Quarry Hill Creative Center, in Rochester, Vermont, is Vermont's oldest alternative living group or community.
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On April 10, 1946, Irving Fiske (born Irving Fishman in Brooklyn, New York, on March 5, 1908), a playwright, inventor, freelance writer, and speaker, and his wife, Barbara Hall Fiske, (born Isabelle Daniel Hall in Tucson, Arizona on September 9, 1919), an artist and one of the few female cartoonists of the World War II era, bought 140 acres (0.57 km2) of mountain, meadow, and brook land in Rochester, Vermont. They had been married on January 8, 1946.
Irving, a 1928 graduate of Cornell University, worked for the Federal Writer's Project of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) during the 1930s. Fiske also wrote for H. L. Mencken's American Mercury [vol. 48 (December 1939), pp. 403–7],[1] had corresponded with George Bernard Shaw, had written an article praised by critic Colin Wilson, among others, "Bernard Shaw's Debt to William Blake",[2] and had translated Shakespeare's Hamlet into modern English.[3] This was considered a controversial literary action at the time. John Ciardi, who did not approve, reprinted excerpts in the Saturday Review. Most readers wrote in favor of the translation. Barbara was one of the few female comic book artists in the United States during the World War II era.[4] She drew Girl Commandos and other strips for Harvey Comics, signing herself B. Hall because female cartoonists were not held in high esteem.[5]
At Quarry Hill, the Fiskes' intention was to create an artists’ and writers’ retreat, a gathering place for creative and freethinking people. They had two children, Isabella (also called Ladybelle) and William. During the 1950s and early 1960s, the family traveled to keep their children out of the strict public schools of the day, which the Fiskes regarded as "Dark Satanic Mills That Grind Men's Souls to Dust," in the words of William Blake. They did so on the advice of A.S. Neill of Summerhill School in England. The Fiskes were opposed to spanking[6] or corporal punishment of children, indeed, punishment of any kind; and most schools of the time used corporal punishment.
William later earned two Masters' Degrees, in computer science and in history, from the University of Vermont. At the time of his death on July 18, 2008, he was in the process of seeking a Ph. D in computer science. Isabella became a writer and children's rights activist. In the 1960s, Isabella became friends with many well-known underground cartoonists, including R. Crumb, Trina Robbins, Kim Deitch, and Spain Rodriguez. Isabella and Art Spiegelman later author of Maus, met in 1966, through a group of Spiegelman's fellow-students at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Spiegelman and Isabella were a couple for some time, and later friends. In 1978 Spiegelman, Françoise Mouly, and some Quarry Hill residents created Top-Drawer Rubber Stamp Company, featuring art by R. Crumb, Spiegelman, and other cartoonists and artists, including Barbara Fiske. This art rubber stamp company provided employment for many Quarry Hill residents. Mouly and Spiegelman continued to visit Quarry Hill for many years.
In the mid-Sixties, Barbara opened a storefront, The Gallery Gwen, in New York's East Village. There Barbara showed her paintings, along with those of others, and Irving began to give public talks on Tantra, Zen, Sufism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and atheism, among many other things. He soon spoke to many standing-room-only audiences. In time he would also speak in colleges and churches on the East Coast, such as Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont and in many other locations.
He spoke out in favor of people finding their own creative path in life, enjoying themselves, being free of guilt and shame, and children's rights. He wrote letters for young men who were conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. He was called "The Forest Wizard," and in Florida, where he had a cabin on a lake, "The Socrates of the Ocala National Forest." Irving was a controversial figure. In the 1970s, when his cabin in the Ocala Forest was burnt by arsonists, and the authorities did not give him a permit to rebuild, he launched a legal and media battle, claiming that the authorities were prejudiced against the young people he brought there as his friends, most of whom had long hair. He eventually got the permit and rebuilt the cabin.
When the countercultural movement of the Sixties and Seventies began, hundreds of people, from all over the world, began to pour through Quarry Hill. Many people wanted to build houses at Quarry Hill, and they did. The place was known for its international population and for its ideals about child care. Many children grew up at Quarry Hill and attended its school, The North Hollow School. Many graduates of the school have gone on to college and graduate school. In 1976, Irving and Barbara divorced. The land is now managed by a rental corporation owned by the family, and residents with houses have lengthy easements. Many changes have occurred over the years at Quarry Hill. It has had its own private K-12 school based on the principles of the Fiske family and of Summerhill School in England, and ran Free The Kids! Program, which offers educational material on the deleterious effect on children of spanking and other violence. The one central principle at Quarry Hill is that no violence towards children is permitted. Quarry Hill's land is under a covenant that outlaws spanking, slapping, and the denigration or neglect of children. Quarry Hill also permits no hunting, fishing, or animal slaughter. But there are few other rules. One rule remains, however: no roosters allowed. This is a strange idiosyncrasy of those who enjoy sleeping.
Irving, became well-known in the counterculture both in the United States and elsewhere. He died of a stroke in Ocala, Florida, on April 25, 1990.
Barbara remarried Dr. Donald Calhoun (June 14, 1917 - May 5, 2009), a writer,[7] sociology professor and a Quaker like herself. Barbara Fiske Calhoun lives and teaches art at Quarry Hill (as of 2011). William Fiske died in his sleep on July 18, 2008, in Burlington, Vermont.
The Fiske family does not consider Quarry Hill a "commune", as property is not communally owned; rentals or fees are charged for residence at Quarry Hill, and the land continues to belong to the Fiskes.
Irving Fiske, obituaries:
Quarry Hill in the media, a selection: MAUS by Art Spiegelman (1986-92, Pantheon Press). Spiegelman and Mouly's "Friends in Vermont" are the Fiske family and other Quarry Hill residents. "Isabella," in the "Prisoner on the Hell Planet" section of MAUS, is Isabella Fiske (McFarlin), Art Spiegelman's girlfriend at the time of his mother's death.