Thursday, November 10, 2011
'Wheatly'
A shot of the water tower and an arriving carriage at 'Wheatly', the E.D. Morgan III estate designed by McKim, Mead & White between 1890-1900 in Old Westbury. Click HERE for more on 'Wheatly' (be sure to scroll past today's picture). Photo from the Elizabeth Morgan Jay Etnier Hollins archives.
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18 comments:
That water tower -- an orb set into an obelisk -- is seriously & uniquely good looking; I wonder who at McKim, Mead, & White thought of it … or maybe E. D. Morgan III did? I looked at the plan & that structure to the left of the tower, with the retractable roof, is the squash court … what, no tennis? (joke)
Speaking of jokes – I’m trying to create a conversation caption for those folks descending from the carriage but my brain isn’t cooperating (I’m on only my first cup of coffee). I may comment again later unless someone beats me to it.
This is a seriously wonderful photograph---very evocative.
Doug, the photo caption? Easy: "Oh honey, it's nice to be home. I'm so glad we hired McKim, Mead & White instead of Mr. Gilbert"
Zach...these Wheatly photos are magical, they truly transport me back in time. Keep them coming.
Also, did you add photos to the Nov.7th Knolewood post? I don't remember seeing that haunting hall-way shot and the mantle.
LOL DED, excellent caption ... but I also think you didn't stand five feet behind that horse poised to kick for long enough; try again but this time talk in a loud voice for the entire 10 minutes about the works of C. P. H. Gilbert. If you emerge unscathed again then we'll all know that cosmic justice (which I don't believe in) is on your side.
Loud voice? Oh no Doug, my voice is soft, modulated and mellifluous. Any horse would be lulled in no time.
And on closer examination, I notice that it is a little girl, not a wife, so the revised caption should read "Oh Daddy, it's so nice to be home---I'm so glad you hired McKim, Mead, and White instead of Mr. Gilbert, like Alice's father"
Seriously for second, Wheatley and Pembroke make an interesting pair for comparison, in the ways they provide many of the same services, and fulfill many of the same aspirations, in two totally different ways---and the architects of the former used form, proportion, texture, and a sure understanding of how to place objects in space, with the latter, where the designer basically took boxes, punched holes in them, and then decorated the whole with a pastry tube. (Ahd remember, I really do think Pembroke is riotously over-the-top interesting, but it isn't GOOD, and this place, also over the top, is VERY good.
Now, get that horse back in its stall.
Imagine a parallel universe in which Ira Rennert had decided to re-create Wheatly on 60 acres in Sagaponack.
Would we be praising him or laughing at his lack of imagination?
We'd be envying him.
That's what I think.
DED, love your ideas for captions! Also, I was the one who suggested that Acanthus do a book on Gilbert, yet I agree that he was a little over-the-top but hard to beat for grandeur, especially NYC townhouses, where he didn't hace to ground the structure in a landscape. On a different note, the 1995 remake of "Sabrina" (which featured Salutations) is on AMC at 2AM this Friday - at least on Comcast here on the West Coast. And "A New Leaf" (featuring Welwyn) is on Nov 15th at 12:45PM on TMCXw. I appreciate when commenters mention movies featuring houses so that I can look for them.
Somehow I think this crowd would still give Ira a raw deal. I dont find his new spread unappealing but if he took Wheatly and dropped it on the flat farmland behind the high sand dunes, I think the entire composition losses the wonderful sense of place it had on a hilltop overlooking terraced gardens and rolling hills, but I could see a Gilbert composition recreated there as it seems like Ira tried that route anyway. Also thnx RD for the movie tips.
as i go over the pictures of this grand estate and look at the beautifully coherent design that seems to effortlessly take into account the landscape, the flow of space, the layout of an obviously busy and sophisticated family ( and the same can be said for most of the estates highlighted in this blog) and i wonder "what was going through the minds of the person who began the actual physical teardown of the timeless buildings, where they at all sadden by the destruction of that much beauty?" anyway what do you all think?
Chip, being present during the sale of building artifacts and later at the demolition of the JP Morgan mansion in Glen Cove in the early 80's, the people conducting the sale didnt even think about the building, they said it was just a job and had no interest in the history or craftsmanship or architecture of the structures they were involved in demolishing. They made money as they were hired to do and then they moved to their next project. Amazing but there are plenty of people like that, but I could never do that job.
Chip, I've probably had 20 conversations with owners of big houses about to come down over the years----the reasons are many---house is too big, bought the land for development, bought the land only for the land, hate old buildings, house is beyond repair, or a combination of the above, but the result is always the same---the house comes down, and the person doing it has no thoughts or regrets. Sometimes they try to make a show of 'isn't it sad we have to do this', but they're crocodile tears. Not everyone cares---and of course, when guys get new territory, they love to piss on it.
If you were to turn photo over - on the backside in a rather crude, child-like cursive - "Oh Daddy stain over paint you get the frigging brush. I'm going to my favorite Charles Pierpont Henry Gilbert estate {not readable}"???
Sad really, as a culture we have no regard not only for craftsmanship, but also for, how should I word it, family legacy. In England and Scotland, France and Italy...families at least try to hold on to their ancestral homes, here in America, with I'm sure an exception of a few (Peggy Phipps comes to mind), most don't hold and fondness for the homes they, or their parents and grandparents built and lived in.
Also amazing is we travel the world to visit and admire quaint historic villages, fairytale castles, ancient cultural sites and architectural wonders, then return to the U.S. and envy people living in splendidly preserved spots like Charleston, Savannah, Santa Fe, Alexandria, Newport, to name but a few and then go home and ironically do everything in our power to eradicate our own architectural heritage in the name of progress and improvement.
so true.
I agree archibuff...I also do not understand....a sad state indeed.
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