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| Built to last down the ages, they are as permanent a part of the landscape as the lordly homes they guard or the trees themselves. |
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| But the charming little gate lodge pictured here is not—although it might well be—in England. |
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| It is the gate keeper's lodge at "Inisfada", the country home of Nicholas F. Brady, Esq., at Roslyn, Long Island. |
Follow THIS LINK for more on the gate lodge of "Inisfada".
This incredibly charming gatehouse was supposedly saved and moved when the Jesuits first developed the estate, selling off the acreage and surrounding the mansion with hundreds of townhouses, but no reference of its relocation or rebuilding has ever been confirmed. The Jesuits completed the total destruction of the magnificent Inisfada estate a few years ago with the help of an ignorant Mayor and incompetent Town Board of North Hills along with the greedy head of the New York Jesuit Church and a close-minded developer. NYarch
ReplyDeleteTrue, this gatehouse was saved by heroically preservation minded persons who had the means to carefully dismantle it and keep the disassembled parts in storage until a buyer could be found. Sale announcements appeared in print a few times over the years but its fate is unknown to those in the small circle I travel in.
ReplyDeleteThe decision to erase from existence the great-house at 'Inisfada' after 95 years is a trickier call, though I can understand people feeling infuriated and bewildered by it. I believe it has everything to do with a visitor who arrived there in 1936 and 3 years later became ambassador, and head of state of his country, Vatican City. Hugely more importantly he became what believing Catholics acknowledge as the apostolic successor to Saint Peter. So, for the same reason that if a pope of the Catholic church travels beyond Vatican City walls for a length of time requiring overnight accommodation he can not stay at even a 5 star hotel. It would have been an indignity not to be contemplated to one day see a bronze placard at the entrance which reads "Pope Pius XII Slept Here". If there's a lesson here it might be that Popes may be hazardous to the life of some buildings. (Winks)