Monday, May 23, 2011
'La Selva'
'La Selva', the Henry Sanderson estate designed by Hunt & Hunt c. 1915 in Upper Brookville with landscaping by the Olmsted Brothers. Sanderson began his business career early, before the age of 22 (around 1890) he held the position of secretary of the Mount Morris Electric Light Company. Shortly thereafter he became secretary of the American Electric Light Company and the Yonkers Electric Light Company. Sanderson was considered one of the best in his fields of electric light and transportation. He later joined the New York Edison Company and was president of the New York Transportation Company, the Fifth Avenue Stage Company and the Metropolitan Express Company. In 1905 he co-founded the investment firm of Sanderson & Brown which he left in 1911 to join Charles D. Barney & Company. He was also the vice president of the American Automotive Club for many years. Sanderson died at age 66 in 1934 at his home in NYC. 'La Selva' is currently for sale for $9,999,000, click HERE to see the listing on Daniel Gale Sotheby's. Click HERE to see 'La Selva' on google earth and HERE on bing.
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18 comments:
Welcome back Zach, we obviously missed you. In your previous posting on ‘Brookholt’ some links to interesting NYT articles about the estate were provided; however, they were not free to all who wanted to read them. If they were provided to you would you be interested in posting them? I’m asking here in case someone already has them … I currently do not.
‘La Selva’ by Hunt & Hunt – they did a MUCH better job here than they did on ‘Brookholt’ (I think that’s safe to say). The layout of ‘La Selva’ reminds me of ‘Lenoir’ & ‘The Creeks’, both by Grosvenor Atterbury who probably would have given ‘La Selva’ a little better overall look if he had designed it (my opinion) … but I do think the stair hall is great. It is a very good looking house on 23 acres surrounded by other estates, beautifully maintained & unaltered from what I can see. The $10 million current asking price is a really steep reduction from the $17 million asking price in 2008 before owner Sanjay Kumar was sentenced to 12 years in a New Jersey prison for conspiracy, securities fraud, & obstruction of justice. He purchased ‘La Selva’ in 2001 from the Roman Catholic Church, who used it as a St. Francis Retreat house – which would explain the lack of alterations. Let’s hope someone who believes in preservation, has $10 million to spend, & wants to live in Upper Brookville comes along soon.
Let me know if these work (my apologies to LGB...I'm HTML inept):
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FA0D1EF6345A17738DDDA10894DB405B888CF1D3
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F40F12FF395512738DDDAF0A94DD405B868CF1D3
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0F14F63A59167A93C1A91788D85F408385F9
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30A17F83E5C16738DDDAC0994DD405B838FF1D3
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0F12FF395512738DDDAF0A94DD405B868CF1D3
magnus - re:brookholt - thanx for your kind words regarding architectural criticism from afar - both geographically and in time.
ancient -re:beacon tower - i fear you have become jaded. anyone who could look at that fairytale palace and not have their heartstrings plucked should be sent back in time for a week there. true, the int. decoration was cold and uneven to be kind but the outside including landscaping and outbuildings was the apex in over the top outrageous estate architecture. except for laurelton hall, i can't think of a more extreme example existing or demolished on long island to illustrate the ridiculous lengths to which estate architecture could go. it and laurelton hall are my two all time faves.
and la selva is also one of my favorite li houses. just enough socal and florida spanish to make it look out of place but restrained enough so the natives (the rich natives) wouldn't set it alight. i too hope the next tenant shows restraint however......
"stain, don't paint" - definitely the way to maintain these arks (mine included). lasts longer, easier, cheaper and doesn't look as bad as it ages as paint.
security word def - "ronoroch" - a little known New Zealand for of pop music from the late 80's popularized by Bono's younger brother -Rono
Doug - your comment seems to indicate there are floor plans available for La Selva. I have always hoped this would be the case, but I have never been able to find any. Are they indeed available?
Hey kids, quickly:
NYT has a new paywall that only allows for 20 free articles a month for non-members; when I posted the workaround yesterday a certain search engine that ties blogs & email & search engine together shut me down completely for a day.
For those who have access to LinkedIn, there are details on the workaround.
Anyhoo, I posted the link to La Selva yesterday realizing that must have been the gates outside of Planting fields; and another little musical treat as the same day one of our Anon friends went to Frick, I was with a visiting BFF at OWG...
Security word - poisa: an Italian catwalk model.
OK, looks like the apology I received this AM was sincere, so I'll risk it ––– for NYT articles cut & paste the URL from a search ––– do not click thru.
Folks who have very old online accounts, or paper subscriptions as well, are currently exempt, so thanks for those, Zach.
But take some time to read the agreement y'all absent-mindedly clicked on when you set up your accounts ––– Big Brother reads EVERYTHING.
Have always loved La Selva; the family used to attend retreats there when it was still owned by St. Francis (the order, not the saint...)
I did come across the floor plans at one point; I think a realtor posted a PDF of them when it first hit the market. I'm looking for it now, but it must be out there somewhere for them to have posted it to begin with.
BTW, have any of you happened to watch Royal Pains on the USA channel? Not the absolute worst writing and acting, but the premise (a Hamptons "concierge" doctor) means that not only is much of the exterior scenes are filmed in the Hamptons, but the individual homes used as sets include all our favorites here, i.e. the lead character lives in a "guest house" on the grounds of Oheka, and his clients supposedly oceanfront homes have included long, luscious, lingering shots of such beauties as Westbury House, The Braes, Chelsea, Coe Hall, Hempstead House and Caumsett, amongst others.
Makes for a good drinking game for Ivy League alkies; do a shot every time you spot a recognizable mansion (who needs to listen to dialogue?), double if it's just the grounds and gardens...
;-)
Security word - gloco: Latvian floor wax.
Daniel Gale listing says "interior photographs courtesy of designer showcase 2009". Anyone go to that and keep the brocure? They usually include the floor plans, at least the showcases here in SF Bay Area do. I'd love to see those plans too. Gorgeous house.
So this thing with the NYTimes articles... perhaps its a date issue. All the ones I posted were from 1906-1908, Ancients were from the 30's. Same thing today using Zach's links free on Barnum - pay for Belmont.
Link to the 2009 showcase(no floor plans) -
http://www.mentorkids.org/attachments/108_Group%20Tour%20Packet.pdf
Different photos and predication of the price drop -
http://www.luxist.com/2009/08/31/la-selva-revisited-estate-of-the-day
"Pan Am" shot at La Selva(Spanish for the jungle) -
http://www.newsday.com/classifieds/real-estate/real-li-1.812034/tv-pilot-pan-am-films-at-la-selva-1.2805852
/
Annual taxes are $77,612!
My understanding is the Mrs. got permission to subdivide and that there are plans that will leave the house on about half the acreage with 3 or 4 other lots remaining.
Missed this showcase (after more than two decades of faithful attendance) since I was out of town when I finally realized it was closing. But I have every other brochure in storage since 1978. Still can't find the PDF of the floor plan, but will keep looking.
If you really, really care, you can do a search on "New York Times"+"paywall" and eventually find what is an isn't free; the change came on the eve of the release of the iPad 2, just around the time Apple shocked the industry (for a couple of days, until the next shocker came along. By announcing that, since one needs to use their free iTunes software to manage an iPad, Apple was taking a flat rate 30% cut on all media delivered through the iTunes store.
NYT jumped on that with their own pricing structure, as their website is still in the red, but approaching break even ––– the pulp version is still the primary revenue source, and many NYT customers are pushing back against the paywall.
Security word - plifien: a small weed that grows underneath the end of a rain chain.
Say's it's for sale on over 24 acres...so I assume at one time this was a much larger estate.
^ No it's the same size it always was. Here's the 1927 E Belcher Hyde map:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/5752838498_e4409de8a1_o.jpg
Thanks for the map Zach!! That must have been the L.J. Hunt estate I was asking about on the Brookholt post.
How would one come by these old Long Island maps?
Little late in catching up from yesterday, but I just had to share this; from La Selva to Youngwood Court ––– the definitive arc from the sublime to the ridiculous...
Anon... www.historicmapworks.com
yeah this blog is amazing.
Hello,
I am late in this 2011 conversation chain, but I am curious if people can go see this place in person these days. My grandfather, Henry Sanderson I built La Selva! My dad is Henry Sanderson II and one of my brothers is III. Our other brother did get to see the home when the monks still owned it. I was curious how accessible the home is to see it, even if from afar. My grandparents are no longer around to ask questions about the estate, so I have enjoyed the information you have posted about the estate. Thanks you.
Maaren (nee Sanderson) Chapman
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