"LA SELVA" The Residence of Henry Sanderson, Esq. at Oyster Bay, Long Island

"LA SELVA"  meaning THE FOREST or WOOD

Henry Sanderson 1868-1934

   "La Selva" is an Italian Renaissance mansion designed by Joseph Hunt of the architectural firm of Hunt & Hunt for investor Henry Sanderson. According to his early Bio,  Sanderson lived in Locust Point, N. J. and had a townhouse at 130 East Sixty Seventh Street in New York City(now location of a Charles Platt designed apartment building c. 1907) before building in Oyster Bay. Married three times it was his second wife, Elizabeth Fairchild of New Orleans, who he built "La Sleva" for. In 1915 during the planing and construction the Sanderson's leased "Sunset House" from George Thebaud Maxwell. Historical tidbit - "La Sleva's" phone number was -100- in 1919. 

Frederick Seymour Wheeler 1861-1936

     Frederick S. Wheeler, the president of American Can Company purchased the mansion from the Sanderson’s in 1927. He renamed estate "Delwood".  In 1960 Mrs. Wheeler sold the property, mansion and all out buildings on the 25 acres to the Glen Cove Hospital. It was then sold in 1960 to the Catholic Church, who maintained it as the Franciscan Monastery and Retreat House.

   House next went to Sylvia Kumar, wife of imprisoned former Computer Associates chief Sanjay Kumar. Sanjay Kumar was ordered by a federal judge to pay back $798 million to shareholders after he pleaded guilty to securities fraud. The home was bought(conveniently) by Sylvia Kumar from St. Francis Monastery for $6.75 million in 2001. The plan was to refurbish the property and allow public charitable functions to be held. Listed again in 2009 at $17 million then went to $14.5 million, dropped below $10 million before finally selling in 2012 for $7.25 million. It was feared property would be subdivided. Upkeep reported to be  $20,000 a month for taxes and staff.

  During 2009 Mansion & Millionaires held their annual Designer Showcase. Most of the following color photos are from this time period or before. Some during the ownership by Kumar others just after St. Francis vacated. Interspersed with the  black and white photos are beautiful glass lantern slides from 1930.   

"La Selva" HENRY SANDERSON, Long island, Upper Brookville/Oyster Bay, N. Y.
The approach to the mansion wanders through a cluster of pine trees and ends in front of the
mansion

"La Selva" HENRY SANDERSON, Long island, Upper Brookville/Oyster Bay, N. Y.
Within the interiors are extraordinary works of art where craftsmen from Europe and the United States detailed the rooms with carvings, intricate plaster ceilings, delicate iron grillwork and rare stone embossing. The philosophy of eclecticism practiced by the original owners in the design of this estate (the belief that one could create a new whole by bringing together fragments from other times and places) is true elegance at its zenith 

Aerial view - NOTE the skylight that provides illumination to the domed stair hall

The house, as its name would intimate, is pure Italian in character. Like all Italian villas, it is of stone and steel covered
with stucco and is built long and rambling, with a tile roof colored as though covered with lichens and low in pitch. Although not yet five years old, the house has already acquired a rare atmosphere of age and quiet

The house is approached by a broad circular-forecourt. The stucco has a pebble-dash finish

Front approach to house - Butterfly or open-arms design

Matured landscape

Panoramic view

Designer Showcase 2009

Front entrance

Entrance detail

Silver door-knocker

Vaulted ceiling vestibule 

  From the vestibule, across an expansive hallway to the loggia, each room defines detail and drama and contains many artifacts centuries old

The vista from this loggia is especially pleasing.   One looks along a tapis vert (shown below) to a fountain whose jet of water is thrown high against a background of surrounding columns overhung with wisteria

Wrought iron screen with the estates grapevine motif 

During the Kumar ownership

Designer Showcase 2009

Outdoor terrace - Designer Showcase 2009

Seating area - Designer Showcase 2009

Steps to the tapis vert

View from the fountain between columns topped by merman and mermaid figures, along the tapis vert to the house

Clematis borders the tapis vert - glass lantern slide 1930

Wisteria in full bloom - glass lantern slide 1930

View into Roman cirque - 1915

Tapis Vert - 2003

From the Olmsted files - model showing formal garden, tapis vert and Roman cirque - 1915

The view in 2009

Merman and Mermaid

The Roman cirque - TOO shady for wisteria to bloom

  Past this cirque is a walled vegetable garden and an orchard of espaliered fruit trees. Flowers from the walled garden filled the  200 vases that were changed each day throughout the house.

The walled garden is entered through an ornamental iron gate decorated with a lifelike grapevine motif

Ornamental iron gate decorated with the etsates grapevine motif

ABOVE the loggia, overlooking a delightful bit of garden, Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson have their breakfast each fine morning

Mrs. Sanderson's bedroom terrace above the loggia

Designer Showcase 2009

View from bedroom terrace showing the well-worn  tapis vert

View from bedroom terrace - 

This view is taken from the edge of the pool that forms the centre of a delightful little water garden. The richness of color of the various blooms makes it look as though some artist's palette had suddenly become animate

Spring time at "Dellwood" - Glass lantern slide 1930

Spring time at "Dellwood" - Glass lantern slide 1930

  Garden and house tours were common events at "La Selva' and "Delwood".  Alex Sheriffs  was superintendent for Sanderson from the beginning of 1915, continued  with Wheeler, and then  stayed with the Franciscans as superintendent and later as resident until he died in the mid-1980's. His stewardship on the Olmsted Brothers designed property still can be seen today. Lewis & Valentine installed the plantings. 

Formal garden during the Kumar ownership

  

View to corner loggia,during the Kumar ownership

Corner loggia during the Kumar ownership

Corner loggia seen in above B\W photo

Corner loggia - Designer Showcase 2009

Formal garden - 2009

Formal garden  - 2009

Raised seating area overlooking formal garden and pool - 2009

Bench in formal garden

North-east side or library side - 2009

Terrace off loggia

Terrace off loggia

North west or dining room side

A deeply overhanging roof of reddish-brown terra-cotta tiles.

Back of house - 1915

Back of house - 2009

On each side of the lawn terrain sharply slopes to the forest edge below

   On the sloping ground beyond the balustrade enclosing the flower garden are the informal gardens: the rhododendron walk and heather garden and below these an open glade. On the far side of the house is a wide lawn.

The rhododendron walk and heather garden - Glass lantern slide 1930

    According to Monica Randall - " Gardens were ablaze with colorful orange, red and pink azalea bushes, dogwood trees, and 20,000 daffodils that were planted along one sloping lawn." 

Northwest or dining room side. Servants wing on the left

A closer view

Entrance into service court

The living room is a magnificently proportioned room, and its furnishings are quite in accord with its vast size. Carved ceiling beams are an unusual note as are the chandeliers, brought from Italy by the late Stanford White. The treatment of the walls, covered by tapestries at the far end of the room, is interesting in that they converge toward the doorway, instead of being at a right angle to the side walls

Empty

Designer Showcase 2009 

Living room - Designer Showcase 2009

The dining room is typical of the best of the old palaces of Italy. The floor is of dark Levanto marble, while the walls have a faint design in color worked into their rough finish. More than forty coats were applied in order to achieve the present satisfactory tone of the walls. The paintings above the doorway on either side of the fireplace are recessed and come from an old palace in Florence

    In the dining room are a pair of hand-carved 15th century Italian oak doors depicting mythological scenes, armorials, griffins and lions. 

Empty - painted panels over the doors are gone???

Designer Showcase 2009 

From the 2009 show - original embed painting intact

Designer Showcase 2009 

Side room off dining room - this room in turn connects to the bayed morning room
Designer Showcase 2009 

Bayed-morning room with an ornate plaster relief vaulted ceiling

   In the breakfast room is a domed plaster filigree ceiling in the classic mode.

The circular hall with its winding stair is perhaps the focal point of the house. The softness of the color of the travertine walls, the grace of the curve of the self-supporting staircase, and the delicacy of the wrought iron rail and door make a picture difficult to describe. The tapestry hanging above the stairs is from the Morgan Collection; it represents Emperor Otho's Judgment and dates about 1495. It hung for 300 years at Knole Castle in Kent. The diameter of the well is twenty-five feet and it extends almost to the roof.   The hallway is topped by a circular dome of plate glass of cerulean blue which is nine feet in diameter

Designer Showcase 2009 

   One of the most memorable sights on the interior is the main rotunda stair-hall, a circular space of over two stories with an outstanding sweeping curved staircase of stone. Delicate ironwork spirals along the edge of this sculptural centerpiece of the mansion. A sunken living room only a few steps down creates additional architectural interest. The original furnishings were artifacts from the early Italian Renaissance. The floors are exquisitely paved in marble 

patterns with a special red Levanto marble installed as a border in the dining hall.

During the Kumar ownership 

The circular hall

  The mansion has a domed rotunda with a winding travertine staircase.

 Circular dome of plate glass of cerulean blue which is nine feet in diameter

In the library, surrounded by examples of the old masters on the walls, one has perfect seclusion and quiet, for there is but one door to the room. The handles and locks for the doors, as well as all the ironwork in the house, are particularly noteworthy, having been especially designed. The rug is from the celebrated Salting Collection

During the Kumar ownership

The library - Designer Showcase 2009

The library - Designer Showcase 2009

Looking down the hallway from the entrance to the main circular stairway. The walls are of carved Yorkshire stone, especially imported from England. The choir stalls date from the fifteenth century and are from an old Italian church.    The rug is a splendid Ispahan

Opposite view - looking down hallway into reception room, main loggia on the left

View into circular hall

Detail of carving

Loggia  1915

Empty

Empty

Designer Showcase 2009 

Decorative panel - hallway into loggia

Designer Showcase 2009

  Many architecturally significant bedroom suites are on the second level.

Mrs. Sanderson's bedroom - Designer Showcase 2009

The mural in the bed alcove(in  hues of aqua, ochre, and green)  features a Chinese pavilion, mountains, and exotic birds original to the home’s 1915 decor. The technique used is called marouflage, a 3,000-year-old technique whereby artists adhesives were applied to both the wall and the canvas before adding paint.

I'm guessing - Mr. Sanderson's bedroom? Empty 

Redecorated for the 2009 show

Painted panel over doorway

  In 1928 the Olmsted firm returned to design a large oval swimming pool. 

 Oval swimming pool - 2003

Oval swimming pool - 2009

  The grounds are entered from the south and immediately to the left is a range of garages. To the right is a large walled vegetable garden with an intricate iron gate and espaliered fruit trees. 

Original stables and servant quarters - later converted for automobiles - 2003

Original stables and servant quarters - later converted for automobiles - 2003

Original stables and servant quarters - later converted for automobiles - 2003

Backside of the stables/garage complex - 2003

Superintendents house - 2003

Superintendents house - 2003

Greenhouse and potting shed with root cellar - 2003

Mrs. James Byrne  property owner in 1914. James Byrne owned the property across the street now occupied by "Coe Hall". Byrne's home was "A Country House of Character".

Henry Sanderson ownership 1927

Property owned by Charlotte Putnman Wheeler , widow of Frederick, 1939

Click HERE to see "La Selva" at wikimapia. BING. 

  The Sanderson family has connections to my area - James Reed Sanderson, first son of two from Henry's first wife, married Dorothy Dickinson, daughter of Albert G. Dickinson founder of  Grand Rapids Sticky Fly Paper Co. and Dickinson Brothers Inc. both still in business.

Still made today!