Wednesday, October 20, 2010

'Haut Bois'

'Haut Bois', the Walter E. Maynard estate designed by Ogden Codman Jr. c. 1916 in Brookville, with landscaping by Jacques Greber and Ellen Shipman. Click HERE to see the brochure from when 'Haut Bois' was for sale, and click HERE to see where 'Haut Bois' stands on google earth.



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! Looks as if it stands pretty much in it's original state. Nice property...is it the same acreage as when it was built?

Anonymous said...

This is one of my favorite houses, because of its subdued grandness. The interiors (from the brochure photos) are beautiful as well.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Graceful of detail and proportion. Very lovely, very masterful

Anonymous said...

This house was owned by famous opera star, Patrice Munsel and her husband , Robert Schuler, during the 1960's. Haute Bois was the scene of a lot of fun at that time. They tooled around Brookville in a huge silver Rolls and would have all the kids in the back. Nice people. They never took anything too seriously. Joie de vivre.

Anonymous said...

I wonder why she and her husband moved from such a wonderful home. I think she is still living, and her husband just passed in 2007.

bcd said...

the house was "renovated" in the late 90's and the interiors completely ruined by the "improvements"--terazzo floors and fossil stone walls in entry jackhammered out, library walls completely over- painted to "restore" them. Secret/ false door in Living room removed, ruining entire space, dining room made smaller, all fireplaces removed in upstairs bedrooms, double decker kichen removed to make room for movie theater, magnificent gates torn out and put in dumpster, and replaced with an aluminium gate and sad white birch trees..... and the shutters removed and tossed. all in an effort as the old owner said to make the house more "french".

the only real improvemt they made was restoring the original color scheme to the body of the house-- natural stucco with exposed brick quions.

the good news is they lost all of their money and had to move into a bad split where they belong.... gotta love architectural karma.

Anonymous said...

Awwww....why'd you have to tell us that.....what is wrong with these f*!#ing people!!!

The Down East Dilettante said...

'make it more French'....aaarggghhh. Of course what they meant was that whitewashed French country house look that seems to have taken over a certain segment of the world...that they actually lived in a thoroughly French house, designed as a fully integrated entity, seesm never to have occurred to him.

Since the 90's, the need of people to piss on houses to mark their territory has gotten out of control...damn it to hell...

Lindsay M said...

My family and I actually lived there! From 1970 until that 90's "redo" by people I guess I can't publically describe or insult. It was heartbreaking.

My father's parents bought the house when they came into some money (~1960s-70s), then soon moved to FL and asked my father (their only son) to "house-sit." So started the odd saga of a young teacher (Dad) w/ a stay-at-home young wife, and 2 tots: my sister and I. Oddly, his parents (now deceased) never sent money to fill the room-sized boiler. So we lived in this MAGESTICALLY furnished mansion in near poverty. We chopped wood for warmth. We ran heat for pipes only on nights they would otherwise crack. Having 2 tots, mom & dad wisely set-up our living quarters in the wing that was for the "help", not the main mansion (the left side of the house, at right angle to front-view). Plenty more to tell, but yes, he mowed and mowed and trimmed and trimmed, but I would imagine this was the time the house was reported to fall into "disrepair" but it was still magically furnished in the main wing. The rugs, tapestries, cut-lead-glass chandeliers, silk plush over-stuffed couches, secret doors, dumb-waiters, elaborate arch shaped wall-trimming panels, 14(?) ft high ceilings, Steinway grand piano, statues-indoor and out, 2 working "indoor" water fountains (located in enclosed back patio) of water pouring out the mouths of a large curved metal fish, into a shell shaped basins a foot or so below them..and much more. Our blog author may delete my email, but it is bronxblond@gmail if further interested in details (again, my memories are from childhood and although all this is accurate, any further facts, I/someone would need to research. A historian our family was acquainted with; she loved and visited this house. She was it's admirer and encyclopedia. Best to all, L. 2013