The accompanying interiors to 'Deephaven', the Wilkinson de Forest Wright estate designed by James Brite c. 1900 in Sands Point. Click HERE for more on 'Deephaven'.
Pictures from American Homes & Gardens, 1906.
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The accompanying interiors to 'Deephaven', the Wilkinson de Forest Wright estate designed by James Brite c. 1900 in Sands Point. Click HERE for more on 'Deephaven'.Pictures from American Homes & Gardens, 1906.
9 comments:
I’m grateful Zach has been able to provide both floor plans & interior photographs so the layout becomes clearer.
Because I couldn’t read the floor plan I had guessed the room on your left as you walked in the front door was a library; now I see it’s the billiard room (which is fine – if they want to play pool rather than read books that’s their business … joke). In the Bing view you can see a subsequent owner has expanded this room – probably added a foosball table (another joke … I’m on a roll).
I was really interested to see the picture of the hall – at the foot of the stairs there is a hallway that leads to the service rooms but you can’t see the hallway because a door made to blend into the wall covers it. I’m partial to ‘hidden’ doors anyway & like this a lot better than if it were an open passage.
I’m not sure what to think of the music room – in a lineup there is a dark dining room opening onto a fairly dark hall & then on the other side of the hall there is this very bright music room.
I’m still wrestling with where the servants took their meals. Even if their sitting room was on another floor I’d be surprised their meals had to travel that far … & even more surprised if they ate in the kitchen.
In the Bing views you can see a subsequent owner(s) has:
• Enclosed the “main porch” that faces the water;
• Probably ripped out the butler’s pantry & reconfigured the kitchen – there are big glass doors on the butler’s pantry exterior wall now that open onto a small patio;
• Tacked a garage onto the service wing that I hope looks a lot better on the ground that it does from the Bing view;
• Apparently removed the stone columns from the front porch & made that heavy-looking roof appear airborne – someone please tell me I’m mistaken.
• Added the forecourt, which I also don’t think was an improvement; &
• Sold some acreage to someone who squeezed an even bigger house onto their newly-made lot that seriously reduces any sense of privacy that ‘Deephaven’ has – maybe Hansel & Gretel had to cover their trading position on Wall Street one day?
There, enough from me.
"music room treated in the colonial manor" - well, except not too many colonial houses had that odd wall in the corner except maybe the octagons.
totally loving the hall. i can just see the matron of the house sitting at the fireplace in a $5000 gown spinning homespun for the servants. yeah, right. but a great hall and fireplace and the other chimneypieces do foster the H&G look. where's the witch?
security word def - "nianchy" - a marriage of fine wine and fine leather
Actually, Doug, staff sometimes does eat in the kitchen, but it's good to see someone properly concerned for the welfare of domestics.
It's totally understandable for people to want to reshape an old house for modern needs and changing lifestyles--but it is amazing how badly most people do it. The right architect, and those patio doors in the pantry would look as if Brite & Bacon had intended them to be there.
Actually Turner, in the Federal era (which style the music room really evokes---all older American styles were called 'Colonial' a hundred years ago---octagonal rooms became all the rage. In our mutual home state, there used to be a grand Federal with an octagonal drawing room---right where the traffic rotary sits now. Sadly Long Island isn't the only place losing landmarks.
Doug, even though Bar Harbor is off your beat, it occurs to me that you might like the floorplan of the Stotesbury summer house up here in Maine---a most satisfactory servants wing, with both sitting room and dining room, as well as housekeeper and butler's offices, etc. As the huge house was remodeled from a merely large one, the circulation in the family portion is a bit tricky---for example, if one were invited to tea in the garden pavilion in one far wing: One would arrive at the porte cochere in its balancing wing, be let in by the butler (who had been alerted by the switchboard operator that a car had come through the gate so he would have the door open as the car pulled under. From there, one would be led down the entrance arcade as far as the wall fountain, hang a right into the entrance hall, proceed down a long hall past the circular staircase, hang another right into the cross hall, past the reception room, into the great hall, past another circular staircase, into the French parlour, thence into the garden (ball)room, right again to the other side of the 65 foot room, then left into the sun arcade, immediately left, and dow its fifty foot length to the waiting hostess with her tea and cakes. And just imagine if you were the unfortunate maide who had to get those cakes from the pantry. In other words, for that tea with Mrs. Stotesbury, you'd have to have a trained guide and travel over 300 feet indoors to get to a room you could see 125 feet across the lawn from the front door. Floor plan porn at its best.
http://thedowneastdilettante.blogspot.com/2009/12/summer-delirium-colonial-style-part-3.html
DED, I visit your web-site (OLI is the only place I ever comment – like Ray Spinzia there’s only so much time I have to do this) & admire much of what you post, including your extensive information about ‘Wingwood House.’ While I think ‘Whitemarsh Hall’ may be the finest house ever constructed in America “Wingwood House’ has always had me at a loss. It is way too grand & formal for Bar Harbor & yes, the floor plan borders on the ridiculous (the servants should have been issued roller skates). Not to mention that what looked like the front door wasn’t really a door at all … ???? I appreciate you supplying the distances in your example because that’s one thing I usually have to guess at. As I’ve said before, whenever I tour a house or look at a floor plan I wonder, “What were they thinking?” With ‘Wingwood House’ I’ll never know the answer.
I’ve been to Bar Harbor – it’s beautiful! & purchased ‘Lost Bar Harbor’ by G. W. Helfrich & Gladys O’Neil. My two favorite houses, from just the photographs provided, were ‘Old Farm’ & ‘Kenarden Lodge’ – both regrettably torn down (& not burned in the 1947 fire). I’d love to see floor plans for those places.
Oh DED, I forgot to add: in your scenario – as you emerge from your car you look across the lawn to Mrs. Stotesbury waiting in the garden pavilion, give her a little wave & mouth the words, “I’ll be right there.”
Doug, I remember when Kenarden Lodge was torn down---to my ten year-old eyes, it was a castle, vast and all stone and towers. Floor plans for that house are among my holy grails. The architect, a nephew of the owner, was obscure and his papers don't seem to survive. When the house was sold in the late 20's, an elegant brochure was published, but although it had a detailed plan of the grounds, there was no floor plan. The house was never rented, so no rental floorplan survives, and no plans exist among the various papers and plans left behind by local builders.
As for Old Farm, I walked its ruins just a few days ago--spectacular site, and plan a post sometime soon. There are floorplans for that house.
so, DED, are you intimating i'm supposed to treat the servants like people and give them a place to sleep and eat. i just put in a few extra stalls in the stables.
sounds like by the time you got to Mrs. S you might need something more than tea and cookies just to give you strength to make it back to your car.
i had to post again just to define the security word.
security word - "flempe" - altho missing the accent on the last e, it is French for when your snot catches fire.
California Redwood in the Dining Room and a bacterial sewage system out back.
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