Tuesday, September 27, 2011

'Whispering Laurels''

'Whispering Laurels', the Beverly Duer estate designed by Delano & Aldrich c. 1929 in Laurel Hollow, with landscaping by the Olmsted Brothers. Duer was a member of the Guaranty Trust Co. and a trustee of the Village of Laurel Hollow. The house and 3 acres is currently for sale for $4,275,000, click HERE to see the listing on Daniel Gale Sotheby's. Click HERE to see 'Whispering Laurels' on google earth and HERE on bing.



Listing photos from Daniel Gale Sotheby's.

21 comments:

The Down East Dilettante said...

Clever boys, Delano and Aldrich. They knew how to bend the rules, and were in full command of their vocabulary. Chic, stylish, imaginative.

The Down East Dilettante said...

....and despite the fairly alarming interior decor, at least the interior bones are intact---nothing that a little mirror smashing and a chandelier intervention can't cure.

The Devoted Classicist said...

Why anyone would attempt to "jazz up" a Delano & Aldrich interior is beyond me. Other than undoing the do, it is quite a handsome house. The real estate listing reports no garage; is that because of a property subdivision? Looking at the shape of the lot, that must be the case.

The Ancient said...

TDED --

My thoughts exactly.*

If the right sort of buyer can get past the amiable brutality of the exterior lines, they would do well to seek out D&A's original drawings and do what they can to restore the original decoration.
_____________
*Christopher Gray writes in the Times: "Other firms approached Delano & Aldrich's grasp of traditional Anglo-American styles in the service of the New York upper classes, but none seem to have been unconventional enough to mix the classical orders of architecture with a modern imagination in ways that tinkered with ancient precedents to introduce whimsey into million-dollar budgets."

The Down East Dilettante said...

@Ancient: Yes, that's what I was trying to say. Exactly. Delano and Aldrich were magicians. What they did looks easy, but is almost impossible to pull off---as witness the many new traditionalist architects who try, but don't succeed.

Doug Floor Plan said...

The realtor brags: “Amazing Restored Brick 1929 Delano & Aldrich Manor. No Surfaced Untouched, But Retains Original Character;” which to me translates: “Amazing but not completely tastefully Restored Brick 1929 Delano & Aldrich Manor. No Surface Not Tarted Up, But Retains Original Character Because a Greater Power, or Maybe Lack of Funds Prevented Irreversible Alterations.”

I’m also surprised money was not spent putting a garage in the service courtyard since there is room for one & it wouldn’t materially interfere with the look of the house; & because money was spent on a swimming pool (which isn’t there in the Bing views) complete with arcing jets of water.

I would love to see the floor plan for this house.

Anonymous said...

http://www.thelocationcompanyny.com/houses/3771-dr-LH8.htm

Here are many pictures taken by the Location Company. It shows many interesting details.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Okay, win a few, lose a few. The Location Company photos give a great sense of the spaces---beautifully proportioned, full of light, the long gallery leading down to a living room...beautiful simple details, and then, THEN, we're treated to that spa addition. That must go. Immediate amputation recommended. The exterior is so wrong in so many ways, and having only ten fingers, I can't count them all...

The Ancient said...

I do wonder about people who build that sort of master bath.

(The old Southern expression "raised by wolves" comes to mind.)

Anonymous said...

http://www.thelocationcompanyny.com/
Here's the website for the location company. I saw a few of the mansions they use/have for movies. They seem to take care of the properties pretty well. I wouldn't object to them buying them for this purpose. it's better than being knocked down for those horrible mcmansions.

Zach L. said...

^ The Location Company does not own those houses, they are private residences where the owners have agreed to allow photo/film for a fee. Any care of those properties is done so by the owners.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Zach.
This is an interesting way to see these mansions though.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Okay, off today's topic and back to Chateauhuiver yesterday: Apparently Pope designed a second house, called Kingscote, for the Gould estate. Any leads?

The Ancient said...

TDED:

As you probably know, Bruce Price designed a house in Lakewood for George Jay Gould in 1897 ("Georgian Court"):

http://www.georgian.edu/tour_photo/Mansion.htm

A second house was designed for Gould's son Kingdon in 1901 ("King's Court"):

http://www.georgian.edu/tour_photo/Kingscote.htm

And Pope went to work for Price in 1901.

P.S. Aren't you supposed to be working?

The Ancient said...

Correction: Pope went to work for Price in 1900.

From John Russell Pope, Architect of Empire, by Steven McLeod Bedford:

"In 1901, Price's office was also designing an additional mansion known as Kingscote on the Charles Gould estate in Lakewood, New Jersey, for Gould's son Kingdom. The exterior of the house was rectilinear and formally severe in the same manner as Pope's later work. It was essentially an elaboration of the Ladies' Home Journal project. The porches of the suburban house became porticoes, while the ground-floor windows were converted to French doors. The interior layout was an open, axial plan in which a large entrance hall was crossed by a narrow hallway that allowed the visitor to understand the entire ground floor arrangement immediately. Although the same plan had already been used by Price at Georgian Court (1899), the main house on the Gould estate, its later use by Pope in many of his country house designs suggests that Pope was involved in the design of Kingscote."

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Kingscote houses the Office of the President, the Institutional advancement Division, the Office of Finance, and the Office of Administration at Georgian Court U.

Ancient you were seconds ahead of me.

The Down East Dilettante said...

ah. Steven Bedford was my source for Kingscote, but from a google books 'snippet'. He mistakenly refers to George Gould as Charles Gould, hence the confusion.

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.0967698&lon=-74.2282569&z=17&l=0&m=b&show=/14804249/Georgian-Court-Summer-Home-of-George-Jay-Gould

Bing and H.A. link. Kingscote is across the street. Check the other tags for additional info, photos.

http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2011/04/110422-Taliesin/ss3/110422-Taliesin-slideshow3.asp?slide=3

"Intended to be framed by trees, the lofty central volume recalls French domestic architecture."

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

DFP house does have garage, to the south. Check the Google Book link at wikimapia for a overhead view without the trees.

H.A. link shows a lot of underdeveloped land surrounding home.

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...

Whispering Laurels neighbor "Tenacre" and the Queen of Sikkim connection{maybe a Maine connection if DED recognizes the names?}.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=40.8638744&lon=-73.4798241&z=19&l=0&m=b&show=/21652521/Tenacre

http://books.google.com/books?id=11BwL5F88K8C&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=Winchester+Noyes&source=bl&ots=7PHgo2g9Uz&sig=is0zQ51F-irfpdw6lObhNze5agg&hl=en&ei=l0SCToDHJ9SBsgLg7aD0Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=34&ved=0CIoCEOgBMCE#v=onepage&q=Winchester%20Noyes&f=false

The Down East Dilettante said...

Yup, Queen of Sikkim was Hope Cooke, grandparents summered in Seal Harbor, whence also summer lots of Rockefellers, and Martha Stewart