Saturday, March 20, 2010

The J.F.D. Lanier Estate

The estate of James Franklin Doughty Lanier, built c. 1891 by James Brown Lord in Old Westbury. Lanier was a financier and member of the firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co., one of the oldest private banking houses in the country. He was one of the first members of the Meadow Brook Hunt Club and his obituary calls him one of the pioneer automobile drivers in the country. The house was later owned by Charles Steele who gave it an extensive remodeling and was eventually demolished when his grandchildren built a new house on the site.

5 comments:

Turner Pack Rats said...

looks like pre-Trumbauer but i like the tower, the porch gazebo and some of those little touches they seem to have forgotten about after the turn of the century. proportions would be more at home south of the md line but still very impressive.
do we know where it was and any actual pix or interiors?

Zach L. said...

There are two B&W photos of the exterior in the SPLIA book 'Long Island Country Houses & Their Architects'. I'm still looking for some I can post and I have yet to pinpoint the location of the house on a map.

Anonymous said...

steele hill rd might be a good guess

Anonymous said...

The estate is located at the intersections of Steel Hill Road & Hitchcock Lane. If you zoom in, you can see part of the old garden retaining wall south of the new house which replaced the old one in the 1920's or early 30's.

Anonymous said...

"New" Sunridge Hall.
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.7790202&lon=-73.5853207&z=18&l=0&m=b&show=/3610394/
If you follow historicaerials link back to 1966 you can see a extensive stretch of gardens leading from the new house. Just to the east you can see what might have been a matching stable complex from the old estate. You can clearly make out the distinctive shape of at least one tower that matches the style from the original house. Further east and a little south perhaps a farm complex . Does anyone have insight into this. Thanks