THE ORIGINAL "WINFIELD HALL"

Hyde, E. B. Atlas of Nassau County, Long Island. 1914

   The North Country Colony was formed in 1893. It was a deliberately exclusive residential enclave whose large estates were protected by restrictive covenants enforced by the officers of the North Country Company. Their jurisdiction covered water front properties to the west of North Country Colony. 

   In 1900 C. P. H. Gilbert, the favored architect of the Gold Coast "colonists", built this Mediterranean-style villa for Alexander C. Humphrey. It was then sold to Emmett Queen, a Pittsburgh banker, in 1906 and in turn to F. W. Woolworth in 1914.   

GARAGE TOWER, "WINFIELD HALL"

The driveway to the garage tower with its tiled roof and clock blended into the sixteen acre estate with its grand hedges over walls and the sculpted pebble driveway with the grand trees.

STABLE, AT THE RESIDENCE OF EMMETT QUEEN, GLEN COVE, L. I. 

C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect 

GARAGE & STABLE, "WINFIELD HALL"

The garage had a built in turn-table for Woolworth's car to spin around on for driving directly out.

 GREENHOUSE & GARAGE, "WINFIELD HALL"
 Above is the greenhouse and garage with a clock tower and a series of apartments for servants.

CUTTING & VEGETABLE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL"

SOUTH FRONT, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I. 
C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

QUEEN ESTATE
Large Norway Maples supplied and moved by Isaac Hicks & Son for Mr Emmett Queen, three years before this photograph was taken in 1911.

SOUTHWEST FRONT, "WINFIELD HALL"

FOUNTAIN, RESIDENCE, "WINFIELD HALL"

"WINFIELD HALL"
One of the first Mediterranean villa-style residences in the New York area, the house balanced Spanish and Renaissance details to create a formal, symmetrical villa. 

"WINFIELD HALL"
The walls were of rough-cast stucco over brick, and the red-tiled roof featured pyramidal gables at each end, with heavily trimmed segmental-headed dormers over the end pavilions and pyramid-capped dormers flanking the baroque scrolled pediment at the center of the main facade.

SOUTHEAST FRONT, "WINFIELD HALL" 

"WINFIELD HALL"
Within the formal volume of the house, outdoor rooms, some sheltered and some open to the sun, let the sun and breeze into the house in a dozen places.

NORTH FRONT, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I. 

C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL" 
 Above is the formal rose garden on the north side of "Winfield Hall" facing Long Island Sound and golf course the Woolworth family enjoyed. 

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL" 

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL" 

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL" 

ROSE GARDEN, "WINFIELD HALL" 

HALL, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I. 

C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect 

ENTRANCE HALL,  "WINFIELD HALL" 
Above is the entrance hall to "Winfield Hall" in 1916, with carved mahogany walls and woodwork of fluted crowned columns decorated with Renaissance chairs flanking the main entrance with Persian rugs and ornate fire-irons resting in front of the mantel on the left side. To the right on the flocked brocade paper is a photograph of the Woolworth building in New York City.
To the right is the south end of the entrance hall with its paneled walls flocked paper and the staircase with its impressive moldings. Several nineteenth century French oil paintings adorn the mantel and coved panned wall with Persian prayer rugs draped over the railing reflects the ideals of the Edwardian age. To the right is the entrance to the Music room with its Renaissance furnishings and grandfather clock.

ENTRANCE HALL, "WINFIELD HALL" 
The north end of the entrance hall with its rich paneled walls, mantel, and staircase is decorated with nineteenth century French and American oil paintings and a Persian prayer rug is draped over the railing with the grand light fixtures, which reflects the ideals of the Edwardian age of grand comfort.

ENTRANCE HALL. "WINFIELD HALL" 
Above is the south end of the entrance hall with its paneled walls flocked paper holding a drawing of the Woolworth Buildings above the renaissance table of flowers. The grandfather clock between the fluted columns and the armed renaissance chair flank the front door entrance.

DINING ROOM, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I. 

C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

DINNING ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL" 
Above is the formal dining room designed by Jennie Woolworth, with its hand-painted, imported Zuber French mural wall coverings. The walls are papered by a wall covering whose pear-wood hand-carved wood block printed papers date back 200 years. The design process takes over one year to produce and requires 20 artisans to engrave heavy wood-blocks with specific details of the panorama. Over 1,500 wood blocks go into each single mural. The mahogany dining table and chairs are Chippendale and the entrance on the left in the dining room leads to the conservatory breakfast room.

DRAWING ROOM & MUSIC ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL" 
Above is the formal drawing room and music room of "Winfield Hall', which consists of Renaissance furnishings, Persian carpets, crystal vases, and nineteenth century French and American oil painting's. The ornate carved mahogany mantel holds the famous Woolworth clock. Wall sconces flank the paneled alcove.

DRAWING ROOM & MUSIC ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL" 
Above is the organ and Renaissance furnishings in the drawing room, music room of "Winfield Hall". The paneled wall with the draped windows face south to the main entrance and belvedere leading to the mansion. The paneled grill wall behind the crystal lamps contains part of the sound system of organ pipes for the organ.

CONSERVATORY BREAKFAST ROOM, "WINFIELD HALL" 
Facing north on Long Island Sound is the Woolworth conservatory breakfast room in "Winfield Hall". 

PIAZZA, "WINFIELD HALL" 
Above is the piazza at the east end of "Winfield Hall" that offered a view of the rose garden and Long Island Sound to the north. 

SLEEPING PORCH, "WINFIELD HALL"

FIRST FLOOR PLAN, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I. 

C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

SECOND FLOOR PLAN, RESIDENCE, A. C. HUMPHREYS, GLEN COVE, L. I. 

C. P. H. Gilbert, Architect

   On November 11, 1916, Frank and Jenny Woolworth stood in shock as their stately mansion had burned to the ground. The flaming inferno began with the antiquated electrical wiring on the third floor. This allowed the servants to save some of the nineteenth century French, English, and America paintings on the first floor, along with Jennie's jewelry, the Woolworth clock in the drawing room, and some of the porcelain china in the dining room. What remained were the vast garage, green houses, and clock tower to the grand estate.

   Woolworth already had plans of rebuilding a new "Winfield Hall" with $10,000,000 in cash.

Follow THIS LINK for a post on the construction of the new "Winfield Hall".

Frank Winfield Woolworth's New York City Townhouse

"C. P. H. Gilbert is at work on plans for an elaborate residence to be built for Mr. F. W. Woolworth on the corner of 80th Street and Fifth Avenue. It will be semi-fire-proof and faced with brick and stone; cost, about $90,000." Brickbuilder, 1899.

 At the north corner of 80th and Fifth Avenue Frank Winfield Woolworth  retained  architect Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert to design his new townhouse. It was completed in 1901.

For Woolworth, Gilbert designed a house with a lacy roof line with intricate copper roof cresting and crocketed chimneys and elaborately decorated dormers. 

The critic Montgomery Schuyler praised the Woolworth house for its “restfulness and solidity.” - 

"In point of quietness, the next house, the house at the corner of Eightieth, with its longer front on that street, is also exemplary. It is true that the designer of a corner house has the advantage, as we have just seen in another instance, that he need not disturb his basement with the entrance, which is the principal trouble of the designer of narrow fronts, but can keep it unbroken as a support and basis. But this designer has made the most of that advantage, and his shallow three-sided bay looks broad and reposeful. The detail is, perhaps, a little underdone in scale, and thus lacks emphasis and tends to flatness, especially in comparison with its neighbor, in which the scale is perhaps a little excessive. But this detail is so good in itself, and so thoroughly studied as to make the recklessness of much we have been looking at all the more evident. On the long front, too, the wall is of a grateful restfulness and solidity, while the design and distribution of the dormers and chimneys animate the sky line and prevent the quietness from becoming monotonous." SOURCE

RESIDENCE F. W. WOOLWORTH, FIFTH AVENUE AND EIGHTIETH STREET, NEW YORK

ENTRANCE, RESIDENCE F. W. WOOLWORTH, FIFTH AVENUE AND EIGHTIETH STREET, NEW YORK 

GROUND FLOOR PLAN, RESIDENCE F. W. WOOLWORTH, FIFTH AVENUE AND EIGHTIETH STREET, NEW YORK

FIRST STORY PLAN, RESIDENCE F. W. WOOLWORTH, FIFTH AVENUE AND EIGHTIETH STREET, NEW YORK

MUSIC ROOM, RESIDENCE F. W. WOOLWORTH, FIFTH AVENUE AND EIGHTIETH STREET, NEW YORK

In his memoir, “The Towers of New York”  the builder of Woolworth's mansion Louis J. Horowitz  recalled visiting Woolworth at the house, and watching him play the pipe organ. He said that Woolworth “told me that this playing gave him exquisite pleasure; when he was tired or vexed he would play for hours, not stopping until he was relaxed and easy in his mind.” 

SECOND FLOOR PLAN, RESIDENCE F. W. WOOLWORTH, FIFTH AVENUE AND EIGHTIETH STREET, NEW YORK

In the 1920s, Woolworth’s mansion was demolished for the apartment building at 990 Fifth Avenue.

Before he died(1919) F. W. Woolworth was planing, with Gilbert a new home with a footprint taking a whole city block.