RE Log - Fall 2022

18 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2021 Henry and Julia wedded quietly in 1953; after Minna died, they became the new owners of La Brisa. It is fitting that the same home that had once belonged to the pioneering Munroes would fall into the hands of an anthropologist and a lion trainer, two people with a similarly adventurous cast of mind. As it had been in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, La Brisa became an intellectual hub for the Grove, a haven for interesting people from all walks of life. “Anybody who was anybody came through that house,” recalled Juliana Field ’72 , the Fields’ daughter, who has fond memories of a childhood spent among both nature and ideas. “There was always an air of excitement and electricity, because there was always someone interesting coming or going.” Visitors included Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Robert Frost, Buckminster Fuller and Hemingway’s younger brother Leicester, who lived for a time in the guest cottage — now the Lampen Family Wellness Center — with his family. Also like the Munroes, the Fields spent their time in La Brisa advancing a number of civic and egalitarian causes. Julia, in particular, became a champion of any cause “that had to do with people being caged or uncaged,” as Juliana put it. In 1970 she founded Black Grove, a nonprofit aimed at combatting the destructive effects of gentrification in what is now the western part of the Grove. In 1969 she bought a surplus jaguar named Rebecca from the Central Park Zoo and traveled to the jungles of Leticia, Colombia, to release her back into the wild. Seeing the devastating effects of deforestation in the Amazon, she devoted 12 years of her life to conservation in the region, spearheading a sustainability initiative called “Amazonia 2000.” Henry contributed just as actively to various causes both around the world and in the Grove — including the Ransom School, where he served as a board member and frequent advisor to then-headmaster Pete Cameron. Green Space at RE When RE purchased La Brisa for $34 million (around $7 million of which was financed by a generous anonymous donor in 2016), the price tag was high but the logistical benefits were obvious. The school was getting bigger in exciting ways, but at the expense of the green space that has always been one of its signature features. “That’s the danger,” said Hicks. “You want to add so much to our campus facilities – the Ansin Aquatic Center, the Constance & Miguel Fernandez STEM Center, performing arts facilities – but you need to balance the need for open air and gathering places. We are grateful to the many donors who supported this investment with gifts to the school. This aquisition would not be possible without the generosity of our community.” That’s what made La Brisa a “must-have priority” for former board chairs Rudy Prio Touzet ’76 and Andy Ansin ’81 when it came on the market: breathing room that would allow the school to grow while holding onto its distinctive character. The renovations have tried to fulfill that promise by preserving as much of the land as possible — the lawn that stretches beyond the house and to the bay will be “sacred,” Rodriguez said — as well as by opening up indoor spaces that were once segmented into domestic nooks and crannies. For Hicks, however, bringing La Brisa into the fold is also about more than space. It’s a kind of homecoming, a reunion of two places that were once part of the same plot and have grown in strikingly parallel ways. “One of the hallmarks of the school is our history, our long-term presence in that location, and the La Brisa home and the history that it has links so well to the history of the school,” he said. For her part, Juliana couldn’t be more thrilled that the home she grew up in, that haven for thinkers and iconoclasts, is now part of the school that was once carved out of it. “To me, I really think this story is about generations of people who lived in that house who were visionaries, who were curious, who valued learning and education, the exchange of ideas,” reflected Juliana. “And I think that’s a really wonderful legacy for the school, to say that the house had that history.”