I knew Phoebe by reputation, I've lived in Hudson since 1970 so I certainly knew who she was... frankly she intimidated the hell out of me. And so I never had an occasion to get close to her."

"Over seven years, I've come to know her, I know a Phoebe that I have the highest of regard for, I think she had to have been a truly wonderful woman... l guess the very first thing that strikes me about her is the immense courage that she must have possessed in all things that she did... the courage to make the decision to leave all of this to posterity... obviously what most people would have done in that situation, would have been to devise a will that would have divided up the property and goods to the extended family, of which there are many. She chose not to do that. She had a clear sense that Greenwood represented something, and that once its gone its gone, not only as Greenwood but as all that it represents."

"Her presence is very strong and was particularly strong in the first years that I started to work here. And particularly strong in the old kitchen. It seemed to me that that was the place that she lived... in the winter time when there aren't many people around, usually at dusk, there are noises in the house that you don't hear at any other time... it would take a lot of convincing to tell me that that's not Phoebe... just establishing her presence..."

"The other way that she speaks to us continually, is that she left behind lists and descriptions and notices and identifying markers of everything that's in the house. And you are forever opening a drawer, or opening a book, or turning around and seeing in her handwriting a statement about something in the house. So she continuously talks to us. "

"The thing that makes Greenwood different from most other family museums and historic houses is that you have this combination of an old house, which is of interest in and of itself, and you have the families that occupied the house that are also of interest."

"The mix of the house and the families form an interesting saga, and then on top of that you have the contents of the house, and the contents of the house are part of the house and part of the families of the house. And that mix is extremely unusual. When one visits Greenwood and experiences the house, you're experiencing the house as it was lived in by the Shepherd family, Phoebe's ancestors. Unlike other historic homes where you're shown a bedroom, and someone would say "this bedroom has been furnished in a way that was typical of how it might have been furnished". Well these are the furnishings, they came into the house at different times and they're real. For instance the fact that Mary Cecilia Shepherd was born in this house, she grew up running around on these grounds, she got married out of this house and her first child was born at Greenwood, and her wedding dress is in the house. And clothing that she wore as a child is in the house. You bring all of that together in the story of the ancestors of the family it becomes alive. You know, we use the term "Living History" because it comes alive. And then when you marry that to the fact that in every generation there was at least one member of the family who occupies a place in Canadian history, in some field or other, navigation, architecture, medicine..."

"It's an extraordinary monument to a family, and to a period of history, really to the whole scope of Canadian history. In terms of what it has to offer to the community of Hudson, it certainly is not the only, but maybe the most visible and most tangible evidence that this community enjoys a rich history, a rich heritage and it is a living reminder of that all the time."

"The house, Greenwood, its contents, its people, its stories, its history, its wealth of materials... gives to everyone of us an entry point to our own past. Whether it's through the literature, whether it's through an artifact... whether it's just the fact that we see something in the house that reminds us of our Grandfather's home, it's so rich in these details that the wonder that people experience is exactly that... when people first experience it, it's a wonderfully pleasant surprise. It's a treasure, it's a hidden treasure that unfolds itself..."

"We define the terms of sharing in terms of how she shared the house. So she shared it in terms of the garden, she shared it in terms of the history, she shared it by having groups meet, study groups for instance around particular themes. She shared it as a social venue, she shared it as a place where theatrical events could occur. She shared it in a way that if the public came here to take part, there was something interesting and challenging awaiting them, and that's what we've been trying to do, so we involve the Hudson Players... we've had activities that involve native communities, we have close involvement with St.Mary's church, in the last year we have developed a lecture series, a speakers series, that had as its formal genesis a talk given by senator Philippe Gigantes here last November... Phoebe liked to challenge herself, and to challenge others, and as Greenwood continues to establish itself we'll be doing that as well. "

"She's a woman of the century, she' a unique woman. She really spanned the century, and I've said often to the students who work here in the summer time, the student interns, she's a Ph.D. thesis just waiting to be written..."

"Phoebe was the end point in a continuum that began in 1820, when Peter Francis Christian Delesderniers acquired Greenwood. And I find it fascinating that it was his wife, whom he married in 1824, who bestowed the name Greenwood on the property... the roots run deep, the heritage is very powerful."