William Cullen Bryant turns 232 this November, and the estate he called home for more than three decades is throwing the party. The Friends of Cedarmere host a birthday celebration for the poet and editor on Sunday, November 1 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Cedarmere, his preserved estate overlooking Hempstead Harbor in Roslyn Harbor, and everyone is invited.

The afternoon opens with poems written at Cedarmere, read aloud by local poets, followed by cake and a reception on the grounds overlooking the pond. Guests can watch demonstrations in the estate's mill and tour the sculpture studio that Frances Bryant Godwin kept inside it. RSVPs go through the Friends of Cedarmere website.

The poet behind the library's name

Bryant is the reason a Roslyn reader checks out books at a place called the Bryant Library. Born November 3, 1794, he made his name as a poet and newspaper editor, and he made Cedarmere his home for more than 30 years, according to the Roslyn Landmark Society. The estate is on the National Register of Historic Places, and it is maintained as a Nassau County park property with help from the Friends of Cedarmere, a volunteer nonprofit dedicated to preserving the gardens, the main house and the outbuildings.

The Friends are also in the middle of a matching grant campaign: an anonymous donor is matching donations from $1 up to $50,000, and the group recently extended the deadline.

A second Bryant event the following Saturday

The birthday party is the first of two Bryant events in Roslyn in the first week of November. On Saturday, November 7 at 3 p.m., historian and former Roslyn Landmark Society trustee Harrison Hunt gives a lecture on Bryant in the Helen Glannon Room at the Bryant Library in Roslyn.

The talk doubles as a celebration of a donation: Hunt and his wife, Linda, have given their collection of Bryant-related books and materials to the library's Local History Collection. Registration for the lecture runs through the Bryant Library.

If you go

Bryant's 232nd Birthday Celebration is Sunday, November 1 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Cedarmere in Roslyn Harbor; RSVP through the Friends of Cedarmere website, which also has directions to the estate. The Harrison Hunt lecture on Bryant is Saturday, November 7 at 3 p.m. at the Bryant Library, with registration through the library. Cedarmere's grounds, mill and pond sit off Bryant Avenue with views of Hempstead Harbor, and parking at the estate is free.

Sources