Sunday, February 22, 2009

Life Magazine

The following bunch of B&W's come from the Life Magazine archives.  Above is 'Woodside', the James Abercrombie Burden estate in Syosset, built by Delano & Aldrich c. 1916.  The estate comprised over 120 acres and included stables and a farm group.  Apparently at some point they let their cattle onto the rear of the property.  

'Northaw', the Sir Thomas Ashley Sparks estate in Oyster Bay Cove.  Built c. 1900, the house sat on over 250 acres.  It was demolished after a fire destroyed most of the structure c. 1968.  

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The second house the The Sir Ashley Sparks Estate. A forty two room mansion, 300 acres of well manicured gardens. Sadly in 1970, the house burned to the ground by vandals. there are many good pictures and a good desciption of the house in monica randall's book.-Kyle

Anonymous said...

The last photo is of the Sir Thomas Ashley Sparks estate "Northaw"(originally owned by Henry Herman Harjes) located in Oyster Bay on Berry Hill Road near 25a. It was distroyed by fire in 1968

Anonymous said...

in the book it says it was abandoned in 1963, and burned spring 1970, then a again i have seen a few typos in thee book in the past

Zach L. said...

Thanks!

Zach L. said...

It's a little depressing looking at the pictures in Randall's book after seeing it in such good shape above.

Anonymous said...

I could be wrong, but the first picture appears to be Woodside, the James A. Burden Jr. estate in Syosset.

jrconahey said...

As a child I lived on White Oak Tree Rd,Stosset/Laurel Hollow. I remember seeing the sparks estate after it burned. We found rare orchids, Lady Slippers, that were planted by someone at Sparks estate. Scary, creepy, much turmoil energy there at the time early 70s.

Jhodg5ck said...

The developer burned the Sparks earate. My father was looking at purchasing the estate, the evening before the fire he witnessed an employee of said developer removing all the furniture, hardware, radiators etc... Next day it burned. My father saw them after the fire and when confronted the fellow spun on his heals and left without a Word or rebuttal.

Unknown said...

My family purchased the land where the original house stood in 1976. The original rock garden walls still exist. I am interested in any pictures of this house or property in its original state.