All in Architecture History
The death of brothers Ogden and Robert Goelet near the end of the nineteenth century left vast multi-million estates for their heirs
While the Goelet name is readily associated with number of familiar gilded age mansions and estates, due to them often living within a stones throw of each other and the preponderance of males in the family with the name Robert, sometimes confusing to know which Goelet actually lived where!
Amongst all the bold-faced names associated with Long Islands Gold Coast, “Phipps” stands out. Social, sporty and philanthropic, as an aggregate, few families could approach the scale of the half-dozen or more estates they owned and the legacy they created.
As we walked past the massive brownstone Engineers Club on a visit to Baltimore we were unable to resist peeking inside. Our quick view of some of the stunning interiors whet my appetite to learn more about the building’s history and the people who lived there.
A brisk walk around one of the squares and peeking down some side streets not only rewarded us with remarkably fine examples of mid-nineteenth century domestic architecture, but also the opportunity to take an up-close look at interiors by Charles A Platt, Stanford White, John Russell Pope, and Delano and Aldrich all on the same block!
Brendan and I were looking for someplace to visit on the drive back home from Boston recently. Our host suggested the Eustis Estate Museum, a mansion and eighty-acre grounds located about 10 miles southwest of downtown Boston operated by Historic New England. It was definitely worth the trip.
One day earlier this year I happened to be walking by the Charles P Rogers showroom on 17th street and noticed this sign out front. Something struck a chord. My great, great, grandfather Fayette Houck had built a stable and coachman’s house in Cooperstown for a man named Charles Rogers Back in 1902. Could the two names be possibly connected? After a little digging, it turned out my hunch was correct the two men were one in the same……
Many are familiar with the tales of Newport’s most famous gilded age cottages and the bold-faced names who lived in them; the Breakers and the Vanderbilts, Clarendon Court and the von Bulows, and so on. Part of what makes Newport so interesting for me is also discovering the stories associated with some of the lesser known ones. Each has their own interesting tale to tell. This is the story of one of them.
I am always curious to see how the characters’ homes in films based on lives of historical figures compare to the ones they actually lived. In the case of The Favorite, I thought they stacked up quite well. The film also re-sparked my interest in the queen’s first favorite, Sarah Jennings Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough. Here is a look at some of the homes she lived in throughout her life.
I was a little reluctant at first to do a post focusing on Cooperstown’s lost homes and mansions. So often these types of articles read accompanied by a gnashing of teeth and casting blame. For me it’s quite the opposite. Cooperstown, which abounds with architectural treasures, should be celebrated, for few places can boast such good stewardship of their architectural legacy. Through my research, I found some interesting homes, no longer standing, which served to complement the history of the village and its reputation as a resort town….
After looking at lost homes and mansions of the Upper West Side, Bloomingdale, and Audubon Park neighborhoods, the last installment in this series goes all the way to the northernmost tip of Manhattan, to what is today known Washington Heights and Inwood.
The roots of the neighborhood’s name date back to 1841 when the great naturalist John James Audubon purchased a fourteen-acre tract along the Hudson river, putting the property, roughly bound by what is now 155th and 158th streets, in his wife’s name as a buffer against economic uncertainties….
As Manhattan’s population surged northward during the latter decades of the nineteenth century, the formerly rural far reaches of the Upper West Side changed remarkably in character. By 1900, one could find an interesting hodge-podge of former summer homes dating back a century, along with brash newer mansions, middle class townhouses, and apartment buildings. Thanks in large part to the digitization of the photo archives at the New York Public Library and the Museum of the City of New York, this post will look at some the grand homes around Bloomingdale and Morningside Heights as well as what replaced many of them (almost all would disappear by 1930).
