"I dream't I dwelt in marble halls"
Devoted to the histories and current state of the great mansions of America's Gilded Age.

Friday, September 30, 2011

The Orchard, James Breese Estate at Southampton, New York

The Orchard, Southampton, New York

 Click HERE for a great article in Country Life in America, when the Orchard was considered one of the twelve best country houses in America. To read more about the Orchard and James Breese, please become a friend of, " Gilded Age Mansions" on Facebook, for daily stories about, " Mansions of the Gilded Age".

To read more about the great classic homes of the Hamptons read Houses of the Hamptons 1880-1930 by Gary Lawrance & Anne Surchin. 2007/2013.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Seaview Terrace, Newport, Rhode Island

Seaview Terrace in Newport, Rhode Island. The house is most famous for being used as the setting for Collinwood, in the 1960s, Gothic soap opera, " Dark Shadows".

Click HERE to see more.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Mayor Bloomberg's New Southampton House Ballyshear

Ballyshear

Please click HERE to read about Ballyshear on, Houses of the Hamptons and follow the link to New York Social Diary's story about the estate including floor plans.

To read more about the great classic homes of the Hamptons read Houses of the Hamptons 1880-1930 by Gary Lawrance & Anne Surchin. 2007/2013.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011

"The Great Gatsby Mansions"

Center Court of Farnsworth, Home of C. K. G. Billings at Locust Valley
Please click HERE to find out more about my upcoming talk!

Click HERE for more on Farnsworth.

Click HERE for Farnsworth on Old Long Island.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Carleton Villa Visit 2003 > Thousand Islands Life Magazine > Thousand Islands Life Magazine All Archives

Carleton Villa Visit 2003 > Thousand Islands Life Magazine > Thousand Islands Life Magazine All Archives

Duke Semans Mansion Sold for $44 Million | Gilded Life

Duke Semans Mansion Sold for $44 Million | Gilded Life

The New Yorker & Elm Court

NewYorker

Click HERE for more about Elm Court and HERE.

"The Great Gatsby Mansions"

On September 15, at 7pm, I will be giving a talk at the Port Jefferson Village Center on the mansions that were said to have been the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald when writing his novel, " The Great Gatsby". Click HERE to read more about the talk on  a previous post and click HERE to go to the Port Jefferson Village Center website for directions and information.

Gilded Age Mansions on facebook

Go to facebook and join, Gilded Age Mansions, I will be posting interesting items that I find on ebay, that others might enjoy. Also will be  a place to share with others and find out more things about Gilded Age Mansions from other groups, people and organizations! I will try to keep the posts to Gilded Age Mansion related information, but please post anything you would like to share.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Sunday, September 4, 2011

The Greenhouse at Lyndhurst

Ruined greenhouse circa 1970

 









The greenhouse at the Jay Gould estate, Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, New York was at one time considered the largest and best equipped greenhouse in America. It's predecessor was even more fantastic with a towering spire. The first greenhouse burned to the ground and was  replaced by this one. Designed by Lord & Burnham, the greenhouse specialist of the "Gilded Age",  it housed one of the best orchid collections in the United States. Jay Gould who owned Lyndhurst from the 1880s was a notorious Robber Baron and was not welcome in, " Society".  But when he was not causing financial turmoil on Wall Street, he puttered in his rose garden and greenhouse. One woman at the time is to have said, "Surely a man cannot be altogether bad who is a friend of the roses" The greenhouse was maintained in its glory up until about the 1940s when Anna Gould, the Duchess de Talleyrand , returned from France and to Lyndhurst. In 1945 she sold off the famous orchid collection.  Anna Gould died in 1961 and willed Lyndhurst to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Trust opened the property to the public shortly after Anna's death and has been restoring the estate ever since. The greenhouse is stabilized and will hopefully be restored to its former glory someday.

I had visited the estate when it first opened in the late 1960s and found it to be a haunting overgrown place with many of the outbuildings fallen into decay and ruin.The grounds were covered with all kinds of statuary and the bowling alley was a wreck, as was the greenhouse. I have seen pictures of the house right after the National Trust got it and it was filled to the ceiling with French palace furniture. Anna Gould when she left France during the war, brought much of furniture with her and must have used Lyndhurst and its many outbuildings as storehouses. When at Lyndhurst she left it mostly as it had been since her fathers time and slept in her small childhood tower room.


Two views of Anna Gould's furniture at the top of the tower stairs.


Please click the following links for more on Lyndhurst.

Lyndhurst estate in Tarrytown

New York Social Diary 

New York Times

Anna Gould  

George Gould Townhouse

Jay Gould Townhouse

Lyndhurst as a movie setting for, " Dark Shadows" 

In the movie, House of Dark Shadows and its sequel, Night of Dark Shadows,  there are many scenes filmed at the ruined greenhouse, poolhouse and stables. Both great films to see unopen parts of the main house too.






















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