Tuesday, May 4, 2010

'Groombridge'

'Groombridge', the John George Milburn Sr. estate built c. 1924 in North Hills. Milburn, a founding partner of the law firm of Carter, Ledyard & Milburn, was the father of Devereaux Milburn who resided at 'Sunridge Hall' in Old Westbury. He was also the chairman of the board of trustees at Barnard College. Milburn was the president of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo when President McKinley was shot, and it was Milburn's home that McKinley was brought to and eventually died in. Milburn himself died in 1930 at the age of 79. The house was recently demolished, it still appears in one angle on Bing which can be seen HERE. Click HERE to see where 'Groombridge' stood on google earth.


Click below to see 'Groombridge' intact in a 1966 aerial shot. Brochure courtesy of SPLIA.

7 comments:

Karena said...

Another amazing estate propery gone, & of such historical signifigance.

Karena
Art by Karena

The Down East Dilettante said...

The original Groombridge sits in a valley, romantically surrounded by a moat. Interesting to see the design translated to a hilltop

And why was this one torn down? It seems that nothing is safe on Long Island

Zach L. said...

Milburn was born in England by the way.

Why was it torn down? Condos...why else? Maybe we should change the name to Philistine Island.

The Down East Dilettante said...

And I just sorted out my own confusion---hadn't realized before that there are TWO Groomsbridge copies within a few miles of each other, the other being the Dows estate by Trumbauer.

Damn those condos. So far we've been able to keep them off the old estates in our town in Maine, but I don't think it'll last forever

Anonymous said...

One area of note - on the brochure map someone has circled Vanderbilt's parkway LIMP - Long Island Motor Parkway

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.7737819&lon=-73.4336472&z=11&l=0&m=b&tag=42297

Turner Pack Rats said...

only one word to describe this one - handsome. what a quintissential country house inside and out. and how do they get away with ripping these places down at this late date. what a loss. work harder zach on preservation.

Anonymous said...

My heart dropped when I read it was gone, what a mistake. But it sat so close to I 495 right? What else went down for that road? It couldn't have been to well placed and noise must have been a problem. At least on Google it looked close to the highway. Still what a loss, you'd like to believe that today people would know better, but I guess they never learn. Sad