Tuesday, March 6, 2012

'The Monastery'

'The Monastery', the Mrs. Farquhar Ferguson estate designed by Allen W. Jackson c. 1908 in Huntington Bay. Click HERE for more on 'The Monastery'.



Photos from The Touchstone by Mary Fanton Roberts, 1917.

7 comments:

The Ancient said...

I wonder what happened to the children's gravestones that she used for the dining room floor? Vandalized? Salvaged for a biker bar? Recycled for the local Boy's Club?

Doug Floor Plan said...

Great pictures, Zach! I wonder who the people are in the first two photos -- looks like a servant in the second but in the first it looks like a couple of those notorious flappers!

The captions for the photos are so wordy & oddly constructed. My two favorites are:
a) The first photograph -- "The tall cedar was transplanted to its present position by the ivy covered archway." Shouldn't that be "... next to the ivy covered archway"? The ivy covered archway didn't do the transplanting.

b) The last photograph -- "No riotous planting could equal in beauty the broad simplicity of this wall." LOL, yes a flat wall is more broad & simple than a live plant.

Ancient, I'm starting the rumor here & now that the demolition crew was too superstitious to remove those headstones & so one of the existing houses at this site has them in it's foundation &/or under its patio.

The Ancient said...

By all accounts, Julianna Armour was a loving mother and a kind, generous, thoughtful neighbor.

So where did she get that crazy morbid streak?

My working theory is that she never got over Take Your Daughter to Work Day.

The Ancient said...

Her son, Danforth Brooks Ferguson:

http://dna.cfsna.net/GEN/Nova_Scotia/Danforth_Brooks_Ferguson.JPG

Danforth Brooks Ferguson - Born February 28, 1895, in New York City. Son of Farquhar and Juliana Armour Ferguson. Educated Harstrom's Tutoring School, New York, and in Paris. Joined American Ambulance, France, October, 1914. Joined American Field Service, April, 1915; attached Section Two until August, 1915. Returned to America. Enlisted U. S. Coast Artillery. To France, with 42d Coast Artillery. Died of pneumonia, October 20, 1918. Buried Dannemarie. Body transferred to an American Cemetery in France.

archibuff said...

Seems like there was a great deal of family tragedy in later years, but Mrs. Ferguson had a great reputation with the locales.

I also dont think the gravestone collecting is anything unusual. They were probably easily bought and sold as decorative items when ancient European burial sites were being developed or repurposed and she cornered the market on them. People obtain rubbings of old colonial gravestones, since stealing them is now frowned upon, to admire their designs not do to any morbid fascination.

I think it was mentioned somewhere that the family themselves removed alot of the embedded artwork and salvaged artifacts from the walls prior to its final sale and maybe the flooring was ripped up at that time?

Anonymous said...

It looks like a woman with two dogs in the first photo.

I remember reading somewhere that many parts of this home are housed in a museum, don't remember which one though.

Anonymous said...

"My working theory is that she never got over Take Your Daughter to Work Day."

I'm on my second day of chuckling over this gem of a remark, you got the gift Ancient.

-Flo