P.T.
ELDER

Of Scottish and Dutch origin, P.T. (Peter Turner) was born in New York to a prominent mercantile family in 1858. Although he spent much of his life abroad, in the United States he maintained residences in New York City and Washington DC until his death in 1922.  In 1912, he purchased Elmhyrst at one mile corner as a country retreat for his wife.

By all accounts he was a mysterious figure, even to his own family—a restless adventurer, he spent much time away from them and thus became an abstracted figure in family lore—larger than life and yet, always just out of reach. The details of his life remain shadowy and difficult to pin down. He was a man of discerning taste, an art lover and obsessive collector, a voraciously curious madcap explorer with impeccable manners.

At the time of his death, he was out west in Eldorado County, California building a hotel and hunting lodge. In his last letter to his wife he describes it as: “the fancy of a dreamer...built as a mere matter of sport...in the most transcendentally beautiful forest—the wildest and most beautiful I have ever seen where, towering to the skies, stand Spruce Trees, Sugar pine, yellow pine, thousands of years old. These giants of the forest, in perpetual green, are my constant and loyal companions...[this] haven of rest, a true sportsman’s rest, in the very heart of fishing and big game country, is not surpassed in convenience, comfort or luxury by even the most fashionable of hotels. I never care to see the Ritz again.” And indeed he didn’t.