"Clarendon Court", Newport, RI

The former home of Claus & Sunny Von Bulow on Bellevue  at Newport, Rhode Island.

Below are some links to the house with photographs and its past and recent history.

Real Estalker 
Rhode Island Luxury Real Estate
Luxist
My Little Housing Blog
Murder or Mishap @ Quahog
Claus Von Bulow
Sunny Von Bulow
Vanity Fair
Sunny Von Bulow Obituary

"Lands End" Sands Point, Long Island

Lands End from the Sound

Click HERE for Jen Ross Photographer's blog with photographs and pictures of the exterior and interior of Lands End in ruins.Go to main gallery of Jen Ross

http://www.jenrossphoto.com/#Portfolio/Spaces/East%20Egg/1

Click HERE to see story about Lands End on the Today Show.
Click HERE to see story and ruined photos of Lands End on the " Daily Mail".

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR PREVIOUS POSTS ABOUT "LANDS END" 

"Lands End", Sands Point, Long Island Great Gatsby Mansion to be demolished!

The Long Island mansion said to be the inspiration for Daisy & Tom Buchanan's Gold Coast mansion is facing demolition. The Colonial revival home, which sits on a prominent point, jutting out into the Long Island Sound and has been a local landmark for almost 100 years may soon be destroyed, wiping out the last mansion said to have been one of the models in F. Scott Fitzgerald's great American novel, " The Great Gatsby".

Below are some current daily links to the news.
 
Click HERE to read about in the New York Post.
Click HERE to read about in the Los Angeles Times.
Click HERE to read about on Curbed.
Click HERE to read about in the New York Times.
Click HERE to read about on Forbes.com
Click HERE to read about in New York Magazine.
Click HERE to read about in the Daily Mail with a photograph of Gatsby's mansion.
Click HERE to read about in the Village Voice Blog.
Click HERE to read about and see aerial photo on Yahoo News.
Click HERE for Jen Ross Photographer's blog with photographs and pictures of the exterior and interior of Lands End in ruins.

Click HERE for previous posts about the Great Gatsby mansions with pictures.

Lands End Mansion at Sands Point, NY facing demolition

The Bayard Swope mansion beyond the Hoffstott mansion.

Click HERE for a video of the Lands End estate and click HERE to read today's story in Newsday about the forthcoming demolition of one of the Gold Coast's most famous mansions, " Lands End". The colonial revival mansion of publishing giant Bayard Swope, which architecturally could have been the home of Daisy & Tom Buchanan in F. Scott Fitzgerald's, " The Great Gatsby"

Click HERE to read about some other mansions believed to have been the inspirations for the houses depicted in the Great Gatsby.

Click HERE to read about and see the real estate brochure for Lands End showing the house and interiors in beautiful condition  when it was for sale on OLD LONG ISLAND.

The Servant Question at Harbor Hill

Here is a great article about the servants and their world at the Clarence Mackay estate, Harbor Hill, which was located at Roslyn, New York. Harbor Hill was considered to be the greatest country estate on Long Island's Gold Coast. Designed in 1902 by architect Stanford White for Silver King Heir Clarence Mackay and his wife Katherine Duer Mackay.

Click HERE to read!

The Great Gatsby Mansions

Farnsworth Mansion Atrium  of C.K.G. Billings

On Monday, February 28 from 7- 9 pm, I will be giving a lecture for the Three Village Historical Society entitled, "Gatsby's Mansions", A look at the real Long Island Mansions that inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald's, " The Great Gatsby".

Some of the houses to be discussed are below,

Pembroke, the Captain De Lamar mansion at Glen Cove. Where many parties during the roaring twenties attended by some of the silent screens greatest stars took place when the house was later owned by Marcus Loew, the movie theater magnate.









Beacon Towers, Sands Point, The castellated mansion of Alva Vanderbilt Belmont which bears a very close resemblance to Gatsby's Mansion as described by Fitzgerald.

The Bayard Swope mansion beyond the Hoffstott mansion.

Land's End, Sands Point, The colonial revival mansion of publishing giant Bayard Swope,
which architecturally could have been the home of Daisy & Tom Buchanan.

A brief aerial tour of Long Island's Gold Coast circa 1926 and a look at some of the other mansions of the era such as Clarence Mackay"s, Roslyn mansion " Harbor Hill" where the Prince of Wales was entertained at a party befitting the Great Gatsby will be seen.

Please call the Three Village Historical Society to make reservations.The lecture will be given at the Emma S. Clark Memorial Library's Community Room, 120 Main Street, Setauket, New York. Cost is free and open to the public. 631.751.3730.

For future showings of this talk and others about the Mansions of the Gilded Age, please come back and look for further notices  or contact me Gary Lawrance, AIA at my email gmlawrance@gmail.com to book for Historical Societies, Garden Societies, Libraries, Clubs and organizations.

A partial list follows,

" Gardens of the Gilded Age"
" Gatsby's Mansions"
" Gilded Age Gardens of the Hamptons"
" Houses of the Hamptons, 1880-1930"
" Lost Houses of the Gilded Age"
" Lost Houses of the Hamptons" 
" The Lost Mansions of Newport"
" Mrs. Astor's Fifth Avenue, Secret Splendors of   the Gilded Age"
" Whitemarsh Hall, America's Lost Versailles"

Long Island North Shore Society

Click HERE to read a great article from the July 22, 1946 issue of Life magazine. See cover of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and then go to page 73 for story.

Mrs. Drexel Dahlgren Residence Champ Soleil, Newport, RI

 

 

Champ Soleil, located on Bellevue Avenue, Newport's most fashionable street was  built in 1929 for Lucy Drexel Dahlgren and is one of the last great houses to be erected towards the end of Newport's golden age. Lucy Drexel Dahlgren was the granddaughter of Joseph W. Drexel, of Drexel & Company, Philadelphia. The 1929 home was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Polhemus & Coffin and was inspired by the hunting lodge at Versailles called La Lanterne.
The second owner was Roberta & Robert Goelet, who had the house enlarged and decorated by the famed french decorating firm Maison Jansen. The estate was later owned by Russell B. Aitken and his wife Annie Laurie Aitken. Mrs. Aitken was the mother of Martha "Sunny" Von Bulow , who had  a home down the avenue named Clarendon Court. Clarendon Court unfortunately received much attention during the 1980s when Sunny fell into a coma at the house, which lead to a sensational court case evolving around her husband, Claus Von Bulow. 

Click HERE  and go to page 145 to read  and see more photographs of  the house during the Goelet ownership in "Jansen", by James Archer Abbott, Acanthus Press 2006

Links to more on Champ Soleil
Things That Inspire

Second Floor Master Bedroom The William A. Salomon Townhouse at 1020 fifth Avenue & 83rd Street

Click HERE to see the Entrance Hall.
Click HERE to see the Facade and Ground Floor Rooms

Gilded Age Society

Here are a few of my favorite books about high society. The mansions of the gilded age weren't just built to be lived in,  but to be used as vehicles for social impression and standing. When Alva Vanderbilt wanted to break into the 400 of New York Society, she constructed her chateau at 660 Fifth Avenue. All of society was abuzz about it and legend has it, that Caroline Astor's daughter Carrie was practicing a dance to be preformed  at the housewarming party when Alva Vanderbilt, informed her that she wouldn't be able to attend, since her mother, The Mrs. Astor had never called upon Mrs. Vanderbilt. Carrie supposedly went home and cried to her mother that she couldn't miss the event of the season. Mrs.Astor, who still felt the Vanderbilt's were nouveau riche, decided that maybe the time had come for the Vanderbilts to enter the "400". Story has it that she got in her carriage and drove up Fifth Avenue and left her calling card for Mrs. Vanderbilt. One hour after , the last of the invitations to Alva's ball arrived at Mrs. Astors townhouse.This and many other of the great stories of the Gilded Age  are told in these wonderful books.

Great Houses of New York, 1880-1930

Click HERE to read the chapter on 66o Fifth Avenue from Great houses of New York  

The saga of American society;: A record of social aspiration, 1607-1937 

Click HERE to read online.

Society As I Have Found It 

Click HERE to read online.







Peacocks On Parade
Click HERE to read on Google books.

Who Killed Society?

King Lehr and the Gilded Age

Click HERE to read about Harry & Elizabeth Lehr on The Down East Dilettante





Links to more Harry & Elizabeth Lehr

Harry Lehr
Elizabeth Lehr
Portrait of Lady Decies by Giovanni Boldini & Biography