The Farm - Cor Unum

The Farm  - Cor Unum,  are memories of Maria von Trapp, age 91, who is the third child of Agathe Whitehead von Trapp and Captain von Trapp.

When we started our concert tour in America in 1939, we had no headquarters until Mr. Drinker offered us a house in Merion, PA, where we stayed until moving to Stowe in 1943.  The summer of 1942, we stayed in Stowe, VT, where we purchased a beautiful farm on top of Luce Hill, surrounded by three valleys that reminded us of Austria.

In 1943, the old farmhouse collapsed in a  snowstorm, and since our brothers had volunteered for the United States 10th Mountain Division, the rest of us helped build a bigger house in its place.  Mother named it Cor Unum, Latin for "One Heart".  We were overjoyed to have a new home again and loved working on the house, gardens, fields, and meadows.  For the first time, we learned about maple sugaring, which is famous in Vermont.  Father did not sing with us on tour, but he always accompanied us, except at sugaring time when he stayed home to master the art of making maple sugar.

During the sugaring period, if we were not on concert tour, we helped Father collect the sap.  We always looked forward to the end-of-season sugaring off party where we enjoyed a special treat, sugar-on-snow.  Today, we have a wonderful, old-fashioned Sugar House, where family members still carry on the tradition. 

For additional, more in-depth information about the von Trapp family, please visit our on-line Catalogue Store or call 800.826.7000, Extension 5721.  We recommend the following books:  "The Story of The Trapp Family Singers", by Maria Kutschera von Trapp (this book was the inspiration for the "Sound of Music"),  Memories Before and After The Sound of Music" by Agathe von Trapp, and "The World of The Trapp Family" by William Anderson.