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THE OLD COW BAY MANOR, PORT WASHINGTON, L. I. NOW THE RESIDENCE OF ADDISON C. MIZNER, ARCHITECT.
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In 1910 Mizner had restored and altered a Colonial clapboard house. The Old Cow Day Manor Houce, at Whitestone Landing near Port Washington, Long Island for his own residence. An early article on the house in Architectural Record is most revealing, for although Mizner made alterations to the building he had respect for its historical place in American architectural design.
The original portion of the house dated from 1673 with additions in 1795, 1812 and in 1910 by Mizner who did not touch the old portions of the house, retaining its neo-classical front door, its wainscotted dining room, and its formal stair set in a narrow hall. He added a kitchen and a pantry and extended the front porch to three times its original width while keeping the old columns and their capitals in a portico effect.
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ENTRANCE DETAIL—RESIDENCE OF ADDISON C. MIZNER, ARCHITECT. PORT WASHINGTON, L. I. THE DOORWAY WAS BUILT IN 1812.
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Addison remodeled his home for himself, a private museum for his relics, and a zoo for various pets he had. He soon had a flourishing truck garden and kennels with forty or fifty chows. He lived there most of the time, commuting to a studio he had set up in New York.
Addison established a modest practice as a landscape architect on Long Island. He was noted for his Japanese landscapes, with dwarf trees among midget mountains and pygmy rivers.
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THE LOW PART OF THE HOUSE WAS BUILT IN 1673. AND THE "NEW" PART IN 1795. ALTHOUGH THE DOORWAY WAS NOT PUT IN PLAGE UNTIL 1812. ORIGINALLY, THE PORCH HAD A RAILING AND WOODEN FLOOR. THESE WERE REMOVED BY MR MIZNER, WHO ADDED THE TERRACE. WHICH IS EIGHTEEN FEET WIDE, OR THREE TIMES THE WIDTH OF THE ORIGINAL PORCH.
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The architect was a puzzle to his neighbors. He startled them by shopping in his dressing gown and sometimes in his pajamas. Now and then, the town was kept awake until 3 or 4 a.m. by frightful uproars in his house, and he was thought to have been entertaining the riffraff of Hell's Kitchen until the local newspaper came out with a list of the guests, most of them from the higher echelons of the Social Register.
The First World War ruined Addison's practice. Late in 1916, he was broke and a very sick man, with necrosis of the bone resulting from an old leg trouble and with other serious ailments. Phelan Beale, a lawyer, went to Port Washington to see what could be done. He saved Addison's house from his creditors by organizing a corporation to take it over. Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont(formerly Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt), Jules Bache, and several others bought bonds of the corporation in the belief that they were doing charity under the guise of business, but the property was later sold at a good figure and the bonds were paid off. Through this deal, Beale raised about twelve thousand dollars for Addison. Fully expecting to die in the near future, Addison planned to spend his last days in Antigua, Guatemala, which he considered the most beautiful spot on earth, but friends persuaded him that he would be better off in Palm Beach. There he began his great career.
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| DINING ROOM—RESIDENCE OF ADDISON C. MIZNER, ARCHITECT, PORT WASHINGTON, L. I. THE HESSIANS USED THIS PART OF THE HOUSE AS THEIR HEADQUARTERS DURING THE BATTLES OF THE LONG ISLAND. |
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| "CHATEAU MYCENAE" |
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| FLOOR PLANS—THE OLD COW BAY MANOR HOUSE, NOW THE RESIDENCE OF ADDISON C. MIZNER, ARCHITECT, PORT WASHINGTON, L. I. THE DATES ON THE FIRST FLOOR PLAN GrVE THE YEAR OF ERECTION OF DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BUILDING. |
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| SURVEY OF THE OLD COW BAY MANOR, PORT WASHINGTON, L. I. MADE IN 1748 TO DECIDE A BOUNDARY DISPUTE. |
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HALLWAY RESIDENCE OF ADDISON C. MIZNER, ARCHITECT,
PORT WASHINGTON, L. I. THE PLASTERING OF THE HALL IS COLORED TO REPRESENT GRAY AND WHITE MARBLE. THE NATIVES SAY IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED BY RUBBING GUNPOWDER INTO THE ROUGH-FINISHED PLASTER. |
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