Friday, February 14, 2014

A Message from the North Shore Land Alliance...

Dear Members and Friends,

As most of you know, we have been working very hard over the past few years to purchase the 32-acre DeForest Williams property in Cold Spring Harbor and protect it from development.

And now, we are so close to making this purchase a reality!
In order to close the deal in late March, we still need to raise $592,480.

To summarize our efforts to date:
The purchase price is $8.5 Million.  As of today,  we have raised over $6 Million.
  • Suffolk County and the Town of Huntington have committed to $4.5 Million.
  • The Cold Spring Harbor community has contributed $1.4 Million.
  • The Land Alliance has secured a $2 Million bridge loan from The Conservation Fund and made a substantial financial contribution too. (Of course, we will have to repay the loan by December 31st, 2016, but we are willing to take the risk to protect this property.)
If we are successful, this beautiful hillside property will be conserved forever and become the Wawapek Preserve, a wonderful place to walk and enjoy the benefits of nature. If not, the waters of Cold Spring Harbor could be in jeopardy and an historic scenic vista could be lost forever.  

Won't you please help us save the DeForest Williams property from development and protect this community treasure?  Every contribution counts!

To learn more and/or contribute, please click here http://deforestwilliamscampaign.karma411.com.  Thank you for your support!

With great hope,
Lisa W. Ott
President

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zach, I couldn't find this property on OLI, is there no mansion attached to the land?

The Down East Dilettante said...

The mansion is a fine shingle work by Grosvenor Atterbury

Zach L. said...

http://binged.it/1ml1K4A

Anonymous said...

Thank you. But it doesn't say what will happen to the house, it only speaks of preserving the land, (which I hope they do.)

Maybe they could make it a house-museum like Sagamore Hill.

The Ancient said...

The de Forest descendants need to sell the land so that they can keep the house.

It's no more complicated than that.

So the outstanding question is how it gets sold and for what.

The Ancient said...

I should also have said the important thing.

If they can't sell the land, the house -- one of the greatest things Atterbury ever did, and -- given Washington Square North, built by Emily Johnston de Forests's grandfather, who lived there -- an important transition in the history of architecture -- it will ultimately pass into the hands of vandals who will tear it down and replace it with McMansions.

Anyone who knows that site in CSH wouldn't want to see that happen.

P.S. Much of the original furnishings are now at The Metropolitan Museum.

The Down East Dilettante said...

one hopes it works--relatively small investment against a long term gain for open space and environment---and better the house be preserved than not, certainly

The Ancient said...

http://www.longislandernews.com/the-long-islander-archives/wawapek-preserve-towns-newest-nature-preserve-unveiled