Reader sees no need to change Helen Day name

Stowe was indeed racist from the 1920s to 1950s. Over 90 percent of the inns and hotels were gentiles only, including my father’s inn. He always told me that he was pressured into it by the town. He knew that if he didn’t do what they asked he would be shunned. He opened the inn in 1941 without enough money to buy his first case of eggs and needed all the help he could get. He wasn’t one to rock the boat.

Dr. Marguerite Lichtenthaeler was my neighbor and while being quite unusual in her habit and dress — some would even say odd — I doubt she was more racist or anti-Semitic than most of the town. Why single her out? Did she and Helen Day Montanari run rallies? Have clandestine meetings? Wear KKK robes? Force others to become racist? Write articles in the paper?

What is this new information that shows that Montanari and Lichtenthaeler deserve to be singled out as having “deeply racist beliefs?”

Lichtenthaeler basically saved the life of Helen Day Montanari, who was in an arranged and extremely unhappy marriage. Montanari suffered from many ailments due to her unhappiness and Lichtenthaeler was able to give her health and happiness here in Stowe.

Together they built and occupied quite a few buildings in Stowe, and Lichtenthaeler practiced medicine here.

Montanari was a Boston socialite and it was her money that was given to support the arts in Stowe. I would guess that much of her social scene in Boston was racist as well. It is unfortunate, but true, that these beliefs can still be found today.

It seems to me that this effort to remove her name is trying to create a problem to fix where none exists. Changing the name will not do anything with current racism. Montanari and Lichtenthaeler were simply creatures of their time. Unless the art center can prove to me that the information they found goes over and above the systemic racism and anti-Semitism of their day, then I feel the name should stay. I dare say that there isn’t one person alive today that would have the slightest idea of their beliefs.

Lyndall Heyer

Stowe