The Manse / William Collins Whitney Estate

William Collins Whitney, the patriarch of the Whitney family, had McKim, Mead and White design him a Tudor style house in 1902 on the 1,000 acres he purchased in Old Westbury, known as 'The Manse'.  He wanted to build an estate that rivaled Biltmore in North Carolina.  His son Harry Payne Whitney inherited the house and estate, and eventually Harry's son Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney would go on to inherit it, demolish this house and build a new one in its place, designed by Billy Delano c. 1940.  Upon his death, the property was split up, some going to development, some to the Old Westbury Country Club and some to NYIT.  Click HERE to see where 'The Manse' stood on google earth.

The massive stables building.  Part of the original structure has been demolished, possibly due to a fire.  Designed by George A. Freeman (1898), the building is now part of NYIT.

A cottage across from the stables.

The indoor tennis court.  This structure originally had a glass roof.

The gymnaisum.  Also designed by George A. Freeman (1898).

The water tower.  The Whitney estate sits on the third highest point on Long Island, and this water tower served numerous functions throughout its life.  It was a windmill, a fire lookout, and during WW2 a lookout post for enemy aircraft. 

The farm group now sits on the property of NYIT.  The dairy has been converted to the student center.

The view from the top of the hill where the house sits.

Click below to see the Whitney estate as it looked partially intact in a 1966 aerial shot.

Cedarmere

Cedarmere was the home of William Cullen Bryant, a poet and publisher of the New York Evening Post.  He converted an older 18th Century farmhouse in Roslyn Harbor, Long Island into his home around 1787.  Frederick Law Olmsted did the landscaping.  Today the house is owned by Nassau County and run as a museum and preserve.  Click HERE to see Cedarmere on google earth.

This must have been some sort of mill in its time.  There is old machinery attached to the side, rusted beyond recognition.

The view from the lawn, with the gardens in the foreground and Hempstead Harbor in the background.

Clayton in Spring

Clayton, the Childs Frick residence in Spring.  Click HERE to see more on Clayton.

Click below to see 'Clayton' in a 1966 aerial shot.

Planting Fields

William R. Coe, an English businessman who married the daughter of a Standard Oil founder, purchased the former James Byrne estate of roughly 350 acres in Oyster Bay in 1913. After adding more property to make the estate more than 400 acres, and after a fire destroyed the original Grovsner Atterbury designed house, the Coe's commissioned the firm of Walker & Gillette in 1919 to design a replacement. The Coe's were already familiar with Walker & Gillette, they had been contracted to design the estate's stables, barn and garage. Click HERE to see Planting Fields on google earth.

The "Carshalton Gates", made in 1712, were purchased by Coe and installed in 1926 here after he had the road widened to accommodate their immense size.

The gate house (1926).

The main house is a Tudor Revival (1918-1921), done in an attempt to evoke Coe's English background. The interior is full of 16th and 17th Century wooden paneling, stained glass from the home of Anne Boleyn, and immense fire place mantles.

The view from the front lawn.

The Camellia House (1917-1922), designed by Guy Lowell. Today the estate is run as an arboretum, open to the general public. Coe was a collector and breeder of rare plants, and the estate continues to carry on the tradition. There are numerous gardens, nature trails, fields, rare trees, rare plants, you name it and Planting Fields pretty much has it. At first Andrew Robeson Sargent, an associate of Guy Lowell, was in charge of landscaping, but after his death the Olmsted Brothers were brought in. What is left today has to be one of the finest examples of landscape architecture on Lond Island.

The 'Italian Blue Pool Garden' (1918) and tea house (1915). This was originally a tennis court but was remodeled by Lowell and Sargent into its current incarnation. This area is currently undergoing restoration.

The hay barn (1915).

The stables, the Coe's took their horses seriously (1915).

Click below to see 'Planting Fields' as it looked in a 1966 aerial shot.

'Amincliff'

'Amincliff'' was built in 1910 for Amos Dow Carver by the firm of Tooker & Marsh and located in Locust Valley. Carver was the head of the marine supply firm of Baker, Carver & Morrell. The central hall in the house is three stories high and led one to a sun room and then outside to a formal garden which was in front of a lily pond.

Matinecock Friends Meeting House

Founded in 1671, according to the sign in front, this structure was erected in 1725 and is the "oldest officially organized friends meeting in the United States."  Below is what appears to be a caretakers cottage.

Blythewood

Built for George Smith by Henry Otis Chapman in 1913 and located in Muttontown.  Smith sold the house in 1923 to Alfred C. Bedford, then chairman of the board of Standard Oil. 

Whitney Stable Then & Now

The stable at the William C. Whitney estate in Old Westbury. Notice the 3 gabled center portion in the distance in the photo above and below. It is followed by a 2 gabled portion and a smaller 3 gabled portion as you move closer to the camera. The rest (two 2 gabled portions) seem to have been demolished sometime ago.

Chelsea

Built for Benjamin Moore and his family in what was then Syosset by Delano & Aldrich in 1924. The estate was named Chelsea after Moore's extensive land holdings in the Chelsea area of New York City. After the death of Moore's widow, the house was deeded to Nassau County and is now part of the Muttontown Preserve. Umberto Innocenti of Innocenti and Webel did the landscaping, and Ferrucio Vitale designed the pond garden.

The rear of the house faces two sides, this one towards the pond. Notice the moat that runs around the back of the house.

The rear of the house faces gardens and then an open field.

The pond.

At the end of the field in the rear of the house is this rusted wrought iron gate. There is a half moon of trees that culminate in these gates, and it appears they lead into the woods.

Click below to see 'Chelsea' with it's gardens intact in a 1966 aerial shot.

The Gardens of Erchless