Hoffstott Residence at Sands Point with view of the Bayard Swope estate beyond. The Hoffstott estate is no longer extant, except for some retaining walls. Click HERE for Google Map
Beacon Towers, Sands Point home of Alva Belmont. Click HERE for a Sound-side view of Beacon Towers.
4 comments:
The American fairy tale castle. Can you imagine being on a boat far away and seeing this wonder for the first time? What a sight!
i take it the hoffstott estate was a long narrow plot and thats why it didn't face the water. i mean you could go up to the butlers bathroom and see it but that would be a little inconvenient. or is there more water in the foreground that we can't see?
security word def - "sotabses" - looked for a sore spot
second security word def - "untrea" - sicilian for getting your kitty out of a high place
Yes, the lot was long, going east to west. One would think that the architect would site the house to take advantage of the Long Island Sound, but many times, gardens took precedence.
I will try to include a map view soon.
Thought your readers might be interested in some Belmont/Hearst trivia.
Alva Belmont built Beacon Towers in Sands Point after selling her East Meadow estate Brookholt. As president of the National Woman's Party, Alva ran the organization from Beacon Towers and later purchased what became known as the Seawall-Belmont House in Washington, DC, for use as the organization's headquarters.
The statue shown at the bottom of the Beacon Tower's staircase was donated to the museum by Alva's daughter Consuelo Balsan, who resided at Old Fields in East Norwich, Gardenside in Southampton, and in Palm Beach, Florida.
Beacon Towers was sold to William Randolph Hearst who renamed it St. Joan. His wife Millicent and their children resided at St. Joan while he and Marion Davies were partying at San Simeon. Hearst failed to meet his mortgage payments and in 1940 forfeited St. Joan to the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn. In 1943 the bank sold St. Joan to Edmund G. Burke, a real estate developer who demolished the house to make way for a housing development. Millicent took charge of the Hearst financial empire, restored it to solvency, and relocated to Milhurst in Southampton. A former professional dancer, Millicent enjoyed helping young women get started in show business. In an ironic turn, some fifteen years after her marriage to Hearst, she gave a helping hand to Cecilia Douras, a young girl appearing in "The Ziegfeld Follies." Douras' stage name was Marion Davies.
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