Monday, June 27, 2011

'Maycroft'

'Maycroft', the James Herman Aldrich estate designed by Edward D. Lindsey c. 1880 in Sag Harbor. After his death in 1917 Aldrich's wife donated the estate to the Episcopal Church where they were very active. Click HERE to see 'Maycroft' on google earth and HERE on bing.

23 comments:

The Down East Dilettante said...

My, my. Money has certainly been spent here---and not a tacky forecourt in sight...

So it is possible to renovate extensively and wind up with something that looks 'right'.

Doug Floor Plan said...

I agree with DED – from rotating the Bing views & then looking at the Google Earth view it appears a gut renovation took place (very possibly more expensive than building a new house) along with some hefty landscaping … & the results are excellent (at least to me). I admire what they did, especially the landscaping, as much as what they didn’t do, especially to the house. & what a great piece of property this house still has to frame it & show it off. I wonder if the new owners would appreciate fan mail? (joke)

Zach L. said...

What I find odd is that the carriage house, which appears in the right hand corner of the second picture I posted, is visible in the Bing link I provided but then disappears when you rotate the house around. What happened to the carriage house?

Anonymous said...

Looks like they renovated with plywood though....not such a good sign.

Zach L. said...

Ok now I'm really confused, check it out on HistoricAerials and it appears the house had a different orientation previously. What's going on here?

http://www.historicaerials.com/aerials.php?scale=9.81483509824302E-6&lat=41.0095335028643&lon=-72.3091353970713&year=2004

Anonymous said...

Could the carriage have been moved twice? As I tooled around bing, from one angle, I saw a large structure in front of the main house by what appears to be a tennis court. From birds eye, it appears very similar to the same carriage house seen in the early photograph and new bing.

Doug Floor Plan said...

Zach, you are correct – looking at Historic Aerials this house was originally oriented north & south with the short side facing the water (odd, I agree). The stables were behind it to the right, as in the pictures you posted today. Whoever bought this property spun the house 90 degrees counter-clockwise so the long back side of the house now faces the water & moved the house closer to the water. When I was looking at the Bing views I thought it was odd that the front of the house looked right at the stables when there is plenty of property to put the stables out of sight (I know, easy for me to say now). Then the owners moved the stables near the house to become, I’m guessing, extra garage space & a pool house – I’m pretty certain it’s the same building & not new construction. Obviously, money was not an issue & this owner wanted an authentic period estate, just rearranged. I hope they were as considerate on the interior.

Not to bring up a sore subject but – isn’t it a shame these owners didn’t own ‘Lands End’? So much of a house’s fate is in the timing.

Gary Lawrance said...

While writing the, " Houses of the Hamptons 1880-1930" my partner Anne Surchin and I went to see the house before it was renovated. The reason the structure was turned around, was because the original views of the water had been filled in with trees over the years.
Here is a great article about the house in Period Homes.
http://www.period-homes.com/Previous-Issues-10/JulyPalladios10Merrell.html

Doug Floor Plan said...

Mansions, thank you for answering the question & supplying the link to the very interesting story & photos. It’s impressive what was done to maintain the integrity of a house that wasn’t as update friendly as this one. The only part of the article that I’m scratching my head about is the picture caption that states “James Merrell Architects lifted Maycroft off its original foundation, moved it 100 yards, and rotated it about 260 degrees” – if they had rotated it in the opposite direction they would have had to rotate the house only 100 degrees to get to the same place – why take the long way around?

Oh, I’m also scratching my head that this is someone’s weekend summer house … but that’s just me.

Anonymous said...

Great article...I guess that wasn't plywood I was looking at.

Zach L. said...

Thanks for the link to that story Gary.

I must say, as a preservationist myself, this is one of the more remarkable tales of a house on Long Island I've ever heard. The architects and especially the owners, who were willing to take on something of this magnitude when it evidently wasn't necessary, are due a hell of a lot of credit. Clearly one of those right place, right time, right people events.

The Ancient said...

"Money should be fun."

Anonymous said...

"Money should be fun."

I'm sure it is for the people that have it.

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Mansions of the Gilded Age do you have anything on the Wiborg place "The Dunes"? I've never heard of George and Sara Murphy until this weekend searching for info on Atterbury. If they were friends of FS Fitzgerald they must have partied at Lands End.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.9522624&lon=-72.1812031&z=18&l=0&m=b&show=/20359243/Swan-Cove

Or have info on this place -

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.8696654&lon=-72.4051192&z=19&l=0&m=b&show=/20372429/Grosvenor-Atterbury-Designed-Home

Thanks

Gary Lawrance said...

HPHS,

Here is a link to a story about, The Dunes.

http://nymag.com/arts/all/features/17561/

There are many good books about the Murphy's. I will look some of them up in my collection and post them on my blog or email me and I will give you a quick list. The main house in the New York Magazine story was burned down by the family since it was too expensive to maintain in the 40s. In the photograph, is a small building which I think still exists, which you can see on the maps, called the pink house. The main house was west of it. The Swan house was the diary farm complex that the Murphy's lived in.

Gary Lawrance said...

Here is a photograph and map for the New York Magazine story of the Main house and the existing buildings.

http://nymag.com/arts/all/features/17561/index1.html

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Any interior shots? Yes those link and a couple of others were added to the wikimapia tags for Pink House and Swan Cove. "Living well IS the best revenge" - http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1962/07/28/1962_07_28_031_TNY_CARDS_000267984

Anonymous said...

The swan house was sold in 2009 and has been demolished.

http://hamptons.curbed.com/archives/2009/11/02/swan_closed_east_hamptons_pink_house_went_for_19m.php



http://67.199.116.138/dnn/Archive/Home20101202/News/PinkHouseIsDemolished/tabid/13795/Default.aspx

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Well at least there's the history of the place. The real "Pink House" still stands - http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.9510065&lon=-72.1760264&z=19&l=0&m=b&show=/20359431/The-Pink-House

Thanks for the updated info.

Anonymous said...

You're welcome.

Might as well through this one onto the pile:

http://gothamjournal.com/fire-destroys-home-on-lily-pond-lane/

Zach L. said...

http://www.oldlongisland.com/2008/07/picture-of-day_26.html

Anonymous said...

hphs,
i could not bring up your 4:33 link, same for anonymous with the second link.
thank you

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Anonymous maximize the window to get the full link.