Friday, April 16, 2010

'Portledge'

'Portledge', the Charles Albert Coffin estate designed by Howard Greenley c. 1910 in Matinecock. Coffin was a founder, president and chairman of the board of General Electric Company from the time of its organization in 1913 to his retirement in 1922. His obituary refers to him as "the man who put electricity over" in this country. In the 1880's Coffin became the head of the Thompson-Houston Company which later merged with the Edison Company to form General Electric. During World War I, Coffin organized a War Relief Clearing House for France for which he later received the decoration of the Legion of Honor as well as honors from Belgium and Serbia. Upon his death in 1926 General Electric established in his honor a $400,000 fund known as the Charles A. Coffin Foundation to "encourage the study and application of the science of electricity". Today 'Portledge' makes up a good portion of the Portledge School. Click HERE to see 'Portledge' on google earth (wikimapia) and HERE on Bing.


Pictures from American Country Homes of Today, 1915.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can anyone id this nearby estate?

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.8725881&lon=-73.5884643&z=17&l=0&m=b&search=ligc%3F

Thanks

Karena said...

Very Fascinating background on a historical & groundbreaking company. I do work for GE.

Karena
Art by Karena

The Down East Dilettante said...

when I was a kid, there were still lots of houses around with rooms like the coffin living room---big, of no particular style, full of comfortable furniture in all styles, floral linen curtains, old rugs...all gone now.

Anonymous said...

I think this is it.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.8721723&lon=-73.5876811&z=19&l=0&m=b&show=/4897042/Katydid-Farm