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Monday, June 28, 2010
George Jay Gould Townhouse 5th Avenue & 67th Street
Original George Gould Townhouse in the late 1880s
The second George Gould Townhouse designed by Horace Trumbauer in 1906, which replaced the previous one which had become out of fashion and too small. This house later became the home of Alice Vanderbilt after downsizing from her enormous townhouse at 57th street, which is now the site of the Bergdorf Goodman department store.
It is rather ironic that while Alice never welcomed the Goulds into her home, eventually ended up living in theirs. The Gould town house lasted till the late 1950's being replaced by the apartment building called 857 Fifth Avenue.
George Gould was the son of Jay Gould, the Railroad Tycoon and an arch enemy of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Commodre's grandchildren, after winning over New York Society, prevented Jay Gould's children from getting into the inner sanctums of Mrs. Astor's 400, due to Jay Gould's rivalry with the Commodore.
Jay Gould's Fifth Avenue townhouse was at 47th street.
His country house was Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, New York.
George Gould also had a great estate at Lakewood New Jersey called " Georgian Court", which is now Georgian Court University. Another son Howard Gould, built Castle Gould/ Hempstead House in Sand's Point, New York on the Long Island sound.
Hempstead House as it is now known, was sold to the Guggenheim Family shortly after Gould completed it and remained in the Guggenheim family for many years, before it became the Sand's Point Preserve and is open to the public.
To read more about the George Gould townhouse and for interiors and floor plans get Michael Kathrens wonderful book, " Great Houses of New York, Acanthus Press.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Harbourwood / Kenwood Blackton Estate, Oyster Bay, New York
Harbourwood, the Oyster Bay Cove estate of Commodore J. Stuart Blackton, co-founder of the Vitagraph Motion Picture company commissioned the architectural firm of Hoppin & Koen, in 1911, to construct what would have been, one of Long Island’s, most elaborate estates. They first built a farm complex with a small cottage, greenhouses and accessory buildings. Then a grand boathouse, which at the time, was said to be the largest and best fitted out boathouses in the country. It included a ballroom above with a tented ceiling, in which he entertained members of “Gold Coast” Society and stars from the emerging movie industry. The Commodore was a noted speedboat racer and also docked his splendid yacht there. According to published accounts of the finished buildings, there is a mention that a main residence will soon be started, but was never built. By the 1930’s, Commodore Blackton, even after selling Vitagraph for over $1,000,000 to Warner Brothers was bankrupt.
The estate eventually was bought by William B. Leeds, heir to a tin plate fortune who also entertained many notables on the property. In the 1920's Anna Anderson who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, the daughter of the murdered Russian Tsar Nicholas II, was a guest at Kenwood, the name that the
Click HERE for Bing map.
Edith Wharton, One of the great authors of the "Gilded Age"
"I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting room, where members of the families come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond are other rooms, the handles of whose doors are never turned; no one knows the way to them, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes."
This has always been a favorite passage of mine, from a short story by Edith Wharton, " The Fullness of Life". One can read many things into this, but I sometimes think it applies so well to large " Gilded Age " houses and what they meant! Yes, they were for impression and displays of wealth and power, but they were also homes, and many times the owners had cozy little corners where they could just be themselves. There was a story I once heard where the lady of a great house, a woman of society, while gowned in all of the best that Paris couturiers could create, had a little room, where she sewed little dresses and ribbons to relax. Would love to hear what others might think about what this passage could mean?
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Books about "GILDED AGE" Mansions and Families: Hamptons & Gatsby's Gold Coast, Long Island , New York
To read a preview, click below:
Houses of the Hamptons
To read a preview of "Long Island's Prominent North Shore Families: Their Estates and Their Country Homes and view other books by the Spinzias, click HERE:
Long Island Country Houses and Their Architects, 1860 - 1940
Harbor Hill: Portrait of a House
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