"Before Bagatelle"

Before building "Bagatelle" in Old Westbury Architect Thomas Hastings leased and altered this Port Washington, L. I. house.

The Colonial spirit preserved with remarkable success

"The house at Port Washington belongs to Congressman William Bourke Cockran("The Cedars"). It was leased for a term of years by Mr. Hastings who altered and added to it to suit his own ideas. This alteration cost about $10,000 - nearly as much as the cost of a new house. But Mr. Hastings has something which he could never get in any new house. It possesses that atmosphere of settled quiet that gathers about old things, while in fact it is hale, hearty and strong. There are charms in the Colonial porch, the broad dormers and the curve of the roof line which are matters of skillful design, but the house owes most to the splendid way in which the new has been added to the old."


Text from Country Life, 1906.


Two gatehouses(the sauce) survive  from the Cockran estate but I've yet to find this house.