Monday, September 19, 2011

'Russet'

'Russet', the Elbridge Gerry Chadwick estate designed by James O'Connor c. 1921 in Muttontown. Chadwick was the vice-president of Brown-Wheelock, a real estate firm, and was at one time the manager of the Vincent Astor estate. Click HERE to see 'Russet' on google earth and HERE on bing. Photo from Selections From the Work of James O'Connor.


21 comments:

The Ancient said...

Love that wallpaper in the dining room.

(Nowadays, of course, her real estate agent would probably want to bring in a team to "neutralize" the house before showing it to the public.)

The Devoted Classicist said...

I am on the same track as The Ancient. But surely it is a one-of-kind painted mural instead of wallpaper. The design is very bold for a residential dining room. It is probably a charming house; I would love to see the floor plan.

Old Grey Dog said...

What exactly is meant by the real estate term "neutralize" ? This Old Dog is unfamiliar with your use of the word ! Very comfortable looking house . . . that semi-circular rug with the "WELCOME", at the base of the staricase, is a nice touch ~ and I too like the wallpaper

The Down East Dilettante said...

The staircase is beautifully designed.

It appears to me (and frustratingly, in blogger's new picture enlargement system, I can no longer blow the picture up on screen for a better look) to be a hand painted scenic paper, rather than a mural or a block printed scenic paper. I once owned such a set.

Old Grey, I'm assuming the estimable Ancient is referring to the odd practice, foisted upon us by HGTV and an ever slicker real estate industry, of 'staging' a house for sale, by removing anything unique, odd, or personal, and painting everything beige, and getting those nasty antiques out of rooms and replacing them with more modern furniture to 'appeal to younger buyers'.

And yet we still wonder how so many of these places get spoiled. In a world where no one wants a house with a three year old refrigerator, what hope does a handsome 18th century chimney piece have? (Which, as long as I'm on a rant, is another thing that fascinates me: The removal of beautifully designed fireplace surrounds, well scaled and well built, and their replacement by mantels that look as if a six year old designed them and a 14 year old built them in shop class. The Peter Madoff house, currently for sale, features such an interior gut)

The Ancient said...

TDC --

If it was a mural, so much the better.

OGD --

"Neutralize" means a team of "design professionals" (and I use that term advisedly) come into your house and mark for death anything that might conceivably deter a potential buyer. So, for example, if you have bright colors, marbleized walls, or wallpaper that wouldn't necessarily appeal to someone with money but no real sense of design, then those aspects of the house will stripped away -- even if, say, they might appeal to the likes of Min Hogg.

(Where I live, the moneyed morons who destroyed the interiors of one of Evangeline Bruce's houses are now shopping it around -- complete with interiors which properly belong in a suburban show house in Nebraska.)

The Down East Dilettante said...

'su burban show house in Nebraska'---wish I'd thought of that one.

I got more curious, so saved the photo to file so I could enlarge it in my photo viewer. It's an absolutely startling mural of farmyard birds, at huge scale for the low ceiling room, with larger than life size turkey to the left of the door, and a giant rooster, ready to pounce. :-) But one assumes the colors to be lovely

The Ancient said...

TDED --

If you click on the little white hyperlink at the bottom of the enlarged picture, you should still be able to get something like the old display. Then click on that, and simply scroll your mouse to enlarge further.

(Saving the picture and enlarging it as you did makes it a little bigger, but it becomes awfully hard to view for a generation spoiled by digital photography. Of course, I suppose we targeted millions of tons of bombs like that not too long ago.)

P.S. I looked at the Madoff house. It's quite deracinated, isn't it? Nothing in the interior gives any sense of time or place.

Charles said...

I am sure most people know (but in case some don't...)that if you press "Ctrl" and the "Plus" sign in the top row, right, the picture will enlarge and you can see details. You can really see everything close up.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Ancient, a link to the Evangeline Bruce listing? Inquiring Dilettantes want to see

The Devoted Classicist said...

D.E.D., I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who was appalled by the trend of horrible new chimneypieces! Granted, I am probably overly critical of such things, in general, but I could have never imagined such monstrosities that are now prominently featured in (supposedly) high style (but certainly big budgeted) interiors. The strange thing is the similarity that they all have. My decorator friends blame it on their colleagues' focusing on profitable elements rather than letting part of the budget going to architectural improvements.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

Dear Down East ... This is the link you seek ... http://www.washingtonlife.com/2009/12/07/inside-homes-georgetown-landmark/

An Aesthete's Lament said...

And Mr Chadwick had the good financial sense to march to the altar with a divorcée heiress to the Jordan Marsh mercantile fortune. (She was previously married to a nephew of Theodore Roosevelt.) Which seems to have resulted in enough money for them to purchase three adjoining plantations in South Carolina. I do think the dining room walls must sport a mural rather than a wallpaper. The pattern is a bit insane and far too personal that the usual chinoiserie-garden effect most people were after. I mean, really, chickens on steroids?

Anonymous said...

I don't care for the fact that I can no longer enlarge the photos.

Kellsboro Jack said...

An Aesthete's Lament thanks for the WL link for the Bruce estate. Agreed that its now devoid of a well-lived character by real owners.

Its all well and good for the "clean canvas" approach that is all too in vogue for some buyers. However if I was to buy an historic estate I'd really want something with the rich molding details, plus the contents of real owners and that immediate look that is beyond any ordinary showroom of 'Restoration Hardware/Crate and Barrel'

Off topic but when there was mention of Ms. Bruce I was reminded of the loss of her young daughter (Alexandra who went by Sasha) purportedly murdered in Virginia by her new Greek-born husband. Not a lot of happiness there.

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Links in the text to the other two plantations -

http://south-carolina-plantations.com/georgetown/wedge.html

wooded bliss said...

Gerry family..nice provenance..nice house.

Anonymous said...

Ancient...thanks for the tip. The photos now enlarger better than before.

Doug Floor Plan said...

Ancient, you are correct about the Evangeline Bruce house -- I believe the appropriate term DED & Magnus have used for similar houses is: WASP safe.

The Ancient said...

An additional Chadwick property, acquired in 1929:

http://south-carolina-plantations.com/georgetown/wedge.html

Jane T. Jackson said...

Chadwick lived here after Dorothy's divorce from Monroe, but Monroe Robinson and Dorothy May Jordan were married in 1921 when the house was built. Correct?

Anonymous said...

Per the dining room mural: Nancy McCllelland shows the Chadwick (then Robinson) dining room as part of her chapter on murals in her 1926 book The Practical Book of Wall-Treatments. Plate 427