Lecture to discuss Innisfree

As part of its ongoing educational outreach, the Damascus Historical Society announced that Tom Rue, longtime area resident and historian with deep ties to Innisfree, Pa., will be sharing the stories of this local landmark, his former family home in Milanville, Pennsylvania. Rue now lives in Narrowsburg, New York.

Those interested in learn more about this site are invited to come to the Damascus Manor Community Center, 60 Conklin Hill Road, Damascus, Pa., at 6:45 p.m. on July 23. There is ample parking and the venue is handicapped accessible. The event is free and appropriate for all audiences.

Rue will be speaking and displaying images of the property and ephemera from its history, some of which are in the archives of the Damascus Historical Society. He explained, “My aim with this presentation will be to authentically describe the major programs and events that happened at Innisfree in the context of local history from 1970 until the property was sold in 1997 by my mother, Ann Rue, to its present owner.”

It is likely that the Q&A will include memories of audience members who knew the place in one of its incarnations, including a farm and tourist boarding house, an alternative community and one of the first Montessori schools in the Upper Delaware River Valley.

The property is now a private residence, but the owner is planning on revitalizing it to be purposeful for the public again. The name comes from a poem by WB Yeats “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.”