MRS. EDWARD B. McLEAN

March 26, 2015, 1:00 am

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Mrs. McLean, who was, before her marriage, Miss Evelyn L. Walsh, is one of Washington's most distinguished hostesses. The far-famed Hope diamond now occupies an important place in Mrs. McLean's notable collection of jewels.

THE  FIRST  GOWN

 Erte's description of this month's cover translated from the French.

   THE eternal story of the first temptation always interested me, and I used to try to decide on which chords of the feminine soul the Prince of Darkness had to play, when disguised as a serpent, in order to make woman fail into the abyss of disobedience to the Creator's laws.

   Once I dreamed of our ancestor, Eve, and this is what I saw: The serpent which became the embodiment of wisdom, thanks to the Evil One, had commanded the birds, who were in his power, to bedeck Eve with flowers. Although almost entirely concealing her form, her neck and arms were left revealed in quite a modern decolletage and when, finally, the birds encircled her head, suggesting an unusual coiffure, Eve began to believe herself a superior being.

   Urged by the Tempter, she wandered to a mirror-like pool where, like Narcissus, she admired herself, and with primitive coquetry, contemplated her beauty, and the words traced over her pliant body by the serpent—"La Premiere Robe".

   So now I see a charming young person—perhaps one of the readers of these very words—gazing in a mirror, an actual mirror. What she sees, I also see: there are flowers covering her gown, but they are artificial, being merely embroidered. Then, there is an artificial bird in her coiffure—quite different from those which the Tempter summoned to the Garden for Eve. But this modern gown has almost exactly the same decolletage as the first gown Eve wore, and always . . . always, there is the same serpent, invisible to most people, with that diabolic glint lurking in its eyes.

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"LA COLLINA", ESTATE of BENJAMIN R. MEYER, ESQ., BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA

March 30, 2015, 1:00 am

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Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills

"IN SOME FORTUITOUS INSTANCES, an estate becomes legendary not only for its fine architecture and handsome grounds but also because it reflects a major turning point in a community's history, in larger architectural or landscape trends, or in the owners' goals for these showplace properties.

'La Collina' is one of those skillfully designed estates that represented those turning points. The national architectural press and Los Angeles media applauded 'La Collina' upon its 1924 completion. Flattering articles praised its owner, banker Benjamin R. Meyer, young architect Gordon B. Kaufmann, and landscape architect Paul G. Thiene for their vision." 

Houses of Los Angeles Volume 2

"La Collina", was Kaufmann's  first major residential project with the architectural firm of Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate.  Planning for the house began in 1920 and it was built from 1923 to 1924. The garden was one of the earliest  hillside gardens in the Mediterranean style of the 1920's.

   

Los Angeles Times - May 27, 1923 "A year will be required to finish the house which Ben R. Meyer, president of the Union Bank and Trust Company, is building in Beverly Hills - To insure a magnificent setting for his new home, Mr. Meyer purchased several acres of ground before he started work on the house." 

    They lived at their estate well cared for by a butler, two cooks, two maids, a masseur, three groomsmen, and three gardeners. Through his wife, Rachel Cohn Meyer (1872-1970), Meyer became a member of Los Angeles Jewish community and was responsible for many of the city's successful early philanthropies. He and his wife had no children. Rachel Meyers father, Kaspare Cohn (1839-1916) founded the Kaspare Cohn Commercial & Savings Bank, which became Union Bank & Trust Company after Meyer, as president assumed control shortly before Cohn's death. Similarly, Kaspare Cohn founded and financed the Kaspare Cohn Hospital, of which Meyer was an officer of the board. It became the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

PLOT PLAN Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

     WHILE "La Collina", the Beverly Hills Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Esq., consists of slightly over seven and three-quarters acres, the frontage of this property is only 260 feet, while the total depth is about 1319 feet. As the property is so very narrow and long, the problem to be solved is interesting. In addition the grounds rise very rapidly, the Northerly line being 215 feet above the entrance at the South line of the property.

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

     The main approach is dignified with high walls along the street turning in with a graceful curve to deeply recessed, wrought iron gates guarded to the right by a two story gate lodge. At the beginning the main entrance drive with its long, sweeping curves is bordered on either side by an orchard and approaching the house winds its way through a strong mass planting.

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

    An existing row of olive trees gave the keynote for the location of the house, appearing as if built on a natural, untouched California hillside. In order to give the house the proper support a wall was built following the olive trees and encircling them. At the foot of this wall is a bleached walk. All walks are paved with flagstone and softened with grass joints and clusters of Portulaca, Sweet Allysum, Sedum, etc.

    The leveling of the building site left a bank on the uphill side of approximately 30 feet. Three terraces with steps, walks, pergolas and planting made a very effective background for a site for the house and changed the unsightly hillside into a spot of beauty. 

GATEHOUSE Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

    The main entrance had its own Italian-style gatehouse. The driveway wound up the hillside, through several hundred feet of olive groves. Where the driveway neared the house more formal gardens were planted including heavily foliaged trees and blooming shrubs and flowers.

APPROACH Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

APPROACH Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

FORE COURT Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

    The driveway ended in a paved motor court with a central fountain in front of the L-shaped mansion.

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

FIRST FLOOR PLAN Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

    Kaufmann designed an entrance court in front of an L-shaped stucco villa so that the gardens stepped downhill directly from the living-room terrace to a pool pavilion and rose garden. An enclosed service stairway in the courtyard and an octagonal breakfast room on the garden facade created transitions between the formal central block housing the owners living spaces and the more rustic service wing with an open second-story patio. Known for his enthusiasm and ability to persuade clients to spend lavish sums. Kaufmann selected and designed the furnishings, supplied by the Los Angeles decorating studio Marshall Laird, and he purchased tapestries and Oriental rugs from the city's leading carpet dealer, John Keshishyan. All at substantial expense to Mr. Meyer.

HALL Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

STAIR HALL Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

HALL STAIRWAY Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

LIVING ROOM ENTRANCE Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

    The living room, library, and dining room opened onto terraces and formal gardens overlooking Beverly Hills to the south, and the distant Pacific Ocean. Kaufmann placed steps at the entrance to the living room and library to accommodate changes in ceiling height.

    Unlike William Randolph Hearst, who had looted Europe for Spanish and Italian bell towers, ironwork, and doorways, Ben Meyer insisted that "only materials manufactured in California or native to the Southland be used." Los Angeles Times - May 27, 1923

LIVING ROOM Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

BREAKFAST ROOM Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

    The breakfast room was set back from the main block to preserve the symmetry of the house facade when it was viewed from the garden below. Kaufrnann commissioned the acclaimed Italian decorative painter Giovanni B. Smeraldi (1868-1947) to paint the Pompeian details of the breakfast room walls and ceiling. Smeraldi’s work can be seen in many historic public buildings in the United States, mainly on the ceilings, and he considered the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel to be his finest work in this country.

DINING ROOM Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

LIBRARY Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

CORNER of LIBRARY Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

"ROAD OVER HILL" Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills Dedrick Brandes Stuber (1878-1954)

    Upstairs, the mansion included four bedrooms, a sitting room, and servants' quarters, with a servants' sitting room and covered porch. 

SECOND FLOOR PLAN Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

    "La Collina" was one of the first and most regarded Beverly Hills estates to have a professional landscape architect, who maximized the opportunities presented by the site, and who worked in tandem with the architect to make the property enhance the mansion, and vice versa. Paul G. Thiene and his assistant Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright designed and planted the property before the house was complete. 

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

   In designing the pool the idea of giving the appearance of a reflecting pool of water rather than a swimming pool was carried out. Therefore, a border of Iris and other flowers was planted around the pool, softening the coping and gracefully hanging over the edge of the water. A vine covered pergola at the other end of the gardens complements the pavilion and affords facilities for garden parties. For convenience in such parties a kitchenette was built into the pavilion.

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

    An old pepper tree on the hillside was supported by a wall and so a very interesting outlook was created which opens to the swimming pool garden, entrance to which is gained through an intermediate grass terrace thence to the pool garden. Directly ahead of the pool is a pavilion. Back of this are ten dressing rooms.

GARDEN POOL AND HOUSE Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

GARDEN POOL AND HOUSE Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

CASINO Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

    A tunnel connecting with the pergola on the second terrace leads into the casino, a large room nestling into the hillside with a comfortable terrace in the foreground affording a view of the entire valley. Provisions have been made to connect the second floor of the house with this tunnel.

POOL Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

    

ROSE GARDEN Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

    Directly below the pergola is the rose garden. From here one enters through wrought iron gates into the theatre court. The theatre, itself is built directly underneath the pergola and is equipped with a complete projection room. It has a maximum capacity of 65 people. However, it is so arranged that large, comfortable chairs may be placed on the various platforms for smaller parties. Underneath the projection room the heating and ventilating are located as well as a pump to lift the water from the swimming pool to an irrigating reservoir.

ROSE GARDEN Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect

      A very complex lighting system has been arranged throughout the entire grounds. Provisions  ave been made in various places for percolator connections. All lamp standards are so arranged so as to be able to plug in streamers. An intercommunicating telephone system is installed in various parts of the grounds.

STABLES Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

    A stable group nestled into the canyon above the house will be a picturesque group of buildings. Meyer was an amateur horseman who raced heavy harness ponies.

    The garages are conveniently located behind the hill near the house. The garage court walls will be slightly concealed by planting from the main drive and this cope will afford an interesting spot of architecture.

RIDING RING Estate of Benjamin R. Meyer, Beverly Hills  Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate, Architects

    For the domestic water supply a reservoir has been established in the highest part of the property, in the Northeast corner, and camouflaged by a pergola. From this site a view of the surrounding country is obtained.

Winston Churchill, Ben R. Meyer, Captain Monte Foster and a Marlin swordfish caught by Winston Churchill, taken at Catalina Island, 1929 SOURCE

    "La Collina" became a landmark of good taste in architecture and landscape architecture and provided a model for many future estates in 1920's. Awarded Certificate of Honor, American Institute of Architects. When Edward Laurence ("Ned") Doheny Jr. and his wife, Lucy, decided to build their Greystone mansion at the Doheny Ranch, they quickly selected Kaufmann as their architect. Why? "Because he did the Ben Meyer house, and I liked it," said Lucy Doheny years later.

    In 1941 they sold the estate to a investment group. In subsequent decades, the estate was subdivided into building lots for smaller homes. The long driveway became a new street. Although much altered, "La Collinas" main house, featured in the TV series Entourage, and gatehouse remain today as independent private residences. Last sold: June 2004 for $9,690,096.

   wikimapia LOCATION. Bing Maps VIEW.    

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA

April 6, 2015, 1:00 am

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"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

     George and Gertrude Lewis were from a wealthy San Francisco society family.  Their wealth and unusual marriage enabled the Lewises to create "Hill Grove", one of the most beautiful and most storied estates in the history of Beverly Hills.  The Lewises had what was known as a modern marriage. They didn't live together most of the time, and they didn't interfere with each others personal... activities.

    When the Lewises built "Hill Grove", Benedict Canyon was still mostly rural and largely empty of residences. Ranch land and a few citrus groves were located on the lower, flat terrain, and patches of chaparral and clusters of live oaks dotted the steep, arid hillsides. Benedict Canyon Drive was a dirt road. 

    Upon its completion, ten-acre "Hill Grove" was a startling sight. Its grand wrought-iron gates, which stood on dusty, unpaved Angelo Drive, opened into a long, paved driveway that wound up the hill to the mansion, passing the swimming pool near the bottom of the property and the expansive, grassy lawns, which required a team of gardeners for constant watering and care. 

   

    For an estate of its architectural distinction, extensive grounds, and prominent location. Hill Grove nonetheless received almost no public notice upon its completion in 1925. Why? George and Gertrude Lewis-in true, blue-blood fashion-did not actively seek publicity for the estate. They didn't need to get press coverage by showing off their home, or to send out publicity stills to newspapers and magazines to increase the adulation of their fans. They weren't a part of the Hollywood hierarchy.

    But they were starstruck. Or at least Gertrude Lewis was.

  "Ever since Hollywood’s golden age of silent movies in the 1920s, cinema fans have flocked to Beverly Hills to see the 'homes of the stars'. One Beverly Hills resident, Gertrude Lewis, did not have to leave her 10-acre 'Hill Grove' to see the most famous actors and actresses.

    They came to her estate, and, no, she was not a powerful producer or director, or the financial backer of films.

    From the early 1920s to the early 1950s, Gertrude Lewis’ sprawling 10-acre 'Hill Grove' estate—and her very grand Tudor mansion—was a favorite shooting location for films, and later some early TV shows. Why did Gertrude Lewis rent out Hill Grove as a movie location so frequently? She  wasn't hard up for cash.

    Gertrude rented the estate for locations, then donated the fee to several charities helping the poor.

    The real reason was that she got to meet each decade’s leading stars and watch the filming of major motion pictures. Gertrude Lewis had plenty of time for this 'hobby'. Her husband, George, who owned Shreve & Co., the famed San Francisco jeweler, lived in the family’s San Francisco house.

    He enjoyed the life of a bon vivant. Herb Caen, the noted San Francisco Chronicle columnist, told some of the stories.

    George Lewis, wrote Caen, 'who owned the most beautiful women in town, was a good man to know: If he took a liking to you, gold baubles floated your way.' Another time, Caen wrote: 'Millionaire George Lewis, silver Champagne bucket at left elbow, ravishing ‘keptive’ at right, presiding over his sycophantic circle at the old Templebar.

    They knew how to keep women in those days: Nob Hill penthouses and open charge accounts, cinq-a-sept and off to Amelio’s for Bill’s peerless martinis.' Gertrude Lewis obviously knew about her husband, and obviously, she did not care.

    She had her Beverly Hills estate, traveled to Europe for a year at a time, and enjoyed meeting all the stars at her estate.

    Was Gertrude also entertaining men-friends at her home away from her husband’s prying eye?

    Like several great Benedict Canyon estates, 'Hill Grove' was demolished and its grounds subdivided in the 1960s.

    Today, 'Hill Grove', which had been such a prominent Beverly Hills landmark for so many years, and which appeared in so many films, has vanished entirely, except for a street named Hill Grove, which was one of the estate’s driveways." Haute Living — Los Angeles

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

  Pictured at the front gate of the estate are Laurel and Hardy and Jacquie Lynn (the child) in a scene from Pack up Your Troubles. 

"Manhunt of Mystery Island" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

    Once the driveway reached the top of the hill, it traversed more flat lawn, passed through brick gateposts, and ended at the motor court with a circular lawn and lily pond in front of the mansion's main entrance.

Wayne Manor - "Batman & Robin" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

Wayne Manor - "Batman & Robin" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

ENTRANCE COURT RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

Larrabee Mansion - "Sabrina" (1954 film) RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

Larrabee Mansion - Sabrina (1954 film) RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

Larrabee Mansion - Sabrina (1954 film) RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

    The Lewis mansion was an extravagant and skilled-essay in the Gothic Revival: stone-trimmed archways; large, leaded glass windows; slate roofs; castle-like crenellations at some rooflines; and picturesquely clustered red brick chimneys. Extensive stone and brick terraces around the house provided spaces for walking, or for gazing over Benedict Canyon.

TERRACE RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

LIVING ROOM RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

DINING ROOM RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

VIEW INTO LIBRARY RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

LIBRARY RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

"HILL GROVE" RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

BEDROOM RESIDENCE OF MR. GEORGE LEWIS, BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA  ALBERT FARR, ARCHITECT.   J. FRANCIS WARD, ASSOCIATE

        Soon after "Hill Grove" was completed, it played a leading role in Clara Bow's Kid Boots for Paramount in 1926. 

Kids Boots (1926)

Betty Co-Ed (1946)

    "Hill Grove" also appeared in Republic's King of the Newsboys (1938), starring Lew Ayres and Helen Mack; The Crooked Road (1940); You Belong to Me (1941), starring Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda; and Night and Day (1946), a completely fabricated Warner Bros, bio-pic of composer Cole Porter starring Cary Grant as the apparently heterosexual composer and Alexis Smith. The estate appeared in Monogram's 1932 film Police Court. 

    George Lewis sold Shreve & Co. in 1948. According to Herb Caen, "George Lewis had to retire from running Shreve's jewelry store, because he doled out so much of the stock to pretty ladies. Square-cut, pear-shaped, they all looked alike to George"

Watch online full movie: Sabrina (1954) for free.

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

April 14, 2015, 1:00 am

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"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

http://issuu.com/acanthus_press/docs/main_line_counry_houses

 "The Italian-Renaissance styled 'Lauranto' stood atop a bluff overlooking Little Darby Creek from 1901 until the early 1980's. Designed by Peabody & Stearns, 'Lauranto' was the home of Drexel grandchild, sportsman Craig Biddle, and his wife, the former Laura Whelan.

    Following the death of their mother in 1883, four-year old Craig Biddle and his brother Livingston were raised as wards of George W. Childs Drexel. Under the terms of Anthony J. Drexel's will, each of the Biddle brothers would receive a million dollars upon reaching age 21. The lavishly decorated 'Lauranto', with 113 acres landscaped by the Olmsted Brothers, was a wedding gift to Craig Biddle from his Drexel guardians, a similar gift being made to Livingston Biddle upon his marriage.

    Lauranto's interiors were furnished largely with European purchases, including antique marble mantelpieces, classic statuary, and Aubusson tapestries from dealers in Rome and Florence. The vaulted, two-story hall, with Palladian arched windows overlooking the valley, occupied the center of the house with reception, dining, library and sitting rooms arrayed on either side.

Craig Biddle - 1918

     A champion polo and tennis player, with a penchant for lavish entertaining and investing in  Broadway musicals. Craig Biddle quickly ran through his inheritance and was compelled to sell 'Lauranto' in 1911 to banker-broker Archibald Barklie. Renamed 'Inver House', the property was sold again in 1936 to Simon Neuman, President of Publicker Industries.

    By the 1970s 'Inver House' was owned by the Roach Brothers real estate firm, which announced plans to adapt the property for use as a retirement community. This scheme came to naught, however, and 10 years later, house and stable had been replaced by a large complex of luxury town houses."

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

HE mansion of "Laurento" looms majestically on its hilltop, rising high and stately above the surrounding trees and shrubbery, quite dominating the landscape for many miles around. And a most agreeable landmark, it is, designed in a quiet Italian style by Messrs. Peabody & Sterns, architects, of Boston. It is a large house with spacious fronts, whose length is emphasized by the strong string-course between the first and second stories, and by the low, sloping broad roof with which it is surmounted. It is built of light-brown brick, with terra cotta trimming of a nearly white tone.

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania1902

Nothing remains of it now except for the gate and driveway leading nowhere.

On the top of each pillar under the lions, one can see very clearly the inscription "Inver House".

    The situation is superb, standing on the summit of a hill that rises sharply above the road by which it is usually approached, but with an ample plateau on the inner side, toward which the entrance front is faced. On the roadside the base of the hill is enclosed within a low stone wall, that presently will be thickly covered with vines. 

Roadside Watering Trough. Designed by Peabody & Stearns - wall to extreme right constructed under the Supervision of Mr. Brown with suggestions from the Olmsted Brothers. 1901

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

    At one point, within a recess, is a water trough for horses; farther on is the entrance, high sandstone piers capped with standing lions and supporting a wrought-iron arch carrying a central lantern: a stately, handsome entrance, as effective as it is simple.

East front from turn in approach drive at which point the house is seen for the first time on approaching. 1901

Looking North West toward approach front of house - all plants on terraces were planted spring 1902 - except privet hedge which was planted  Fall 1901.

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania1902

    The road within approaches the house by broad curves, for the elevation is considerable, and a somewhat lengthy detour has been necessary to accomplish an easy ascent. On the left the hillside is thickly overgrown with wild shrubbery; on the right are open fields, with the farmhouse and barn— a massive, rough cast structure—quite down in the hollow. The roadbed is fine, with young trees growing on the outer edge, and at frequent intervals are rustic posts carrying wrought-iron lanterns, square in form, and as ornamental by day as they are useful by night. Farther on, but at some distance below, the road overlooks the vegetable garden. 

The Entrance Front Is a Dignified Composition in the Italian Style

    Then the shrubbery on the left gives way to open land, and the house, which hitherto has been completely hidden, comes into view. A broad field contains a flock of sheep and the planting becomes more formal; great clumps of shrubbery are massed in beautifully kept lawns. The house has no great trees near it, those in its immediate vicinity being young. The kitchen entrance is hidden behind a fine planting of evergreens.

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

The Porte Cochere Is Built of Terra Cotta and Is Directly Before the Main Entrance

    A stately porte cochere, built wholly of terra cotta, is erected before the main doorway. It has four great piers, with round arches on the side, and two columns to support the entablature on the front, whence a ravishing view can be had of the magnificent lawn that stretches away from the house, and of the hilltops in the far distance.

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania1901

"Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

    In design this house is thoroughly distinguished. The plan may be roughly described as cruciform; that is to say, a great central body to which are applied wings, right and left. of pilasters, support the simply molded archway. The reason for the thickening of the wall is now apparent, for it gives greater depth to the arch, and transforms what might have been a purely ornamental feature into a monumental one. In the spandrils are two carved disks, which, with the monumental stairway at the base of the arch, complete the structural features of this fine centerpiece. Within, the archway has a double treatment of door and window, the doorway being in the exact center, below a broad horizontal cornice, while the window rises in majestic proportions above it, wholly filling the enclosed space.

"Laurento", the Terrace Front and Its Arch of Triumph

    The steps at the base of the arch descend upon a spacious terrace, which is built out upon the hillside, with a broader flight of central steps to the slope below. On each side of the Mobility is given to the center by slight projections: at the ends on the entrance front, in the center on the terrace front. The detailing is extraordinarily fine, very well conceived, and applied with admirable judiciousness. The large windows are sufficiently spaced, those of the first story having more elaborate frames than those of the second. The cornice at the top is high and flat, with pierced openings over the windows, and then the projecting eaves to the low roof, whose simple outline is broken only by the chimneys and the three dormers on the entrance front.

Terrace Front of "Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., at Wayne, Pennsylvania

    There is more pronounced enrichment and more variety in the terrace front. On that side the center is projected far forward beyond the wings. In the center is a triumphal arch, rising high to the crowning cornice which its keystone just touches. Roman Ionic columns, with an accompanying pair center of the house are loggias which connect with the wings, each with its own steps, descending at right angles to the central flight to the great lower terrace. 

Flower garden during construction. 1901

Flower Garden and North Pergola.1902

    The loggias are built of terra cotta, with piers and columns, and, furnished with rugs, tables, and chairs, are most delightful lounging places. The outlooks over the countryside from any of these parts are of rare beauty; immediately below is the deep valley and the road, which the house seems almost to overhang; beyond are fields of rich grass, trees and woods, hills and valleys, a lovely country outlook, perhaps nowhere so enjoyable, or so beautiful, as from the doorway beneath Mr. Biddle's arch of triumph.

"The Main Corridor Looking Toward the Billiard-room

    The entrance door leads to a small vestibule, wholly paneled in wood painted white. Its glazed doors admit to a space of similar dimensions and treated in an identical manner. This is without inner doors, but open on to the broad corridor that runs across the house from right and left. Curtains of red damask on three sides convert the center of the corridor into a sort of antechamber beyond which is the great central hall. Quite from the outer door the spacious splendor of this apartment has been visible, for the whole of the center of the house is brilliantly illuminated by the flood of light admitted by the vast window under the arch of the terrace front.

The Main Hall Is Flanked with Aisles, in One of Which Is the Fireplace with a Mantel of Carved Stone

    The hall is of regal proportions, rising to the full height of the second story. Ionic columns, on either side, divide it into three bays. It is thus basilical in plan, with aisles on each outer edge, while the central space is supported by the columns and pilastered piers in the corners. 

The Main Hall Looking Toward the Vestibule. It Is a Splendid White Apartment, Two Stories High

    Above the entablature are arches enclosing balustrades, and which surround a corridor carried around three sides of the hall at the upper story. Oriental rugs are laid on the marble floor. At the great window arch are curtains of green damask lined with white silk; at the entrance is a green curtain, and at the four doors on the sides, which lead to the other apartments, are the door and window curtains. The woodwork is mahogany, the mantel, with a facing of green marble, being of the same wood and very richly carved. The hardwood floor has a large Oriental rug, and the furniture is covered with red velvet. The white ceiling and cornice are elaborately molded and detailed. The bookcases which surround most of the lower part of the walls are of mahogany, carved and molded; they are enclosed within leaded glass doors of beautiful design. The room is lighted by side brackets. Immediately adjoining is Mr. Biddle's den, a small room in green, with green walls and green curtains over lace curtains at the single window.

    The billiard-room is at the end of the corridor, and completely fills this farthest end of the house. It is treated throughout in warm brown. The floor is formed of large dull-red bricks, on which are many small Oriental rugs. It is paneled in wood to the frieze, which is of carved leather depicting hunting scenes. The ceiling has wooden beams, corresponding with the rest of the woodwork, the panels being filled with leather, of the same beautiful warm-brown hue which characterizes the whole room. The curtains, both for tapestry curtains of blue and yellow tones. On the left, within the aisle, is a handsomely carved fireplace and mantel of white stone; on the opposite wall, in the aisle, is a superb piece of tapestry. In the center is a green marble table with white marble feet: it supports a richly carved vase. In the corners by the entrance are marble statues.

    The rooms on either side may be reached from the central hall, but it will perhaps be more convenient to visit them from the main corridor. Like the hall and vestibules this is floored with white marble, spread with rich Oriental rugs. On the right it leads to the billiard-room, situated at the extreme end of the house; and on the left it connects with the servants' quarters. It is so broad, and high, and spacious—as are all the apartments on this floor—that it has a true monumental character. Its chief decoration is a series of busts of Roman emperors, of which six are in the right hall, while two stand in the farther corners of the left extension. These sculptures are nobly placed, and add immensely to the monumental effect of the corridor.

The Library Is Finished in Mahogany with Walls of Red Brocade

    The first room on the right is the library; it is also directly entered from the great hall. The walls are covered with red striped damask, the same rich material being used also for the doors and the windows, are of brown leather with green and gold bands. The spacious mantel is of wood and is a part of the wainscot. The facings are of red brick similar to the floor; immediately above, in the center, is a large deer's head. The windows have white lace curtains within the leather curtains. At either end is a low platform with a builtin seat. The furniture is covered with light-brown leather. The great height of the ceiling adds immensely to the effect of this beautiful room.

The Reception-room, with Paneled Wails of French Gray, Is Louis XVI in Style

    The reception-room is opposite the library and faces the entrance front of the house. It is designed and furnished in the Louis XVI style and is a delightfully cool and charming apartment. The paneled walls are in French gray. There is a built-in mirror over the fireplace, which has facings of mottled-red marble. The curtains are of pink damask over white. The chairs are of French gray covered with tapestry, and the other furniture includes many fine old pieces of great beauty.

    On the left hand side of the entrance doorway are two rooms, both entered from the main corridor. That on the front of the house is the breakfast-room, treated wholly in yellow, with warm-yellow walls, and curtains of the same brilliant color. 

An Immense Slab of Green Marble Encloses the Fireplace of the Dining-room

The Dining-room Is Paneled in Dark Oak, Above Which Is a Frieze of Old Tapestry

DINING-ROOM "Laurento", the Estate of Craig Biddle, Esq., Wayne, Pennsylvania

    The dining-room is opposite, and is one of the most sumptuous apartments in the house. The walls are paneled in dark oak to the broad tapestry frieze, a fine old piece of unusual beauty. The ceiling is cream color with decorated beams forming small square panels. The woodwork of the doors is enriched with carving, and there are elaborately carved tympanums in the arched doorways on the side. The fireplace is encased within a huge slab of mottled-green marble, to which a shelf of the same rich material is applied. The sideboard, on the opposite side of the room, is built in, and is designed in harmony with the decorative woodwork of the doors and mantel. The hardwood floor is covered with a green rug, and the curtains are of green velvet with gold braid bands. The oak furniture is very elaborately carved. The room is lighted by gilt sidelights applied to the panels of the walls.

The Massing of Foliage Plants and Trees Is Admirable

    One end of the house, the nearest end as it is approached by the entrance driveway, is wholly given up to the service. The planting here, as has been stated, consists of evergreens, arranged in picturesque masses. 

Looking down on flower (Italian) garden from a second story window of house. 1901

View of Long Terrace and Flower Garden.1902

The Formal Garden of "Laurento" with Its Central Fountain and Encircling Flower Beds

    At the farther end is a small formal garden, the chief ornament of which is a marble fountain, placed exactly in the center, and formed of a charming group of children playing in a small marble basin. Concentric beds of circular segments are planted around the fountain, until the corners are filled out in squares. The planting is chiefly annuals, arranged in brilliant masses of color. The whole is enclosed within a hedge. At the farther extremity beyond the fountain the land dips suddenly, but the ravine is partly screened by the garden hedge. Beyond are hills, with trees and woods, a beautiful outlook over the many beautiful spots within and without the estate grounds.

Looking South East from Italian garden towards the Stable. All plants seen in photo except the trees in background were planted either Fall 1901 or Spring 1902.

Path south of the esplanade and looking east toward stable. All planting put in Spring 1902.

The Stable and Clock Tower - East front.

The Stable and Clock Tower - East front.

Welcome to Inveraray

INVER HOUSE GREEN PLAID

    Follow THIS LINK to see an aerial view from 1948 showing the estate standing.

September 19, 1908

Mr. Oelrichs said I never saw anything or anybody that came from Philadelphia that was any good and I can back up my words if you will step outside. Biddle was reported to have had his face smacked by Harry Oelrichs.


    "Harry Oelrichs was one of the most intimate friends of James Gordon Bennett," writes Edward Vizetelly in a London weekly. "Between them they introduced polo into America, and were familiar figures, side by side, in Broadway years ago, particularly after dark."SOURCE

"PARK HILL" C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA

April 19, 2015, 5:30 am

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    The DeWitt mansion by Architect Charles H. Kyson. The principal rooms included a formal dining room, breakfast room, den, music room and billiards room. Upstairs were four master bedrooms, each with their own tiled baths, three of which featured polished crystal “fixtures” and 14-carat gold-plated hardware.

    C.F. DeWitt owned the mansion until 1936 when he sold the home in the wake of his wife’s suicide the previous November. DeWitt remarried and lived to 76, dying in February of 1946. In recent years, his former home has been renamed "Park Hill" and, although there have been some inevitable changes in kitchen and bathrooms, the home remains remarkably as built.


"YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Your Mama has been hearing for months already that Miz Perry(Katy Perry) wants to unload her never-lived in L.A. compound, 'Park Hill', and—so the scuttlebutt went—she unsuccessfully had it shopped around off-market for a few months in the high seven millions before finally hoisting the grand estate on the open market today with an official (and notably lower) asking price of $6,925,000.

    In June 2011, almost a year after nine time Grammy-nominated international pop music super star Katy Perry wed her now ex-husband—that would be raunchy and unkempt looking British comedian Russell Brand—in a lavish ceremony in India they dropped six and a half million clams on "Park Hill", an historic, double-gated celebrity-style compound of nearly three acres nestled onto a private promontory just above the frequently traffic clogged mouth of Laurel Canyon in West Hollywood (CA).

    According to the good people at Paradise Leased and The Movieland Directory, 'Park Hill' was built in the mid-1920's for successful real estate developer C. F. DeWitt who lived in the house until shortly after his wife committed suicide in the house in the mid-1930's. Eventually the house was bought by Dan Laiken, the ex-CEO of National Lampoon who was put in the pokey in 2010 on a securities fraud conviction. It was Mister Laiken’s people who sold the house to Miz Perry and Mister Brand.

    Alas, the erstwhile couple broke up in a blaze of tabloid publicity and speculation just a few months after purchasing 'Park Hill'. Mister Brand chivalrously granted complete ownership of 'Park Hill' to Miz Perry who—so we've been told by someone in the position to know—never actually occupied the property. (She moved, instead, to a modest if hardly inexpensive rental in a storied West Hollywood apartment house and he snatched up a contemporary crib at the tippy-top of the Bird Streets neighborhood above the Sunset Strip where all the streets are named after—you got it—birds.)

    Current listing details reveal Miz Perry’s unwanted real estate albatross looms over a parking lot-sized motor court, stands three stories high at the back, measures in at a roomy but hardly humongous 8,835 square feet and contains a total of seven bedrooms, seven full and four half bathrooms. There are also two fireplaces—living room and library—and loads of original architectural detailing and vintage fixtures such as the silhouette chandelier that hangs in the stone-walled and marble floored front foyer and stair hall.

    The mansion’s public rooms are nothing if not baronial and include a capacious, 45-foot long double-height living room with dark-stained wood floors, a heavy beamed wood ceiling, massive carved stone fireplace that originally warmed an Italian castle and a towering Palladian window that opens to a small terrace with big city view. The room’s quirky pièce de résistance is an old timey minstrel’s gallery from where musician once serenaded residents and party attending guests. The partially panelled dining room isn't exactly the size of a royal banquet hall but is absolutely impressive with its hand-stenciled honeycomb pattern wood ceiling.

    Some of the other living and entertaining spaces include a library with fireplace, media lounge, and spacious, center island country kitchen with snack counter, built-in banquette seating, high grade appliances and fixtures and an adjoining breakfast room with a hand-painted groin vaulted ceiling. All in all it looks like the kitchen in a suburban macmansion but anyone who pay seven million for this place can surely afford to replace the existing kitchen with something more stylish and/or suitable for a house of this magnitude.

    The bulk of the property’s landscaped grounds are at the front of the house where’s there’s a giant circular drive but there are balconies and terraces all around, some with city views, and tucked back into the steep, planted hillside there’s a lagoon-style swimming pool with waterfall.

    In addition to the main manse, the impressively scaled compound includes a two story detached structure with a three car garage upstairs and a caretakers apartment plus art/music studio below. A second detached guest house sits high on the hillside above the swimming on a legally separate lot and includes a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom according to listing details."

    Last sold: Dec 2013 for $5,565,000. 

ENTRANCE GATE, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

ENTRANCE GATE, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

Acres of meandering paths led among deep green tree shrubs.  Settings were available for contemplative thought, reading or tending the gardens.

The grounds of "Park Hill" estate were once known for harboring the largest reserve of flowering camellia shrubs in the US.  The estate’s camellia garden is world-class and is a living legacy of a later owner, Ralph S. Peer, who was president of the American Camellia Society. In 1959, one of the world’s largest camellia bushes, an enormous 30-foot high specimen, was transplanted into the garden from its original site in Pico Rivera where it had been planted in 1887.

ENTRANCE, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

"PARK HILL", C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

ENTRANCE HALL,C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

One of the most impressive features of the DeWitt mansion is its dramatic oval entry hall sheathed from floor to ceiling in cut stone and featuring a marble floor imported from Florence, Italy. A sweeping staircase leads up to a musician’s balcony overlooking the enormous living room. Anchoring the room is an elegant 19th Century fireplace, which once warmed an Italian castle and a beautiful fountain composed of mosaic tiles commissioned specifically for the house and handmade in Italy.

ENTRANCE HALL, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

ENTRANCE HALL, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

The hand-carved patterns in the diamond-shaped panel have been touched with burnished gold.

LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

"HONOS - ALIT - ARTES" Designed by Frederick Wilson

LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

CORNER IN LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

SOUTHEAST END OF LIVING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

VIEW - "the frequently traffic clogged mouth of Laurel Canyon in West Hollywood."

MINSTREL GALLERY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

VIEW OF STAINED GLASS WINDOW FROM MINSTREL GALLERY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

LIBRARY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

DOOR IN LIBRARY, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

DINING ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

An exquisitely turned mahogany door such as this provides its own note of decoration. The delicately wrought panels will catch the eye of the beauty lover and hold it with their delicate finish.

BREAKFAST ROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

Showing Gray and Black Everlastic Tile Floor installed in Kitchen, Pantry and Service Quarters of the C. F. DeWitt Home. Corner of the Kitchen shown here.

BEDROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

BEDROOM, C. F. DEWITT HOUSE, HOLLYWOOD CHARLES H. KYSON, ARCHITECT

      wikimapia LOCATION. BING.

THE INDIVIDUALITY AND BEAUTY, CHARACTERISTIC OF THE EARLY GLASS WORKER, ARE REPRODUCED IN THE GLASS MOSAIC AND STAINED GLASS WINDOWS MADE IN OUR STUDIOS FOR THE C. F. DeWITT RESIDENCE, HOLLYWOOD

THE CALIFORNIA DOOR CO. 237-241 CENTRAL AVENUE LOS ANGELES

The doors above offer examples of beautiful workmanship in sufficient variety to sustain interest. 

Achievements in Door Designs - Charm, variety, skill, the soundest of materials—these qualities reflect the good taste of the home builder and the aim of The California Door Company. For exterior and interior use, doors such as these offer the very acme of design, workmanship and finish—every panel an interesting picture in its individual frame. Ask your dealer for "California" Doors

"WOODCREST LODGE" HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.

April 24, 2015, 1:00 am

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    Built in 1914, "Woodcrest Lodge" was the home Paul Denckla Mills and his wife Ellen Drexel Paul. The work of the Architect Charles Barton Keen, "Woodcrest Lodge" was built in the Georgian Colonial style with an exterior of rough buff-colored stucco.

ENTRANCE GATES HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA. MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

"WOODCREST LODGE" HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA. MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF ENTRANCE FRONT  HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF ENTRANCE FRONT HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF PRINCIPAL ENTRANCE HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA. MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

     "Woodcrest Lodge" sat atop a steep hillside. A raised terrace ran the length of the house, accessed by paired French doors from the hall, drawing, and dining rooms.

TERRACE FRONT HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

    

TERRACE FRONT HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DETAIL OF ENTRANCE, TERRACE FRONT HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

FIRST FLOOR PLAN  HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

THE HALL HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

THE SKYLIT MAIN HALL AND ROOM-LENGTH STAIRCASE HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

MANTEL IN HALL HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

     Delicate detailing in the Adam style could be found throughout the house in the form of decorative cornices and doorways and carved white marble fireplace mantels.

DRAWING ROOM HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

    The dining room had dark mahogany paneling, Hepplewhite furnishings, and a Waterford crystal chandelier. 

DINING ROOM HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA. MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

DINING ROOM MANTEL HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

LIBRARY  HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

SECOND FLOOR PLAN  HOUSE OF PAUL D. MILLS, ESQ., ST. DAVIDS, PA.  MR. CHARLES BARTON KEEN, ARCHITECT

   
    A native of Philadelphia, Paul Denckla Mills and his wife spent much of their later life in New York, where Mills was a partner in the banking and brokerage firm of Dewing, Ruggles & Mills. In 1928 Mills sold "Woodcrest Lodge" and its surrounding 30 acres to a developer who owned the property until the 1950's. Later it was purchased by the Valley Forge Military Academy. The former "Woodcrest Lodge" was destroyed by arson in 1973.

    The couple also owned "Windsor Plantation" on the Black River in the Georgetown, South Carolina area.

    Follow THIS LINK to see an aerial from 1948 showing "Woodcrest Lodge" and the surrounding area. wikimapia site where estate stood. Outbuildings still survive. BING.


   Built on a section of the estate of James W. Paul's "Woodcrest", father of  Ellen Drexel Mills.

1907 Portrait of Paul Denckla Mills(1877-1954) Adolphe Borie

Charles Barton Keen, Architect

INTIMATE SKETCH, LOUIS COMFORT TIFFANY HOUSE, 72ND STREET, NEW YORK CITY

April 25, 2015, 1:00 am

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Vernon Howe Bailey, 1935

    
    Louis Comfort Tiffany house at 72nd Street and Madison Avenue was demolished only one year after this rendering was sketched.  SOURCE

    Follow THIS LINK for all past post on the Tiffany house. 

"BOX HILL" The Estate of A. J. DREXEL PAUL ESQ., Radnor, Pennsylvania

May 3, 2015, 9:00 am

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The Estate of ANTHONY JOESEPH DREXEL PAUL ESQ., Radnor, Pennsylvania  Charles Platt, Architect

     In the rolling farm country, so characteristic of the outskirts of Philadelphia, stands the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Drexel Paul, a testimonial to the merging of pasture lands and formal gardens, country living and paneled English rooms. Situated at Radnor, about twelve miles from Philadelphia, Box Hill's one hundred and twenty-five acres are part of an extensive property, some  of which  land  originally belonged  to  Mr.  Paul's family.

White wooden entrance gates swing invitingly between stucco posts covered with roses.

    From the entrance itself, guarded by a pair of cream-colored stucco gates, crowned by white woodwork, and covered with pink roses, the driveway is edged by broad paths of well-mowed lawn.

Sheep graze placidly on broad expanses of meadow near the driveway.

    Beyond the grass runs a long hurdle fence, behind which, on one side, sheep graze on the broad expanse of meadow. On the other side, are fields of corn and other crops, with the same hurdle fences separating them from the lawn and drive. It is as though farming were an intimate part of the place, yet with sufficient amenities observed to keep it in its proper relation to the rest. 

The hurdle fences surrounding the pastures are interrupted by tree-trunk panels for riders.

    At convenient intervals in the fence, the whole trunk of a tree has been placed. This makes it possible for riders to jump in and out of the fields, and, at the same time, sheep or crops are not allowed to spill over from where they are confined.

Entrance of the Georgian Colonial house, designed by the late Charles Platt, architect.

    The first glimpse of the house shows it almost hidden by elms and white pines which grow on either side of the approach, as well as by box bushes and three oak trees planted directly in front. Where a secondary drive crosses the main entrance, the fields have given way to more formal gardens.

    The exterior of the house is Georgian in feeling, with that particular quality so characteristic of its architect, the late Charles Platt. Its cream walls are of stucco, applied thinly enough to disclose the stone beneath. The pitched roof is shingled. The sash windows are shuttered; on the ground floor, in white, and, on the upper floors, in dark green. The front door is in the middle of the central section, with service wing to the right, and living room wing and gardens on the left.

    Two English lead eagles stand guardians immediately outside the front door. Inside, a vestibule bears instant witness to some of the interests of the owners. Two Audubon engraving of startled owls hang on the walls. A foot scraper and a long cane rack, filled to overflowing, make provision for country walks. A broad hall runs straight from the front door to long French windows directly opposite, opening onto the broad west terrace. The parquetry floor is in a V design here as throughout the rest of the downstairs. The walls are white like the woodwork and their unadorned simplicity is only broken by several distinguishes portraits-one by Francis Drexel, of Bolivar, one by Peale, and also one painted by Sully, of Mrs. James W. Paul, Mr. Paul's grandmother.

The dining room, with covers laid for dinner, is both formal and friendly. The paneling of subdued green, inset with landscape in tones of green, gold, and yellow, were brought over from Ireland.

    On the right, the dining room is paneled in a subtle gray-green. The romantic landscapes were, with the paneling, from an original room, and came from Ireland. They seem particularly appropriate here, where there is so much that is reminiscent of life in the more seasoned hunting countries of England and Ireland. The Sheraton dining table and the chairs, covered in cream leather, the polished mahogany sideboards, the English candelabra of delicately cut glass pendants, all make a composite picture of great distinction. There is warmth and dignity here, and a perfect background for hospitality.

English deal paneling lines the library. A study by Joshua Reynolds hangs just above Mrs. Paul's collection of crystal displayed on a table.

    Opposite the dining room, across the same hall, is the fine library containing many first editions and sets of Dickens and Thackery that would make even the most blase of bibliophiles envious. The room was planned around the books and the Deal paneling which covers three sides of it came from England. Across from the French windows, curtained in peacock blue silk, the bookcases reach to the ceiling. The tawny coloring of the Oriental rug merges into the golden brown of the woodwork. Throughout the house are grouped various collections of decorative objects in crystal, carnelian, jade, rose quartz, and other minerals. These have been assembled by Mrs. Paul and by her mother. Mrs. Alexander Biddle—arranged together, they would make a very large group but Mrs. Paul has chosen rather to break up the collection into its separate types, letting each preserve its individuality. It has been most ingeniously done to heighten the decorative value of each piece and of each group when viewed as a whole.

Mr. Paul's office has bookcases, ceiling high, forming an alcove for his mahogany desk with red leather top. Aiken hunting prints complete it.

    Immediately inside the front door, the stairway goes up to the right, while to the left is another long, broad hall which starts from the east-west hall and ends in the living room, facing south. The first door, on the left, from the central part of the house, opens into Mr. Paul's office. This is a long, narrow room, with bookcases running to the ceiling forming, at the end, a sort of alcove for the handsome mahogany desk, with red leather top. A long Jacobean table, in oak, stretches along one side of the room. On the other, between two windows, is an expansive dark blue leather sofa. The white walls are covered with narrow, horizontal hunting prints by Aiken, their subjects being as appropriate in this room as is their unusual and striking shape.

    Next to Mr. Paul's study, still on the left of the hall, is a Louis XIV dressing room, where pink taffeta curtains, painted furniture, and a general air of golden festivity seem, strangely enough, entirely at home among their more dignified English neighbors.

    Opposite, glass doors open into the game room. Here, against pine paneling, a series of prints have been hung. Some are by Aiken and others by John Deal Paul and C. Loraine Smith. Long windows open out on three sides of the room, giving it an air of spaciousness and light. A rose-colored Oriental rug lies on the tiled floor, and for those who are not playing any of the various games available there are comfortable chairs and a deep sofa, in rose chintz. In one corner a bridge table is set up, in another a backgammon table beckons invitingly and, most unusual perhaps in contemporary America, is the felt-topped mahogany table set for sniff. Its ivory dominoea are face down in a wheel-shaped design, as decorative when they are not in use as they are conveniently available for an immediate game.

The living room has oak paneling brought from England. The gold leather screen, nine feet high, has subtly painted Chinese scenes. Wax candles are used in the chandelier and the candelabra.

    As though to heighten its dramatic effect by its very location, the spacious living room discloses itself at the very end of the hall. The entrance is at the west end of the room, and it necessary to walk well into the center of this side to get the full effect. This is because at the back a gigantic Chinese screen, with delicate designs on a somber ground, prolongs the suspense. Once it been passed, however, a sense of serenity and dignity makes itself felt. The rich oak paneling is only broken by the French windows. Rather as though to temper the sunlight and less formal out-of-doors, however, these windows have been traced in flowing blue brocade which hangs from ceiling to floor. The Oriental rug has an all-over pattern in soft blues and golds. In the center of the room, hangs a shimmering Waterford chandelier, which Mrs. Paul has had the imagination to keep from wiring so that, at night, wax candles whose uneven gutterings make a constantly changing play of light on the glass. On the mantel, the Waterford is repeated in a pair of candelabra.

    The general tone of the room is Chinese Chippendale, although other types of furniture have been used as well. A golden sofa, with Chinese design in the most delicate petit point, vies for interest with the tall Chinese screen which is painted leather. In contrast to the somber design on its back, the side facing the center of the room is in gold, with amusing scenes drawn against it in soft blues, reds, green, and whites. 

A corner of the living room, seen above, with Chinese Chippendale sofa in golden needle-point. The portraits are of Mr. Paul's grandfathers.

    There are four generations of Paul portraits hung against the oak background. The two Paul great-grandparents were painted by Francis Drexell, the artist member of that distinguished family. Curiously enough, it was not until two generations later that the families were mated by marriage, as the present Mr. Paul s mother was a Miss Drexel. The two grandfathers, Mr. Paul and Mr. Drexel, were painted by Benjamin Constant and their portraits hang opposite one another. There is also a portrait of the Paul grandmother, done from a miniature by the late Julian Storey. Mr. Paul's father's portrait, also painted by Storey, hangs at one end and his wife's at the other. Finally, between the French windows hang the two Laszlo portraits of Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Drexel Paul. This is not exclusively a picture gallery, however, for though filled with tradition, this room remains very alive and lived in. There are several more varieties of Mrs. Paul,s collections here. On one table is the carnelian set and, on another, the rose quartz collection. These are made contemporary by being made a part of every day living, for among the objects collected are ash trays of the particular mineral and silver match boxes, set with the stone of that set. In countless Lowestoft bowls are roses, columbine, or other flowers in season—always roses, for these are Mrs. Paul's special and favorite flower. There are even bowls of dried rose petals on piano and table; in fact, everywhere there is evidence of the superb rose garden of the luxuriant and well-tilled cutting garden.

Mrs. Paul's oyster white bedroom has a mantel of pickled pine mahogany table with a Sheraton gold-framed mirror.

The west terrace, reached by the hallway running from the front to back, is flagged, and furnished with umbrellas, chairs, and tables for dining. Note the large pots of oleanders.

    The living room gives onto the south terrace, an intimate flagged outdoor sitting room with the trunks of two apple trees rising up through its floor relics from the old orchard on whose edge the house was built. Forming a sort of wall, with a path in the center, is some of the luscious box for which the place was named. To the left of the terrace, stretched a broad lawn, edged by white pebble path and shut in by undulating masses of box. On the left, the the driveway, shuts out any view of the front of the house. Running along its full length is the box, planted with lavish hand.

The box garden landscaped for greens and white effect with sweet-william and alysum.

Image Title: Mrs. A. J. Drexel Paul Residence

A view from the rose garden through the a wrought iron gate, by Yellin, to the box garden.

Image Title: Mrs. A. J. Drexel Paul Residence

    At the end of the garden, a raised terrace is massed with white geraniums in pots and white oleanders. Two fountains trickle from either side of the gate in the high wall, which divides the green garden from the rose garden. The wall and garden were designed by Charles Willing, and the wrought-iron gate, like all the wrought iron which is to be seen on the place, was designed by Yellin.

Image Title: Mrs. A. J. Drexel Paul Residence

The rose garden, with arborvitae hedge, rotates box-edged rose beds in wheel design around a fountain-pool.

    Once in the rose garden, it is apparent that this was what was hidden from the driveway by the arborvitae hedge. Immediately opposite the gate are chairs, a table and gayly striped umbrella. In the center is a blue pool with pink geraniums on its edge, forming a low background for the lead child's figure which is the fountain. In four alcoves, cut into the hedge, are marble pots on pedestals about five feet high filled with fuchsias. The box-edged rose beds spread out in wheel design from the round pool in the middle. The only red roses used have been placed in two long beds against the wall, separating this from the main garden. For the rest, there are countless varieties in different shades of pink, yellow, and white, with the most profuse bloom.

One of the English lead figurines placed at intervals in the midst of the box, and white sweet-william beneath.

    At the end of one of the white pebble paths which run between the beds is an opening in the arborvitae hedge through which is reached the swimming pool, surrounded by lawn and apple trees. Beyond, down a lilac-bordered path, is the cutting garden. Protected by another hedge of arborvitae, it is on two levels, with a cold frame running the width of each terrace. On the upper terrace, brick paths divide the eight beds, in four of which are roses of different varieties from those in the garden proper. In the other beds are columbine, delphinium, and chrysanthemums. In the upper cold frame, there is some of the sweet-william used in such profusion throughout the garden, as well as pansies and johnny-jump-ups and small white clapboard tool houses, with green trim, just outside the hedge, make it possible to conceal all the necessary tools on the very edge of this lovely garden.

    Another lilac-edged walk, informally planted and merging with the lawn, leads back to the south terrace outside the house. From here, a path runs around the house to the west terrace where there are groups of iron chairs and comfortable, gaily colored outdoor furniture. Two yellow umbrellas shelter tables used for dining.

The formal herb garden, of the west terrace, has a vast variety of herb-beds traversed by paths of shredded cedar.

    At the far end of this terrace, which runs the full width of the central wing of the house, is that delight of all gourmets, a well-filled herb garden. Although easily accessible to the kitchen, it is developed as a decorative garden. Two sides are enclosed by high walls, covered with euonymus and one corner nestles happily into a corner of the house. On one side is a high hedge of box; low box surrounds each bed in the formal design, and there are occasional bushes of box and hawthorn to give height.

    To understand the quality of Mr. and Mrs. Paul's place is to know the personal interest and effort which they have put into it. This is no casually run house or garden, but a complete entity, conceived with real imagination, worked over with affection, and maintained with scrupulous care. It has that warm, rich feeling which results from its owners' lavish use of plants, paintings, furniture, and accessories. But it also has an air of tempered good taste and restraint in the handling of details. It is, indeed, a welcoming house—hospitable in the best tradition of a country gentleman.

       The interiors were a stylish setting for family antiques, sporting art, and noteworthy paintings.   When not involved in financial matters, A. J. Drexel Paul would likely be found playing polo, fox hunting or pursuing other sports.  Although the house itself had extensive damage after a fire in the late 1940's, it was preserved and remodeled, reduced in size and made more manageable for a modern style of living.

1948 aerial showing the burnt out shell.

1950 aerial showing the altered remains

BING VIEW today.

    
    Below are renderings and photos of a project for the Paul's designed by Mellor & Meigs around the same time the Charles Platt design was built. The project is labeled "Woodcrest Farms". According to the Athenaeum of Philadelphia the house was demolished and property incorporated into the St. Davids Golf Club.  The stables and polo barn were built. I can not find anything more on the house itself.

Image Title: Garage and the House Project: Paul, Country House Near Philadelphia, PA Client: Paul, A. J. Drexel, Esq.

Image Title: First Floor Plan

Image Title: Second Floor Plan

Image Title: Barn & Polo Stable Project: Paul, Barn & Polo Stable, Radnor, PA Client: Paul, A. J. Drexel, Esq.

Image Title: Exterior: Overall: Project Paul, Barn & Polo Stable, Radnor, PA Client: Paul, A. J. Drexel, Esq.

BARN AND POLO STABLES FOR A. J. DREXEL PAUL, ESQ., RADNOR, PA.  Mellor & Meigs, Architects

BARN AND POLO STABLES FOR A. J. DREXEL PAUL, ESQ., RADNOR, PA.  Mellor & Meigs, Architects

    
    

Image Title: Exterior: Barn Yard: Project Paul, Barn & Polo Stable, Radnor, PA Client: Paul, A. J. Drexel, Esq.

    A. J. Drexel Paul built his own 25-room house in 1914, "down island", where most of the summer colony was located. Each summer, Isabel Biddle Paul would pack up the couple's two sons and two daughters to begin the long trek to Maine from Philadelphia.

    "We'd take a train to Bath, then a ferry across the river there, and then we'd hook up with another train, to Rockland, Maine. We'd hop on a boat - well not exactly hop - then we'd come to Islesboro, where we were met by carriage after carriage and taken to the house. We came with five or six of the help and about 10 Vuitton trunks." SOURCE

The A. J. Drexel Paul Cottage Islesboro, Maine

    

    Named for its situation at the crest of the Radnor Hills, "Woodcrest"was the estate of James W. Paul, Jr., father of Ellen Drexel Paul, born 1880, A. J. Drexel Paul, born 1884, and Mary Astor Paul, born 1889.

    Long before the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport became so well known, there were many families with multiple large houses on their country estates, often sharing some of the service outbuildings and recreational facilities.  This was true of the Pauls at "Woodcrest".  After the death of his father in 1908, Paul and his new wife, Isabel Biddle, took possession of the acreage north of Upper Gulph Road.  SOURCE

    In 1915, both Isabel and A. J. Drexel Paul and Ellen and Paul Mills built new homes on the estate. “Box Hill” contained state of the art heating and plumbing systems. In that same year, the Mills built the Georgian Colonial “Woodcrest Lodge”, designed by Charles Barton Keene, at a cost of $40,000. Mary Paul and her new husband, Charles A. Munn occupied the large Tudor style main house. 

    It appears to have been the custom at the time in the Pauls’ social stratum to be in constant motion. Summers were spent in Newport or Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island, Dark Harbor, Maine, or in the case of Mary and Charles Munn, with his mother in Manchester, Massachusetts. Winters often found the couples in Palm Beach or Aiken, South Carolina. SOURCE

Mary Astor Paul Munn (1889-1950) Oil on canvas, 1927. Philip de Laszlo

    Side note to Mary Munn's middle name Astor - Her fathers sister, Mary Dahlgren Paul married William Waldorf Astor and became a member of the British aristocracy.


  

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"HOLMDENE" AN ENGLISH COUNTRY PLACE IN MICHIGAN

June 23, 2015, 10:00 am

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    NO LONGER is the traveler surprised to find in the Lake States houses and gardens reflecting taste and background. No longer do people feel that in going to the Middle West they exile themselves from all that is worth while in the arts. And it is partly in houses and gardens on the order of
this of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lowe at Grand Rapids. Mich., that one sees the steady development of architecture and landscape architecture in a state which was not a state until ninety years ago.

    In all of the important cities around the Great Lakes there have always been houses which were centers of cultivation; houses in some cases beautiful without as within. This is true not only in Chicago and Cleveland, but in particular of Detroit. It is true, in isolated instances, of the smaller cities and the small towns of the Middle West; and almost anywhere one sees traces of fine building, sometimes of old gardens planned with simple taste and planted well.

    To-day, however, the movement toward beautiful, toward picturesque building grows as the gardening movement does—which is to say, in unprecedented volume. And the instance given on these pages is but one of many. While Grand Rapids is a lesser city, but known for the beautiful
topography of its situation and surrounding country and for its outstanding quality as a city built and maintained by an integral American stock, reinforced by a stable population of Holland Dutch, this house  and garden are perhaps as good an example as may be given to show the true progress we are making in building and in gardening. For here, to adapt the Baconian phrase, men have come both to build stately and to garden finely.

Shrub planting plan, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1922. Cornell Univ. Library

    The house is not new. Designed by Winslow & Bigelow of Boston some twenty odd years ago, it has stood well the test of time in its dignified and simple mass and in its delightful inner arrangement. It is a beautiful brick house. Elizabethan in feeling, superbly placed on a rise of ground, with a curving entrance drive through plantations of uncommonly well-grown evergreens and deciduous trees, including a number of magnificent elms. Incidentally, this is the tree for which, together with the native thorn or crataegus, this region is celebrated. A charming gate lodge of the brick of the house stands embowered in green, and a small lake or pond to the left of the drive approaching the house gives life to the whole picture.

    "Holmdene" the place is called. All the broader parts of this eighty acres of beautifully rolling and wooded land were planned, so far as further planting was concerned, by Mr. O. C. Simonds, while Ellen Shipman made the garden. The photographs shown here were taken in the month of June when delphiniums and accompanying flowers were at their best.

Terrace, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, Mich.

    To the north and west of the house lies a grass terrace, with retaining walls of brick and with a balustrade of stone in fine design. 

In the borders all the flowers of early summer, irises, foxgloves delphiniums, etc., are seen at their best. In mid-August, the little brick walks are white-edged with alyssum, and later flowers—asters, zinnias, ageratum, phloxes, etc.—make a wonderful display

    Four feet below the terrace is another with flower borders, a long panel of turf and a gay garden seat at either end. 

One of the three water features in this enchanting garden of varying levels is the oblong pool in the main perennial garden which occupies a broad terrace approximately 60 x 150 feet lying two levels below the terrace

    From this terrace, at whose north end there stands a fine elm for shade as well as beauty, four steps descend to the main perennial garden, also on a broad terrace. Here is an oblong pool, a thorn tree at one end, an ancient jar at the other. Heucheras, sedums, statices, hostas, violas, irises, and a few stocks mark the edges of this pool; and an encircling border of fine perennials with inner borders and other perennial squares fills either end of this terrace, which must be sixty feet wide and about a hundred and fifty long. In the borders shown in the illustrations all the flowers of early summer are seen in irises, peonies, delphiniums, foxgloves; while mid-August shows all the little brick walks white-edged with alyssum, phloxes in wonderful array, ageratum, annual asters, zinnias, and statice. Great pots, some with pink hydrangeas, others with auratum lilies in full beauty, serve as accents at the corners of the beds and borders. Lilacs rise here and there and standard wisterias are deftly placed.

On a narrow terrace intervening between the main peremal garden and the rose garden is this circular stone platform where a jet of water falls into a lead basin. Curving steps on either side lead to little flower-bordered walks looped with rose-covered bamboo arches.

    Three more steps down, and one comes to a circular stone platform where a jet of water falls into a lead basin, with a great oil jar against whose base pinks snuggle, and back of which rises the rich green of lilac foliage. This is all in the center of a narrow terrace with one long walk of gravel bordered again by perennial bloom. Thence three more curving steps on either side of the basin lead to yet another of these little flower-bordered walks, hooped with rose-covered bamboo arches, and with irises, delphiniums and all the profusion of color of early and late summer in rich perfection.

Lower terrace and Winged Mercury, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, Mich., Cornell Univ. Library

    Five steps down once more, and we are in the rose garden. Here an enchanting pattern is picked out by narrow gravel walks edged by the most minute and beautifully kept hedges of box-barberry. These are nor more than five inches through. The rose garden  is in two repeated designs,and between these two halves runs a grass walk some fourteen feet wide which leads to the focal point of the whole garden and its lowest one as well. This is a semicircular pool where stands a beautiful Winged Mercury backed by dense foliage of magnolia and elder.

    The pool, a raised one with a low wall of stone, is in a recess to the west of a stone-paved platform, where two very symmetrical dwarf apple trees give a decorative effect from every point of view, and under whose shade the earlier tea and the later coffee are often enjoyed. From this center of interest run two curving walks partly enclosing the rose garden, with  high-clipped hedges of arborvitae on their outer sides.

     In the late sun of a warm August evening, as one sits on this platform gazing upward toward the ivy-hung house, there could hardly he a fairer sight in American gardens than this which meets the eye. Gardens, gardens—four of them on ascending levels till the floor level of the house is reached. The fine austerity of the rose garden, surmounted in midsummer by the great masses of phloxes in full bloom; in three places water, now dripping, now a smooth expanse; the clipped cedar, hemlock, and arborvitae as foils to the wealth of color—all this with the magnificent background of deep oak woods starred in May with daffodils in the north of house and gardens and that garden with its sweet scent of lilies and of phloxes, gives one the impression of a most finished English beauty in America. Louisa Yeomans King

"Holmdene" Historical Marker

First floor plan, 1906, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, Mich.

"Holmdene Manor has been the haunted focal point of Aquinas College for decades. Gary Eberle, the author of Haunted Houses of Grand Rapids, is a professor at this esteemed institution. He has been heard to say on many occasions that he continues to collect ghost stories about this historical landmark to this day.

In order to understand the nature of the haunting, it is necessary first to know the past of this extraordinary manor. Edward Lowe and his wife. Susan Blodgett Lowe, purchased the property on which it sits in 1905. Edward was the grandson of Richard Edward Emerson Butterworth. Together with his wife. Susan, they were responsible for the establishment and funding of both Butterworth and Blodgett hospitals in Grand Rapids. Michigan.

The site of their dream home was originally the sixty-nine-acre McCoy dairy farm located on the former Rathbun property. Construction of their home took place on what was then the outskirts of Grand Rapids. The Tudor-style manor took nearly three years to complete. In 1908, Richard and Susan Lowe, along with their teenage son, Edward Jr., seventeen; daughter, Barbara, fifteen; and young son James, age four, were finally able to move into their twenty-two-room landmark house. They named it Holmdene Manor, after 'holm' which is a particular type of oak tree and 'dene' which means estate.

The residence was known in town as being the most elegant abode around. In 1911, two years after Theodore Roosevelt completed his term as president, he visited Grand Rapids for a Lincoln Day address. He stayed as a house guest of the Lowes and slept in a guest room on the second floor.

While reviewing census reports, it became clear that there were always a great number of people living in the manor. According to the 1910 census, the Lowe family had two live-in cooks, one with a six-year-old daughter listed as a boarder: a housemaid: a waitress: a butler; two chambermaids;
a housekeeper; a coachman; a barn keeper; and a launderer. The 1930 census showed that after the Lowe children grew up and moved away from their childhood home, Edward and Susan downsized their live-in help to five servants.

The 1930's brought great heartache to the Lowe family. Susan died on August 1. 1931, at the age of fifty-eight. She passed away peacefully in the garden she adored, a true blessing, as it was one of her favorite places to be. Edward only survived six years without his wife and departed this world to be with her on July 2, 1938.

Less than a year after Edward's death, the Lowe family sold the entire estate' to the University of Grand Rapids in 1939. The college used the building for only a few years before it was forced to close due to financial issues dining the Second World War.

In 1945, the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, a sect that came to Michigan in 1877 to teach in Catholic parish schools, purchased the property. In 1940. the sisters founded Aquinas College, which was named after Saint Thomas Aquinas, an Italian Dominican priest and philosopher. Having outgrown their downtown college grounds located on Ransom Avenue in Grand Rapids, they moved the main campus to this beautiful estate. Under new ownership, the Holmdene Manor came to serve as both the home of the  administration office and additional classrooms for the college.

In 1955, Aquinas expanded its campus and built a new administration building. It was at this time that the manor became the residence of the Dominican Sisters, all of whom taught at the college. In 1980. Holmdene was granted Historic Landmark status. Following this decree, the building
underwent a complete restoration. One year later, it was reopened and used as administration and faculty offices.

Hardly a student on campus will deny having heard about the ghostly activity inside Holmdene Manor. However, with just a little research, I was able to prove that part of the story behind the haunting is nothing more than an urban legend.

If you perform a Google search on the Holmdene haunting, you will run across the exact same tales being retold on many different websites." Follow THIS LINK to read more.

Front elevation, 1906, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, Mich.

The mature trees in front of the mansion reflected the Lowe family’s lumbering interests and many of the trees on campus are rare species. There was at least one tree of every species that grows in Michigan as well as imported beeches from England, maples from Norway, and many elm trees, later wiped out by the blight.

West Side Garden Elevation, 1906, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Sid Elevation of Dormer and Chimney, 1906, Edward Lowe estate, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Beginning as the Carriage House for the Lowe family, the Cook Carriage House is home to the Campus Life Office and Moose Café.

The building originally served as the stables for the estate; but after a 1978 fire the stables were rebuilt as the Bukowski Pastoral Center and, eventually, Bukowski Chapel.

The original estate consisted of 69 acres of park, farm, and wooded land and contained a garage, a caretaker's house, a lodge, a two-story storage building, stables, and a 22-room Jacobethan revival manor house. "Holmdene" has English country house architecture characteristic of turn-of-the-century domestic upper-class architecture. Its 22 rooms housed most of the college’s functions in the early years. Included were offices, library, bookstore, with former bedrooms upstairs serving as classrooms. 

The interior of the mansion has many features typical of the transitional era in which it was built, including an elevator, electricity, and heating. There are sixteen fireplaces, each different and beautiful in its own right. The first floor has extensive hand-carving, stained-glass medallions, frescoed ceiling, terra-cotta floors, and quarter-sawed oak, walnut, and circassion paneling. Follow THIS LINK for interior photos.

Holmdene: 100 Years in the Grand Tradition

wikimpaia.org LOCATION. BING.

           The Blissveldt Romance filmed at "Holmdene"

"VELEZ BLANCO" 50 East 70th Street New York City

July 26, 2015, 2:00 pm

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The castle of Don Pedro Fajardo y Chacôn (ca. 1478–1546) stands above the town of Vélez Blanco, near the southeastern coast of Spain. Fajardo, raised in the culture of humanism, was governor of Murcia during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella and assisted in suppressing Moorish rebellions in their lands. By royal act, he was given the town Vélez Blanco, and between 1506 and 1515 he erected a castle with a central courtyard embellished with Italian Renaissance ornament in local Macael marble carved by craftsmen from Lombardy.

In imagining what Paradise for me would be like, I saw a chateau

perpetually in progress . . . salons where I could walk and reflect,

constantly being decorated by numerous workmen who never finished

— painters, artisans, sculptors working without cease at the new works

which I would inspire.

From the windows, I would see a vast park, a prolongment in nature

of the architecture of my habitation. Its lines would correspond to those

of the building and become its frame, thus giving it an aspect of solidity and logic. Columns, statues, monuments would be there on trial, to be adopted only if they realized perfect proportions, each object completing the ensemble.Paul Ernest Boniface de Castellane, the marquis de Castellane (February 14, 1867 – October 20, 1932) was a French nobleman known as a leading Belle Epoque tastemaker and the first husband of American railroad heiress Anna Gould. His reputation as an art and antique authority made it possible for him to guide rich Americans to dealers who paid him a commission on what they unloaded on his customers. "once the most notorious spendthrift of modern times"

Traits which in another might have been considered arrogant, in Castellane were tempered by a disarming smile and a charming manner which explained and excused them. It is not difficult to understand the influence he could exert on both men and women, for he had an incredible feeling for the magnificent. Those who aspired to live like kings could not ask a better teacher of the art than Boni de Castellane.

He admits freely in his memoirs his activities as advisor, and his judgments upon some of the American collectors he knew are interesting, for their insight as well as their bite. Pierpont Morgan, whom he called a sort of nabob, was "infinitely more of a real art lover than any of his compatriots and possessed a soul above dollars! He, nevertheless, grasped with the avidity of a furniture mover the beautiful things which were suggested to him—I sometimes thought him more of a passionate collector than a true artist. Daniel Guggenheim, Otto Kahn, Joseph Feder, and GEORGE BLUMENTHAL he names as superior to the generality of (American) connoisseurs.

George Blumenthal Artist: Charles Hopkinson, Date: 1933

http://www.aaa.si.edu/

70th Street and Park Avenue. George Blumenthal residence, exterior. DATE: ca. 1917 http://collections.mcny.org/

    Note the shared open space with neighbor Arthur Curtis James.  46 East 70th Street, former home of Stephen C. Clark, grandson of the builder of the Dakota, stands today as the Explorers Club.

The mansion was demolished after World War II and on the site was erected a 20-story apartment building, completed in 1949.

    Germain Seligman - George Blumenthal, the dynamic American partner of the French banking house of Lazard Freres, was an old school friend of my fathers'; they were born in Frankfort in the same year. He was still living then on West 53rd Street and there is little to say about his collection at that time, except that it contained excellent examples of Barbizon painting, his first collecting love, for he was only beginning the important role he was to play in American art circles.

    George Blumenthal became President of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum in 1934, after having served as a member of that Board since 1909. This was a side of his life which might be considered an indulgence of personal taste, but he also served on the Board of Mount Sinai hospital for forty-six years, twenty-seven of them as its President. 

Giovanni Boldini, 1896 PORTRAIT OF MADAME G. BLUMENTHAL A gift from George Blumenthal to France in 1936

http://www.aaa.si.edu/

    Of greater moment then were the activities of his attractive, elegant, and cultivated wife, Florence, who was not only endowed with a refined taste, but had a true student's approach to art. She had been much impressed with the house of Mrs. Jack Gardner in Boston and realized the possibilities such a program of construction offered if a greater orthodoxy were observed in the architecture itself and in the decoration of the individual rooms. She had therefore set about assembling the essential elements around which her house, and each of its rooms, would be built. It was a grandiose scheme, the like of which had never before been undertaken in such completeness.

    Every capital work of art was to be chosen before the actual building began, if it were to have a fundamental role in the architecture, so that it would fit ideally into the place planned for it both in physical proportion and in relation to the aesthetic scheme. The nucleus about which the house-to-be was planned, had just been purchased from my father — a galleried Spanish Renaissance patio, two stories in height and entirely of marble. It had been originally in the palace of Don Pedro Fajardo, the first Marquis of Velez, at "Velez Blanco", and dated between 1506 and 1515. Around it would be grouped the reception rooms of the ground and second floors. Naturally, much of the talk on this visit had to do with this absorbing subject.

    By 1920, the house on which Florence Blumenthal had been working for several years with such love and care was completed. The rather austere, almost forbidding, Italian Renaissance structure at the southwest corner of 70th Street and Park Avenue revealed little to the passerby. Once inside, the impression of austerity was replaced by a world of the imagination, far from the material bustle of New York. It was a dreamlike oasis of beauty, complete with melodious sound from the running water of the patio fountain, often the only sound of greeting. At dusk, the light from a table-lamp opposite the entrance gave to the high, wide court a quality at once eerie and intimate, as it reduced the proportions and picked up the warmth of blooming flowers, green plants, and colorful oriental rugs. It is difficult to explain how so sumptuous and impressive a house could be so intimate; this was but one of the achievements of an extraordinary woman.

    The first and second floors were devoted to formal reception rooms.

    From the patio, with its royal pair of Pannemaker tapestries, one passed into the ballroom, a later addition built only after a complete set of 18th century flower-strewn tapestries had been found to cover its long walls. The focal point of the long axis was a marble Orpheus by Francheville, since attributed to Cristofano da Bracciano and believed to be part of a group made for the Palazzo Corsi.

    On the floor above was the great Gothic hall, built specifically for three great works of art: the magnificently simple fireplace which determined the proportions of the whole; a gay and secular 15th century mille fleurs tapestry depicting a hawking party on the opposite wall; and a marble Virgin and Child by Pisano which occupied a special niche in the linen-fold paneling of the smaller wall. On the same floor was a larger Renaissance salon whose velvet-hung walls served as a background for most of the paintings of earlier date. Here, too, were the monumental Venetian bronze andirons from the Spitzer and Taylor Collections. The formal dining room, where the magnificent Charlemagne tapestry was the piece de resistance, was also on the second floor, with a smaller family dining room on the third floor. There, with the exception of George Blumenthal's den, the decoration was entirely of the 18th century, reminiscent, in its charm and intimacy, of the petits appartements of a French royal chateau.

    There was perfection in each detail of the house, a perfection which went beyond the works of art. Every bouquet of flowers or potted plant, appropriate in color, size, and kind, was chosen for its appointed place; service was at the elbow before a wish was expressed, but so unobtrusive as to be almost invisible. The food, the wines, the linens, the table service were flawless. It, of course, took an enormous amount of concentration and work to maintain such perfection, but this never intruded on the enjoyment of it.

    Florence Blumenthal moved about like a fairy-tale princess, small and dainty, with delicate hands and feet. In the evening, she often wore Renaissance velvet gowns, in dark jewel-like colors which not only enhanced her beauty but gave her an air of having been born to this superb environment where every work of art seemed tunelessly at home. She actually lived among the treasures, as it had been intended one should; while seated in one of the low, comfortable chairs, she could let a hand stroke the cool marble of a small sculptured head or the sharp edges of an ivory diptych on a nearby table. They were there to be touched, and if an occasional piece like the Hispano-Moresque plate, one of the earliest known, remained under glass, the rest were simply there, as by happy accident.

    This superb aesthetic efflorescence had had its birth in tragedy. Florence and George Blumenthal had lost their only child, George, when he was eleven. The shock of his death, added to the knowledge that she could never bear another child, left Mrs. Blumenthal in such despair that every means was employed to create new interests for her. Chief among them was travel, with long stays in Italy and France. Gradually her innate taste and love of beauty was reawakened. Guided by special tutors, she plunged into a serious study of the history of art. By the time she began to develop her ideas for the New York house, she had acquired real knowledge to complement a natural bent.

    Mrs. Blumenthal diffused about her a sense of refinement which made natural for her a setting which might have seemed theatrical for another. It inspired her visitors. Talk was never high-pitched, and the subject of conversation was apt to be in keeping with the atmosphere, serious and scholarly, or gay and witty. The company was always stimulating and never banal.

    Already in 1927, George Blumenthal had established a fund of a million dollars for the Metropolitan Museum, and in his will he left to that institution all the works of art in his collection which dated from before 1720. It had been his intention to bequeath his house, as it stood, to the museum, to be kept intact as an auxiliary branch. But his years of Trusteeship had given him a thorough understanding of the maintenance problems involved in the running of a modern museum, and he changed his mind. Instead, the house was ordered dismantled and sold for the benefit of the museum, with the patio, the boiseries, stained glass, and all such architectural features to be retained by the museum, and installed when and how it saw fit. - Merchants of art: 1800-1960: eighty years of professional collecting

The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's FIRST FLOOR(approximations) SOURCE

The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's SECOND FLOOR(approximations) SOURCE

FOYER LOOKING INTO TWO-STORY SPANISH COURTYARD The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Inside a fruit wreath, is the coat of arms of Don Pedro Fajardo. This carving was originally on the wall of the castle's main tower.

Wall bracket Date: 17th century (?), Culture: Italian or Spanish

FOYER, DOOR INTO MEN'S RECEPTION ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

FOYER LOOKING INTO TWO-STORY SPANISH COURTYARD The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Pair of standing candelabra Date: 16th century, Culture: Spanish

LOGGIA, FOYER ENTRANCE ON THE RIGHT The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Candelabra Date: 15th century, Culture: European

Pair of standing candelabra Date: 16th century, Culture: Spanish

LOGGIA, STAIRS TO UPPER GALLERY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

    A regrettable loss is that of a balustrade that ran along three sides of the patio above the heavy marble entablature.  The only elements of the balustrade known to have survived are four carved piers that were adapted into the Blumenthal house as pilasters for the staircase.

Bust of Roman Emperor Date: ca. 1525–30 (?), Culture: French

VIEW INTO COURTYARD, BALLROOM ENTRANCE ON THE LEFT The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Patio from the Castle of Vélez Blanco Date: 1506–15, Culture: Spanish, Almería, Medium: Marble of Macael

 The coats of arms of Don Pedro Fajar do y Chacon (left) and his wife Dona Mencia de la Cueva (right), carved on the first-floor spandrels

OPPOSITE VIEW, STAIRCASE, DOOR TO DINING ROOM, DOOR FROM MEN'S RECEPTION ROOM, FOYER  The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Virgin and Child Date: first quarter 14th century, Geography: Made in Normandy, France

COURTYARD, STAIRCASE, DOOR TO DINING ROOM, DOOR FROM MEN'S RECEPTION ROOM, FOYER The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

   

In 1945, after Blumenthal's death and the demolition of his residence, the approximately two thousand marble blocks were brought to the museum, where they were reassembled, as faithfully as possible, in 1964. The courtyard was closed for refurbishing in 1997 and reopened in 2000.

    The patio from Vélez Blanco has been recognized by scholars around the world as one of the jewels of early Renaissance Spain — melding indigenous Gothic and Hispano-Moresque structural precedents contributed by its Spanish architect — such as segmental arches and flat timber ceilings with exposed beams — to the architectural canons and ornamental motifs of the Italian Renaissance. The graceful carvings that embellish many window and door frames of the 2,750-square-foot, two-story galleried structure — fantastic tiered candelabra and animal grotesques, foliate scrolls, birds, vases, and monsters — are believed to be the work of itinerant Lombardo-Venetian sculptors who brought their up-to-date carving skills and pattern books from northern Italy to the small mountain village on the southeastern coast of Spain.

    By the 19th century, after French invasion and decades of political and social upheaval had overtaken Spain, the castle of Vélez Blanco was abandoned.  In 1904 its magnificent ensemble of arcades, columns, and window and door enframements was removed by an interior decorator, ]. Goldberg of Paris, and transported to that city. Together with these elements went other large pieces of Renaissance carving from the castle, such as the wooden ceiling, or artesonado, of one of the salons and two doors.

    There was no better moment for the sale of this ensemble. In the United States the fashion for Renaissance architecture—promoted by such professionals as Stanford White and Charles R McKim—was at its peak. The marbles were offered first to Archer M. Huntington, whose interest in Spain led to the founding of the Hispanic Society of America. The patio from Velez Blanco was to be considered for use in the society's new building. 

    Negotiations fell through, however, and shortly before 1915, George Blumenthal purchased the marbles for the house  on Park Avenue. There they were combined with a number of additions to create a sumptuous inner hall, in which a second-floor gallery ran on three sides and a coffered ceiling was made from the arresonado. SOURCE

COURTYARD The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Mercury Changes Aglauros to Stone, from the Story of Mercury and Herse Designer: Design attributed to Giovanni Battista Lodi da Cremona, from the set of the "Acts of the Apostles" Date: designed ca. 1540, woven ca. 1570 Culture: Flemish, Brussels

Cassone (one of a pair) Date: second quarter 15th century, Culture: Italian, probably Florence

COURTYARD, STAIRCASE, DOOR TO DINING ROOM, DOOR FROM MEN'S RECEPTION ROOM, FOYER The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Fountain with Arms of Jacopo de' Pazzi Giuliano da Maiano Date: ca.1470, Culture: Italian, Florence

COURTYARD, STAIRCASE, DOOR TO DINING ROOM, DOOR FROM MEN'S RECEPTION ROOM, FOYER The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

COURTYARD  The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

    Opus 1348 - In 1916 a contract was signed with the Aeolian Company at a cost of $27,000.  House organ was hidden behind the tapestries. Console was in mezzanine gallery above. Blumenthal's regular organists included Archer Gibson and Harry Rowe Shelley.

Enthroned Virgin and Child Date: ca. 1210–20, Geography: Made in Meuse Valley, France

COURTYARD The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Folding stool  Date: 16th century, Culture: Italian

COURTYARD, SERVICE AREAS BEHIND TAPESTRY AND UPPER GALLERY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Patio from the Castle of Vélez Blanco Date: 1506–15, Culture: Spanish, Almería, Medium: Marble of Macael

    The patio — also known as the Blumenthal Patio — was the crowning jewel of the castle built between 1506 and 1515 by Don Pedro Fajardo y Chacón in Vélez Blanco — one of the towns he was given as reward for his assistance in suppressing Moorish rebellions in the lands of Andalusia. Don Pedro, first Marqués of Vélez and fifth Governor of the Kingdom of Murcia, was born probably in 1478, belonging to that generation of Castilian nobles that came of age during the reign of the Catholic Kings (as Ferdinand and Isabella are known in Spain). He was raised at the royal court and sponsored by the queen at an academy for young nobles; there he learned to read and write Latin under the guidance of the brilliant Italian scholar and historian, Pietro Martire d'Anghiera. This education reveals itself in the wealth of decorative images taken from ancient sources that embellish the patio's structure. 

A triumph of the designers skill is the treatment of the pilasters of the windows, with their narrow, difficult proportions, within which are arranged hanging designs or ascending garlands. Among the most attractive are the helmets, suits of armor, panoplies of shields, swords and daggers,trumpets, flutes, cymbals and drum.

COURTYARD, WINDOWS OVERLOOKED THE SHARED SPACE WITH ARTHUR CURTIS JAMES The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

  

UPPER GALLERY, FAR RIGHT TOP DOOR FROM RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Aglauros’s Vision of the Bridal Chamber of Herse, from the Story of Mercury and Herse  Designer: Design attributed to Giovanni Battista Lodi da Cremona from the set of the "Acts of the Apostles" Date: designed ca. 1540, woven ca. 1570 Culture: Flemish, Brussels

    The two sixteenth-century Brussels pieces of Mercury and Herse are among the greatest treasures of the entire collection. 

Pulpit Date: ca. 1500 Culture: Spanish

Bust of a gentleman in contemporary dress Date: ca. 1525–30, Culture: French

COURTYARD, DOOR ON LEFT LEADS TO LADIES RECEPTION ROOM, BALLROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

God the Father Ambrogio Bevilacqua

Madonna and Child with Angels After a model by Antonio Rossellino

Virgin and Child Date: ca. 1350, Geography: Made in Champagne, France

VIEW INTO FOYER, ENTRANCE DOOR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

http://groteskology.blogspot.com/2010/05/castle-of-pedro-fajardo.html

ENTRANCE INTO FOYER FROM COURTYARD The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Adoration of the Magi Justus of Ghent (Joos van Wassenhove) Date: ca. 1465

Marriage chest (cassone)  Date: second half 16th century Culture: Italian, Rome

LADIES RECEPTION ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

LADIES RECEPTION ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Sanctuary lamp  Maker: Juan Antonio Dominguez  Date: first half 18th century, Culture: Spanish (Toledo)

LADIES RECEPTION ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Virgin and Child Date: 14th century,  Culture: French

MEN'S RECEPTION ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MEN'S RECEPTION ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

BALLROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

BALLROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Orpheus Artist: Cristoforo Stati, Date: 1600–01, Culture: Italian, Florence

Settee Date: third quarter 18th century, Culture: Italian

BALLROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Louis XV, King of France Artist: Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger, Patron: Probably commissioned by Mme de Pompadour, Date:1757

A Pair of Painted and Giltwood Side Chairs originally designed for the ballroom of the Blumenthal residence sold in 2005 for $33,600.

DINING ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Prodigal Receives His Share (one of eight scenes from the story of the Prodigal Son) Date: 1532, possibly some 19th century, Culture: German

Bernard Palissy Artist: Probably by Giuseppe Devers, Date: ca. 1866, Culture: French, Medium: Painted terracotta

     Blumenthal paid $70,000 for this painted terracotta bust in 1917. 

DINING ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Prodigal as a Swineherd (one of eight scenes from the story of the Prodigal Son) Date: 1532, Culture: German

DINING ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Scenes from The Story of Charlemagne (?) (from Christ the Judge on the Throne of Majesty and Other Subjects) Date: ca. 1500–1510, Culture: South Netherlandish

DINING ROOM, MINSTREL GALLERY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

DINING ROOM, MINSTREL GALLERY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Trinity Artist: Agnolo Gaddi, Date: ca. 1390–96

The Lamentation Date: ca. 1490–1505, Culture: South Netherlandish

Chest Date: second half 15th century, Culture: French

UPPER GALLERY, ORGAN CONSOLE, SERVICE AREA BEHIND WALL The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Armorial Tondo with the Arms of Squarci Lupi Maker: School of Giovanni della Robbia, Date: 15th–16th century, Culture: Italian, Florence

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Scenes from the Life of the Virgin Artist: Morata Master (Spanish, Aragonese, late 15th century)

Armorial Tondo Maker: School of Giovanni della Robbia, Date: 15th–16th century, Culture: Italian, Florence

UPPER GALLERY, SERVICE AREA BEHIND WALL The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Carpet with Coat of Arms Date: 15th century, Culture: Spanish

UPPER GALLERY, GOTHIC HALL, DOOR TO ELEVATOR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

UPPER GALLERY, STAIRS TO THIRD FLOOR TO THE RIGHT The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Panel with St. John The Evangelist Date: 15th century, Culture: French

Panel with St. Catherine of Alexandria Date: 15th century, Culture: French

Stained glass functioned as an atmospheric light source on stairway landings or provided vistas down hall or balcony walkways The deep, rich colors of this double-light window, purchased by Mrs. Blumenthal in 1916, helped to further the "sumptuous" atmosphere of the new house she assiduously worked to create on East Seventieth Street - an ambiance in which living with the past was taken seriously. 

    Old stained glass was used throughout the house, including the dining room, library, and drawing room. The lion's share of stained glass acquired for his home was sixteenth and seventeenth century in date. 

The Latin inscription translates as: PEDRO FAJARDO, FIRST MARQUES OF VELEZ AND FIFTH GOVERNOR OF THE KINGDOM OF MURCIA OF HIS LINEAGE, ERECTED THIS CASTLE AS THE CASTLE OF HIS TITLE, THIS WORK WAS STARTED IN THE YEAR 1506 AFTER THE BIRTH OF CHRIST AND FINISHED IN THE YEAR 1515.

    The double gallery of five arches each on the east side of the patio. At the left is the doorway, and at the right a marble staircase leads to the second floor, where, if in the castle, the grand reception rooms were located. Beneath the cornice is part of the inscription citing the castle's builder, his titles, and the dates of construction.

    A team from the Spanish company Delta Cad was sent to New York by the Junta's ministry of culture to make a three dimensional digital scan of the patio using laser technology. The digital copy will be used to recreate the patio at castle Vélez Blanco. Some of the information will be used directly by marble milling machinery in Macael and the rest will be carved by hand by students of the Andalucian School of Marble in Fines. 

    The Forgotten Friezes from the Castle of Vélez Blanco

UPPER GALLERY, STAIRS TO THIRD FLOOR TO THE RIGHT The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Hunting for Wild Boar  Date: ca. 1515–35, Culture: South Netherlandish

RENAISSANCE SALON, THE WINDOWS OVERLOOKED THE SHARED OPEN SPACE WITH ARTHUR CURTIS JAMES The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Terracotta Pilaster (one of four) Artist: Graziani, Date: late 18th–early 19th century, Culture: Italian, Faenza

The Mocking of Christ Maker: Jan RomboutsDate: 1529Culture: Flemish, Leuven

RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Plaque with the Annunciation Date: ca. 1200–1225Culture: Catalan or Central Italian

Madonn aand Child with Saints Francis and Jerome Artist: Francesco Francia, Date:1500–10

Saint Reparata before the Emperor Decius Artist: Bernardo Daddi, Date: ca. 1338–40

RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Mercury Artist: Attributed to Alessandro Vittoria, Date: third quarter 16th century, Culture: Italian, Venice

    Blumenthal paid $48,000 for a pair of sixteenth century andirons, surmounted by figures of Apollo and Mercury, ascribed to Alessandro Vittoria.

Portrait of a Man Artist: Jacopo TintorettoDate: ca. 1540

RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Marriage chest (cassone) (one of a pair) Date: third quarter 16th century, Culture: probably Italian, Rome

Preparation for the Crucifixion Jan Rombouts

RENAISSANCE SALON, DOOR TO SECOND-STORY GALLERY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Renaissance-style statuette of Virgin and Child Date: 19th century

Enthroned Virgin and Child Date: probably early 20th century (14th century style), Culture: Italian

The Nativity Jacopo del Sellaio

RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Mantel Date: last quarter 15th century, Culture: Italian

Assumption of the Virgin  Maker: Jan Rombouts, Date: ca. 1505–10, Culture: Flemish, Leuven

RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Coffret Date: early 1400's, Culture: Italian

Pilgrim bottle with cover Date: late 15th or early 16th century, Culture: Italian, Venice

Tabernacle Date: ca. 1200–1210, Geography: Made in Limoges, France

RENAISSANCE SALON The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Portrait of a Knight of Malta Artist: Attributed to Mirabello Cavalori

    "the great Gothic hall, built specifically for three great works of art: the magnificently simple fireplace which determined the proportions of the whole; a gay and secular 15th century mille fleurs tapestry depicting a hawking party on the opposite wall; and a marble Virgin and Child by Pisano which occupied a special niche in the linen-fold paneling of the smaller wall."

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Pair of andirons Date: 16th century, Culture: probably Italian, Venice Holy Woman Date: ca. 1480, Culture: South Netherlandish

Tomb Effigy Bust of Marie de France,daughter of Charles IV of France Artist: Jean de Liège, Date: ca. 1381, Geography: Made in Île de France

Mourning Woman Date: ca. 1480, Culture: South Netherlandish

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Hawking Party Date: ca. 1500–1530, Culture: South Netherlandish

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Virgin and Child Date: ca. 1500–1525, Culture: French

   

"The Sacrifice of Isaac" from Scenes from the Lives of Abraham and Isaac Date: ca. 1600, Culture: Flemish

 

    View of the Scenes from the Lives of Abraham and Isaactapestry-woven cushion covers being used as throw pillows in the Blumenthal household.

    

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Bowl with a Horseman Spearing a Serpent Date: late 1300's or early 1400's Geography: Made in probably Málaga, Spain

Chest Date: early 16th century, Culture: Northern European

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Virgin and Child Date: 13th–14th century, Culture: French

THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SIX SAINTS Artist; Matteo di Giovanni, PROPERTY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, SOLD FOR THE ACQUISITIONS FUND, SOLD. $86,500

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS MICHAEL AND BERNARDINO OF SIENA PROPERTY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, SOLD FOR THE ACQUISITIONS FUND Artist: NEROCCIO DI BARTOLOMMEO DE' LANDI AND WORKSHOP, LOT SOLD. 50,000 USD

Madonna and Child with Angels Artist: Sassetta, Date: ca. 1445–50

Chair Date: 15th century, Culture: North Italian

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Saint George and the Dragon  Date: 15th century Culture: South German

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Tri-Lobed Arch from a Reliquary Shrine Artist: Nicholas of VerdunandCologne FollowersDate: ca. 1200Geography: Made in Cologne, Germany

Colonnette from a Reliquary Shrine Date: ca. 1175–1200, Geography: Made in Cologne, Germany

Plaque of St. Simon Date: 12th century, Culture: German

Florence Blumenthal in the library of her home at 50 East 70th Street, New York City, 1916?-?22. Behind her is the standing Virgin and Child.

Shepherd and Shepherdesses Date: ca. 1500–1530, Culture: South Netherlandish

Chest with Relief Figures of Saints Sebastian and Blaise Date: early 16th century, Culture: Italian

Standing Virgin and Child Date: late 13th century, probably early 20th century, Culture: Italian

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SIX SAINTS PROPERTY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, SOLD FOR THE ACQUISITIONS FUND Artist: Matteo di Giovanni, LOT SOLD. 86,500 USD

Hesse de Linange as donor (one of a set of four) Date: 1529, Culture: French, Lorraine

Lectern, Folding Date: 15th century, Culture: Spanish

Folding Table Date: 1508, Culture: French

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

THE MADONNA AND CHILD WITH SAINTS MATTHEW AND FRANCIS PROPERTY OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, SOLD FOR THE ACQUISITIONS FUND Artist: Bicci di Lorenzo, LOT SOLD. 158,500 USD

St. George standing behind kneeling donor, Jorig Baumgartner, and his family Artist: Painted by Hans Wertinger, Date: 1528, Culture: German

GOTHIC HALL/LIBRARY, VIEW INTO SECOND-STORY GALLERY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Saint John the Evangelist Artist: Segna di Buonaventura, Date: ca. 1320

Saint Andrew Artist: Simone Martini, Date: ca. 1326

Virgin and Child with the Pietà and Saints Artist: Spanish Castilian), Painter (late 15th century)

STAIR LANDING TO THIRD FLOOR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

STAIRS TO THIRD FLOOR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Bacchus Domenico Poggini  Date: 1554, Culture: Italian, Florence

THIRD FLOOR LANDING The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

THIRD FLOOR LANDING The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

THIRD FLOOR LANDING The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

    The Louis XVl-style boiserie skylighted hallway led to Florence's suite, which consisted of a  bedroom, boudoir, and dressing room, each exquisitely paneled and furnished with fine French furniture.

Portrait of a Lady  Giovanni Boldini, 1912

THIRD FLOOR LANDING, HALL TO BEDROOMS The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

    

Pair of armchairs Date: ca. 1730–50Medium: Carved walnut; Beauvais tapestry covers

THIRD FLOOR CORRIDOR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

George Blumenthal Artist: Paul-Maximilien Landowski, Date: 1920, Culture:French

FAMILY DINING ROOM  The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Harvest  Maker: Weaver: Urbanus Leyniers, Maker: Weaver: Daniel Leyniers II Date: 1712–28, Culture: Flemish, Brussels

George Blumenthal (1858 – June 26, 1941)

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE DEN The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Prodigal is Banqueted  Date: 1532, Culture: German

The Prodigal is Given the Best Coat (one of eight scenes from the story of the Prodigal Son) Date: 1532, possibly some 19th century, Culture: German

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE DEN The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Six Courtiers  Date: ca. 1465–80 Culture: South Netherlandish

Madonna and Child Enthroned Artist: Master of the Magdalen (Italian, Florence, active 1265–95)

Chest Date: late 15th century, Culture: French

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE DEN The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Saint Catherine of Alexandria Date: ca. 1450–1500, Culture: North Spanish

ITALIAN RENAISSANCE DEN The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

    The Crucifixion with Saints and Scenes from the Life of the Virgin. A triptych from the workshop Duccio,  Sienese.

MR. BLUMENTHAL'S STUDY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Crucifixion with Saints and a Donor Joos van Cleve

Drug vases  Maker: Workshop of Pompei, Date:ca. 1530, Culture: Italian, Castelli

MR. BLUMENTHAL'S STUDY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Apollo Artist: Adriaen de Vries, Date: ca. 1594–98, Culture: German, probably Augsburg

MR. BLUMENTHAL'S STUDY The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The Crucifixion  Designer: Design attributed to Bernard van Orley  Date: design ca. 1515, woven ca. 1525 Culture: Flemish, Brussels

Cassone Date: second half 16th century, Culture: Italian, possibly Venice

The Adoration of the Shepherds El Greco

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR SITTING ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

     

Armchair Maker: Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené, Maker: painted and gilded by Louis-François Chatard, Date: ca. 1788, Culture: French, Paris

    Made for Marie-Antoinette’s dressing room at the château de Saint Cloud. The queen’s initials are carved on the top rail.

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR SITTING ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Madame du Barry Factory: Sèvres Manufactory, Modeler: Augustin Pajou, Date: 1772, Culture: French, Sèvres

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR SITTING ROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Daybed (Lit de repos or sultane) (part of a set)  Maker: Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené (1748–1803), Maker: painted and gilded by Louis-François Chatard (ca. 1749–1819)Date: 1788, Culture: French, Paris

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR BEDROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

    It had a shoe closet rivaling that of Imelda Marcos.

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR BEDROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR BEDROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR BOUDOIR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR BOUDOIR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Armchair  Maker: Georges Jacob Date: ca. 1780–90

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR BOUDOIR The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Clock Clockmaker: Charles Dutertre, Date: ca. 1775, Culture: French, Paris

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S THIRD FLOOR BOUDOIR, CLOSET The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S BATHROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S BATHROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MRS. BLUMENTHAL'S BATHROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MR. BLUMENTHAL'S BEDROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

MR. BLUMENTHAL'S BEDROOM The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

Clock Clockmaker: Drouot, Enameler: Dubuisson, Date: first quarter 19th century, Culture: French, Paris

Vase with cover (Vase en ivoire) Date: ca. 1786, Culture: French, Paris

Fire screen Factory: Tapestry woven at: Beauvais, Date: late 17th–early 18th century, Culture: French

    Swimming pool with wall murals by Paul Thevenaz, and patinated bronze armchairs by Armand Albert Rateau.

SWIMMING POOL The home of George and Florence Blumenthal, Fifty East Seventieth Street, New York, 1920's

The bare walls surrounding the pool were transformed into a gorgeous, poetic sea garden. In this swimming pool Thevenaz revelled in the exotic, the foreign, the imaginative.

    

Against an aqua-marine background of undersea tone, float myriad-colored sea anemones, glittering shoals of deep-sea fish, tall iridescent water flowers, great jewelled shells and dreaming mermaids with long tresses of seaweed texture. Corals, greens, pinks and blues, and rhythm in every detail!

MURAL DECORATION FOR THE SWIMMING POOL OF MRS. GEORGE BLUMENTHAL

A great translucent octopus coils and uncoils below a little sea child clinging to an overhanging rock and gleefully deriding all danger.

MURAL DECORATION FOR THE SWIMMING POOL OF MRS. GEORGE BLUMENTHAL

DETAIL OF MURAL DECORATION FOR THE SWIMMING POOL OF MRS. GEORGE BLUMENTHAL

Bronze armchair, model no. 1793, the frame cast with details of scales and shells, the back and seat formed by linked medallions cast as fish and the arms formed of linked shells.

     Model no. 1793 - known as the Blumenthal armchair by Armand-Albert Rateau - sold in 2007 for $2,001,000. The table pictured below sold in 2009 for $1,455,422., part of the COLLECTION YVES SAINT LAURENT.

    In 1919, Rateau and the Blumenthals happened upon each other while aboard the ocean liner La Savoie traveling between the U.S. and France and it was from this meeting that the Blumenthals became Rateau's first clients. The three had worked together previously, before the war while Rateau held the position of creative director in the prestigious French decorating firm Alavoine & Cie. However, in 1919, when they became re-acquainted, Rateau had set out to work independently.

    Shortly after their transatlantic encounter the Blumenthals commissioned a suite of furniture for the patio surrounding the indoor pool at their sumptuous Manhattan townhouse. Taking his cue from the elaborate aquatic murals featuring mermaids swimming below the ocean amongst sea creatures and sea life, Rateau created his magical bronze suite (consisting of six armchairs, two tables and one lamp) with an intricate shell and marine life theme. SOURCE

With green marble circular top, decorated with seven green patinated bronze medallions with an incised pattern of snails and shells, supported by six tapering grooved and patinated bronze legs, the upper section with a pattern of shells and pearls, connected by a six-arm stretcher joined in the centre by a stylized pine cone; each arm decorated with four snails

Here a phantom ship appears wrecked upon rocky depths, in a vivid mass of star fish.

    Blumenthal built several mansions in New York City, a townhouse in Paris, and a château in Grasse, near Cannes, France. He was one of the original members of the Knollwood Club on Lower Saranac Lake, occupying Cottage Two. Soon after his wife's death in 1930, Blumenthal closed the Paris house and auctioned its contents. 

23 WEST 53RD STREET Rising four stories above its double-lot (50 feet) frontage on West 53rd Street. Three round-arched openings with keystones in the form of grotesque faces penetrate beveled rustication at the ground floor level. On the second story, rusticated piers frame three French windows placed between engaged Ionic columns, While pedimented dormers and a frieze with putti at either end surmount the crowning cornice. Another tier of dormers emerges from a steep mansard roof to culminate this richly sculptural facade. SOURCE

    In 1903 George Blumenthal built one of the best midblock mansions ever erected in New York, the scrumptiously sumptuous 23 West 53rd Street,designed by Hunt & Hunt.  The 1910 census found Blumenthal at home with his wife and 12 servants, including a valet, a butler and two footmen. SOURCE

    Blumenthal's house replaced the only apartment building to get onto the block -- in 1900 the neighbors had paid $19,000 to the apartment-house owner to restrict that site to single houses in the future. But desertions began in 1911, when Blumenthal himself began his house at Park Avenue and 70th. In 1922 the remaining householders fought off an attempt to convert his 53rd Street place into a club, but things were beginning to fall apart, and in 1924 it was the subject of an ad in The New  York Times: "The House — A Jewel; The Price — A Bargain."

    In 1932, the Blumenthal house, then operating as the Bath Club, was raided by Prohibition agents who, while securing the premises, had to turn away "scores of fashionably dressed customers," as The Times put it.  After serving as the headquarters of the Theatre Guild, the building was acquired in 1956 by the Museum of Modern Art, which used it for offices and a bookstore before  demolishing in 1976 for its Museum Tower project.

Blumenthals'Chateau de Malbosc near Grasse, France

 George Blumenthal was married twice: In 1898, he married Florence Meyer, whose brother Eugene Meyer, Jr. was the father of Katharine Meyer Graham, Editor of the Washington Post. Florence Meyer died in Paris in 1930. In December, 1935, he married Mrs. Mary (Marion) Clews, the former Miss Mary Ann Payne of New York, and widow of James Clews, banker. They were married at her home at 1 E. 62nd Street. George Blumenthal died in 1941 in New York City.

PANEL PORTRAIT OF GEORGE BLUMENTHAL JR Designer: Kathleen Hollister, Date: 1930's

From 1911 to 1938, the Blumenthals gave three million dollars to Mount Sinai Hospital, one of New York’s prominent German Jewish institutions, including a sum allotted for a wing in memory of their only child, George, Jr., who died as a young boy. The death of their only child in 1909 caused them to seek solace in collecting art and antiques.

A stamp printed in Spain shows Velez Blanco, Almeria, Spain, circa 1969.

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

January 19, 2015, 1:00 am

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

On 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.

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    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.

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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

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MRS. EDWARD T. STOTESBURY

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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

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     "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.

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    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

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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

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    "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.