Tuesday, December 31, 2013

The End is Nigh...

As the year comes to an end the time has come to look back on what Long Island lost this past year.  Most notably was 'Inisfada', the 1919 Nicholas F. Brady estate demolished earlier this month in North Hills (above and below).  In the six years I've been writing this blog Long Island has seen the razing of numerous estate houses including 'Lands End', the F. Skiddy Von Stade residence (which was beyond salvage), 'Groombridge', 'Les Bois', and a number of smaller, less notable places.  Let's hope 2014 will be a better year.  Happy New Year!

Photos courtesy of Kyle Peterson.

17 comments:

Zach L. said...

Today's posting also marks the 1,700th post on Old Long Island.

Tyngsboro said...

Nay, nay, go not so Soon;
Parting is such Sweet Sorrow . . .

ArchitectDesign™ said...

So sad but hopefully this will spur others to action? Looking forward to the next year of your blog

The Devoted Classicist said...

Each year I think the public's level of enlightenment has increased enough to end this (usually) needless destruction and waste. But sometimes I wonder if there is really much improvement in education and values. I can tolerate the razing if the replacement is better, but that is hardly ever the case. Here's hope for 2014.

Anonymous said...

http://tbo.com/northwest-tampa/testaverde-files-suit-says-5-million-home-has-defects-20131230/

Here is a newish mansion built in 2007. Junk. This was the highest price paid for a home in Tampa that year.

So people are ripping down these great mansions to build these.

Anonymous said...

http://tbo.com/northwest-tampa/testaverde-files-suit-says-5-million-home-has-defects-20131230/

Here is a newish mansion built in 2007. Junk. This was the highest price paid for a home in Tampa that year.

So people are ripping down these great mansions to build these.

Anonymous said...

Long Island is not even close to being enlightened and demolitions will continue in the future. Long Island's restrictive residential zoning codes, the desire to maintain the status quo within most villages, the minimal desire to accommodate land use changes within incorporated villages, the unfounded fear of landmarking in general, the persistent but baseless rumors that preservation lowers property values and a changing mindset from newer residents and a younger generation which wants only "new" and abhors the idea of living in an "old" outdated structure, all exists and thrives unchecked on Long Island. It is incomprehensible that most of us will travel to Europe and admire centuries old towns, almost completely intact architecturally and yet come home and sit by while we allow our own communities and historic buildings to be slowly destroyed and our neighborhoods irreversibly diminished one building at a time. Such destruction is senseless and nothing built in the place of these lost buildings will ever be an improvement. Archibuff

Kellsboro Jack said...

If there is a bright side, there are still a few homes that have seeming been on the at risk list which have yet to meet the wrecking ball.

I thought the A. C. Bostwick Estate in Old Westbury was going to be razed yet it appears to survive.

Don't get me wrong I'm sure some developer is licking his/her chops at the ideal of putting in its place an unsightly brick box with more glue, tyvek wrap and slap-dash construction with a 60% profit margin.

A New Years hope that a greater appreciation of quality, artistry, construction and true architectural merit pervades society in 2014.

Kyle Peterson said...

There are some more great Inisfada picture on this person's flickr. I wish I knew who they were so I could credit them but it's worth checking out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27580952@N02/sets/72157632188050469/

I've been thinking about the best case scenario for the dismal future of the Gold Coast. We will not see development cease. I think the best we can hope for is that the developments be as close to estates as possible. Thing like Kean houses, they're not the same but I don't know of other builder that can construct anything close to the gilded age mansions. This is one that I can live with:

http://www.sothebysrealty.com/eng/sales/detail/180-l-622-4407928/burrwood-lloyd-harbor-ny-11743

Anonymous said...

Zach...what were the lesser known homes?

The Down East Dilettante said...

I could be wrong, but it seemed that when the rich started getting richer, in the Reagan era, that the pace of demolition---at least up here---slowed, and the big old houses rose in value and became trophies again. Then, as architects and builders began to take note of the trend, they began to turn out reasonable facsimiles. More time went on, and by the second Bush era, a new wave of tear-downs, in favor of more steroidal, less subtle, works, with all the attendant cliches--the badly scaled two-story 'fwayay', the granite countertops, overly massive, badly detailed fireplaces, etc etc etc. Although this is a summer region, and nothing exists on the scale of Inisfada, the losses in recent weeks alone include two beloved landmarks surviving from Bar Harbor's gilded age---'La Selva', once occupied by the young widow Mrs. John Jacob Astor IV, and the bowling alley/ballroom wing, all that remained of Evalyn Walsh (Hope Diamond) McLean's 'Briarcliffe', stylishly converted to a as a new cottage in the 1960's, when the main house was demolished. In Northeast Harbor, the former trophy cottages are dropping like flies as the billionaires move in, desirous of something with less nuance and more muscle. Last month's casualty was a marvelous house by the elegant Philadelphia firm of Tilden, Register & Pepper, with ironwork by Samuel Yellin and tile by Mercer, down in favor of a Hampton-ized mansion for Stephen Rales. The world has certainly changed dramatically, and so has taste. The beautiful classic old Federal and Greek Revival farmhouses, so perfectly scaled and right for the climate, so much a part of the Maine landscape, are also falling victim to the HGTV syndrome.

It has been my opinion for some time now be it Long Island or up here on the Maine Coast, whether the cause is development pressure or too damn much money, that except in a few distinct places, the preservation movement has been failing. The tsunami is too strong, and the populace's fear and disdain of 'elite' ideas and 'socialist' concepts (like landmarking and health care), to say nothing of economic realities, continue to doom the Inisfadas of this world.

Anonymous said...

Until the 1970's much of the North Shore was "restricted". So if you wanted to move up socially you had to conform. That meant not just changing your name and religion, as many did, but making yourself over into a pseudo old moneyed family. The latter required not just the right architect but also developing a degree of connoisseurship around art, antiques, gardening etc. If you did all of these things you might be accepted and have hope that your grandchildren might someday get into the Social Register. Those days are gone. Not only can anyone with money move wherever they want to, but with the advent of the modern celebrity movement, the old moneyed world of the Social Register is dead. On the whole that egalitarian transformation was a great thing for eliminating class boundaries. The end result is that the influences on home construction are less to do with conforming to a highly curated and exquisitely constructed ideal, and more to do with how can one make their home as big and brash as possible. Taking the large amount of time to really study and grasp perfect architectural proportion isn't on the radar of your average hedgefunder these days. They would just as soon have something by the Candy Brothers because the people they hang with know it costs a lot. Impressing the celebrity crowd is what it's all about these days and that crowd is based solely on money.

Anonymous said...

Sorry Zach...not to be a pain, but I'm interested in the "lesser known" homes that were demolished. Do you have any names and locals?

Zach L. said...

The first that comes to mind was an 18th century house in Old Westbury that was demolished:

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=40.775675&lon=-73.601776&z=19&m=b&v=2

Zach L. said...

It's still extant on bing:

http://binged.it/1d0WAWn

The Ancient said...

Anon 1:36 PM --

David Patrick Columbia, is that you?

Anonymous said...

Dilettante:

I'm so sorry about those two grand houses in Bar Harbor - I remember them well from my past visits to Mount Desert Island. By the way, Madeline Astor's house on the South Shore of Long Island was also demolished some years back. I don't think that too much money is the problem with this new wave of demolitions, however. After all, this kind of big money created the great houses in the first place. Indeed, the most devastating era of estate demolition - from about 1940 to 1970 - was caused by the decline of those same Gilded Age fortunes due to both the Depression and the confiscatory taxes of the Roosevelt Era. The problem today - expressed so eloquently in the comment that follows yours - is rooted in the values and tastes of this new generation of the very rich. As you correctly pointed out, even in the Reagan era there was a movement among the new rich to buy and restore the mansions of the Gilded Age. Another generation has arrived, however, with virtually no sense of tradition and history - not to mention an abysmal lack of good taste. They have little use for formality and want their houses to reflect today's overly casual, techno-centric lifestyles. Since they have no desire to crash the gates of Old Guard society, there is no pressure on them to conform to traditional standards. The other problem is that too many communities give carte blanche to developers - something that North Hills and Bar Harbor sadly have in common. There are also communities whose zoning regulations are at the other extreme, prohibiting creative adaptive reuse of old estates and thus hastening their demise. Both extremes are lethal to historic preservation. Those communities that have preservation-oriented zoning - especially if there are landmarks preservation laws (like Palm Beach) or protected historic districts (like Newport)- are the only places where Gilded Age landmarks are safe. Strict architectural codes for new construction (like in Palm Beach)keep the lowest common denominator at bay. By the way, Dilettante, many conservative Republicans like myself are FOR landmarks laws and don't consider them the least bit Socialist. We are, after all, traditionalists who have a general disdain for the values and tastes of this crazy new century. Remember that Palm Beach, which boasts one of the most strict and successful landmarks laws in the US, is a bastion of conservative Republicanism. Many of those preservation-minded Palm Beach folk summer in Long Island and Mount Desert. Perhaps they can be persuaded to use their preservation muscle up north. We could use it!

Titanic Bill