Ann Richardson Stokes (June 9, 1931 - November 20, 2016) was an activist, artist, and community builder across such issues as progressive politics, women’s and lesbian/gay rights, and the environmental and antinuclear movements.
Queer Places:
Welcome Hill Studios, 121 Welcome Hill Rd, West Chesterfield, NH 03466
Madame Sherri Castle, West Chesterfield, NH 03466
Ann Richardson Stokes (June 9, 1931 - November 20, 2016) was an activist, artist, and community builder across such issues as progressive politics, women’s and lesbian/gay rights, and the environmental and antinuclear movements.
Ann Richardson Stokes was born in Moorestown, New Jersey, on June 9, 1931, the daughter of Dr. S. Emlen Stokes and Lydia Babbott. She was the great-grand-daughter of Brooklyn’s Charles Pratt, a pioneer of the US petroleum industry and the founder of the Pratt Institute of Art in NYC. A lifelong Quaker, she grew up in Moorestown Friends Meeting, N.J., where she graduated from Moorestown Friends School and then attended Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont. She had great affection and loyalty to Moorestown Friends School and later served as a trustee of Goddard.
She had a great love of nature, having vacationed most summers of her life with family and friends in St. Huberts in the Adirondacks. In 1959, she chose to make her home in West Chesterfield, atop Welcome Hill, just down from Roger Welcome’s beautiful farm. Ann gave some fabled parties, bringing in the likes of Nina Simone, Odetta, and many others to delight her guests. The entire Arthur Hall African-American Dance Troupe from North Philadelphia, shopping in downtown Brattleboro the day after a party at Ann’s, was more unusual in the 1960s than it might be today. Ann is known to many for the gift of the land on Gulf Road known as Madame Sherrie’s. A favorite hiking trail, the Ann Stokes Loop, winds up to Indian Pond at the foot of Mount Wantastiquet. The legend and lore of Madame Sherrie continues to fascinate. And to many, Ann is a legend as well. She was known as a talented poet, painter, writer, and thespian. She stole the show in the 2006 production of “Gay and Grey” at the Sandglass Theatre in Putney, which featured improvised personal stories of older gay men and lesbians. But Ann will likely best be remembered for her laughter, outspoken deep convictions and loyalties, and for the creation of an exquisite retreat for women artists on her Welcome Hill property. Known to women in many parts of the country as the Welcome Hill Studios, three in all, they were created by Ann and women friends in the 1970s.
Ann Goldsmith, Ann Stokes, Pat Hill & Dolores Klaich 1982
In 1977, when the women's movement was still glowing, four friends--Ann Goldsmith, builder and potter; Pat Hill, painter and gardener; Dolores Klaich, author of Woman Plus Woman; and Ann Stokes, writer of poems and maker of trails--gathered for Thanksgiving dinner at Ann's home in West Chesterfield, New Hampshire. Near dessert Ann became overwhelmed by a thought of building a studio for women artists. Soon they were looking for a site. After seven minutes of downhill, Klaich said in a stern voice, "Stokes, I don't want to carry my groceries this far." They quickly walked to the top of the hill, hung a right, found a site, and began building the first studio. Designed and built by women that very next summer--a handsome light-filled place to live and work in. The guesthouse was turned into a studio; another studio was built, by women of course, ten years later. All are far enough from each other to experience solitude in nature.
These studios and their serenity have helped and inspired countless women over the nearly 40 years in existence, and will continue to do so in perpetuity. “A Studio Of One’s Own,” published by Naiad Press in 1985, is an account of the all-woman-built first studio on the Hill. “Women weren’t building houses much then, or at all,” said Ann Goldsmith, a friend involved in the early feminist project. A local artist said “Ann has a wonderful legacy. She had moxie, was a lot of fun, and made so many people’s lives better.”
In the 1970s Stokes moved to Putney, Vermont, Friends Meeting. She supported Putney Friends Meeting generously as it built its meeting house, and was instrumental in helping to add more space and benches to the meeting house years later as the Meeting grew. Stokes also was instrumental in starting a second, early, Meeting for Worship that thrives to this day.
Ann was an avid tennis player and sportswoman and, as with everything, played to win. She did not win, however, when she ran for Sheriff in West Chesterfield, in the 1970s, but she did get 44 votes. That ended her own political career, but not her intense interest and support of others. Long before the words “progressive populist” were invented, Ann invited Fred Harris, a Senator from Oklahoma, to her lovely Finnish-style home in New Hampshire for a gala fundraiser, supporting his presidential bid in 1976. She always kept the faith, supporting her favorite candidates, local and national, whom she felt could make life better for all. Even to the end, which may have been hastened by Hillary Clinton’s loss.
In May, 1977, Ann was jailed for two weeks with several other women from Putney Friends Meeting, and hundreds of others, for protesting the Seabrook Station nuclear power plant on the New Hampshire coast. Her proud mother rushed from New Jersey to visit her daughter in the Exeter jail. Later, during a protest at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant, she was told she could not tour the facility because women would be distracting to the men who were working. She did anyway.
Stokes proclaimed her lesbian identity with power, joy, pride, and grace. She was a generous and outspoken supporter of many feminist and LGBTQ causes. She was a hit in a 2006 production at Sandglass Theater in Putney, Vermont, entitled “Gay and Grey,” featuring the reminiscences of older gay men and lesbians.
Ann Stokes died at her home in West Chesterfield, New Hampshire, on November 20, 2016. The Welcome Hill Studios is her legacy. It is run by the Ann Richardson Stokes, Inc. The studios offer creative women a beautiful, nurturing place in the woods to gather their thoughts and be inspired. Long and short stays are possible.
My published books:
