Thursday, May 12, 2011

'High Elms' Interiors

The accompanying interiors to 'High Elms', the Richard Stockton Emmet Sr. estate designed by Peabody, Wilson & Brown c. 1928 in Glen Cove. Click HERE for more on 'High Elms'.




22 comments:

magnus said...

None of the Pratts seem to have been "cutting edge" in matters of style, opting instead for good, solid WASPY convention. Nevertheless, High Elms appears charming and manageable. A shame that it was lost.

A stroll with the pooch down Elm lined Poets' Walk in Central Park on Sunday brought to mind the real devastation wrought by Dutch Elm Disease throught the world. Among the many losers were some of Long Island's larger houses which were left "high and dry", visually stranded when the enormous Elms surrounding them succumbed.

Doug Floor Plan said...

Now I really am sorry that ‘High Elms’ is gone – great proportions & classic, light interiors that would be very easy to live with today (except I suspect the map hall might need to be less … colorful). Even most of the furnishings have a timeless appeal; & I hope someone somewhere is taking good care of that really interesting painting over the fireplace in the dining room. & of course Magnus is correct -- very safely WASPY.

Too bad there is no photo across the entire front of this house – I wonder what that big window over the stairs looked like from the outside in the relatively small hyphen section in which it was placed.

After I posted yesterday about ‘High Elms’ being so near ‘Beechwood’ I realized that Helen Emmet (nee Pratt) of ‘High Elms’ was first cousin to John Teele Pratt Jr. of ‘Beechwood.’ Since the houses were built six years apart (1928 & 1934) I suspect the next generation of Pratts was trying to keep their estates surrounded by estates & not developments.

The Ancient said...

I was a little surprised to see a separate children's table in the Dining Room. (I mean, if you're still in range of a flying dinner roll, what's the point?)

ABG said...

I was surprised to see the children's table too TA! The highchair is really charming.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Yes, I tend to believe that the children's table is best placed in another room, or better yet, at a boarding school in another state.

Those Long Island folks certainly loved their five-part wing-and hyphen Georgian/Federal/Southern houses between the wars, didn't they? Handsome, safe, manageable...

As to those bathroom windows over the front doors, Doug is so right. Drives me nuts that a designer should create such a symmetry and proportion driven work, and not better resolve that issue of function vs. aesthetics.

And I like the map hall.

Doug Floor Plan said...

Now I really am sorry that ‘High Elms’ is gone – great proportions & classic, light interiors that would be very easy to live with today (except I suspect the map hall might need to be less … colorful). Even most of the furnishings have a timeless appeal; & I hope someone somewhere is taking good care of that really interesting painting over the fireplace in the dining room. & of course Magnus is correct -- it is all very safely WASP.

Too bad there is no photo across the entire front of this house – I wonder what that big window over the stairs looked like from the outside in the relatively small hyphen section in which it was placed.

After I posted yesterday about 'High Elms' being near ‘Beechwood’ I realized that Helen Emmet (nee Pratt) of ‘High Elms’ was first cousin to John Teele Pratt Jr. of ‘Beechwood.’ Since the houses were built six years apart (1928 & 1934) I suspect the next generation of Pratts was trying to keep their estates surrounded by estates & not developments.

Zach L. said...

In case anyone is wondering where all the comments went... Blogger was all screwed up this morning and for whatever reason the comments are now gone...and I was unable to post anything new.

The Ancient said...

I dimly remember being more enthralled with the Map Room than someone else, who was afraid the colors might have been too garish, and also mildly surprised that the the Dining Room had a children's table that was within dinner roll range of the grown-ups.

The Devoted Classicist said...

I think I would love the Map Hall. There are some great old ones that are beautifully colored. But I have seen newer ones with the coloring manipulated, either toned down with a glaze or enriched with additional shading, etc.

The interior architecture was good enough that the decoration would be easy.

The Down East Dilettante said...

And I thought that children's tables were best in another room, preferably at a boarding school in another state, and also thought the map hall was great, and mentioned how devoted to this particular sort of house Long Islanders were between the wars.

There. Are we all up to date?

Anonymous said...

Looking at the floorplan, where exactly are Map Hall and Map Vestibule located? That's not the entry hall is it?

This house is magnificent. Was. A damn crime to demolish something this elegant.

Elliptical stairway wow, I'm with Doug, I'd love to see a front elevation, for all the symmetry about this place that one stairwell window doesn't seem to have a balancing counterpart over in the Staff hyphen. In the stairwell, do I see an arch beginning at the upper right, making it 8 over 12 panes? Maybe a bit ellipticalish to resonate with the front door?

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Its the "Hall". The Highboy backs up to the living room. That the Map Room filled the center stage of the main hall makes it sound much more dramatic in appearance then would be normal.

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

If anyone goes to this PLEASE share your experience with those that can't (Magnus?} -

http://www.linsha.org/things-to-do/woolworth-photo-exhibit-glen-cove-city-hall?print

Doug Floor Plan said...

Flo, yes the map hall & the entry hall are one in the same. In the picture you’re standing in the map hall & looking through the stair hall at the door to the library (which, to me, is not a desirable sight line & is one reason I appreciate seeing floor plans). I see HPHS beat me to a response; but didn't say if he(?) likes the map room ... HPHS?

Sigh;
DED likes the map hall,
Ancient likes the map hall,
Classicist likes the map hall;
Zach, do you like the map hall?

Ya know, it’s not easy being out here all on my own – I could start doubting my flawless good taste.

Nah.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Flo, you probably know this already, but Archibald Manning Brown of Peabody, Wilson & Brown, who designed the Emmet house, was later married to the formidable Eleanor McMillen of the McMillen decorating firm, speaking of elegant. Their Long Island house, the former Tyng theater, was as elegant as it gets--what a tasty structure--- later owned and overdone by Bill Paley, post Babe.

Oh Doug, please don't start doubting your good taste. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if it is wrong :-)

Seriously, for a second, absent a color photo, like Devoted Classicist, I'm guessing the maps to be on aged paper, softly colored--or quite possibly black & white, and glazed to a soft gleam...

But of course, you're hearing this from a guy who once did his powder room with nautical charts pasted and glazed....

Anonymous said...

North Shore Historical Museum!!!.....Where the hell is this? I never heard of it...is it like Condre Hall's "Gold Coast Museum" or "The Hoffman Center Nature Preserve" (which neither never seems open to the public)???

Doug Floor Plan said...

DED, no offense taken; anyone who posts here does so at the risk that someone else, or in this case everyone else, will tell them they are wrong. But I stated my opinion & as Mrs. Slocombe used to say, “and I am unanimous in that!”

Anonymous said...

"DED likes the map hall,
Ancient likes the map hall,
Classicist likes the map hall;
Zach, do you like the map hall?"

I was shocked by Map Hall, so bold for those times, the whole house is sober, traditional, expected, balanced, but to walk through the front door and have this greet the visitors of that era, they must have been rocked by it. I love the maps, but I dislike the furniture chosen for those two map halls [so I've mentally moved it all into DED's shop to get a sense of the space better], also I dislike 2 conflicting arch styles in a space that small.

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

You can get a hint of the ceiling treatment in the Map Room photo to further add to its dramatic charm. I like it! What perplexes me is how the house would have been sighted??? Would the hall face to the Sound with the north light or up the hill facing south with the blazing sun coming thru the windows. Up the hill was another now-demolished unidentified Pratt home -

http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=3&lon=-73.62093304694591&lat=40.87817576766083&year=1966

Doug Floor Plan said...

& of course HPHS would like the map hall too … anyone else want to shatter my confidence? Zach?

HPHS, you asked a good question about how ‘High Elms’ was aligned to maximize the natural light; but if you didn’t find it on ‘Historical Aerials’ I’m not going to even try. Looking at the residential roads & commercial building that surrounded the unidentified Pratt mansion you spotted in 1966 I place the former mansion here (if anyone’s interested): http://www.bing.com/maps/?v=2&cp=qtcrpt8vyf52&lvl=18.571603933971086&dir=352.2858229290969&sty=b&where1=Glen%20Cove%2C%20NY&q=Glen%20Cove%2C%20NY&form=LMLTCC I could not see any remnants but it definitely was a substantial house … I bet it didn’t have a map hall.

The Down East Dilettante said...

It's like they say in the old cigarette ads, Doug: "Ten Old Long Island Users Can't all be wrong"

:-)

Zach L. said...

DFP...I do indeed like the map hall.