"Rosemary Farm"

"ROSEMARY - THAT'S FOR REMEMBRANCE": AND ROSEMARY FARM, THAT'S FOR LOVE AND MEMORY, TOO. ***unknown author - 1918***


THE most intangible and lovable quality about a country place is atmosphere, that air of charm and accrued memories which cannot be bought or built. It is usually the fruition of the years, an amalgam of nature and art and time. All along the shores of Long Island are coming into being great houses
beautiful grounds which a century hence may have
achieved atmosphere, but which today proclaim only the affluence and taste of their owners. The earth has not welded them to herself, they rest lightly on the ground, suns and storms have not mellowed their color, and birth, and death, and living have not yet made of them homes. The man who desires a mansion can secure one by the combination of a big architect and a big purse; but the man who desires to put into outward expression his ideal of home and hospitality must put himself into the job of home making from its inception to the end of his life.


The architect and the landscape artist have to be wary to keep man and his abode from being an intrusion on the landscape, and the larger the house the greater is the skill needed to weld the sophistication of our growing elegance with the gracious simplicities of nature. When a man marries himself to the land, he needs to feel a touch of the same glamour with which he marries his wife, and that will make the growth of a comely home a romance.

***"Rosemary Farm" Roland Conklin Estate - Huntington, NY - Circa 1924***

SOME forty miles from New York, there is such a place called Rosemary Farm, a Long Island estate of several hundred acres where beautiful things have been happening during the past decade. There were hills and lakes and woods and sea to begin with, and on the place Mr. Roland Ray Conklin found a little preRevolutionary farm house, clinging to the highway, as homes did when men were so scarce that every touch of human contact was desired. Just enough modern comfort was added to this farm house to make a living place for his family, while Mr. Conklin built the long red brick residence which tops the loveliest of his hills, commanding the wondrous Cold Spring Harbor, which looks like a Norwegian fiord in the low light of afternoon. Directly opposite are the beguiling involutions of Oyster Bay, while to the right a great sweep of the waters of the Sound meet the Connecticut Hills weaving into a blue horizon. From the living rooms and the terrace the pageant of the sunset crowns the day, while twilight comes first in the great cedars which sentinel the Open-Air Theatre set within a cleft between the house and the sea.

***Open-Air Theatre - "Rosemary Farm"  Roland Conklin Estate***   

This theatre is perhaps the keynote of Rosemary, for the host finds even his big house so inadequate to satisfy his joy in sharing his acres, that he has built for the use of America this lovely amphitheater, which accommodates itself so fraternally with the place that there is no sense of intrusion. It never looks empty, and even at midnight, when Pelleas and Melisande, its two guardian swans, abandon their vigil in sleep, you can almost see Pan leave his stony base and call his people from the woods beyond the stage.

Brooding over the amphitheatre is a balustraded terrace, and beyond that the water front of the house, mellow with soft bricks and huge, adzed oak timbers. Numerous sleeping porches cling to its sides, without destroying the vigorous simplicity of its lines. The garden front has a more intimate overhanging quality, the great roof line in the center sweeping down to the mezzanine floor supported by carved caryatides. Vines have climbed to the gable tops, and the hedges are now man high. 

WHITE MARBLE DOORWAY BROUGHT OVER FROM ITALY SETS THE TONE FOR THE LUXURIANCE OF THE INSIDE OF THE HOUSE: WROUGHT IRON GATES AND CARVING OVER THE DOORWAY ARE UNUSUALLY FINE.

The hospitable front door has a way of standing open even after Jack Frost pushes his way in, and through the reception hall comes the glow of immense logs whenever there is the slightest excuse to keep the hearth fires burning. The visitor gets an instant impression of dignity, beauty and homelikeness, but there is still another joy for the trained eye, which welcomes the realization that the ornament is constructive, not applied. 

THE HALL AT ROSEMARY FARM WITH THE ORGAN IN THE DISTANCE: THE SPACE MADE BEAUTIFUL WITH RARE SPANISH ANTIQUE FURNITURE AND  RICH  POLYCHROME  LIGHTING FIXTURES.

The carved figures on the arches and the stairway are part of the structural beams, and as one glances through the rooms, opening one from another, one realizes that all the richness expresses something inherent.

A CLOSE VIEW OF THE ORGAN IN ONE END OF THE LIBRARYAT ROSEMARY FARM.

The living hall has a fine organ whose golden pipes blend with the dim, mysterious gorgeousness of the Panels of the Wise Men which line the walls. This organ once cast an aureate(gold) glow over the choir of an old Portuguese church. The room is lit by a lovely old metal lampidere colored in polychrome, which used to carry little lamps of oil above a high altar.


There is an Hispano-Moresque Cabinet of walnut, ivory and gold, chairs from an old Venetian palace, Russian brass, and other lares from far lands, which nevertheless blend so unobtrusively and quietly that they do not call the eye until after a full realization of the comfort and welcome of the room. 

A LIBRARY IN THE CONKLIN HOME ON LONG ISLAND N. Y. - DESIGNED AND EXECUTED UNDER THE HOGGSON BUILDING METHOD.

Beyond is the library, where upon the ceiling is woven a cunning design of arabesques, in the middle of each the symbol of one of the ancient formlers whose press assisted in the evolution of books.

ROOM OF THE ROLAND CONKLIN HOUSE, REMODELLED BY HOGGSON BROTHERS. FURNISHED WITH SPANISH LEATHER CHEST, CARVED  CABINETS  AND QUEEN  ANNE CHAIRS.

In the owner's study are many beautiful specimens of bindings from the Kelmscott and Dove presses. Toward the east is the music room, panelled in grey and hung in soft blue. This room is also a theatre, having stage curtain and footlights. Beyond is the conservatory, paned in Welsh quarries and banked on three sides with masses of blooming plants, which change from month to month in color and form. On the fourth side is a tile-lined pool with mosses and ferns banked above it.

THE FIREPLACE IN THE DINING ROOM AT ROSEMARY FARM.

On the western side of the house are the dining room and breakfast room, the former with an impressive old Italian mantel, tapestries, and chairs made from the choir stalls of a Mediaeval French church. Twisted Venetian columns divide this from the breakfast room; through a hexagon of glass is seen the beauties of the waterways and the distant shores of lovely contour.


The circular dining table has a magic quality of growth, for the number of diners at this elastic board is generally an unknown quantity, since motorists dropping in for a five minute call have a way of still being there the following morning for breakfast. All the impediments you have left at home appear waiting for you in your room, and so friendly is this stately house that you conclude it matters little what you wear. If you are fortunate you may happen upon a Rosemary dinner, which means a meal provided entirely by the host, if we conscientiously exclude the salt. Oysters and clams grow on his shores, bread comes from his fields, fish from the bay, meat and game from his flocks, mushrooms, vegetables and fruits from his farm, sugar from his Cuban plantation, cream from his herds, and wine and liquors from his vineyards. There is even a Rosemary cocktail containing a sprig of Rosemary, and of a secret brew we none of us know, and lastly nut trees in a sheltered ravine, coaxed and sheltered to feel themselves near the tropics.

A FLEMISH BED IN MASTER'S BEDROOM WITH RARE LACE COUNTERPANE BROUGHT FROM THE OLD WORLD AND A LANTERN BROUGIIT OVER FROM AN OLD WORLD CASTLE.

I remember seeing at Rosemary the full rose-tinted cups of seven thousand peach tree blossoms each holding in its corolla a rounded mound of snow. There were gray clouds, and gray stems to make an exquisite background for this Chinese acquerella, shimmering and silvery and roseate, but September saw very few peaches.


There is much still to be done at Rosemary, its owner has great dreams and plans for coaxing it to develop further allurements, but it has already achieved that entrancing quality - atmosphere. This is a place you do not forget, a haven well named, "Rosemary, that's for remembrance."


Vacant for many years house burned on December 27, 1990. Click HERE to see remains of "Rosemary Farm" at wikimapia. Follow additional links to Bing Maps and Historic Aerials from 1953 showing house still standing.  


Learn more about Roland Conklin and "Rosemary Farm" by visiting oldlonisland.com. Find-A-Grave site for Roland Ray Conklin.


The Hoggson Building Method.