2025 Winter Newsletter

‘Tis the season of giving. Please donate to the Tor House Foundation through MontereyGives!

A Message from our President

Dear Members of the Tor House Community:

This past year has been a very productive and full year for Tor House, thanks to the dedication and commitment of our docents and Trustees, and to your financial generosity. Once Tor House was designated a National Historic Landmark at the end of last year, both because the poet Robinson Jeffers is a figure important in American history and Tor House and Hawk Tower are unique architectural works with historical significance, we became even more committed to expanding and developing our programs, both at Tor House and in the community, and to maintaining and preserving Tor House, Hawk Tower and their collections.

We expanded our corps of tour docents, had fully-booked public tours, and held a very successful Garden Party and Fall Festival. In addition, we built upon our outreach programs with Youth Music Monterey, the Youth Arts Collective, and All Saint’s Day School, and continued our Fellow and “Not At Home Before 4 P.M.” music programs.

In addition, thanks to donations from individuals specifically designated for these publications, Tor House Press will be publishing a centennial edition of Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems and a commemorative edition of the

Foundation's 140-page National Historic Landmark narrative with the photos and plot plans that were submitted for the nomination. The former is unique in being the first book-length edition of Jeffers' poetry to show his poetic lines as he intended them by printing the book in landscape rather than portrait orientation. We expect to have copies of this edition available for sale in early December. The NHL nomination should be available for sale in February 2026.

Our greatest challenges during the year involved facility maintenance: first, the replacement of the roofs of the cottage, the dining room, the old garage, the Library and the dungeon of the Tower; second, the repair of doors and windows in the East Wing. A report on those projects, "Preserving Our National Historic Landmark," is on p. 2-3.

We are grateful for the donations received in support of those projects, especially the donations of $25,000 from Trustee Lacy Williams Buck to pay for the repair costs and an anonymous donation from a Foundation member for $20,000 towards roof replacement.

Tor House Foundation is honored to have been selected again this year as one of the 213 participating nonprofits for the 2025 MCGives! fundraising initiative. With Challenge Grants of $38,850 from the Foundation’s Trustees and $7,500 from the family of former Trustee John "Zoli" Varady, we have a great start to this year's fund-raising. All donations to MCGives! go directly to the Tor House Foundation and all donations will receive a partial match.

This year, all MCGives! Donations (credit card, check, stock, IRA Qualified Charitable Distribution) are being processed by Community Foundation for Monterey County through the following link: https://www.montereycountygives.com/nonprofit/tor-house/. For questions about donations, please contact the Community Foundation for Monterey County at 831- 375-9712 or mcgives@cfmco.org.

Thank you in advance for your support. It will allow us to continue to fulfill our three-fold mission of maintaining Tor House, Hawk Tower and their collections, promoting the literary and philosophical legacy of Robinson Jeffers, and serving as a cultural resource to the community.

Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts,
President, Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation