The
Henry Fletcher Godfrey estate designed by
Walker & Gillette c. 1910 in
Old Westbury. Godfrey was a member of the stock brokerage firm of Winthrop, Mitchell & Co. and was Master of Hounds at the Meadowbrook Hunt Club. Click
HERE and
HERE for more on the Godfrey estate which has since been demolished.
Photos from
American Homes and Gardens, 1912.
6 comments:
I've had reason lately to wonder where the original basis for this oft seen design theme---a half timber tudor with balanced matching gables---originated, as it is one of the most common of the 1880's to 1920's.
I detect a mid-construction design change. The picture of the Living Room shows the fireplace on the long side of the room, front side of the house. The floor plan shows it at the end of the room. There is a chimney in the end of room location, which I suspect was for the 2nd floor bedroom fireplace. Very generous room sizes. I'm surprised this house didn't endure as it was not terribly oversized and is an attractive and stately version of the tudor style.
Although an attrative house, proximity to the Long Island Expressway, Northern State Pkwy and Glen Cove Road, all busy thoroughfares had to diminish its appeal considerably.
A separate childrens dining room and only two childrens bedrooms? Not a very warm and fuzzy family vibe.
Glen Cove Road was a quiet two lane thoroughfare when this house was extant.
If anything it was the LIE that doomed this place...assuming it was even still standing when the expressway was built.
In the Class Notes for the Harvard College Class of Ninety-Seven's 25th anniversary, Godfrey supplied the following:
HENRY FLETCHER GODFREY
Born at Wallingford, Pa., Jan. 1, 1874. Son of Charles Henry and Emma Louise (Bennett) Godfrey.
School: Selig School, Vevey, Switzerland, and Berkeley School, New York City.
Years in college: 1893-1896. A.B. 1896 (1898).
Married: Marie Havemeyer, May 3, 1905, London, Eng.
Child: Henry Fletcher, Jr. October 22, 1906.
Address: (permanent) 807 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y.
I was ill from the effects of typhoid fever for some years after leaving college, and traveled extensively in the West and in Mexico. I returned to New York and became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1902, and later a member of the firm of Taylor, Livingston & Co. (later Henry B. Livingston & Co.) until I left for France in March, 1918. I saw service throughout France until the signing of the armistice, as 1st Lieutenant of U.S.A. Liaison Service, A.E.F., attached to French General Staff, being commissioned in France, Aug. 1, 1918, and discharged March 3, 1919, at he Military Hospital, Long Island.
I have been interested in sports of all kinds, especially fox-hunting, having been closely connected with Meadowbrook Hounds for twenty years, acting master one season. I have traveled extensively in the West, Mexico, and Europe. In Mexico in 1914 on mining business I saw rather too much of revolutionary methods.
__________
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30715F93A5A12738DDDAD0894DD405B868CF1D3
(The NYT notice of Godfrey's London wedding. May 3, 1906, published the following day.)
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=53631122
(Fletcher, Jr.'s grave.)
__________
In at least two previous Harvard Class notes, Godfrey himself gave a 1906 date for his marriage. Perhaps twenty-five years on, he thought better of it.
A shotgun wedding perhaps in London far from the limelight?
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