Monday, January 21, 2013

'Bayberry Land'

'Bayberry Land', the Charles H. Sabin estate designed by Cross & Cross c. 1918 in Southampton.  Click HERE for more on 'Bayberry Land' and HERE for interior photos.  The estate was demolished in 2004.  

Photos from Arts & Decoration, 1919.

13 comments:

The Down East Dilettante said...

This is where I do my standard lament, in which I wonder how and why we fail so miserably in this country at saving some of the masterpieces of their age, like this house

Kellsboro Jack said...

As provided by Zach before, the grand Samuel Yellin designed wrought iron staircase railing from Bayberryland was salvaged and sold off. [It has been for sale at $250k for some time.]

"The grand staircase has four curved ‘stairway’ sections and
two straight ‘landing’ sections with scrolls throughout."

http://www.urbanarchaeology.com/popup/salvage/samuel_yellin_grand_staircase_railing.html

What was the condition of the estate prior to it being razed in 2004? A derelict state?

Anonymous said...

From what I understand, there was nothing wrong at all with the estate.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Kellsboro, the condition of the estate can be seen in this report made shortly before demolition. Although the integrity of house and landscape were somewhat compromised, the house went down because an unimaginative developer (there are a few of those around) was more interested in having his own way, and making everything new and shiny, and could not be persuaded of the virtues of rehabilitation.

As to the staircase---in the antiques business, we often see hopeful and optimistic attributions made. Despite the current attribution of the staircase to Yellin (almost every piece of fancy ironwork on the market gets attributed to him), the stairs were actually designed by the architects, and executed by the Edwin Jackson company, perhaps the leading commercial metalwork company of the era, who did the gates, doors, and other metalwork for many of the major estates and office buildings of the era. Although I haven't time to search for a reference this moment, the stairs were credited to the Jackson company in several contemporary publications.

The Down East Dilettante said...

oops, forgot the link to the report:

http://www.southamptontownny.gov/FTP/SEQRA/Bayberry/bayberrynobleed.pdf

Kellsboro Jack said...

TDED - thanks and oddly enough I found smaller spread of that document as well when googling

http://www.southamptontownny.gov/FTP/SEQRA/Bayberry/BAYBERRYNObleed2.pdf

From a past mention of the property Zach did have a visitor here who was a member of the IBEW Local 3 (Int'l Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and had stayed there relatively close to the time it was sold. She [in her remarks] said it wasn't rundown.

Interesting about the non-Yellin work. I suppose in the current era its better to claim a home is Stanford White and ironwork by Yellin than use the correct attribution ;>

The Down East Dilettante said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Down East Dilettante said...

DEPT. OF CORRECTION & CLARIFICATION:

Sorry, I meant the William Jackson Company, not Edwin Jackson. The William Jackson firm was the metal foundry, the Edwin Jackson company was the leading dealer in antique fireplaces & equipment.

The Historic American Buildings Survey report, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/ny/ny2000/ny2055/data/ny2055data.pdf, which was made just before the demolition of Bayberryland is extremely informative for those who want to know more about this incredible estate. On page 22, paragraph 2, one will find the correct attribution of the staircase.

The Down East Dilettante said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Down East Dilettante said...

As long as we're on the Sabins, it may be of interest that Mrs. Sabin's second husband was Dwight Davis of Davis Cup fame. She left New York for this elegant Washington townhouse by Ogden Codman:

http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/DC-01-SK68

The Down East Dilettante said...

Kellsboro, correct. In researching the book, I'm in a constant struggle against pretty urban legends vs. the true verifiable facts---it really is amazing what well-intentioned people will suddenly decide out of thin air.

I'm on the board of a historic house museum--one day I heard a volunteer docent lead the visitors into the main room, filled with paintings done by the original owner. The docent announced that of course, orginally, there would have been no paintings in the room. Naturally I questioned him, as an 1835 newspaper article describes the very paintings in the very room, and nothing in the official tour literature indicated otherwise. It was simply something he'd decided, without any basis. And so it goes---

The Down East Dilettante said...

Interiors of the Sabin's New York residence:

http://books.google.com/books?id=eCoNAQAAIAAJ&lpg=PA30-IA10&ots=7PKiTbVQVE&dq=charles%20sabin%20residence%20cross%20%26%20cross&pg=PA30-IA10#v=onepage&q=charles%20sabin%20residence%20cross%20&%20cross&f=false

The Down East Dilettante said...

facade of the Sabin's New York house, also designed by Cross & Cross. Note that the ironwork DESIGN is here properly credited to the architect. Note also the third floor balcony, strongly recalling the design of the stair rail at Bayberry land.

http://books.google.com/books?id=H0xTAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA73&ots=TS76gwrrEV&dq=charles%20sabin%20residence%20cross%20%26%20cross&pg=PA73#v=onepage&q=charles%20sabin%20residence%20cross%20&%20cross&f=false