Friday, June 13, 1919

Beautiful bright day. Up 7:30 A.M. Helped father. Candled eggs. Delivered eggs. Father and Mother to Uncle Henry's house. To Central Park to play tennis with H.H., Guy, and Merlin Finch.

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Uncle Henry appears again, but I am no closer to knowing who he is. Maybe later?

However, I've gotten in touch with a relative of Merlin Finch--a man or woman by the name of Jan who is the child of Merlin's sister's daughter. It's kind of fun to make a connection, however obscure, across the years. I'm hoping for a picture of Merlin to add to this blog so we can see what at least one of Stanford's friends looked like!

Central Park was a popular place to go in 1919, especially to play tennis, apparently. As one Wikipedia article puts it,

Central Park is the crown jewel of Schenectady's parks. It occupies the highest elevation point in the city. The Common Council voted in 1913 to purchase the land for the present site of the park. The park features an acclaimed rose garden and Iroquois Lake. Its stadium tennis court was the former home to the New York Buzz of the World Team Tennis league (as of 2008). Central Park was named after New York City's Central Park. 

Here is a photo, taken from Images of America: Schenectady, of Central Park in the 1920s:

And here is a postcard from some unknown early time picturing the tennis courts there: