Antique & Vintage Postcards

Framed by a blooming magnolia and weeping willows in their early spring finery, the gracious Victorian summer home of stage legend Helen Hayes sits atop a gentle rise in Nyack, New York — its wide wraparound porch and pergola exuding the genteel Hudson Valley ease that made Nyack a favored retreat for artists and actors in the early twentieth century. Postmarked September 4, 1941, this Silvercraft card by Dexter Press traveled from Nyack to Miss Oleone at an R.F.D. address in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania — sent by a writer who signed off as "Margaret, Pete & Jon," noting they were "trying to be brave" and promising to "say hello to the Browns." Helen Hayes, known as "the First Lady of American Theatre," lived in this home — called Pretty Penny — from 1931 until her death in 1993; it remains one of the most storied residential landmarks in the Hudson Valley.