Tuesday, April 12, 2011

'Gray Horse Farm'

'Gray Horse Farm', the Geraldyn Livingston Redmond estate designed by James O'Connor c. 1924 in Upper Brookville. Click HERE to see the previous post on 'Gray Horse Farm'. Click HERE to see the residence on google earth and HERE on bing.




21 comments:

The Down East Dilettante said...

I think this is where we all agree once again that we like white washed brick? Very attractive place

The Devoted Classicist said...

Put me on the Yes List for whitewashed brick. In this case, it cuts the formality of the large main residential block and ties the whole composition together.

Doug Floor Plan said...

I agree – ‘Gray House Farm’ is an attractive place. The recessed front door with the flat roof & wide chimneys looks substantial but not showy. It’s not often you see just downspouts used to break up the front of a house as was done here – although it is less noticeable as the whitewash on the brick is wearing off (Bing views).

The Bing views also show the small porch & patio area on the garden side of the house have been removed – since this is the East side of the house I’m guessing that air conditioning replaced the need to have a cool, hopefully breezy place to sit outside. Imagine all the porches & loggias that would have never been if air conditioning had been available 50-years earlier.

I’m also guessing having stables attached helped save this house – even though some of the stables have been converted to garage space there is still an outdoor riding arena on the property.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Doug, your remark makes me think of the ultimate example of your point about air conditioning---Palm Beach, where all the houses, regardless of style from Spanish to Bermudian, were designed with wonderful courtyards, patios, loggias, etc., and how after the advent of air conditioning, the style for a number of years became 'Regency' or Louie Louie blocks, with paste-on pilasters and badly scaled windows, before the influx of new tax free wealth desirous of emulating the 20s, brought back the courtyard and loggia.

The Down East Dilettante said...

...to say nothing of extremely run-on sentences. Sometimes, I am entirely, utterly, too dependent on the comma.

Doug Floor Plan said...

DED, thank you for building on & supporting my comment. I agree with you that air conditioning created an often bad tradeoff between interior comfort & exterior ... yuck. To me the worst change it created was all the window units that still hang on the outside of houses, apartments, & office buildings. 'Ivycroft', which Zach posted on 4.6.11 has window units -- which won't help save that house.

As for your use of the comma -- to me as long as the communication is clear the punctuation is secondary. Besides, you notice I really like the hyphen & often have to edit out my excessive use of '...'. I've been known to write, "Love me for my flaws ... I have so many." (smiley face)

The Ancient said...

"The higher the chimney, the thinner the whitewash."

Doug Floor Plan said...

Okay, I'll ask -- (DFP, it's called a dash, not a hyphen)Ancient, you're quoting someone or something ... whom or what would that be? & is it true?

The Ancient said...

"The higher the steeple, the thinner the paint."

An old saying on the perfidy of house-painters.

lil' gay boy said...

Let's not get into the esoterica of punctuation; as a graduate of Catholic school & a long time print & digital publisher, I could go on for days about the subtleties of an en-dash vs an em-dash, the proper usage of ellipses, as well as the proper employment of modifiers such as "von" in any given situation ––– I can still diagram a sentence with the best of the nuns, dammit!

Emoticons have bulldozed that playing field.

I thought this house had been whitewashed at some point; lovely. Adds to the SoCal feel the first post gave; I can just picture it, surrounded by low-rise, new growth, in the hot June sunshine ––– ah, Long Island in early summer!

Security word - wingyp: that sense of noblesse obligé that forces one to decline first prize at a charity auction.

Anonymous said...

A Bad Day. Drove by Knole and saw the fantastic gates (not sure if anyone here has made a list as with playhouses, but these gates were among the very best) are gone. A shocking feeling after seeing htem for decades. My understanding is that they will be reconstructed at the entrance to the lovely new Cul-de-Sac,but we all know it will never look as good. Particularly outrageous because it was the village that insisted upon a new road and the elimination of the old. Old Westbury is rapidly moving to the top of the list of great North Shore villages which have had their demise hastened by really bad/unenlightened local government.

Speaking of the demise of North Shore villages and incompetent local governments, I understand Lands End wil be saying its final farewell this weekend. Death by a thousand cuts.

Ok, hopefully I'll be feeling better tomorrow.

NSP

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

For those that can't take the drive along Post Road Google Earth Street View has The Knole Gates.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.7906612&lon=-73.5890678&z=19&l=0&m=b&show=/16330984/Knole-Gate-and-Brick-Wall

Click on the Google icon at lower left corner - opens up Google Maps and then click on icon for Street View.

ChipSF said...

HPHS -
Thanks for the link & tip for those of us 3,000 miles away.

As the list makers, I guess you and I should take on the suggestion by anonymous for a list of gates; but should that be gates still remaining or original gates? Only big gates? What about good gateposts with no gates?

Anonymous said...

CHIP SF,

I suggest the first list consist of existing gates and now that I think of it, gatehouses). I'll start with the two obvious ones; Planting Fields and Old Westbury Gardens front and back .Next: Rynnwood/Banfi,Northwood/Schiff,Nevis/Boscobel (Cove Road, Oyster Bay Cove), Woolworth, Ormston ,Killenworth,Webb Institure, Cobble Court/Luckenback,Henry U. Harris,W.R. Grace,Chelsea, Falaise,etc.,The Chimneys/Holmes,Beacon Court/Belmont, Eagles Nest,Cassini/More,Sidney Mitchell/Rechler, Clews Lane,James Blair/Ontare and one of my all time favorites-Oak Knoll. Good NIght.

NSP

Anonymous said...

My heart grew heavy just passing Knole and seeing that wall broken and the construction....now it will break the next time I pass and see no gate at all.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 11:43.Exactly how I felt/feel.

NSP

Anonymous said...

Why are not those of us on this site blessed with the finances to save these places....??? It is a cruel, unjust world......

The Ghost of Jane Austen said...

IT is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a derelict white elephant on the North Shore of Long Island.

Zach L. said...

The offending comment and all following comments in response to it have been removed. We can all move on now.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Anonymous, re: the Knole Gates. I'm with you---absolfinglutely astonishing that Village governments can't come up with better solutions to save precious landmark elements and still have safety code satisfied. A mansion up here, that belongs now to College of the Atlantic, recently lost its Beaux arts iron gates, designed by Bruce Price, because a major donor to the college felt that they represented gilded age oppression. I get very tired of notional people with irrational half baked notions.

Anonymous said...

W hat is the address on Piping Rock Road? Is the stable still active? Is it still inhabited as a private residence, or open to the public as a landmark site?

Thanks, love the design!