Friday, February 25, 2011

'Marshmere'

'Marshmere', the Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan residence designed by Satterlee & Boyd in Quogue, with landscaping by Beatrix Jones Farrand. Admiral Mahan retired from the Navy in 1906 after writing a number of books on sea power and naval history. Click HERE to see the Mahan residence on google earth and HERE on bing.


Pictures from American Architect & Architecture, 1913.

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

you have to love that inlet to the private dock, what a great idea, i bet that you could not swing that now with all the environmental laws. neat ha
ouse too

Doug Floor Plan said...

I'm probably making this up because the original owner was a retired admiral -- but the black & white photo in a way resembles a large boat pulling a dingy. Of course the service wing is now much larger so that image is gone. My opinion -- the addition(s) were well done.

Considering some of the houses Zach has posted recently it's refreshing to see a place maintained at this level. I wonder if the current owner still calls it 'Marshmere?'

The Down East Dilettante said...

Interesting too, how very close to the road the house is.

The Devoted Classicist said...

I always appreciate the inclusion of the satellite view, but in this instance especially. The setting tells a lot.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful!!! I wonder if the interiors are intact as well as the exterior.

Turner Pack Rats said...

the peat bog in the front yard must depress real estate price a bit, wot?
i totally agree with the additions tho. you sure that was the servants wing and not the outhouse but you'd have to ask DED - he's the expert on those. altho the interior is pretty neo-col, i really like the fan light over the glass doors and those little eyebrow shelves. the bookcases flanking the fireplace are nice too and that sofa makes it look so cozy in the pic you expect to see a cat snoozing on the hearth.
and, it looks like they even maintain some semblance of landscaping what with that little garden folly house.
the google pic makes it look like a sand beach next to the road and canal but i guess its just a parking space for the locals to park.

security word def - "ropynes" - an achaic contractive word referring to those long lines of trees so favored by the rich.

Doug Floor Plan said...

DED, I agree the house would benefit from having more distance from Quogo Neck Lane; but my guess is that when 'Marshmere' was new a public road didn't approach the house from that side because in the b/w photo there is laundry hanging out to dry on that side. I think this is a good example of the reality we all face with our homes ... we don't know what the future will bring. The current owners are maintaining a sizable hedge & other landscaping to block any view from the Lane ... but who could have forseen 'Bing' when that hedge was planted? (joke ... sort of)

Wooded Bliss said...

Qougue has always been refreshing.the un- Hampton.

lil' gay boy said...

Considering it's over a century old, my guess is the placement near the road wasn't much of an issue as whatever sparse traffic there was was most likely of the four-legged, and not four-wheeled type when this beauty was planned & built. For those who have every summered on the East End, foot traffic would not have been a problem as to this day it's not uncommon (in the less glitzy areas) to be more "neighborly" and engage passing pedestrians in conversation.

It is, indeed, beautifully maintained & sensitively added to, a fine legacy for the town & owners.

Beautiful.

Security word - oscalry: The transfer area backstage that will be opened on Sunday night to hold the little gold statues before they are awarded.

Anonymous said...

On a totally tangential side note, Admiral Mahan, with all his later achievements, was a bit of a disappointment to his father. Dennis Hart Mahan, after graduating first in his class from West Point, was an esteemed professor there, as well as being the author of many civil and military engineering textbooks. Mahan Hall at the USMA is named for him. Not only was Dennis Mahan's oldest son, Alfred born at West Point, but his middle name was given in honor of his father's friend and hero, the longtime USMA Superintendent General Sylvanus Thayer, who is today known as the "Father of West Point." Although one of his younger sons did graduate from the military academy, it was evidently a great let-down to Dennis Mahan when he learned that Alfred had chosen to attend the Naval Academy. His own life was so defined by his association with the USMA that when the West Point Board of Visitors recommended that he be put on a compulsory retirement list in 1871, Mahan climbed aboard the Hudson River steamer Mary Powell and committed suicide by throwing himself under one of her paddlewheels.

His father's sadness notwithstanding, Alfred obviously did well for himself anyway.

The Ancient said...

I see that Mahan left the house (and the royalties from his books) to his two daughters, one of which was living there as late as 1941.

Apart from Jacky Fisher and Billy Mitchell (who was court-martialed for his sins), it's hard to think of anyone who had such a clear-eyed view of the future of naval warfare -- or in Mahan's case, was more influential on a worldwide basis.

Unknown said...

Yes they do. I was there today. June 22 2017

Lance L said...

In 1966 my parents came close to buying this house for $155,000 ( another back then)
My dad saw a bunch of people fishing off the public pier to the South & lost interest on basis of some concern over privacy & security.
I loved the house as a 10 year old & begged them to buy it !

Anonymous said...

My Parents did buy the house around 1966 and it took over a year to make it habitable. It was our summer house for over 20 year
we children considered it home. On purchasing the house, my father went to the westerly neighbor and they agreed to put the peninsula to the south under a conservation agreement that the land could never be built on.