THE COUNTRY HOUSE AT CHRISTMAS TIME

December 1, 2014, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "Villa Marina" at Christmas

≪ Previous: Gothic Hall - Arthur Curtiss James - New York City

$

0

0

   THE COUNTRY HOUSE AT CHRISTMAS TIME House Parties That Will Gather to Celebrate the Yule-Tide in Many Suburban Localities—A Growing Custom in America

Some one has said that the house party is the latest and most luxurious development in Christmas entertaining. In a way, it is new to Americans. It is simply the outgrowth of the adoption of English country life and English country customs. But it may be called a survival from the colonial period, rather than an absolute novelty. The house party was a very popular method of entertaining in the colonial days, especially in Virginia and Maryland, where there existed ans still exists many old manor houses, which are well adapted for large companies. After the Revolution there was a period in which an adherence to English customs became almost a treason, and Christmas was celebrated in the North more in the old Dutch spirit. It became, apart from its religious significance, the day for children and servants.

When society grew tired of flocking to hotels for its summer outing, and cottage life became a feature, the old estates along the Hudson, and in Westchester County, among the Berkshircs, on Long Island, and near the greater cities, which had been neglected and were drugs on the market, gradually came into fashion again. Magnificent country houses, like those which have existed for years in England, were built, and the house party on its present lavish scale was a possibility.



More and more, since country and suburban life became the vogue has Christmas passed out of town. At many of the large estates near New York there are house parties, and the plans for the inviting of congenial guests begin during the early days of autumn. The American house party, as a rule, with the exception of those given at the "Dukeries" and other celebrated English manors and estates, is likely to be on a scale of greater magnitude than those abroad. Sixty or even one hundred or more guests are asked, and this is made possible by the ample accommodations for the unattached man, who must be present in superior numbers. Nearly all the large country houses have a "club building" especially arranged for bachelors. Some of these parties last through the holiday weeks. The distance between town and country is made so slight by the employment of the motor car, that many men can go to town in the morning and return back for tea or dinner. Possibly, at house parties which are given weekly from November until after the holidays, no one entertains more lavishly than Mr. William K. Vanderbilt at "Idle Hour".  There are seldom less than one hundred guests, and there is a varied program of all kinds of amusements for their benefit, including each evening recitals of music by the best talent procurable in this country. Within the grounds of "Idle Hour", there are golf links, tennis and squash courts, pigeon shoots, and arrangements for aquatic sports of all kinds. There are garages filled with motor cars, stables with horses and traps, motor boats, launches and yachts; in fact, there is everything requisite excepting, perhaps, the aeroplane and this no doubt will be added as soon as it is practicable. 

"Idle Hour" is a little world to itself, a pleasure kingdom by the sea. The Vanderbilt family is now so large and has so many branches that each head of one of the houses has a gathering of its own. Dr. and Mrs. W. Seward Webb usually observe Christmas at "Shelburne Farms", where, besides their own children, there is always a number ot extra guests. "Shelburne Farms" is one of the few places in America which has its own game preserves, and it is more like an English estate. The high latitude gives full scope for winter sports of all kinds. Mr. and Mrs. William D. Sloane frequently open "Elm Court" at Lenox for the holidays. Besides their young son, who has just graduated from Yale, there are three married daughters, Mrs. James A. Burden, Jr., Mrs. Hammond and Mrs. Field, and with a few intimate friends, a large house party is easily assembled. Sleighing, skating and tobogganing are among the pastimes of the week. Lenox has become a favorite place for Christmas celebrations; here-Mr. and Mrs. Giraud Foster, Mr. and Mrs. George Westinghousc, Mr. and Mrs. George Winthrop Folsom and others entertain during the holidays, participating in a real old-fashioned New England Christmas. 

Again, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Vanderbilt usually give a large Christmas house party at their camp in the Adirondacks. Here, last year, were Miss Evelyn Parsons, Miss Gwendolyn Burden, Mrs. Arthur Scott Burden and Miss Natica Rives, now Mrs. Williams Burden, as well as Mr. and Mrs. William Goadby Loew and a number of men in the Newport set. Mr. and Mrs. H. McK. Twombly go to Madison, N.J., for their Christmas and Mr. and Mrs. George Vanderbilt have a royal celebration at "Biltmore House" in the far South. Here, near the Land of the Sky, in North Carolina, they assemble a party of congenial friends for the holidays. There are services in the Biltmore church, which has one of the best choirs in this country and a celebrated organist brought from England. In the afternoon, there is a Christmas tree for the children of the tenants on the place and the employes, and the gifts hung on a tall pine in the great ballroom are distributed by Mrs. Vanderbilt. Afterwards, there is a performance or concert and a collation. For the guests there are recitals of music by well-known artists from New York, hunting trips and all the delights of life in the open in the Southland. Mr. and Mrs. Pembroke Jones take a party of guests to their North Carolina plantation. Colonel and Mrs. John Jacob Astor usually have a house party at their estate near "Rhinebeek," and Mr. and Mrs. Ogden Mills celebrate the Yule-tide in the good old English fashion at Staatsburg in the splendid manor house of the Livingstons. Mr. and Mrs. Frederick G. Bourne give a house party at their Long Island estate, and Mr. and Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes have a family gathering at Noroton, Conn. At the club settlements and such colonies as Tuxedo, Christmas is observed, not only by individual house parties at the various cottages, but also by sports and contests of all kinds at the club-house and by a jolly dance. At Tuxedo, the New Year is welcomed by a ball, which is one of the events of the winter season. 

Thus has the Christmas house party gradually taken the place among national observances. Every one now who has a country house feels that the great festival should be celebrated there rather than in town, where, too often, the streets are given over to a noisy and boisterous Saturnalia. It seems more in accordance with the traditions. In the second century of the Nation we are rapidly acquiring age with other characteristics. However, the universal observance of Christmas in the country, and the bringing together by the very wealthy of large assemblages of young and old, of giving to every member of a household an opportunity to enjoy the day and to join together in celebrating the greatest of festivals with a social, democratic spirit, are good signs. The traditions are preserved and the celebration is more in accord with the letter of that heavenly message given to the shepherds who watched their flocks by night on the hills of Palestine—that old sweet message of "Peace on Earth. Good Will to Men."

---

"Villa Marina" at Christmas

December 8, 2014, 1:00 am

≫ Next: World's Largest Indoor Christmas Tree - Sterling & Welch Company Building - Cleveland, Ohio

≪ Previous: THE COUNTRY HOUSE AT CHRISTMAS TIME

$

0

0

"Villa Marina" at Christmas 1922

Follow THIS LINK for more on "Villa Marina" at Roslyn, L. I. The Home of Frank C. Henderson, Esq.

World's Largest Indoor Christmas Tree - Sterling & Welch Company Building - Cleveland, Ohio

December 22, 2014, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "THE MOST CONSPICUOUS DWELLING HOUSE IN THE CITY"

≪ Previous: "Villa Marina" at Christmas

$

0

0

   Sterling & Welch began in 1845 when Thos. S. and Wm. Beckwith opened a dry goods store on Superior St. In 1857 the store replaced its dry goods line with floor coverings and curtains. Both Frederick A. Sterling and Geo. P. Welch joined the company in its early years and by 1889 they had control of the partnership which was incorporated in 1902 as the Sterling & Welch Co. In 1909 the firm moved from its location on lower Euclid Avenue to 1215-1225 Euclid Ave., where it built one of the largest and finest home furnishing stores in the area. In 1927 Sterling & Welch began the tradition of installing the nation's largest indoor Christmas tree in its atrium.

STERLING & WELCH BUILDING 1215 EUCLID AVENUE CLEVELAND, OHIO J. Milton Dyer, Architect

"it is undoubtedly the finest, most commodious and handsomest store building in the world, it being unsurpassed by any in Chicago, New York or the metropolitan centers of Europe. It is strictly modern in every sense, with magnificent interior furnishings and every facility to promote the beauty and substantiality of the structure." A History of Cleveland, Ohio: Biographical By Samuel Peter Orth

MARQUISE, STORE FRONT AND BRONZE ENTRANCE, THE STERLING WELCH CO. W. S. TYLER COMPANY

In front of the Sterling and Welch Store, circa 1940's.

INNER COURT OF THE NEW STORE OF THE STERLING & WELCH CO. CLEVELAND, OHIO

INNER COURT OF THE STORE OF THE STERLING & WELCH CO. CLEVELAND, OHIO

A live, 50-60 ft. tree, festooned with 60 lbs. of 'icicles', 1000 yds. of tinsel, 1500 ornaments, and because fire regulations prohibited the practice of placing lights in the trees, was illuminated by 6 banks of 750 candle-watt spotlights. It required 650 man-power hours to trim by swinging stages suspended from the skylight.

1933 CHRISTMAS TREE

   
   Legend has it the tree grew a foot while inside the store.

1936 CHRISTMAS TREE

1940 CHRISTMAS TREE

1952 CHRISTMAS TREE

1954 CHRISTMAS TREE

1955 CHRISTMAS TREE

1958 CHRISTMAS TREE

1959 CHRISTMAS TREE

1959 CHRISTMAS TREE

1960 CHRISTMAS TREE

1962 CHRISTMAS TREE

1966 CHRISTMAS TREE

1966 CHRISTMAS TREE

Their "Santaland" included a device where you could insert a coin and receive a gift that came down a slide, a train, and an enchanted forest display.

1967 CHRISTMAS TREE -THE LAST ONE

    
    The STERLING-LINDNER CO. was a combination of 3 smaller stores--the Sterling & Welch Co., the W.B. Davis Co., and the Lindner Co.--each of which was a leader retailer in its own specialty. 

   The W.B. Davis Co., a pioneer menswear store in Cleveland, began in Jan. 1879 as a custom-shirt factory operated by Wm. B. Davis and Edwin Parsons at Superior and Bank (W. 6th) streets. By 1880 Davis had changed the business to a retail men's furnishing store, which was incorporated in May 1888. In 1917 Davis moved from an earlier location on Euclid Ave. to its newly acquired Davis Bldg. at 325 Euclid.

   The Lindner Co., once the largest women's specialty store in Cleveland, was begun by Max Lindner, Max Hellman, and Morris Black in 1908 on E. 9th St., and by 1915 Lindner had built and occupied a larger store at 1331 Euclid Ave. The following year, the 2 companies were merged into the Sterling-Lindner-Davis Co. 

LINDNER BUILDING Built 1915, Robert D. Kohn, architect.

Looking West at the corner of E. 12th Street and Euclid Avenue, late 1950,s -  Hotel Statler(now the Statler Arms Apartments), Union Club and  Sterling-Linder-Davis department store on right.

  

1255 EUCLID AVENUE Modernization underway for the opening of Lindner-Davis store in the former Higbee building, circa 1949.

   In 1947 one of the nation's largest operators of department stores, the Allied Stores Corp. of New York, acquired Lindner & Davis. Two years later, it purchased Sterling & Welch. In 1949 the Lindner-Davis general department store opened in the remodeled Higbee building at Euclid Ave. and E. 13th St., adjacent to the Sterling & Welch store. Davis was dropped from the name in 1958. In the early 1960s, the firm felt that it was in a prime location downtown and decided not to establish suburban branch stores. Allied Stores then realized that without outlying stores, Sterling-Lindner was not profitable. The store closed in 1968 and the building was demolished.

Euclid Ave and E 13th view of Sterling Welch building in Cleveland, Ohio, shortly before it was razed. The two store gray building on the NE corner of 13th/Euclid was the Cowell and Hubbard Jewelrs building. This intersection was the epicenter for Cleveland's carriage trade stores.

Note the SWC frieze.

The beautiful atrium was demolished to make way for an office building that never materialized. The steel pilings for the atrium were cut off and remain in the ground.

   
    At their peak, Cleveland's downtown department stores anchored a lower Euclid Avenue that ranked among the largest retail districts in the United States and was compared to New York's stylish Fifth Avenue.

   After World War II, the growth of suburbs and shopping malls started to draw business away from downtown and Euclid Avenue. The department stores tried to compete, opening up suburban branches, but by the turn of the 21st century most of these local companies had been bought out by national chains, with their flagship downtown locations converted to other uses. 

HIGBEE BUILDING 1255 EUCLID AVENUE Later a fifth floor was added and the matching top trim eliminated.  Now known as the Sterling Building.

   
   Founded in 1860 by Edwin Higbee and John Hower, Higbees was a simple two-man dry goods store originally known as Hower and Higbees. Following Howers death in 1897, the store incorporated as the Higbee Company.

    Originally located downtown, in 1931 the Higbee Company was in the midst of constructing a new store on Public Square. The move would return the Higbee Company back to downtown after nearly a quarter-century stint next to Sterling Welch on Playhouse Square. When completed, the new store stood as an anchor to the new Cleveland Union Terminal Complex, which became the hub of the city's rapid transit system.  

Higbee's became enshrined as a scene in the holiday film "A Christmas Story".

   The Van Sweringen brothers’ massive Cleveland Union Terminal project was the ultimate impetus for Higbee’s returning to Public Square in 1931. As a hub for both train travel and their Shaker Rapid Transit system, the brothers wanted to capitalize on the captive traffic by incorporating a department store into the project. When the pair failed to lure any department stores, they solved their dilemma by simply buying Higbee’s and moving it there themselves.

   

   Higbee's was purchased in 1992 by Arkansas-based Dillard's and closed its Terminal Tower store in 2002. In 2012 the Higbee building became home to the Horseshoe Casino.

The home of Amasa and Julia Stone, 1255 Euclid Avenue, was completed in 1857.

   
   In 1857, Amasa Stone, a successful railroad entrepreneur and bridge designer, erected a 6,500-square-foot Italianate villa mansion. Eighteen years later, Stone planned and constructed a bridge spanning the Ashtabula Gorge, ignoring advice from his own engineers, who considered the design unsafe. The bridge ultimately collapsed in a windstorm, killing 151 train passengers unfortunate enough to be crossing at the time of its collapse.

   The despondent Stone, attempting to cope with the bridge disaster, failing health, the accidental drowning of his only son and a financial panic that ruined three companies he controlled, fired a bullet through his heart while sitting in a bathtub in his Euclid Avenue mansion. Samuel Mather and his wife, Flora Stone Mather (one of Amasa's daughters), lived in the home until Flora died in 1909. At the time of her death, Flora had nearly completed her participation in the design of what would have been her next residence, the plush Mather mansion still standing on the Cleveland State University campus. After the Stone residences demolition in 1910, the  Sterling Welch building was built joined by the new Higbee Company building. 

"THE MOST CONSPICUOUS DWELLING HOUSE IN THE CITY"

December 27, 2014, 1:00 am

≫ Next: View in the New York Home of Thomas Hastings, Architect

≪ Previous: World's Largest Indoor Christmas Tree - Sterling & Welch Company Building - Cleveland, Ohio

$

0

0

MR.   TIFFANY'S HOUSE,  MADISON   AVENUE  AND  SEVENTY-SECOND STREET Photo - The Century, 1886

    The building activity in upper Madison avenue and upper Park avenue continues, taking the form, generally, of "elegant residences", upon the outside of which much money has been expended, with varying degrees of judgment. The Tiffany house, at Madison Avenue and Seventy-second Street, is already THE MOST CONSPICUOUS DWELLING HOUSE IN THE CITY. The gable on the Madison avenue front must be very nearly seventy-five feet wide at the base, and the pitch is steep, so that the roof is a towering object. The house is also conspicuous by its magnitude and its material. The central gable on the Seventy-second street front and the turret at the angle are still unfinished, and these will so modify the skyline and the general effect of the exteriors that the house will not be fairly amenable to criticism until they are completed. 

   Follow THIS LINK for all past posts relating to the 72nd Street residence of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

View in the New York Home of Thomas Hastings, Architect

January 1, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: GENERAL DESIGN PLAN FOR THE ESTATE OF MR AND MRS HUGH DILLMAN GROOSE POINTE MICHIGAN

≪ Previous: "THE MOST CONSPICUOUS DWELLING HOUSE IN THE CITY"

$

0

0

View in the New York  Home of Thomas Hastings. Architect

Detail  in the Apartment of Thomas Hastings, Architect

Follow the link for more - An Architects City Home - The Apartment of Thomas Hastings, Esq. on the Roof of a New York Office Building

GENERAL DESIGN PLAN FOR THE ESTATE OF MR AND MRS HUGH DILLMAN GROOSE POINTE MICHIGAN

January 5, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: AN ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE AND GARDEN

≪ Previous: View in the New York Home of Thomas Hastings, Architect

$

0

0

GENERAL DESIGN PLAN FOR THE ESTATE OF MR AND MRS HUGH DILLMAN GROOSE POINTE MICHIGAN  Ellen Shipman, Landscape Architect

    Follow THIS LINK for more on "Rose Terrace". 

AN ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE AND GARDEN

January 7, 2015, 5:09 am

≫ Next: ENTRANCE TO HOUSE OF MRS. W. K. VANDERBILT SUTTON PLACE, NEW YORK

≪ Previous: GENERAL DESIGN PLAN FOR THE ESTATE OF MR AND MRS HUGH DILLMAN GROOSE POINTE MICHIGAN

$

0

0

AN ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE AND GARDEN FROM WATER COLOR BY O. R. EGGERS

ENTRANCE TO HOUSE OF MRS. W. K. VANDERBILT SUTTON PLACE, NEW YORK

January 19, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: THE ORIGINAL "WINFIELD HALL"

≪ Previous: AN ENGLISH MANOR HOUSE AND GARDEN

$

0

0

ENTRANCE TO HOUSE OF MRS. W. K. VANDERBILT SUTTON PLACE, NEW YORK  MOTT B. SCHMIDT, ARCHITECT

   The panelled pilasters and delicate mouldings of cornice and pediment in moulded brick show great refinement and skill in handling.

   In this beautifully proportioned and detailed doorway adapted from the entrance to No. 2 King's Bench Walk, Temple, London, is found a perfect example of the adaptability of English precedent as developed by Wren and others for modern architecture.

Add caption

The Vanderbilt house, with its red brick facade modulated only by cornice and windows, is extremely restrained. So as not to interrupt the texture and monochrome quality of the facade, the pilasters and pediment of the front door are of brick. SOURCE

A foot-scraper with urns of yellow brass, stands sturdily at the front door of Mrs. Vanderbilt's house.  Harper's Bazaar 1922

   
    The houses of Sutton Place represent the first milestone in Mott Schmidt's career. In 1920 he was retained by Elizabeth Marbury, the literary and theatrical agent, to remodel a 19th century rowhouse at No. 13. Named for Effingham B. Sutton, who tried to develop the block in 1875, the riverside houses had little of the elegance then that we associate with the name today. Marbury persuaded several of her influential friends - notably Anne Vanderbilt and Anne Morgan - to buy other parcels on the block, thereby establishing a "society" enclave on the river's edge, away from Fifth Avenu. SOURCE

Ladies and Not-So-Gentle Women: Elisabeth Marbury, Anne Morgan, Elsie de Wolfe, Anne Vanderbilt, and Their Times

    Effingham B. Sutton (1817–1891), a shipping merchant and entrepreneur, was one of the few prospectors who succeeded in building a fortune during the California Gold Rush of 1849. In 1875, Sutton built brownstones between 57th and 58th Streets in hopes of re-establishing a residential community. By the turn of the century, however, the neighborhood along the waterfront had become neglected, suffering from poverty and blanketed with substandard tenement housing. Stanley Kingsley’s 1935 play about the area, Dead End, inspired several films depicting the area and the gangs. 

Anne Harriman Sands Rutherfurd Vanderbilt was the daughter of New York City businessman Oliver Harriman. Her first husband was sportsman Samuel Stevens Sands, who was killed riding to hounds in 1889; her second, Racquet Champion Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, died in 1892; her third, yachtsman William Kissam Vanderbilt, died in 1920.

   Sutton’s venture was saved by the arrival of  Vanderbilt and Morgan in 1920, which began the neighborhood’s transformation into a wealthy enclave. One of New York City's smallest and most exclusive neighborhoods, Sutton Place, is loaded with regal townhouses and lovely pre-war apartment buildings.

   A "Sutton Place address"—a generic term indicating that you had migrated as far east as possible somewhere in the Fifties—placed you among the knowing who considered Fifth Avenue absurdly passe and Park Avenue vulgarly ostentatious. It was here, on the northeast corner of Fifty-seventh Street, that Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt chose to erect a handsome Georgian residence when she abandoned her Fifth Avenue chateau. Her friends Miss Anne Morgan and Miss Elisabeth Marbury bought and rebuilt the adjoining houses.

---

THE ORIGINAL "WINFIELD HALL"

February 2, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "Vikings Cove" George Fisher Baker Jr. Residence, Lattington, New York

≪ Previous: ENTRANCE TO HOUSE OF MRS. W. K. VANDERBILT SUTTON PLACE, NEW YORK

$

0

0

Hyde, E. B. Atlas of Nassau County, Long Island. 1914

   The North Country Colony was formed in 1893. It was a deliberately exclusive residential enclave whose large estates were protected by restrictive covenants enforced by the officers of the North Country Company. Their jurisdiction covered water front properties to the west of North Country Colony. 

   In 1900 C. P. H. Gilbert, the favored architect of the Gold Coast "colonists", built this Mediterranean-style villa for Alexander C. Humphrey. It was then sold to Emmett Queen, a Pittsburgh banker, in 1906 and in turn to F. W. Woolworth in 1914.   

GARAGE TOWER, "WINFIELD HALL" The driveway to the garage tower with its tiled roof and clock blended into the sixteen acre estate with its grand hedges over walls and the sculpted pebble driveway with the grand trees.

STABLE, AT THE RESIDENCE OF EMMETT QUEEN, GLEN COVE, L. I.  C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

GARAGE & STABLE, "WINFIELD HALL" The garage had a built in turn-table for Woolworth's car to spin around on for driving directly out.

GREENHOUSE & GARAGE, "WINFIELD HALL"  Above is the greenhouse and garage with a clock tower and a series of apartments for servants.

CUTTING & VEGETABLE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL"

SOUTH FRONT, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I.  C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

QUEEN ESTATE Large Norway Maples supplied and moved by Isaac Hicks & Son for Mr Emmett Queen, three years before this photograph was taken in 1911.

SOUTHWEST FRONT, "WINFIELD HALL"

FOUNTAIN, RESIDENCE, "WINFIELD HALL"

"WINFIELD HALL" One of the first Mediterranean villa-style residences in the New York area, the house balanced Spanish and Renaissance details to create a formal, symmetrical villa.

"WINFIELD HALL" The walls were of rough-cast stucco over brick, and the red-tiled roof featured pyramidal gables at each end, with heavily trimmed segmental-headed dormers over the end pavilions and pyramid-capped dormers flanking the baroque scrolled pediment at the center of the main facade.

SOUTHEAST FRONT, "WINFIELD HALL"

"WINFIELD HALL" Within the formal volume of the house, outdoor rooms, some sheltered and some open to the sun, let the sun and breeze into the house in a dozen places.

NORTH FRONT, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I.  C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL"   Above is the formal rose garden on the north side of "Winfield Hall" facing Long Island Sound and golf course the Woolworth family enjoyed.

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL"

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL"

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL"

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL"

HALL, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I.  C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

ENTRANCE HALL,  "WINFIELD HALL"  Above is the entrance hall to "Winfield Hall" in 1916, with carved mahogany walls and woodwork of fluted crowned columns decorated with Renaissance chairs flanking the main entrance with Persian rugs and ornate fire-irons resting in front of the mantel on the left side. To the right on the flocked brocade paper is a photograph of the Woolworth building in New York City. To the right is the south end of the entrance hall with its paneled walls flocked paper and the staircase with its impressive moldings. Several nineteenth century French oil paintings adorn the mantel and coved panned wall with Persian prayer rugs draped over the railing reflects the ideals of the Edwardian age. To the right is the entrance to the Music room with its Renaissance furnishings and grandfather clock.

ENTRANCE HALL, "WINFIELD HALL"  The north end of the entrance hall with its rich paneled walls, mantel, and staircase is decorated with nineteenth century French and American oil paintings and a Persian prayer rug is draped over the railing with the grand light fixtures, which reflects the ideals of the Edwardian age of grand comfort.

ENTRANCE HALL. "WINFIELD HALL"  Above is the south end of the entrance hall with its paneled walls flocked paper holding a drawing of the Woolworth Buildings above the renaissance table of flowers. The grandfather clock between the fluted columns and the armed renaissance chair flank the front door entrance.

DINING ROOM, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I.  C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

DINNING ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL"  Above is the formal dining room designed by Jennie Woolworth, with its hand-painted, imported Zuber French mural wall coverings. The walls are papered by a wall covering whose pear-wood hand-carved wood block printed papers date back 200 years. The design process takes over one year to produce and requires 20 artisans to engrave heavy wood-blocks with specific details of the panorama. Over 1,500 wood blocks go into each single mural. The mahogany dining table and chairs are Chippendale and the entrance on the left in the dining room leads to the conservatory breakfast room.

DRAWING ROOM & MUSIC ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL"  Above is the formal drawing room and music room of "Winfield Hall', which consists of Renaissance furnishings, Persian carpets, crystal vases, and nineteenth century French and American oil painting's. The ornate carved mahogany mantel holds the famous Woolworth clock. Wall sconces flank the paneled alcove.

DRAWING ROOM & MUSIC ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL"  Above is the organ and Renaissance furnishings in the drawing room, music room of "Winfield Hall". The paneled wall with the draped windows face south to the main entrance and belvedere leading to the mansion. The paneled grill wall behind the crystal lamps contains part of the sound system of organ pipes for the organ.

CONSERVATORY BREAKFAST ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL"  Facing north on Long Island Sound is the Woolworth conservatory breakfast room in "Winfield Hall".

PIAZZA, "WINFIELD HALL"  Above is the piazza at the east end of "Winfield Hall" that offered a view of the rose garden and Long Island Sound to the north.

SLEEPING PORCH, "WINFIELD HALL"

FIRST FLOOR PLAN, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I.  C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

SECOND FLOOR PLAN, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I.  C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

   On November 11, 1916, Frank and Jenny Woolworth stood in shock as their stately mansion had burned to the ground. The flaming inferno began with the antiquated electrical wiring on the third floor. This allowed the servants to save some of the nineteenth century French, English, and America paintings on the first floor, along with Jennie's jewelry, the Woolworth clock in the drawing room, and some of the porcelain china in the dining room. What remained were the vast garage, green houses, and clock tower to the grand estate.

   Woolworth already had plans of rebuilding a new "Winfield Hall" with $10,000,000 in cash.

Follow THIS LINK for a post on the construction of the new "Winfield Hall".

"Vikings Cove" George Fisher Baker Jr. Residence, Lattington, New York

February 16, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "Meudon" The William Dameron Guthrie Estate, Lattingtown, N. Y.

≪ Previous: THE ORIGINAL "WINFIELD HALL"

$

0

0

Built for George Fisher Baker Jr. by architects Walker & Gillette.  According to SPLIA "it is perhaps the most traditional in plan and scale of all the firm's Georgian Revival designs." 

GATE ENTRANCE AND EASTERLY COTTAGE JUNE 1914

ENTRANCE GATE APRIL 1914

ENTRANCE GATE JUNE 1914

DRIVE TOWARDS ENTRANCE NOVEMBER 1913

DRIVE TOWARDS ENTRANCE MAY 1914

DRIVE TOWARDS ENTRANCE JUNE 1914

ENTRANCE GATE JUNE 1914

DRIVEWAY FROM ENTRANCE NOVEMBER 1913

DRIVEWAY FROM ENTRANCE JUNE 1914

WESTERLY COTTAGE AND GARAGE NOVEMBER 1913

WESTERLY COTTAGE AND GARAGE JUNE 1914

EASTERLY COTTAGE NOVEMBER 1913

FROM DRIVE ACROSS VEGETABLE GARDEN TO MR. ALDRED'S JANUARY 1914

FROM DRIVE ACROSS VEGETABLE GARDEN TO MR. ALDRED'S JUNE 1914

SERVICE ENTRANCE FROM DRIVE JANUARY 1914

SERVICE ENTRANCE FROM DRIVE JUNE 1914

SOUTH END OF GARDEN BANK FROM DRIVE JANUARY 1914

SOUTH END OF GARDEN BANK FROM DRIVE JUNE 1914

VEGETABLE GARDEN ENTRANCE MAY 1914

SOUTH FRONT OF HOUSE NOVEMBER 1913

VIEW OF GARDEN WALL AND EMBANKMENT NOVEMBER 1913

VIEW OF HOUSE FROM SERVICE YARD NOVEMBER 1913

SOUTH FRONT OF HOUSE DECEMBER 1913

SOUTH FRONT OF HOUSE JUNE 1914

FROM ENTRANCE ARCH DOWN DRIVE JANUARY 1914

FROM ENTRANCE ARCH DOWN DRIVE JUNE 1914

ENTRANCE ARCH APRIL 1914

ENTRANCE ARCH JUNE 1914

ENTRANCE ARCHWAY FROM THE DRIVE JUNE 1914

SERVICE WING FROM CARRIAGE TURN JANUARY 1914

SERVICE WING FROM CARRIAGE TURN JANUARY 1914

SERVICE WING FROM CARRIAGE TURN JUNE 1914

FRONT TURN AROUND APRIL 1914

NORTH SIDE OF HOUSE JUNE 1914

PATH TO TERRACE APRIL 1913

PATH TO TERRACE JUNE 1914

BASE OP CARRIAGE TURN WALL NORTH FROM THE SERVICE STEPS JANUARY 1914

SOUTH SIDE OF HOUSE AND GARDEN FROM ALDRED'S NOVEMBER 1913

WEST END OF HOUSE FROM TERRACE LOOKING NORTH JANUARY 1914

WEST END OF HOUSE FROM TERRACE LOOKING NORTH JUNE 1914

HOUSE AND GARDEN FROM WEST SIDE OF GARDEN NOVEMBER 1913

HOUSE FROM GARDEN DECEMBER 1913

SOUTH SIDE OF HOUSE FROM GARDEN APRIL 1914

FORMAL GARDEN SPRING 1917

OLD APPLE TREE SOUTH SIDE FROM LAWN APRIL 1914

FORMAL GARDEN JUNE 1914

FORMAL GARDEN JUNE 1914

GARDEN JUNE 1914

HOUSE FROM GARDEN JUNE 1914

FORMAL GARDEN SPRING 1917

FORMAL GARDEN SPRING 1917

FORMAL GARDEN DECEMBER 1914

PATH LEADING FROM GARDEN DECEMBER 1913

PATH LEADING FROM GARDEN JUNE 1914

GARDEN DETAIL JUNE 1914

FORMAL GARDEN APRIL 1914

FORMAL GARDEN APRIL 1914

GARDEN HOUSE APRIL 1914

FORMAL GARDEN JUNE 1914

FORMAL GARDEN SPRING 1917

FORMAL GARDEN JUNE 1914

FORMAL GARDEN JUNE 1914

FORMAL GARDEN JUNE 1914

LAWN AND BENCH JUNE 1914

SOUTH GARDEN WALL AND THE POOL DECEMBER 1913

SOUTH GARDEN WALL AND POOL JUNE 1914

POOL JUNE 1917

POOL AND GARDEN HOUSES JUNE 1914

POOL JUNE 1917

POOL AND GARDEN HOUSES JUNE 1914

PATH WEST OF GARDEN JUNE 1914

AIGLON PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION 1920'S

PATH TO SOUND NOVEMBER 1913

PATH TO SOUND JUNE 1914

PATH TO PIER APRIL 1914

PATH TO PIER JUNE 1914

PROPOSED LOCATION FOR DOCK JANUARY 1914

PATH TO BOAT FLOAT JUNE 1914

BEACH AND PIER JUNE 1914

PIER JUNE 1914

BEACH FRONT JUNE 1914

PATH TO BEACH

VIEW OF BEACH FROM CASINO AT "PEACOCK POINT" JUNE 1914

WOODLAND POND NOVEMBER 1913

WOODLAND POND NOVEMBER 1913

WOODLAND POND JUNE 1914

GROVE NOVEMBER 1913

GROVE JUNE 1914

GROVE JUNE 1914

"VIKINGS COVE" STONY BROOK AERIAL DIGITAL COLLECTION 1947

                                                                   Bing view.

Portrait of Edith Kane Baker astride a dappled grey hunter. Sir Alfred Munnings (British, 1878–1959)

George married Edith Beavoort Kane in 1911. In 1923 his net worth was  estimated to be upwards of $300 million. 

Duchess of Windsor  and Edith Kane Baker.

Ann and Bill Woodward.

In October 1955, the Duchess of Windsor was the guest of honor at "Vikings Cove", along with Ann and Bill Woodward. That night Mrs. Woodward mistook her husband for a prowler and shot him twice, killing him instantly. 

Baker's father was a pal of J.P. Morgan and was know as the "Sphinx of Wall Street". 

Little Viking,  Viking I and Viking II - Great Yachts of Long Island's North Shore  By Robert B. MacKay

In 1906 Architect A. Stewart Walker married Sybil Kane, sister of Edith Brevoort Kane Baker. 

"Meudon" The William Dameron Guthrie Estate, Lattingtown, N. Y.

February 20, 2015, 2:00 pm

≫ Next: "JERICHO HOUSE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE EDWARD KENT, Sr., JERICHO, L. I.

≪ Previous: "Vikings Cove" George Fisher Baker Jr. Residence, Lattington, New York

$

0

0

    Mr. Guthrie's mother's family lived at Meudon near Paris in the XVIII century, and the name of her father's country place in Ireland was "Meudon". 

VIEW OF "MEUDON", AT LOCUST VALLEY, LONG ISLAND

January 11, 1903

ON the Long Island shore of Long Island Sound, a few miles to the west of Theodore Roosevelt's residence and the Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Clubhouse of Oyster Bay, there lay several years ago a rolling strip of country unimproved, just as it had been for generations, with a few old-fashioned homesteads scattered here and there, and a mosquito ridden, pestiferous marsh at one side. A wealthy New Yorker came along, and at small sums per acre picked up these farms, the owners selling gladly and with a slight feeling of contempt for the buyer.

   To-day he who drives, rides, or walks over this corner of Long Island finds a tall iron fence, a mile back from the Sound coast line, shutting these acres off. As he looks between its bars the strip of countryside is no longer recognizable. Three short years have changed it beyond all precedent. Where woods and forests stood there are now cleared ground, smooth, beautiful squares, and panels of lawn. More beautiful squares, and panels of lawn. More remarkable still, where there was bare hillside and uninteresting level there are landscape pictures and vistas of mighty trees arranged so as to give the most satisfactory effect.

   This is the country seat of William D. Guthrie of New York, at Lattingtown, and the transformation in the character of its hills, dales, and woodland has been brought about through the modern, little understood science of tree moving.

   Given carte blanche as to expenses, made to feel that their bills will be honored without question, professional tree movers can accomplish wonders.

   Regarded by experts as one of the most notable examples of tree moving in America.

   In the case of Mr. Guthrie's place the entire face of nature was changed. Actually when these adjoining farms   were purchased there was nothing but a view. But in the eye of the landscape architect this bit of rolling country had great possibilities. The swamp at one side could be "subdued"-and this has since been done. It only remained to pay no attention whatever to nature and make a new countryside of it all.

   The house, a long mansion, was built over and in a little valley, its ends resting on two small hills. Toward the water all the woodland was cleared in a curving line, and from the mansion's back, overlooking the Sound, the ground, instead of sloping, was terraced in an Italian garden. It was in the front of the house, however, that the great and daring feat of tree moving on a great scale was performed.

   A small forest originally stood here on uneven ground. Getting in their minds to a nicety, making up a definite picture precisely what was wanted, Mr. Guthrie and his landscape architect demolished the little forest with one blow as it were. Not a tree was left upon its acres. Then, tree by tree, choosing each with care, the landscape gardener, leveling, turfing, built up a splendid lawn. Practically he painted a new landscape in front of the house, making use of not a vestige of the old material, only using real trees instead of paint and canvas.

   It takes time to build up a fine, velvety turf on bare ground, so that the great Guthrie lawn is not as yet nearing completion, or will it be for several years. But the new landscape picture is there, the trees set in  place. By nature  it would take a hundred years and generations of gardeners to make such a lawn.

   Some of the trees that have been moved here to gain this effect are Colorado blue spruce, another spruce thirty feet tall, a blue Douglas fir, a Colorado pine, elms, sugar and scarlet maples.  None of these have been selected haphazard. Each was chosen to fit into a certain place in the picture   And in addition to the trees boxwood at least a century old was moved.

DRIVEWAY AND APPROACH TO RESIDENCE CHARLES P. H. GILBERT, ARCHITECT ARCHITECTURAL RECORD 1902

ENTRANCE PORCH TO RESIDENCE CHARLES P. H. GILBERT, ARCHITECT ARCHITECTURAL RECORD 1902

The W. D. Guthrie home at Locust Valley, L. I. — C. P. H. Gilbert, architect — is lighted by three hundred electric lights operated by a thirty-horsepower gas engine.House & Garden 1910

VIEW OF "MEUDON", AT LOCUST VALLEY. LONG ISLAND

     By 1906 the east wing of the house was expanded, replacing the octagonal one-story bay and an adjacent pergola.   

VIEW OF "MEUDON", AT LOCUST VALLEY. LONG ISLAND

FRONT VIEW OF RESIDENCE JANUARY 1907

WEST CORNER, SOUTH FRONT  JANUARY 1907

WEST END, SOUTH FRONT JANUARY 1907

SOUTH FRONT DEMOLITION, 1956 GARY LAWRANCE COLLECTION

ENTRANCE HALL A rounded glass-roofed conservatory jutted out to the left of the entrance.

THE LOUIS XV SALON

THE DINING ROOM The carved oak dining room table extended to 18 feet 6 inches.

THE STUDY

THE LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY

THE CHINESE ROOM ONE OF EIGHT FRANCO-CHINESE PAINTED CANVAS WALL PANELS Painted in pastel tones with rocky mountains, river scenes and groups of people before pagodas and pavilions. Height 8 feet 6 inches; length about 32 feet

    Some of the other main ground floor rooms were THE CHINESE ROOM and THE GREEN ROOM.

THE EMPIRE BEDROOM EMPIRE ACAJOU BEDSTEADS AND DRESSING TABLE, MOUNTED IN BRONZE DORE

MASTER BEDROOM LOUIS XV STYLE, ACCENTED IN TONES OF ROSE AND PINKS

   Eight additional bedrooms and a sitting room completed the main second floor layout.

RESIDENCE CHARLES P. H. GILBERT, ARCHITECT ARCHITECTURAL RECORD 1902

FLORENTINE RENAISSANCE SCULPTURED LIMESTONE WELL HEAD Quadrangular, truncated well head crisply carved with arrangements of huge plumy acanthus, centering an armorial bearing at one side; crested with a black-painted iron arch, wrought with arrangements of scrolling leafage, centering a pulley wheel. Height 10 feet 11 inches; width 5 feet 2 inches

NORTH PORTICO OF HOUSE, UPPER TERRACE LOOKING EAST SUMMER 1906

SOUTH SIDE OF UPPER TERRACE LOOKING EAST SUMMER 1906

UPPER TERRACE FROM CENTER LOOKING WEST SUMMER 1906

EAST END, UPPER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

TAKEN FROM CENTER OF UPPER TERRACE LOOKING EAST SUMMER 1906

CENTRAL BED AND STEPS, UPPER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

THE UPPER TERRACE, 1956

WEST END LOGGIA REMAINS

JANUARY 1907

Beyond the house to the north, the garden descended in stepped terraces to a horseshoe-shaped lawn, its grassy slopes and squares contained by ornamental plantings, pavements, and sculptural decorations.

FEBRUARY 1917

Residence of Mr. Wm. D Guthrie, Italian gardens. Locust Valley, L. I.

VIEW FROM BACK OF EAST SIDE OF LOWER TERRACE NOVEMBER 1905

FROM WEST SIDE LOWER TERRACE LOOKING TOWARD HOUSE SUMMER 1906

LOOKING TOWARD RESIDENCE FROM WEST SIDE LOWER TERRACE SUMMER 1906

VIEW OF MIDDLE AXIS TOWARDS HOUSE FROM NORTH SIDE OF LOWER TERRACE SUMMER 1906

"MEUDON" Aerial View   W. D. GUTHRIE   LOCUST VALLEY, NEW YORK   C. P. H. GILBERT, ARCHITECT DATE OF VIEW 1910-1925

VIEW OF "MEUDON", AT LOCUST VALLEY. LONG ISLAND Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection DATE OF VIEW 1932-1934

VIEW OF "MEUDON", AT LOCUST VALLEY. LONG ISLAND Robert Yarnall Richie Photograph Collection DATE OF VIEW 1932-1934

VIEW OF "MEUDON", AT LOCUST VALLEY. LONG ISLAND

Residence of Mr. Wm. D Guthrie, Italian gardens. Locust Valley, L. I.

CENTER OF LOWER TERRACE, LOOKING EAST SUMMER 1906 POOL, LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

CURB POOL, LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

SOUTH SIDE OF LOWER TERRACE, LOOKING EAST SUMMER 1906

EAST SIDE, LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

EAST PERGOLA, LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

DETAIL OF EAST PERGOLA LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

LOWER TERRACE FROM EAST END, NORTH SIDE SUMMER 1906

WEST SIDE, LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

LAWN MIDDLE, LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

BANK NORTH OF LOWER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

JANUARY 1907

DOWN EAST WALK, UPPER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

DOWN WEST WALK, UPPER TERRACE JANUARY 1907

CRESCENT-SHAPED REFLECTING POOL

CRESCENT-SHAPED REFLECTING POOL

    William Dameron Guthrie and Paul Drennan Cravath had an influential part in the development of the North Shore of Long Island as an area of fine country estates of the City's business and social leaders. Each built a magnificent place on the shore, at Locust Valley.

    By the late 19th century, estates began to replace Colonial farms. Cravath bought the Frost farm to build "Veraton", his palatial country home.

    The site acquisition and development of "Meudon" exemplifies the process of estate construction that characterized the Gold Coast. Like other Gold Coast millionaires who tended to settle near business associates or social contacts,  Guthrie and Cravath bought the land near their friends.

     Its been said John E. Aldred and Guthrie together purchased acres of already developed land in 1910, demolishing sixty houses in the process of setting up their estates.    Aldred's explanation has become part of the folklore of the Gold Coast "Mr. Guthrie and I destroyed the Village of Lattingtown to get the view we wanted."  

   Hmm? Guthrie and Cravath began their adjoining places in 1898. The grounds of "Meudon" were cleared and planted by 1903 as described in the above NYTimes article. Bertram Goodhue didn't receive the commission  for Aldred's "Ormston" until 1913. The house wasn't finished until 1918.

    Its always been portrayed that Aldred and Guthrie purchased and built together at the same time. Could it be, that Guthrie was just a broker of his own land?

"MEUDON" The estate contained a Renaissance Revival mansion, gardens, stables and farm buildings, dairy, servants' quarters, kennel, and beach house. STONY BROOK AERIAL DIGITAL COLLECTION, 1947

    Guthrie took as much interest in his building and landscaping problems as in his law practice. He sought to apply the same standards which he applied to his practice, and had many clashes with architects and builders.

"MEUDON" Guthrie almost moved mountains in the readjustment of the landscape to make it just what he wanted. STONY BROOK AERIAL DIGITAL COLLECTION, 1947

   To round out his tract and work out a particular bit of landscaping which he thought imperative, he wanted a small tract of adjoining property owned by one Peter Martin, of a family which had long lived on the Island. Martin was not eager to sell, and as he had little liking for Guthrie, he pushed his asking price higher and higher as Guthrie, buying up other surrounding properties, became more insistent. Finally he agreed to sell at a price well above current values. After the deed had passed, it was discovered (or perhaps Martin knew all the time) that the description left a 4-ft.-wide strip, about 100 feet in length, right in the middle of Guthrie's assembled tract. Martin, claiming a right of way by necessity across the Guthrie property, took possession of his small island, stopped Guthrie's workmen who were  putting an elaborate iron fence across it, and planted it with potatoes. Forthwith Guthrie brought all the real estate and procedural learning of his office to bear on Martin, obtaining a preliminary injunction and, finally, reformation of the deed.

"MEUDON" Built at a time when neither cost nor effort was spared to create a superlative expression of taste and wealth. STONY BROOK AERIAL DIGITAL COLLECTION, 1947

Guthrie donated the land across from "Meudon" in 1912 to form St. John's of Lattingtown. Lattingtown, one of the wealthiest of the North Shore home-rule municipalities, was incorporated under the guidance of Mr. Guthrie, who gave a corner of his estate for use of the officials and a police booth on the highway for the  village  department.

DOWN MIDDLE AXIS FROM HOUSE TERRACE SUMMER 1906

TOWARD RESIDENCE FROM BOATHOUSE JANUARY 1907

   It was arranged with a subsidiary of the American Bridge Company to build a bridge for Guthrie at a cost of $800—Guthrie to supply the abutments. When Guthrie's mason did not have them ready on the arrival of the steel, the bridge company men built the abutments, for which a charge of $25 was added to Guthrie's bill.  Guthrie, in a rage, refused to pay it.

"MEUDON" BEACH PAVILION

"MEUDON" BEACH PAVILION Renovated for the use of residents of Lattingtown Harbor Estates. The structure burned to the ground in a 1994 fire but was replaced using the original plans.

VIEW OF STABLE AND GROUNDS Considered to the the largest and most beautiful structure of its kind on Long Island. Aiglon Aerial Photos DATE OF VIEW 1910-1925

    In 1939 the Armstrong family started renting 9 acres from the Guthries and began “Armstrong Dairy”. In 1947 they purchased the farm complex and expanded the dairy to include a bottling plant and local milk delivery.  

Guthrie died of a heart attack at his home at Locust Valley, Long Island, on December 8, 1935, at the age of 76. The bulk of his estate valved at $1 million was left to his widow.

   Guthrie's energy was of that nervous variety which made everyone about him jumpy. He drove himself ceaselessly and beyond his physical strength.  Guthrie successfully carried out the fight against a federal income tax until 1913 and served as the first mayor of Lattingtown after it was incorporated in 1931. He was a vigorous foe of both the Prohibition Amendment  to the Federal Constitution and the proposed Child Labor Amendment. In 1924 Guthrie was mentioned for the appointment to the United States Supreme Court. 

William Dameron Guthrie

NY-4 MAID OF MEUDON

Guthrie was able to commute between his Lattington home and work in Manhattan by a 112-foot commuter, also known as "Meudon". Guthrie also owned a New York 30 sailboat, "Maid of Meudon". 

Ordered by members of the New York Yacht Club and designed and built by the great Nathaniel Herreshoff & Company, these boats were launched in 1905 and quickly became the most significant and beloved one-design class in the history of the New York Yacht Club.

STRIPPING BY AUCTION Sold by the order of Mrs. Ella F. Guthrie and Mrs. Marian W. Johnson

   Shortly after World War II, Meudon was sold with the provision Ella Guthrie could live there for the remainder of her life. Mrs. Guthrie (Ella E. Fuller) died March 27, 1958 at her daughters home Mrs. Arthur W. Rossiter. She was 100 years old. In 1956, the contents of the home were auctioned off, the house razed, and the property developed. 
 

SUBDIVISION SCHEME "MEUDON" Lattingtown Harbor Estates LEFT TO RIGHT IS SOUTH TO NORTH SOURCE

     Lattingtown Harbor Development Corporation, Inc., subdivided the property and built individualized homes, while retaining remnants of the formal landscaping and the rustic beauty of the natural landscape.

   wikimapia location showing perimeter of estate and remaining outbuildings. BING view.

Château de Meudon was the French estate developed by Louis XIV for his only legitimate child le Grand Dauphin. http://chateau-meudon.wifeo.com/

"JERICHO HOUSE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE EDWARD KENT, Sr., JERICHO, L. I.

February 23, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: MRS. EDWARD T. STOTESBURY

≪ Previous: "Meudon" The William Dameron Guthrie Estate, Lattingtown, N. Y.

$

0

0

RES. OF GEO. E. KENT, JERICHO, L. I.

HOUSE FROM SOUTH WEST

HOUSE FROM SOUTH WEST

HOUSE FROM SOUTH

HOUSE FROM SOUTH

HOUSE FROM EAST

HOUSE FROM EAST

HOUSE FROM EAST TERRACE

HOUSE FROM EAST TERRACE

HOUSE FROM EAST TERRACE

HOUSE FROM EAST TERRACE

SOUTH SIDE LAWN LOOKING AT THE EAST SIDE PERGOLA

EAST TERRACE FROM CORNER OF HOUSE

EAST TERRACE FROM CORNER OF HOUSE

INSIDE PERGOLA

LOOKING WEST FROM HOUSE INTO SUNKEN GARDEN

SUNKEN GARDEN ON WEST SIDE OF HOUSE

SUNKEN GARDEN ON WEST SIDE OF HOUSE

SUNKEN GARDEN ON WEST SIDE OF HOUSE

PERGOLA ON WEST SIDE OF HOUSE

FROM WEST SHOWING PERGOLA AND POOL

FROM WEST

FROM SUNKEN GARDEN LOOKING EAST TOWARDS HOUSE

HORNBEAM WALK LOOKING FROM SOUTH SIDE OF SUNKEN GARDEN

FROM WEST SHOWING WALK

NORTH-WEST SIDE LOOKING TOWARDS HOUSE  ON THE OTHER SIDE OF PERGOLA IS THE SUNKEN GARDEN

LOOKING WEST FROM HOUSE

SKETCH OF PROPOSED RESIDENCE FOR GEORGE E. KENT BY WILSON EYRE, 1906

   Per SPLIA "The Kent house, as built, did not reflect Eyre's hand..... and is now demolished." 

   In 1913 Architect William Welles Bosworth solicited bids in The American Contractor for the construction of Mr Kent's house  - "Architect will take bids until March 26th. Hollow tile & stucco & cast concrete stone, tar & gravel roofing. Barrett roofing felt, oak, hazelwood, whitewood & cypress trim, oak & tile floors, marble, tile, mantels, gas & electric fixtures, Atlas or Lehigh cement."

   Attorney George Edward Kent, Sr. and his wife Lillias Grace Kent were to build in the Long Island hamlet of Jericho in the town of Oyster Bay, New York.  It was going to be an expensive house: about $80,000 for construction.  (That's about $1.5 million today(2005) using the consumer price index, but $24 million using relative share of GDP.)  

Another example of the English type of house.   The airplane view shows very clearlv how, although there are other houses in the comparatively near neighborhood, the place has been so cleverly planned for seclusion that it has the effect of being part of a big estate. Country Homes of Today

Nassau County 1939 Long Island Dolph & Stewart

Historic Aerials 1966

MRS. EDWARD T. STOTESBURY

February 26, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "STONOVER" RESIDENCE OF THE MISSES PARSONS, LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS

≪ Previous: "JERICHO HOUSE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE EDWARD KENT, Sr., JERICHO, L. I.

$

0

0

MRS.  EDWARD   T. STOTESBURYFrom the painting by Francois Flameng

   Head of the Philadelphia branch of the American Ambulance, has donated seventy-five thousand dollars to found a school in Paris for the technical training of permanently disabled soldiers. This gift was in response to a plea made by President Poincare for the establishment of several such schools in France.     Both Mr. and   Mrs.   Stotesbury   have  been  active  in war relief work since the outbreak of hostilities. One of the field hospitals in the north of France is supported by them, and they have contributed lavishly to numerous philanthropies for the benefit of wounded soldiers and destitute children.

HARPER'S BAZAR AUGUST COVER 1916

"STONOVER" RESIDENCE OF THE MISSES PARSONS, LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS

February 27, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.

≪ Previous: MRS. EDWARD T. STOTESBURY

$

0

0

      
     "Stonover", was developed by John Edward Parsons, counselor of the American Sugar Refining Company. The house was built, divided, moved, and rebuilt as death made changes in the family.

The house of the first minister for The Church of Lenox Hill-Top, the Rev. Samuel Munson, stood on the site of "Stonover".

In 1885, the Valley Gleaner reported, "Mr. John E. Parsons' additions to his already sizable mansion are approaching completion with its adjuncts of stable, lodge house, forest, field, and beautiful outlooks over lake and mountain."

  

"Stonover" Residence of Mr. John E. Parsons, LENOX, Mass

    
     By 1921 Architects Delano & Aldrich had transformed the grand Victorian landmark into a sophisticated French country house. 

     Architecture critic Augusta Owen Patterson described the new "Stonover" as one of "those smart smaller houses which are becoming, in our almost servant-less country, more popular every day."  Describing the interior, Patterson wrote, "The core of the present house was a very old homestead, of which the architects took what they wanted and then proceeded to build rooms around it to produce the engaging results.

        The clients were two conservation-minded sisters, Mary and Gertrude Parsons, who had inherited the stately old family house in Lenox from their father. They had long lived under stern paternal control.  Now in their early 50's, the sisters began to enjoy their money. While still in mourning, they took off for China, motoring to distant exotic places in their chauffeur-driven car shipped from home. Back in Lenox, they began to plan a new country house with Delano & Aldrich.  

    Six years after the house was finished, her younger sister, Gertrude, died of pneumonia in Florence on a winter trip. Not long afterward, Mary's brother, Herbert Parsons, died in a freak accident while demonstrating a motorbike to his son at "Stonover Farm".

"STONOVER" RESIDENCE OF THE MISSES PARSONS, LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS DELANO & ALDRICH, ARCHITECTS

   The L-shaped configuration of the service wing and garage had the rambling informality of a grouping of French agricultural buildings.    

Moving the old "Stonover" deeper into the property, the architects set it amid a grove of majestic elms.

      The square wooden house originally situated at the top of the hill was removed to the slope, where the site was determined by the natural placing of trees. The building was pulled apart and added to and rebuilt around old rooms for sentimental rather than structural reasons.

The new "Stonover" would be one of the last of the graciously appointed places built in the Berkshires before the Depression.

    One approached the house along an extended driveway past the crown of the hill where the old house had stood and descended into a sheltering courtyard.

Another view of the residence of Miss Mary and Miss Gertrude Parsons at Lenox shows how pleasantly it is set and how well it is embraced with trees.

   

CONNECTING WALL TO ICE-HOUSE, GARAGES, ETC.

    The house is of yellowish stucco and the woodwork is blue.   The walls are of the same material as the building, with coping of variegated green and purple slates like the roof of the house.

The yellowish gray stucco of the house was trimmed a vivid blue around casement windows, French doors, dormers, and eaves. Flanked by a pair of box planters, the arched front door was trimmed with rough faced stone.

     One stepped from the graveled courtyard directly through the arch and recessed door into a small, square vestibule.

Summertime parties spilled out onto the wide grass terrace, which wrapped around three sides of the house. A low stucco wall surrounded the terrace, forming a natural seat for extra guests. Two splendid stone urns graced the corners. Rambling roses tumbled over the wall and around the terrace doorways.

   Surrounded by old Berkshire elms, it is the oldest place in the Lenox country, commanding a beautiful view from the south side.

GARDEN TERRACE

DETAIL OF SOUTH FRONT.

THE WHOLE SOUTH SIDE ON THE GROUND FLOOR IS OCCUPIED BY THE LIBRARY, FINISHED IN PANELLED BUTTERNUT.

VIEW FROM TERRACE.

    The most important room was a large paneled library centered on the south side with two bay windows and French doors opening onto the terrace.

TERRACE ON THE SOUTH SIDE.

VIEW OF HOUSE FROM SOUTH.

  

"STONOVER FARM"

   "Stonover Farm" was built in 1890 by John Parsons as the farm house for the Parsons' estate. At the turn of the century the farmhouse became the home of his son Herbert Parsons, a New York Congressman and his wife Elsie Crews (who was one of the first female anthropologists). 

FARMHOUSE

"STONOVER FARM" BED & BREAKFAST

    Although it was one of the most recently constructed, best-appointed, and well-maintained Lenox country houses, "Stonover" was not destined to long outlive its mistress. After Mary Parsons died in 1940, the next-door neighbors purchased the property to protect their own view and demolished the house. 

    wikimapia.org location.

"OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.

March 2, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury, of Philadelphia

≪ Previous: "STONOVER" RESIDENCE OF THE MISSES PARSONS, LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS

$

0

0

    THE estate is a large one, bordering the back road that leads from Magnolia to Gloucester, overlooking country and sea. The house is in the Tudor style of architecture, closely following the English country house, although not an attempt at direct copy. It is very attractive with its stucco finish broken by stone trim over window and porch and cornice. It is topped by a roof covered with one-inch slabs of Tudor stone.

"OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.  Charles M. Baker, Architect

"OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.  Charles M. Baker, Architect

OCEAN FRONT "OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.  Charles M. Baker, Architect

The eighty-acre estate was purchased by William Henry Coolidge(1859-1933), a lawyer and investor, and a distant relative of President Calvin Coolidge in 1917.

 

PORCH "OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.  Charles M. Baker, Architect

ENTRANCE "OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.   Charles M. Baker, Architect

    One enters through the wrought-iron door into an outer vestibule with Caen stone walls. This leads to the inner hall, which is finished in imposing oak panelling topped with Caen stone. Directly opposite the entrance is the fireplace, six feet high and five wide. This is backed with Holland splints laid in herring-bone pattern. It is an unusual house, showing many features such as are found very rarely, as, for instance, the organ chamber, which is at the right. The front of this is ornamented with a carved Gothic screen backed with silk. Under the stairway, which is directly opposite the fireplace, is the organ console, designed with two small concealed doors which, when closed, lend to view nothing but bench and pedals. Especial attention was paid to color schemes, and in this room Flemish tapestry is used as wall hangings and as upholstery for the settle and chairs. One can but receive a favorable impression of the house from the hallway, where hangings are red, and the final touch has been obtained by the tall bronze candlesticks, each one holding seven candles, which stand on either side of the hall.

The finished stone effect of the exterior was carried into the vestibule, living hall and loggia. At one end of the 21-by-42-foot living hall stood a carved oak staircase, under which was a carved oak console for an Aeolian organ equipped with 2,000 pipes.

LIVING HALL

HALL FIREPLACE, OPPOSITE ENTRANCE

HALL FIREPLACE, OPPOSITE ENTRANCE

   

LIBRARY

   Opening out of this is the library, a very large room connected with both the den and the loggia. All around the walls are bookcases, and a large bay window on the waterside gives a wonderful view of the sea. The room is finished with a plaster ornamental ceiling. The predominating color is green, which is worked out in hangings and furniture covers. The fixtures are black and bronze. This room overlooks the garden on the one side and the ocean on the front. A long French window leads out to the covered veranda, which is an out-of-doors living-room. From here steps go down to the sunken garden so closely connected with this part of the house.

DINING ROOM The dining room was enhanced with linen-fold paneling and an unusual stone mantel, one of several that carried out the Jacobean theme.

    The dining-room, which is entered from the hall, is on the opposite side of the house. It is large, and spacious panelled walls with linen folds are used for the upper part, meeting the strapped ceiling, which is a unique feature. Soft blue brocade hanging over white gives a subdued atmosphere. The furniture is Chinese Chippendale upholstered in soft blue, which blends with the tone of the Caen stone of the fireplace. One of the most interesting features here is the Chinese Chippendale cupboard, copied from a very old one which has been brought over the seas.
       

LOGGIA The 42-foot-long loggia had an arched ceiling, Italian floor tiles, a decorative fountain, and large windows overlooking the terrace and ocean.

    Standing by the stairway, one can view the loggia or sun-room, one of the most charming bits of the house. The den is at the right of the hallway, with a large bay window giving ample lights.   The finish is oak, and posts supporting the rough-hewn beams are of oak also. Soft shades of rose in hangings and rugs give a restful tone.

FIRST FLOOR PLANS"OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.   Charles M. Baker, Architect

    The most charming room of the house is the little breakfast-room with its small, square stone flooring. Here the hangings are Chinese printed linen with figures on a yellow background. The cane-seated chairs are covered with green-and-yellow slips.

SECOND FLOOR PLANS"OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.  Charles M. Baker, Architect

    No paper has been used on the second story nor, in fact, in the whole house. The rooms have had to depend on the hangings and rugs to give the necessary color. Six master chambers each had a fireplace and connecting tile bath.

BEACH HOUSE

    Also on the property were a beach house, garage, a barn, cottages for the gardener and chauffeur, and houses for the Coolidges' grown children. Coolidge, his wife May and their four children lived in the house until 1944, and in later years it was used as an assisted living facility. It remained elderly housing until 2003, when it was purchased by Mark and Leslie Lynch, of Merrill-Lynch, for $2.6 million. Ongoing legal problems with the neighbors about a massive horse-riding ring they built, dubbed an "aircraft hangar", soured there efforts to continue renovations. "Oakwood" had fallen into poor condition and was demolished in 2012.

Initially the plan was to place 24 smaller condo units in a "garden-style" building and another 16 units in four townhouse-style buildings.

   Problems with neighbors, zoning and permits changed the plans a number of times. 

http://summerhillmanchester.com/index.php Priced from $1,570,000 to $1,840,000.

Final development with 12 luxury single family homes. The homes are cottage style homes that are oriented to an Olmsteadian-style common green.

    The beach house survives in an altered state. BING VIEW still shows the house standing. Above color photo of the library is from the time property was the assisted living facility.

---

Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury, of Philadelphia

March 5, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I.

≪ Previous: "OAKWOOD", RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM A. COOLIDGE, MAGNOLIA, MASS.

$

0

0

Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury, of Philadelphia

    Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury, of Philadelphia, national chairman of the Department for Navy Recreation, has established the United Service Club for Sailors in Philadelphia, where one thousand men can  be provided with beds, entertained and fed.

    She is also chairman of the Committee which organized the Country Club for Enlisted Men, where golf, tennis and other outdoor sports are arranged for the sailor members and their friends.

Harper's Bazar  cover July 1918 By ERTE

Modern day programs for the Navy - http://www.discovermwr.com/nsaphiladelphia/

"INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I.

March 6, 2015, 3:00 pm

≫ Next: THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY

≪ Previous: Mrs. Edward T. Stotesbury, of Philadelphia

$

0

0

    "INCHIQUIN" (pronounced Inch-i-quin) was built in 1887 for John O’Brien, a direct descendant of Brian Boru, the High King Of Ireland. 

February 20, 1907

"NEWPORT, Feb. 19.—The Baroness Seilliere has given to her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Josephine Brooks Livermore, widow of John R. Livermore, the handsome estate in Newport, known as 'Inchiquin'. The deed was filed for record today.

'Inchiquin' is one of the most valuable among the smaller estates in Newport. It is at the southern end of Bellevue Avenue, overlooking Bailey's Beach, and has a handsome stone villa. It was last occupied by Baroness Seilliere in 1901, when she introduced to society her daughter, Miss Constance Livermore, who was later married to the Count De Lubersac of France.   For the last two summers the villa has been occupied by Mr., and Mrs. Pembroke Jones, and has been the scene of their many notable entertainments.

The estate is worth fully $100,000. It is expected, that Mrs. Livermore will occupy 'Inchiquin' next Summer. She will be a neighbor of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. Mortimer Brooks, whose estate, 'Rockhurst', is across Bellevue Avenue, on a diagonally opposite corner."

    The Baroness Seilliere was the adopted daughter of John  O'Brien. She was a daughter of Mrs. O'Brien by a former husband. After her first husband died she married the Baron de Seilliere, brother of the Princess de Sagan. 

    Now a seven unit condominium.

  

"INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I. John Dixon Johnston, Architect

"INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I. John Dixon Johnston, Architect

"INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I. John Dixon Johnston, Architect

"INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I. John Dixon Johnston, Architect

"INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I. John Dixon Johnston, Architect

Details for 719 Bellevue Avenue Unit #1  On the market for $3.9 million

Grand living room with marble fireplace and two sets of French doors to a private stone terrace and fantastic ocean views, and oval dining room with fireplace adorned with magnificent La Farge stained glass, period crown moldings and carved wood paneling.

A spacious and light filled interior ornated with John La Farge opalescent stained glass, boasts unique period details, eleven ft ceilings, six original fireplaces and gorgeous parquet floors.

John Dixon Johnston (1849-1928) was one of the most prolific architectural professionals working in Newport from 1880 to 1920. 

The Barony of Inchiquin is one of the oldest in Ireland, it was created in 1530.

wikimapia.org LOCATION.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY

March 11, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "ALADDIN'S PALACE" THE WASHINGTON RESIDENCE OF MR. EDSON BRADLEY, CONNECTICUT AVENUE AND DUPONT CIRCLE, WASHINGTON D. C.

≪ Previous: "INCHIQUIN" - J. O'BRIEN, BELLEVUE AVENUE AND LEDGE ROAD, NEWPORT, R. I.

$

0

0

WILLIAM ZEIGLER, JR. 1913

    William Ziegler, Jr.(1891-1958) was a prominent businessman, politician, sportsman, and president of several foundations for the blind, was the adopted nephew of the millionaire William Ziegler (1843-1905). At the time of his adopted father's death in 1905, the 13-year-old inherited some $16 million which grew to over $30 million under trustee guidance.

     He married Gladys Virginia Watson as soon as he reached majority(21) in 1912. They first occupied a succession of apartment houses and rented townhouses. 

    According to the will of the deceased Mr. Ziegler, his heir was to be paid in four installments—the first at twenty-five years, the second at thirty, the third at thirty and the fourth at forty. In the meantime the boy was to receive an allowance. In 1913 he petitioned three years ahead of time that he be given his first installment because he "needed the money."  In 1919 Mr. Ziegler engaged the architect Frederick Sterner to design a mansion on the site of three old brownstones on 63rd Street just off Fifth Avenue. However, the marriage didn't take, and after living in the house for one year, the couple split and he put the place on the market.   The marriage ended on September 9, 1926 when Gladys obtained a divorce in Paris. Six months later he married Miss Helen Martin Murphy, the granddaughter of Edward Murphy, Jr. a United States senator from New York, with whom he moved to 116-118 East 55th Street.

    Soon after the couple left there was a proposal to convert it to a hospital for actors and actresses. A few years later it was acquired by Norman Bailey Woolworth, third cousin of F.W. Woolworth who occupied until the late 40's after when Mr. Woolworth gave it to the New York Academy of Sciences. The Academy originally put the building on the market in 2001, and the Emir of Qatar was reportedly going to purchase the property for $27 million that fall, but the deal eventually fell through. In 2005 the house was purchased by investor Len Blavatnik for $31,250,000. For five weeks in November and December the house is reverted to its former grandeur in the splendid format of a Holiday House.

    

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DEMOLITION AND EVACUATION OF SITE In 1919 the Zeigler's  tore down three brownstones and engaged Sterner & Wolfe to create an Italian Renaissance palazzo for the 75-foot-wide property, one of the last private palaces constructed in the city. The cost was reported to be $1,000,000.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SUB-BASEMENT FLOOR PLAN  The 75-foot-wide, four-story mansion is laid out in a 20,646-square-foot sprawl that includes a basement, a sub-basement and a penthouse.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SHOWING FOOTINGS FOR COURT Ziegler residence. #2-4-6 East 63rd St. N.Y.C.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THE EXTERIOR, EXECUTED IN GEORGIAN MARBLE, IS ITALIAN IN FEELING  The living-room, library, dining-room and stair hall surround a central court, in which there is a fountain. Reversing the usual plan of city houses, it is seventy-five feet wide.

 

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY  Sterner & Wolfe, Architects The building is five stories, in Italian Renaissance style. The interior rooms face a central garden court, in which a great fountain splashes the shrubbery and the flower beds. At night the fountain is illuminated. Throughout the house the doors are of spike-studded oak and bronze, and in the main hall and the foyer the floors are of black and gold marble from Spezia, Italy, and from the Convent of Montarenti, in Tuscany. The ceilings on the main floor are in plaster reliefs, and in the entrance hall stands a sixteenth century Florentine mantel  from Raspannatti House, in Florence..

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects ENTRANCE DOOR The stone facade has a round arched entrance and features large windows with scroll cornices cartouches and a tall iron fence running the entire width of the building.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects ENTRANCE DOOR

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects ENTRANCE DOOR

  

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects FIRST FLOOR PLAN

  

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects FIRST FLOOR PLAN Along the front, the architect put an entry hall on the left and a kitchen and servants’ dining room on the right. Across the middle, there was a living room on the left — 25 feet by 40 feet — followed by 25 feet of open courtyard in the center and the dining room on the right. Across the back were two small garden areas flanking a library.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THE CHARM OF ITALY DOMINATES THE ENTRANCE HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects ENTRANCE HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects ENTRANCE HAL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects STAIR HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects STAIR HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects HALL, VIEW INTO DRAWING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DRAWING ROOM The drawing room was transplanted from a Wood Court Park mansion in London, believed to have been built under the direction of Robert Adam about 1791.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DRAWING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects CHARACTERIZED BY SIMPLICITY, THE GEORGIAN  DRAWING ROOM, WITH PANELED WALLS, HAS AN AIR OF ELEGANCE Besides giving a distinctive appearance to this room, the paneling is interesting in   that it was taken from  a  Port man Street house in London.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DRAWING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DRAWING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DRAWING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DRAWING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THE ITALIAN STYLE ALSO MARKS THE DINING ROOM  The antique furniture, upholstered in Sixteenth Century velvets, and the beautiful carved mantel are admirably set off by the floor of Tunis tile. Perhaps the most striking of all is the dining room, with its vaulted ceiling, its African tile floor and a mantel which was brought from the Piccolomini Palace in Siena, Italy.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NYSterner & Wolfe, Architects DINING ROOM The Italian "style" was changed to an English theme with the later additions of a decorative plaster ceiling and oak paneling and floors.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects DINING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects LIBRARY The walls of the library, of carved English oak, were imported from a Warwickshire house built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THE OUTSTANDING FEATURE OF THE ELIZABETHAN LIBRARY IS THE UNUSUALLY HANDSOME MANTELPIECE  Finished in oak, this room was taken from a house in Warwickshire and retains all its English charm.   The recessed bookcases, with the tasteful decorative scheme and furniture, create a delightful home like effect.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects LIBRARY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects LIBRARY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NYSterner & Wolfe, ArchitectsLIBRARY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects KITCHEN

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects KITCHEN

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects KITCHEN

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects KITCHEN

Add caption

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRWAY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRWAY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRWAY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects  MAIN STAIRWAY The walls, floor and stairs are carried out in travatine stone which, with the decorative ceiling and iron and bronze stair rail, strikes a fine note.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRWAY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRWAY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects STAIRWAY HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects COURT

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects VIEW INTO COURT

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects COURT

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects COURT

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects COURT

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SECOND FLOOR PLAN The second floor was taken up almost entirely by the Zieglers’ separate bedrooms, each with its own dressing room.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SECOND FLOOR PLAN Mr. Ziegler's original bath and dressing room were lost in an alteration.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRS

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRS

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MAIN STAIRS, VIEW TO COURT

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SECOND STORY HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SECOND STORY HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SECOND STORY LANDING

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects SECOND STORY HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MRS. ZIEGLER'S BEDROOM Gladys’ expansive suite comprised a foyer, boudoir, bedroom, and bath.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MRS. ZIEGLER'S BEDROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MRS. ZIEGLER'S BEDROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects VAULTED FOYER

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects PASSAGEWAY

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MRS. ZIEGLER'S BATHROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MRS. ZIEGLER'S BATHROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MRS. ZIEGLER'S BOUDOIR

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MRS. ZIEGLER'S BOUDOIR

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MR. ZIEGLER'S BEDROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MR. ZIEGLER'S BEDROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects MR. ZIEGLER'S DRESSING ROOM

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THIRD FLOOR PLAN Up another flight were the children's rooms, a day nursery, and guest rooms.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NYSterner & Wolfe, Architects THIRD FLOOR PLAN Bedroom No. 2 lost its bathroom when a stairwell was cut into the structure to reach the fourth floor.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THIRD FLOOR STAIRWELL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THIRD FLOOR STAIRWELL AND HALL

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects THIRD FLOOR LANDING

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects GUEST BEDROOM NO. 2

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects CHILD'S ROOM NO. 2

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects FOURTH FLOOR PLAN

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects FOURTH FLOOR PLAN Maids rooms on the forth floor were lost during a 1932 renovation.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects PLAYROOM, FORTH FLOOR After the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping, a large playroom was constructed on the fourth floor.

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects PLAYROOM, FORTH FLOOR

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects PLAYROOM, FORTH FLOOR

THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY Sterner & Wolfe, Architects PENTHOUSE LEVEL

   - Holiday House 2008 - Holiday House 2009 - Holiday House 2010 - Holiday House 2011 - Holiday House 2012 - Holiday House 2013 - Holiday House 2014 - locationdepartment.net -

A  $2,000,000 "THEATRICAL HOSPITAL" The William Ziegler Jr. house at 2 East Sixty-third Street, one of the show places of upper Fifth Avenue, is about to be converted into a hospital for the exclusive use of actors and actresses. Several guest rooms would become $100-a-day hospital suites for the use of wealthy stars. These suites will consist of a bedroom, a reception room for visitors, a private maids' room and nurses' room and also a flower room, in which can be kept floral gifts.

     Ziegler was well known for his sports activities, including yacht racing, show dogs, and breeding, showing, and racing horses. Besides the below pleasures of Mr Zeigler mention of a Canadian cabin "200 miles in the interior of Canada" adds to the list.

     Ziegler's interest in horse breeding and racing soon brought him to Virginia's hunt country, where he bought "Burrland Farm" at the end of 1926 and started one of the area's most successful thoroughbred breeding and training farms.

November 22, 1927

ZIEGLER WILL OCCUPY VIRGINIA ESTATE SOON 

Work of Transforming "Burrland Hall" Into Model Race-Horse Farm About Completed.

The estate comprises about 250 acres and is being developed by Mr. Ziegler into a fine race-horse breeding farm.

Since last March a small army of men has been at work, some of them on night shifts, getting the estate ready for Mr. Ziegler, and, as he desires to eat his Thanksgiving dinner in the remodeled mansion on Thursday, nearly 200 artisans were still engaged today putting the finishing touches to various parts of the estate.

"BURRLAND HALL" When William Ziegler, Jr. bought the property he hired New York architect William Lawrence Bottomley to design a large addition to the house. Bottomley's addition transformed the house into a brick, Georgian Revival mansion with a full-height, Tuscan-columned portico. During the same period, Bottomley designed a Georgian Revival town house for Ziegler in New York City. Bottomley also designed the stable complex on the farm in a similar, Georgian Revival style. The Burrland house was deliberately gutted and burned down in 1961 by then-owner, Eleonora R. Sears of Boston, in an attempt to reduce her property taxes.

     According to all accounts of the day, by 1930 he had built Burrland into one of the best equipped stud farms on the Atlantic Seaboard. BOUNDING HOME, who captured the 1944 Belmont Stakes, was bred here. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ziegler maintained racing stables at Burrland, with colts racing in Mr. Ziegler's name and fillies carrying the scarlet and green silks of Middleburg Stable, the nom de course of Mrs. Ziegler.

   Burrland Farm, Burnt Mill Farm, an adjacent property,  and several small farms were combined to become Hickory Tree Farm in 1966.

"SUNSHINE" Originally a winter estate, it was designed by Willis Irvin and built for William Zeigler in 1927. In 1956 a small group of Aiken friends decided to create a supper club by purchasing the Georgian-style residence. http://www.greenboundaryclub.com/

The dimensions of THE GEM are: Length over all, 163 feet; beam, eighteen feet; draft, seven feet. Contract speed is twenty-two knots, and the engines are two four-cylinder triple expansion steam engines, operated by two water tube boilers using oil fuel.

February 14, 1914

Well named indeed is the steam yacht which this year will carry her owner, Mr. William Zeigler, Jr., and his friends on many a cruise. The vessel is called the Gem. She is perfectly named, just as she was perfectly designed and perfectly constructed. Messrs. Cox & Stevens are the nautical architects.

In addition to using his boat as a pleasure craft, Mr. Ziegler will steam up and down on board his vessel when he proceeds to his affairs of business in Manhattan.

The yacht combines all the requisites of the conventional cruising steam yacht with the requisite speed for express service between New York and Mr. Zeigler's home near Stamford, Conn. She is not a light displacement boat by any means, but is substantially built, has good beam, and is an excellent seaboat. She has two large deckhouses, the forward one containing a very roomy dining saloon, aft of which is the galley, and the after one being a music room with doors opening directly aft to the quarter deck, which is of unusual length and practically clear of obstructions.

The accommodations for the owner and guests are below aft and are surprisingly liberal, the owner himself having a room eleven feet in length the full width of the ship, and communicating with two private bathrooms and a large dressing-room, the stateroom being finished in selected satinwood. At the after end of the vessel is a comfortable double stateroom and between this room and the owner's quarters are three very large single staterooms for guests, one smaller single stateroom which can be used as a maid’s room, and two bathrooms.

The finish in the guests’ quarters throughout is colonial in character, doors, furniture and trim being of mahogany, and bulkheads and side walls of white enamel. All decorations of the yacht are harmonious and have been executed with the greatest care and good taste. All the electric fixtures are of special design and the upholstery and furnishings are rich and handsome.

Setting sail on a 53-foot schooner such as BOUNDING HOME, owned by William Ziegler, Jr. can be a real feat of seamanship in a single-handed race. That's why only top skippers are invited to race in CB&S Creepstakes.

WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR.,  NORTON, CONN.  His father purchased Great Island in 1902 for a summer estate. Ziegler employed more than two hundred men to improve the property. The workers created an enviable estate, complete with a yacht basin, beach, mansion, outbuildings and a polo field. William Ziegler Jr. look up residency during the summer months and continued to improve the property over the course of several years.

William Ziegler Jr. died at 116th East 55th Street March 3rd, 1952.

William Ziegler, Jr. (1891-1958)

WOODLAWN CEMETERY, BRONX, N. Y.

    

    William Ziegler, Sr., founder of the Royal Baking Powder Co., died on May 24, 1905, leaving his wife, Electa Matilda Ziegler, and an adopted nephew and niece, William and Florence Brandt, who were taken in after their parents messy divorce. William C. Brandt legally became William Ziegler, Jr., was 15 and still lived at home when William Sr. died and Florence Louisa Brandt was an adult living on her own. Years earlier Mrs. Ziegler had taken an intense dislike toward Florence and upon reaching adulthood Florence abrogated the adoption. Ziegler Sr.'s will gave Junior the bulk of the estate when he turned 21 on July 21, 1912, and was held in trust until then. It was provided that the payment of the principal of the entire estate should be made to the son in four installments as he reached the ages of 25, 30, 35, and 40 years. Legal questions arose regarding executor and trustee roles after one of the trustees died and petitions were filed by Electa and Florence, who sought to reverse her abrogation on the grounds that her biological mother, Anna Nutting Brandt Haney, never consented to the abrogation. In 1913, when her petition was denied, Florence was a 27-year-old kindergarten teacher in Davenport, Iowa, and William, Jr., inherited $16,500,000. The conflict created ground-breaking case law involving adoption and the abrogation of adoption. 

    In 1907, Ziegler's mother, who had another son who was blind, founded the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind, which soon became the worlds most widely circulated periodical that is printed in braille and a publication that still thrives more than a century later. Upon leaving Harvard, William Jr. bought three apartment buildings on Manhattans Park Avenue through which he "played a major part in the development of that thoroughfare," according to the New York Times.  He subsequently became president of his fathers company, which later became American Maize-Products. 

    Upon Matildas death in 1932, however, William Jr. turned his attention to her pet project, succeeding her as the magazine s publisher and later becoming president of the American Foundation for the Blind. He remained the magazines publisher until his death in 1958. After his death, Helen Keller wrote a letter of tribute to the New York Times for his activities in support of the blind. 

    Frederick Sterner(1862-1931) was a native of England who came to this country in the 1870's. He settled in Denver, Colorado where he practiced architecture for nearly thirty
years. Among his important commissions were the Denver Athletic Club and the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs. In 1909 Sterner moved to New York where he received many commissions for the remodeling of town houses.

"ALADDIN'S PALACE" THE WASHINGTON RESIDENCE OF MR. EDSON BRADLEY, CONNECTICUT AVENUE AND DUPONT CIRCLE, WASHINGTON D. C.

March 16, 2015, 1:00 am

≫ Next: "SEAVIEW TERRACE", THE NEWPORT HOUSE of EDSON BRADLEY

≪ Previous: THE RESIDENCE OF WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., 2 EAST 63RD STREET, NEW YORK, NY

$

0

0

William Galt house at 1328 Connecticut Avenue. “not only one of the finest residences in the city, but one of the pleasantest homes.”

     In 1876, a wealthy local flour merchant by the name of William M. Galt built only the second house that was located directly on Dupont Circle. When Galt’s house at 1328 Connecticut Avenue was complete, the Washington Star described it as “not only one of the finest residences in the city, but one of the pleasantest homes.” When they had finally settled into their magnificent new residence, they began to entertain on a large scale. But Galt and his wife only stayed in the house until 1880, when he sold it to Alexander Graham Bell’s future father-in-law, Gardner Greene Hubbard. Hubbard then remodeled and expanded the house. 

     In 1907, Gardner Greene Hubbard’s widow sold the house at 1328 Connecticut Avenue to a Kentucky whiskey distiller, Edson Bradley, who again remodeled and significantly expanded the house. 

STONELEIGH COURT APARTMENTS Stoneleigh Court cost $1 million when built IN 1905 and its interior was the plushest in Washington. It was once one of the most fashionable hotel residences in the city. The halls were of marble, trimmed with oil-finished birch and oak. The floors were of oak and Alabama pine, and the lobby was finished in marble mosaic. The exterior sported elaborate cornices, and the heating system was considered the latest in comfort. This was the specific design of its owner, John Hay, Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

March 4, 1907

"HUBBARD HOUSE SOLD --  Edson Bradley Dupont Circle Residence -- PRICE SAID TO BE $166,500 New Yorker Acquires Mansion in Heart of Fashionable Section -- Plans to Remodel and Build Valuable Addition to Present Structure -- On Same Block with the British Embassy. One of the largest sales of property that ever has been made in the Dupont Circle section has been closed by the sale of the Gardiner G. Hubbard property to Edson Bradley, of New York City and Tuxedo. The sale was made during the past few days, but no information was given as to the price received or the name of the purchaser until last night. It is understood that the price per square foot was $10, which makes the consideration $166,500. It is said to be Mr. Bradley's intention to remodel and make extensive improvements on the property, besides making a valuable addition on the southern part. The location is said to be one of the finest in the fashionable section of Washington. For several years, Mr. Bradley, who is prominent in financial and social circles in New York, has been making Washington his winter-home having occupied apartments at Stoneleigh Court. He is well know here, having taken an active part in the social life of the city in Millionaire Colony. The property faces Dupont Circle at the juncture of Connecticut Avenue and Nineteenth Street. It was formerly known as the Galt mansion, and consists of an aggregate area of about 16,650 square feet, which is improved by a large residence. It is on the same square with the British Embassy, and is located near other residences of financial and social people. Its situation and the value of the residence have attracted numerous prospective buyers during the last few years."    

    Even after Hubbard's expansion of the original Gait house, it was still not large enough for the Bradleys. Bradley contracted New York architect Howard Greenley to rebuild the house. Entire rooms were purchased and imported intact from France and installed. When the improvements were complete after four years of work, the house covered more than half a city block and featured a Gothic chapel with seating for 150, a large ballroom, an art gallery, a five-hundred-seat theater with an electric action pipe organ and a reception hall on the second floor re-creating a Roman atrium. It was known as "Aladdin's Palace" due to its sheer size and grandiose nature. During the season, famous divas and world-famous musicians gave fortnightly musicales in the theater.

    "The type of the New York millionaire, lavish in entertainment, is best exemplified by the Edson Bradley's. Their magnificent mansion on Connecticut Avenue portrays the fact that neither money nor artistic taste has been spared in either its interior or its exterior decorations."New York Times 1911
    

 THE WASHINGTON RESIDENCE OF MR. EDSON BRADLEY, CONNECTICUT AVENUE AND DUPONT CIRCLE, WASHINGTON D. C. Howard Greenley, Architect

    The house which forms the subject of this article is one of the oldest in the Dupont Circle section of Washington, having been built, approximately, thirty-five years ago. The block on which it stands was originally owned by the British Government, and  was subsequently disposed of to other property holders, the legation buildings themselves being situated at the southern extremity.

ORIGINAL HOUSE BEFORE ALTERATIONS Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

BASEMENT FLOOR PLAN Floor Plan of Old House Before Alterations

FIRST FLOOR PLAN Floor Plan of Old House Before Alterations

SECOND FLOOR PLAN Floor Plan of Old House Before Alterations

    It was required of the architect to perform an alteration to the existing house and make additions thereto of greater extent than the dimensions of the original. The photograph of the house, before alterations, conveys some idea of the problem which had to be solved to produce a result satisfactory in plan and elevation, without modification of the existing lines of the old building. The first question to be decided was the advisability of tearing down the existing house in view of the considerable alterations necessitated and a new building studied from the ground up. From the survey it was apparent that the old house encroached to a considerable extent upon the Nineteenth street building lines. These lines had been determined by the Commissioners of the District at a later period and any constructions prior to these determinations could continue to occupy the additional area. In making a preliminary plan it seemed advisable to consider this area. The additional space secured and the possibility of a more picturesque architectural result in the exterior had sufficient weight to offset the more economic project of demolition and reconstruction and the result appears to have proven the wisdom of this decision.

The lot is triangular in shape with the acute angle of the apex on Dupont Circle and the sides fronting respectively on Connecticut Avenue and Nineteenth Street.

    The lot is triangular in shape with the acute angle of the apex on Dupont Circle and the sides fronting respectively on Connecticut Avenue and Nineteenth Street. The disregard of the building lines on Nineteenth Street makes possible a room of ample dimensions on all floors, as will be seen in the plans. Therefore, any new building would necessarily set back many feet further from the apex until sufficient area was subtended by the side of the triangle to permit of the same width now existent; certainly a disadvantage.


    The materials generally used in the construction of the original house were red pressed brick with trimmings of sandstone, surmounted by a semi-Gothic cornice of galvanized iron. Chimneys of top-heavy design soared from the roof, and excrescences of wood and metal projected here and there as porches or conservatories. It was conceived in a style of architecture which flourished in the Victorian era, similar in all respects to the lamentable Eastlake style of furniture, but in this instance executed as the facade of a building. Notwithstanding the lack of taste in the architectural detail the old house bore itself with dignity. Its interesting silhouette of roof and its quiet and unobtrusive color in a setting of old trees, lawns and shrubbery was distinctly agreeable. It was a familiar corner to those who lived in the neighborhood and it seemed worth while to preserve the sentiment attached to the site and surroundings. So it is that while a change has been effected and a larger building occupies the site, there is no abrupt transition to disturb the passer-by as might easily have happened by the intrusion of a new house in all the glare and uncompromising whiteness of marble.

Basement Plan, Showing Alterations and Additions Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

First Floor Plan, Showing Alterations and Additions Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

Second Floor Plan, Showing Alterations and Additions Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    After this important preliminary had been decided and the plans determined, the next step in the problem was the selection of a style for the treatment of the exterior which would best adapt itself to the plan, not only to the necessary substitutions in the remodeling of the old part, but also that the new and the old should harmonize to produce a definite ensemble. It was evident that any treatment of brick and stone could best be developed in the style of the French Renaissance. The roof of the old house was strongly suggestive of the style, and when connected with the lofty roof of the south pavilion by the long ridge showing on the Connecticut Avenue elevation, produced a most effective sky-line. The diversity of detail in this style, its adaptability to a wide variation in the silhouette of the plan, and the absence of any of the well defined rules of composition occurring in the purely classic, permitted the architect a much greater latitude than would otherwise have been obtainable. As a result, a picturesque and old-world charm has been secured, comparable to an intelligent restoration of some chateau of the period.

NORTH ELEVATION, SHOWING ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

Edson Bradley's remodeled Gardiner Greene Hubbard's home on Dupont Circle in 1907. Samuel Carter's house is to the left, and beyond that is Phillips Row.

CONNECTICUT AVENUE ELEVATION Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

CONNECTICUT AVENUE ELEVATION, SHOWING ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

DETAIL OF ENTRANCE, CONNECTICUT AVENUE, Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

CONNECTICUT AVENUE FACADE Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

DETAIL OF CONNECTICUT AVENUE FACADE Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

SOUTH ELEVATION, SHOWING ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

REAR ELEVATION SOUTHWEST CORNER Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

19TH STREET ELEVATION, SHOWING ALTERATIONS AND ADDITIONS Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    There were many problems to be solved during the course of the work of alteration and re-construction. Careful experiment was necessary to determine the scale of the detail, the proper elevations of the new stone cornices and courses, and finally the amount of stone to be used in contrast with the brick. The result of all this study and experiment was, first, to imitate the old brick work as closely as possible, and permit such discrepancies in color and texture to become gradually effaced by the effect of time and weather: secondly, to use stone sparingly, its use being restrained to constructive purposes for the most part only, as, for example, in the sills and lintels, parapets and balustrades, etc. The use of quoins was almost entirely eliminated except where necessary to tie into the brick work some projecting motive, such as balcony or oriel window. Indiana limestone was selected to replace throughout the original sandstone. The reveals of the windows were but four inches in depth, making the substitution of the new stone lintels and sills comparatively easy. The old brickwork was carefully removed and built in around the new stone work and any remaining amount preserved for distribution in the walls of the addition. The architect was fortunate in being able to avail himself generally throughout the first floor of a quantity of very unusual old stained glass, which by rare chance required no alteration to fit the windows except in the clear leaded field surrounding it. In the other windows the quaint and curious designs in the leading of the field of the stained glass were utilized. The effect of the glass, the slight reveal, and the delicate carving of the stone ornament makes of each window a very beautiful detail in the dull rose color of the brickwork. Canopied niches occur over the great arched entrances to shelter antique stone statuettes which the owner proposes to secure for the purpose. Sculptured grotesque and gargoyles appear unexpectedly and a frieze of dancing children attractively decorates one of the members of the oriel window corbel. The roof is of heavy dark blue slate of narrow width, and the crestings, gutters and leaders of bronze or heavy copper.

    The interior reconstruction presented perhaps the greater difficulties.   It was found necessary to remove everything except the floor beams. Old plumbing and gas piping was torn out and the whole house literally cleaned down to the brickwork.

    Many unforeseen conditions presented themselves. It was found that three additions had been made to the original house, and the contractors had neglected the ordinary precaution of honing the new brickwork into the old. After the old plaster had been removed, it was possible to look out of doors through these apertures in the walls.

    The plans of the basement and the first and second stories of the new and old house are illustrated. It will be seen that the entrance to the house is from the driveway passing under the first floor and running from Connecticut Avenue to Nineteenth Street, and finished in white enameled brick and terra cotta.

IRON ENTRANCE DOOR IN RESIDENCE OF EDSON BRADLEY ESQ., WASHINGTON, D. C. MADE BY  Wm. H. Jackson Company

ENTRANCE VESTIBULE  Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

DETAIL OF VESTIBULE CEILING Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

DETAIL OF VESTIBULE CEILING Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq., Newport, R. I.

Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

     The entrance vestibule, a part of which was originally the old laundry, is wainscoted in Italian walnut in color to match the elaborately carved choir stalls shown in the illustration. The floor is of Istrian and Numidian marble with an inset panel of Hispano Moresque and Rouen tile. On account of the limited height available the ceiling was designed in low relief and decorated in dull gold and polychrome, with a wood back-ground of soft old blue. It will be noted that there are small panels inserted in the wainscot below the cornice line. These, with many other rare and curious antique carvings of the renaissance period in carved gilt and polychrome wood had been collected by the owner in the course of many years’ travel and are actually built into the woodwork of the rooms, forming an essential part in their embellishment. In order that the magnitude of the work of using this collection may be appreciated, it was necessary for the architect to photograph and catalogue some three hundred objects; some three thousand tile of different varieties, and, additionally, the furniture, tapestries and stained glass as well as obtain the dimensions.

STAIR HALL AT ENTRANCE TO EAST GALLERY Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    From the vestibule one passes up to the first floor by the great staircase at the end, arriving in the great hall designated as the East Gallery with a length of sixty feet and a width of eighteen feet.

    One feature especially noticeable is the beautiful reception hall on the second floor, a representation of a Roman atrium. Chairs of the muses, tapestries, tablinums, vases, real Pompelian ones at that, were all collected abroad at an enormous cost. There is no jarring note. The floors are made of Egyptian wood laid in tiles.

EAST GALLERY Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    The ceiling of this room is particularly noteworthy, being an extraordinary example of Italian renaissance wood carving and decorating known to have been the work of some Lombard artist of the sixteenth century. This great gallery forms the principal circulation of the first floor of the house connecting with the main stair hall and the elevator of access to the upper stories: to the porcelain room at the north end, the dining room at the side, and the music room at its southern end. A glance at the plan of the old house and of the house as remodeled may be found of interest in observing the general arrangement of the rooms of this floor and the manner in which the present plan was developed. The owner’s requirements were, as will be seen, that the rooms should be of ample dimension. Fortunately, the ceilings throughout the old house were high, being something over fourteen feet in the first floor, thus creating an excellent proportion in the present rooms. It is the usual custom that nothing in the way of furniture or hangings be allowed to interfere with architectural lines in the design of house interiors. In the instance of this house, the architecture has been subordinated to the furnishings with perhaps one or two exceptions where the designation of the room seemed to require the reverse condition. The effect of this subordination and absence of wall treatment is not unpleasing, serving as it does to display to better advantage the owner’s extraordinary collection of tapestries, rich velvet and embroidered textiles and furniture. The architecture is to be found in the ceilings or the embellishment of doors and windows and is in itself composed of antique panels, mouldings, columns, friezes, entablatnres and the like, all of which in their delightful tonality of ancient gilt and polychrome furnish an admirable background for the textiles and other rare objects of early art.

    The main stairhall occupies the same position as in the old house, but the stair itself was entirely remodeled and five beautiful old gilt Corinthian columns used as newel posts with a rail of wrought iron, beautifully executed after an ancient rail discovered in Arezzo, Italy.

PORCELAIN ROOM Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    The Porcelain Room is at the extreme north end of the house, looking over Dupont Circle. Here the walls are hung with a soft green silk material, an agreeable background for the great Italian renaissance mantel. The porcelains from which the room takes its name are displayed in cabinets and furnish an extraordinary color note, particularly in the Rose and Peachblow families and the black Hawthorns. The ceiling, although modern, has been so designed and decorated that it appears to be of real antiquity, the effect being obtained by the use of boards of different widths for the panels; a treatment with acids after the wood had been fired and the charred surface removed and finally the painted decoration laid in with water color.

DINING ROOM Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

DINING ROOM WITH VIEW PASSAGE TO WEST GALLERY Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    The Dining Room was originally two apartments. By the removal of the partition between it was possible to secure a dimension of nineteen by thirty—six feet in the present arrangement. It is panelled from the floor to the ceiling in oak and hung entirely with tapestries. with the exception of the fireplace and window end of the room. An old portrait by Coello over the mantel, fragments of antique glass and the extraordinary color and variety in the old tapestries and hangings, give that indispensable air of dignity to the room. The ceiling is of plaster of geometric tracery pattern, in detail similar to the ceiling of the long gallery in Haddon Hall. The color of the oak in the panelling has been carefully studied and a soft bone gray tint has been secured without any of the disagreeable yellow tones usually observed.

MANTEL IN WEST GALLERY Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

DETAIL OF WEST GALLERY CEILING Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    From the Dining Room one passes at the left through a corridor into a large room, sixteen by thirty-two feet, known as the West Gallery. This is in the new portion of the house and is directly over the driveway. The mantel and the ceiling of this room are both composed of old wood carvings in the owner’s collection, adapted to their present purpose. The color scheme in general is furnished by antique green and early Genoese “Jardiniere” velvets in combination with the gold and polychrome of the ceiling and woodwork. Over the mantel hangs a medallion by Andrea della Robbia and at the side a figure of the Virgin and child by Verrochio, both very rare specimens.

DETAIL DOOR FROM MUSIC ROOM TO WEST GALLERY Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

MUSIC ROOMThe music room, back of the atrium, large as an ordinary drawing room, is a complete museum of musical instruments, including an electric pipe organ. Here fortnightly during the season famous divas and world-famous musicians give musicals that are notable for their artistic merit. Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

MANTEL IN MUSIC ROOM Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

    Both the East and West Galleries communicate with the Music Room, which is by far the most important apartment of the first floor. In dimension it is thirty by sixty feet, with an elliptical arched ceiling eighteen feet in height. In order that the acoustic properties might be properly satisfied in addition to the sentiment of the architect in the design of the decoration, the ceiling has been suspended from girders located in partitions just below the level of the third floor, and by this means avoiding the use of heavy beams spanning the ceiling. The scale of all of the detail, in the wood and in the plaster has been kept very fine and the prevailing color note is white throughout. The only color in the room is that furnished by the furniture and the tapestries with the metallic gold of the great bronze and crystal lustres and side brackets. The floor is of white mahogany of geometric pattern seen in the great apartments of the French chateaux and furnishes by its dull yellow tone a further note of color to the advantage of the room.

The house was expanded again in 1911, with the addition of a private, 500-seat theater for the Bradley’s to host live productions for their guests.  Social columns written in 1908 claimed that Mrs. Bradley denied the existence of the theater, not wanting to boast about their opulence, in what must be the first home theater of its kind in America. The theatre is now a part of the library of "Seaview Terrace".

     Metropolitan opera stars performed in the theatre/ballroom and jazz was performed for the first time in Washington, D.C. at the Bradley’s Connecticut Avenue residence. Special trains from New York came to Washington for parties and musicals at the Bradley house.

VIEW IN ORATORY LOOKING TOWARDS THE ENTRANCE Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

ORATORY VIEW OF ALTAR AND RETABLE Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C.

Ceiling in Oratory in Residence of Edson Bradley, Esq. , Washington D. C. Decorations executed by Mack,  Jenny and Tyler 15-17 West 38th Street New York City

    At one extremity is an alcove with the great mantel. On the right is the organ and on the left a doorway leading into a tower staircase communicating on the second floor with the owner’s private apartments and on the third floor with a den or library consecrated to his individual use. Perhaps the most extraordinary room of this floor is a chapel or oratory, entered through a door concealed great tapestry on the south wall of the music room. Its purpose is entirely for the exhibition of a most extraordinary collection of old ecclesiastical carvings in gilt and polychrome, in early Gothic and Renaissance, and of sixteenth century stained glass. The floor contains a most unusual panel of tile, forming a great carpet or rug of brilliant color iridescence, in which are to be found examples of Rhodian, Damascus, Tunisian and Hispano Moresque tile. Another unusual collection of tile is seen in the great arched door in which old blue and gold Rouen tile of the fifteenth century forms a border and softit panel. The great altar at the chancel end of the oratory is probably the most striking feature, but the wings of the great screen at either side, still lack a series of figures at the top to carry them to the ceiling line. Provision has been made by a system of speaking tubes over the organ and terminating high up in the side walls of the oratory so that the sound of the organ is conveyed with diminished intensity and produces a startling effect.

    The second floor of the house is devoted entirely to the living apartments of the owner and his guests. Here a certain architectural scheme of decoration has been carried out, the walls of the room being paneled and hung with silk textile of pale green or yellow tones. The woodwork has been painted white and the doors are finished to a dull surface in light brown mahogany. The mantels are of white or Istrian marble, with the exception of two early English mantels in wood of the period of Grinling Gibbons, and an extraordinary polychrome mantel of the Italian renaissance period.

    The third floor of the house is given over to the servants’ quarters with the exception of the owner’s den and a guest room at the north end of the building. The finish of the house throughout has been carried out with extreme care; the best of materials having been employed and no attempt made to carry the work on with the haste which usually results in subsequent repairs to the plaster and the painted work. In fact, there are no cracks whatsoever to be observed in the plaster of any of the rooms, after a period of a year from the date of the completion of the work.

    The bath rooms are tiled throughout with non-crazing tile with door trims and window sills of white marble.

    The kitchen, laundry and pantries are also wainscoted in tile with rubber tiling on the floors and the balance finished in white enamel, creating not only an appearance of cleanliness but perfect sanitation.

     The heating of the house is by hot water and is both direct and indirect. The air for the indirect supply is obtained from the driveway through a large bronze grille, by this means securing a constant atmospheric pressure. Where direct radiation is used, the radiators are concealed by panel backs under the windows, avoiding interference with the curtains and the generally unsightly appearance of exposed radiators.

    The hot water supply of the house has been made specially adequate: a boiler of some four or five hundred gallons capacity being heated by a special furnace and located in the same room with the heating plant, so that the care of the two systems is thus simplified. By this means a constant supply of hot water is insured throughout the house, not matter what the draught may be upon the system in the service departments.

    Whatever the success of the result obtained by the architect it is largely due to the interest displayed at all times by the owner and his intelligent and generous co-operation. Without this encouragement it seems probable that the work of alteration could not have advanced to its logical conclusion. It is believed that the house as it stands to-day presents a certain charm which is the direct result of the careful study expended thereon and conveys the appearance of having been built very many years, which makes it all the more livable and homelike in its first impression.

HEINIGKE AND BOWEN Maker of All New Leaded Glass and Setting for Antiques, Residence for Edson Bradley

   

    Almost instantly the Bradleys became a regular item on the society pages of Washington newspapers. Edson’s daughter, Julia, had a splashy and well publicized “coming out” party in 1894 that drew a crowd of the rich and powerful to the castle.

   In August 1922, the Bradleys' sixty-room summer home near Syracuse, New York, was destroyed by fire. The Bradleys were able to escape to safety aboard their yacht. Nothing but the stone walls of the house were left standing. Finding themselves now without a proper summer home, the Bradleys decided to move from Washington to Newport, Rhode Island—not just themselves, but their entire house as well.

In the 1920's, Bradley had much of the house dismantled and shipped to an oceanfront property in Newport, Rhode Island, where it was rebuilt, larger and grander than before and then named “Seaview Terrace”. The current building on the Dupont Circle site, originally built as an apartment building, dates from 1926.

    The Bradleys had their Dupont Circle house dismantled and shipped to the new location in Newport over the course of two years. A preexisting Elizabethan Revival mansion named "Seaview Terrace" was already on the new Newport site, and the Bradleys' Dupont Circle house was incorporated into its design. Work on the exterior continued for two years and required the use of many railroad cars and trucks and was one of the largest buildings ever to be moved in this manner. Rooms that had been imported intact from France and first installed in Washington, D.C., twenty years earlier were moved again and reassembled in Newport, and the new building was constructed around them. The project cost over $2 million, and when it was completed, it was the largest privately owned summer cottage of the Gilded Age.

    The abandoned shell of the old Bradley house stood until 1931 when the Dupont Circle Building was constructed.    

MRS. EDSON BRADLEY

      Mrs. Bradley became famous for what was dubbed the "American Beauty Ball" which has taken its place in the social history of Washington. She used so many 'American Beauty' roses to decorate the house for the dance that the market for the flowers was exhausted for days afterward.American  In the great ballroom, with its hangings of gobelin tapestry, were floral decorations reminding one of Italian cities. In the centre of the ballroom a huge fountain played, giving out a myriad of colors. Around this were placed huge growing rose trees ladened with blossoms, in each four corners of the room an arbor of American beauties was formed, and in each bower there played a fountain. Long lanes of American beauty rose trees were formed from each arbor, and rustic seats were placed along the sides. Here the dancers promenaded and sat out the dances. In the music room jardinieres as large as tubs were effectively placed and filled with American beauty roses.

    In 1890 Edson purchased property from the Tuxedo Park Association and built "Garnwill". He sold his estate to Thomas H. Brown in 1931. The Bradley property is now vacant land, demolished in the late 1930's. Stables from the estate survive.

154 EAST 70TH STREET "one of the city's show places", was the home of Stephen H. Brown (1864-1917) and his wife who were active in society and collectors of medieval art. The son of Vernon H. Brown, head of the Cunard Steamship Company, Brown was a member of Vernon C. Brown & Co. and for many years Governor of the New York Stock Exchange. Later in the life of Edson Bradley it became his city home. The house was converted to educational uses in 1932. Manhattan High School for Girls

In 1929 Edson Bradley purchased "Caprice" from Mrs. Henry P. Tailer in Roslyn, L. I., renaming estate "Silver Maples". He was leasing the property by 1931. E. Belcher Hyde, Inc. 1927

"SILVER MAPLES" "Silver Maples" is wedged between  "Claraben Court" at the top of this view and  "Lynrose" at the bottom. At the right is the former Willets estate, now the Engineers Country Club.  Stony Brook University Libraries 1938

BING VIEW Remnants of foundations and garden walls can still be seen.

August 15, 1930

"20-Room Suite in River House Purchased by Edson Bradley

A triplex maisonette of twenty-rooms in River House, with a private garden and separate driveway, has been purchased by Edson Bradley for occupancy by himself and his daughter, Mrs. Herbert L. Shipman, widow of the Suffragan Bishop. The house is being erected by James Stewart & Co. on the East River blockfront from Fifty-second to Fifty-third Street. The plans for the apartment were drawn by Bottomley, Wagner & White, architects, and provide for drawing room, dining room and foyer with fourteen-foot ceilings. The third floor of the maisonette will extend the entire depth of the building, terminating on the riverfront in a large library."

    "Arcadia" was built in 1915 on the north side of Wellesley Island. At nearly 300 feet long, it was the largest bungalow-style building ever erected.  The property is now part of Wellesley Island State Park. Besides the Thousand Island bungalow the Bradley's had a houseboat with the same name. The hundred-foot length and seventeen-foot beam of the houseboat provided seven staterooms and three baths, with hot and cold water in every room. "Wahtoke" was their yacht they sheltered in after the fire. Earlier yachts owned by the couple were the "Oswegatchie" and the "Klotawah".

    Edson Bradley died in London on June 20, 1935 traveling with his daughter.    

"SEAVIEW TERRACE", THE NEWPORT HOUSE of EDSON BRADLEY

March 24, 2015, 3:00 pm

≫ Next: MRS. EDWARD B. McLEAN

≪ Previous: "ALADDIN'S PALACE" THE WASHINGTON RESIDENCE OF MR. EDSON BRADLEY, CONNECTICUT AVENUE AND DUPONT CIRCLE, WASHINGTON D. C.

$

0

0

           

                            - CLICK TO PLAY APPROPRIATE BACKGROUND MUSIC -

Edson Bradley's ''Seaview Terrace'' estate, Newport, RI

   

Edson Bradley's ''Seaview Terrace'' estate, Newport, RI

"Seaview Terrace", Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

ARTS & DECORATIONS MARCH, 1924  COVER DESIGN: "The Bird Merchant", by J. M. Sert One of eight canvas panels for the Spanish castle by Addison Mizner for J. M. Cosden, Palm Beach

The house of Edson Bradley, of Newport, R. I. This building is finished in chalk-white stucco, with limestone trim reminiscent of old Normandy.

The Newport House of Edson Bradley
Executed in the Style of an Old Manor House in Normandy By HOWARD GREENLY

Ruggles Avenue Entrance Gate, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

HIS house will be, when complete, a study in archaeology of an architect's own work. In many instances owners have leaned toward examples of English or Continental Architecture in the design of country seats which have inspired more or less exact copies, and in many instances these have fitted into alien surroundings with a certain felicity. Modern sentiment in design abroad rather scores our archaeological tendencies as reactionary and unproductive of progress in art, and in architecture. As a matter of fact there is no present progress in art, nor has there been relative progress for centuries. What is evident is a general progress in appreciation of beauty and things of the spirit, and inspiration derived from monuments of the past, excelling in design and in craftsmanship, have been responsible for this spiritual growth of artistic appreciation.

    In 1907 and covering a period of four or five years of various additions, the writer altered and remodeled the old Gardiner Hubbard house in Washington, on Dupont Circle, for Mr. Bradley. The existing house, dating from the early seventies, was of red face brick trimmed with sandstone in what has come to be known as the Mid-Victorian manner and American interpretation. The alteration adhered to the lines of the existing walls, making use of the red brick and introducing limestone as a trim in plain or ornamented courses, quoins, corbels, cornices, etc., with carved enrichment in the manner of the French Renaissance architecture, where the Gothic merged into the classic
detail of Italian derivation. The use of stained and other leaded glass in the windows contributed to the stylization effect of the ensemble. The house might have been considered as archaeological in point of its detail and in its composition and silhouette, but was in no sense a copy of an ancient structure either in plan or in elevation.

    All of this material has been for the last fifteen years undergoing a natural weathering process adding greatly to its interest. And when the owner determined to abandon his Washington home and develop his property in Newport, it was decided to remove from the Washington house the most interesting of the stone work, wrought iron, and stained glass, and build the new house around this collection of the architect's earlier contribution to archaeology.

    On the Newport site existed the old Kernochan residence, a structure of brick and half timber with enriched gables reminiscent of the Elizabethan manner. With various changes in the silhouette of roofs and gables and the re-employment of the half timber considered merely as weathered material, this house has been incorporated into the new structure. A new wing has been added to the southwest, and a service wing to the north, and the great tower, virtually removed in its entirety from Washington, makes an interesting turning point between the new southwest wing and the south facade of the old house. It was determined to finish the exterior walls in a chalk-white stucco with the limestone trim reminiscent of the smaller chateaux and manor houses of Normandy or of Touraine in place of the red brick walls in the Washington house. Half timber will be used sparingly in certain gables and overhangs to convey the impression of additions carried out at various periods. The roofs of the high-pitched type characteristic of the style will be covered with dark, variegated slate laid with certain graduations of thickness and exposure, but not emphasized in point of picturesque irregularity associated with roofs done in the English manner. Wide balustraded terraces to the south and east at levels varying with the change in levels of the old and new first stories will give a sense of structural repose between the house and the lawns and gardens. The property is fortunate in the quantity and quality of its trees—beech, tulip, maple, and elms existing in admirable locations and massing.

    The interiors of the house are designed with relation to the collections of the owner, which number tapestries, porcelains, furniture, and carpets of the first importance; besides which there are examples of ancient wood panelings and carved ornament to be incorporated into the general scheme of interior decoration.

The great entrance hall is shown with its windows of fourteenth century stained glass and its high gallery of carved and polychromed oak and Spanish chestnut. The beautiful space is lighted with hanging wrought iron Medieval Italian lantern's

    In such case is the great entrance hall reproduced herewith from the architect's drawing. The room will be done in rough plaster with limestone trim, a flagged floor with an inset of a Persian tile panel in iridescent glazes upon which will fall the light of a great window in the western wall filled with stained glass of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The ceiling will be of patterned plaster carried on great wood beams with polychrome decoration in the Italian manner, very low in tone. At the east end is the gallery in carved and polychromed oak and Spanish chestnut, giving access from the owner's apartments in the southwest wing to the stair hall and the east body of the house. The walls will be hung in tapestries and rare fabrics and the room will be lighted with big wrought-iron Medieval Italian lanterns suspended from the ceiling.  

North Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Northwest side, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Northwest side, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Porte-Cochère, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

South Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

South Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

East Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

East Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Southeast view, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Southeast view, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Southeast view,, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Southeast view, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

South Terrace, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Stained-glass window on tower, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

View showing tower, chapel and recessed porch of the breakfast room.

South side, East Terrace, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

South side, East Terrace, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Stained-glass window on tower, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Wrought-iron light fixture on tower, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Gable, South Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Gable, South Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Gable detail, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

East Terrace, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Niche on East Terrace, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Carving detail, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Approach to the East Terrace, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Carved balustrade,East Terrace, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Sitting Room Bay Window,  Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

West Front, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The tower on the southwest corner has a spiral staircase that connects the master bedroom suite with the grounds below.

Southwest corner, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Door to Small Tower, South West Angle, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Southwest corner, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Southwest cornerr, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Connecting the west wing to the original structure is a Gothic-style staircase and a round reception room.

Porte-Cochère, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Vestibule, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Vestibule, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Newport Through Its Architecture  - "The cavernous halls and antiquarian rooms of Sea View Terrace lack the polish of the other palatial mansions on Ochre Point. They seem redolent of clanging chains, medieval jousts, and noisy banquets. Dutch sixteenth-century stained glass, ornamented with Renaissance armorial designs, adds a quasi-ecclesiastical air. Close inspection reveals that each window amalgamates fragments of glass from disparate contexts, assembling them somewhat illogically into the equivalent of stained-glass patchwork quilts—not uncommon among glass collections of the era. As known from period photographs, the now-lost original furnishings included bearskin rugs, hunting trophies, Renaissance cassone or chests, wrought-iron torcheres, Chippendale chairs, arms and armor, and exotic hanging lamps."

The Great Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Hall is 38-foot-high and has a floor with Hispano-Morcsque floor tiles.

The stained glass in this window has been assembled to create a “gothic” effect regardless of provenance.

THE FLAGELLATION The panel originally belonged to the cycle of the Passion of Christ a section of the New Testament window still extant in situ in the Milan Cathedral.

Stained glass window from the Camelite Church at Boppard-on-the-Rhine

Outside view of  the Great Hall.

The Great Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Hall and passageway into the Drawing Room.

Passageway looking from the Great Hall through the Chapel into the Breakfast Room.

Passageway looking from the Great Hall through the Chapel into the Breakfast Room.

Passageway leading from Chapel into the Great Hall.

The Great Stairway, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Stairway, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Stairway, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Great Stairway, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Drawing Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Drawing Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

English Renaissance-style decorative plaster ceiling and a fifteenth-century French stone fireplace surmounted by a carved Byzantine over-mantel from the twelfth century.

The Stair Hall was originally part of the Kernochan structure. The eastern end was extended to create the largest space in the new house, the Solarium

 

The sculpted wooden and gesso ceiling was moved from the Bradley's Washington D. C. home, "Aladdin’s Palace".

Stair Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Stair Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Stair Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Stair Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Window detail, Stair Hall, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Breakfast Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Breakfast Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Chapel doorway into Breakfast Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Chapel, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Outside view of chapel window and recessed porch of the breakfast room.

Entrance to Dining Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Dining Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

    The paneled main dining room has a Tudor strapwork ceiling, sixteenth-century Flemish tapestries, and English Chippendale style furniture.

Outside view of dining room and the "Great" stairway windows.

Inside view of the Great Stairway window.

The solarium has a terra-cotta-tiled floor and a wall fountain backed by decorative tiles. Used as a dining hall during the Salve years.

Wall Fountain, Solarium, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

Solarium with windows facing the sea.

Fireplace Alcove, Solarium, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Music Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Music Room, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The Music Room had a mixture of Louis XVI and Robert Adam detailing.

Service Wing, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

The upper levels of the service wing contained twenty-three staff bedrooms that shared four bathrooms.

   

Servants' Porch, windows of the Music Room in the background.

Kitchen, Residence of Mr. Edson Bradley, Newport, Rhode Island Howard Greenley, Architect, New York

    The second floor contained a master suite of two bedrooms, a sitting room, two bathrooms, a dressing room, and a room for Mrs. Bradley's personal maid. An additional five bedrooms were on this level, embellished with carved woodwork and antique marble fireplaces. Located on the third floor were five guest rooms, storage rooms and a trunk room. 

https://www2.bc.edu/~kuchar/collinwood.htm

"The upper floors seem to have been totally made over to the point that very little of the original architecture remains...., just imagine a typical college dorm hallway: dented walls, pealing institutional off-white paint, dark worn carpeting, stapled posters on doors and walls."

    On the surrounding property were greenhouses, a garage for six cars (with rooms for the chauffeur), a separate seven-room staff cottage, and the original stable that was converted into a garage for an additional ten automobiles.

The gate located on Marine Avenue was originally the main entrance. These gates opened to a long, winding drive that created the illusion of a much larger estate.

http://www.seaviewterrace.org/index.html

"Along the Cliff Walk in Newport, Rhode Island, 'Seaview Terrace', also known as the Carey Mansion, stands as the largest privately owned Summer Cottage of the Gilded Age.  At approximately 40,000 square feet, it is the fifth largest of the Newport mansions, only after the 'Breakers', 'Ochre Court', 'Belcourt Castle' and 'Rough Point'. 

Ripley’s Believe it or Not

     The majority of the house was originally built in DuPont Circle in Washington, DC by liquor baron Edson Bradley in 1907, taking 4 years to complete. The house occupied an entire city block and was  known as 'Aladdin’s Palace', due to its sheer size and grandiose nature.  The Bradleys then decided to move to a Newport, Rhode Island in February of 1923. They had the house dismantled and shipped to the new location over the next two years, accomplishing what is believed to be one of the largest homes to be relocated by road and rail. This remarkable feat was featured on Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

     Howard Greenly, the architect of 'Seaview Terrace', won several awards for his work on the French Gothic chateau in 1928, including the Second Mention for General Work by the Architectural League of New York and the President’s medal from the American League of Architects.  Greenly incorporated the pre-existing Elizabethan-Revival mansion into the house, which had been owned by James Kernochan and known as 'Sea View'.  The earlier 'Sea View' is still visible, encased in the East Wing of the house and was renamed 'Seaview Terrace'. The roofline of the turrets and conical domes were derived from 'Chambord', a famous French Renaissance chateau in the Loire Valley, and impart a picturesque unity to the whole. 

     A housewarming was held in the summer of 1925, as Greenly continued to move rooms fully intact from France, as well as contents of the DuPont Circle house for installation at the seaside locale. At the end of that year, the 63 room manor was completed at a cost of two million dollars. It featured a chapel, whispering gallery, an Esty  organ and Dutch sixteenth century stained glass, ornamented with Renaissance armoral design. Included in the stained glass collection is the ‘Flagellation’ circa 1545, which is documented in the national archives. Original furnishings included bearskin rugs, hunting trophies, Renaissance cassones, wrought iron torcheres, Chippendale chairs, arms and armor and exotic hanging lamps.

     In January of 1930, the Bradley’s daughter, Julie Fay Bradley Shipman, was deeded the property by her father, the same year her husband, Rt. Rev. Herbert Shipman, the protestant Episcopal bishop of New York and a World War I army chaplain passed away.  

    ***On August 17th, 1941 a  "Ball for Britain", the last major social event held at the house was attended by eight hundred patrons.***
    

October 26, 1941

"NEWPORT MANSION TO GO AT AUCTION French Chateau of the Late Edson Bradley Will Be Offered Nov. 29 ANTIQUE PIECES INCLUDED Fifty - Room  Residence Was Erected by the Noted Art Collector in 1925."

How Newport Became America's Richest Resort

"The customary assortment of expensive tapestries and paintings found plenty of buyers. But the highest offer on the house was only $25,000, and that came from a Providence man who was rumored to be a gambler, so Shipman turned him down." 


    
     On July 24,1942 the City of Newport took title due to back taxes and during World War II, the house served as army officer’s quarters.

    In 1949 Edward J. Dunn bought the property for $8000, transferring title to Mrs. George Waldo Emerson Sr., who in turn leased it to Lloyd H. Hatch, making it headquarters for The Hatch School during the fall and spring semesters from 1951-1961. During the summers, Mrs. Emerson Sr. operated Burnham-by-the-Sea, a private all-girls boarding school which ran in association with the Mary Burnham School for Girls in Northampton, MA. After the Hatch school vacated the property  it was then rented to The Newport School for Girls  who enjoyed their summers there until the early 1970's. 

     During 1966-1971 the  turreted profile became the icon for the cult classic TV show 'Dark Shadows', which continues to draw thousands of loyal fans annually."  

THE ARCHITECT MAY 1928

                                                - Josettes Music Box From Dark Shadows -

     "In 1945 cities from around the world were invited to promote themselves as the ideal site for the new location of the United Nations Headquarters. 'Ochre Court', 'Seaview Terrace' and 'The Breakers' would serve as offices and embassies, and a plethora of underutilized and abandoned mansions throughout Newport would be available for purchase. The international search committee rejected all proposals and chose free Rockefeller land in New York City for the headquarters." By Newport Historical Society


    "In 1974 the estate was bought by Martin Carey, brother of former New York governor Hugh Carey, who dreamed of finding oil off George's Bank and reportedly bought this for his oil company headquarters. Not finding oil he leased the property to Salve Regina University for use as a dormitory." Rogues and Heroes of Newport's Gilded Age By Edward Morris 

"Seaview_Terrace"

 "The mansion's Drawing Room, used by the university for performances and practice, was renamed Cecilia Hall, for the patron saint of music (Saint Cecilia). During the 1980's 'Seaview Terrace' housed the American syndicate of The Americas Cup.

On August 31, 2009, Salve Regina University terminated the lease with the Carey family. 

The Syfy network featured the mansion in the first season, second episode of its paranormal reality show Stranded on March 6, 2013.

'Seaview Terrace' is privately owned and is not open for tours or tourist visits." 

    The Rhode Show interview with the author of IN THE SHADOW OF A NEWPORT MANSION.

    Stranded (TV Series) "Seaview Terrace" (2013) Plot Summary.

   wikimapia.org LOCATION. BING.   

    Flickr - Carey Mansion, Pinterest - Burnham by the Sea, Pinterest - Collinwood, Pinterest - Dark Shadows, http://seaviewcares.org/.