Friday, April 6, 2012

'The Sunnyside'

'The Sunnyside', the Samuel T. Shaw estate designed by Frederick R. Hirsh c. 1906 on Centre Island. Shaw was a co-owner of the Grand Union Hotel in New York City and a noted collector of American art. The estate was subsequently owned by George E. Brightson who named it 'Harbor Point' and later by Edward Carl Oelsner Sr. who renamed it 'Seacroft'. Click HERE to see 'The Sunnyside' on google earth and HERE on bing. Click HERE to see many photos of the house and grounds from The Location Department.

9 comments:

The Ancient said...

http://www.amny.com/real-li-1.812034/centre-island-s-ceremony-house-for-rent-1.2816032

magnus said...

Oh my goodness gracious.Could this have been designed as The Grand Union Hotel East?

Anonymous said...

wow sometimes showing too many photos is just too many photos! I dont know if that is run down apartment complex or some shabby summer camp with the twenty very mediocre cabins on the property? What happened here? What a mess. All the interiors appear to have been renovated in 1970.

The Ancient said...

Anon 9:04 --

I believe the current term is "hot mess."

Glen said...

Of all the great houses lost and saved, why does this have to be one still extant in lieu of so many others lost that were so much better? I think it has been a hot mess from the day it was built - from the massing to the styling to all that stucco to the floor plan. I'm just not a fan.

The Ancient said...

From the NYU archives:

Samuel T. Shaw (1861-1945) was the proprietor of the Grant Union Hotel, which was located on the southeast corner of 42nd Street and Park Avenue, across from Grand Central Terminal, from 1874 until 1914. An art collector and patron of living artists, Shaw hung the hotel walls with his personal collection of works by American painters. He was closely associated with the Salmagundi Club, the Society of American Artists, and the National Academy of Design, and awarded cash prizes for the best picture at the annual exhibitions held by those institutions.

Shaw gave the "Shaw Prize" at the Salmagundi Club exhibits for fifty years, and would sponsor an annual dinner party of the artists in competition for that year's award. A commercial photographer was engaged to make a panoramic group portrait of the jovial and formally dressed painters at their dinner table. At the center of each photograph appear two easily identifiable men: the award-winning artist from the previous year (bedecked with a laurel head wreath), and their great patron, the bearded, white-haired (and usually unjacketed) Samuel T. Shaw, often sitting beneath the Club's portrait of Shaw by Wayman Adams.



Also:

http://wikimapia.org/3244389/The-Sunnyside-Harbour-Point-Seacroft

(Several pics of the house from wikimapia.)

Anonymous said...

It's a disappointing piece of architecture, and that's being generous. Indeed it does resemble a hotel, in fact many hotels. If one looks carefully past the 1950's Paul William's designed addition to the Beverly Hills Hotel, the same facade can be seen.
I can't agree enough with 'Glen' who wrote "why does this have to be one of the extant in lieu of so many others lost." In my opinion the houses I most prefer are the vanished ones while the ones still with us would never have been missed.
Laughably I love nearly all the remaining barns and stables converted to houses on vanished estates. I envy the homeowners.
Thank you Zach

Laura from RI said...

Off topic-Please be sure to get your copy of New York Magazine on Monday, April 9th....entitled "Scandal" on the cover....3 of the greatest scandals in NY history including "The Shooting of the Century"...I'm sure we all know what that was all abt....I read this in NYSD on Wednesday.

lil' gay boy said...

Never was crazy about the architecture of this place, but its location across from the Sewanaka-Corinthian Yacht Club is truly spectacular...this vista up the drive from the gates at the end of the cul-de-sac is still impressive.