Anna Hartwell Lusk
Anna Hartwell Lusk was an American socialite during the Gilded Age.
Early life
Anna Hartwell Lusk was born in New York City on January 8, 1870, the daughter of Prof. William Thompson Lusk and Mary Hartwell Lusk.Her mother died, aged 31, when Anna was 1 year old. A 13-day-old sister, Lily Adams Lusk, died in September 1871, a year and a half after Anna's birth. Chittenden Memorial Library at Yale University was built in honor of Anna's mother. Among her surviving siblings were elder brother was Dr. Graham Lusk, who married Mary Woodbridge Tiffany ; Mary Elizabeth Lusk, who married journalist and author Cleveland Moffett; and Dr. William Chittenden Lusk, who, like Anna, did not marry. Her father was an Adjutant-General in the United States Volunteers during the Civil War.
Her maternal grandparents were Mary Elizabeth Chittenden and U.S. Representative Simeon B. Chittenden. Her paternal grandparents were Sylvester Graham Lusk and Elizabeth Freeman Lusk.
Society life
In 1892, Anna, listed as "Miss Lusk", was included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred (1892)|Four Hundred]", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The [New York Times]. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.In 1907, Lusk purchased land from the Paul Smith Hotel Company and hired architect Grosvenor Atterbury to design a "camp" for her, in the Queen Anne style, on Upper St. Regis Lake in New York's Adirondack mountains, adjoining the camp of her brother, known as "Camp Comfort" in Brandreth Park. The camp, which was opened in 1908, " be one of the most elaborate and extensive of the entire chain of lakes" and featured a two-story living hall with a "monumental fieldstone fireplace." Anna sold the camp to Dr. and Mrs. A. S. Chase of New York around 1921.