The estate comprises about 250 acres and is being developed by Mr. Ziegler into a fine race-horse breeding farm.
Since last March a small army of men has been at work, some of them on night shifts, getting the estate ready for Mr. Ziegler, and, as he desires to eat his Thanksgiving dinner in the remodeled mansion on Thursday, nearly 200 artisans were still engaged today putting the finishing touches to various parts of the estate.
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"BURRLAND HALL"
When William Ziegler, Jr. bought the property he hired New York architect William
Lawrence Bottomley to design a large addition to the house. Bottomley's addition transformed the house into a brick, Georgian Revival mansion with a full-height, Tuscan-columned portico. During the same period, Bottomley designed a Georgian Revival town house for Ziegler in New York City. Bottomley also designed the stable complex on the farm in a similar, Georgian Revival style. The Burrland house was deliberately gutted and burned down in 1961 by then-owner, Eleonora R. Sears of Boston, in an attempt to reduce her property taxes. |
According to all accounts of the day, by 1930 he had built Burrland into one of the best equipped stud farms on the Atlantic Seaboard. BOUNDING HOME, who captured the 1944 Belmont Stakes, was bred here. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ziegler maintained racing stables at Burrland, with colts racing in Mr. Ziegler's name and fillies carrying the scarlet and green silks of Middleburg Stable, the nom de course of Mrs. Ziegler.
Burrland Farm, Burnt Mill Farm, an adjacent property, and several small farms were combined to become Hickory Tree Farm in 1966.
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| The dimensions of THE GEM are: Length over all, 163 feet; beam, eighteen feet; draft, seven feet. Contract speed is twenty-two knots, and the engines are two four-cylinder triple expansion steam engines, operated by two water tube boilers using oil fuel. |
Well named indeed is the steam yacht which this year will carry her owner, Mr. William Zeigler, Jr., and his friends on many a cruise. The vessel is called the Gem. She is perfectly named, just as she was perfectly designed and perfectly constructed. Messrs. Cox & Stevens are the nautical architects.
In addition to using his boat as a pleasure craft, Mr. Ziegler will steam up and down on board his vessel when he proceeds to his affairs of business in Manhattan.
The yacht combines all the requisites of the conventional cruising steam yacht with the requisite speed for express service between New York and Mr. Zeigler's home near Stamford, Conn. She is not a light displacement boat by any means, but is substantially built, has good beam, and is an excellent seaboat. She has two large deckhouses, the forward one containing a very roomy dining saloon, aft of which is the galley, and the after one being a music room with doors opening directly aft to the quarter deck, which is of unusual length and practically clear of obstructions.
The accommodations for the owner and guests are below aft and are surprisingly liberal, the owner himself having a room eleven feet in length the full width of the ship, and communicating with two private bathrooms and a large dressing-room, the stateroom being finished in selected satinwood. At the after end of the vessel is a comfortable double stateroom and between this room and the owner's quarters are three very large single staterooms for guests, one smaller single stateroom which can be used as a maid’s room, and two bathrooms.
The finish in the guests’ quarters throughout is colonial in character, doors, furniture and trim being of mahogany, and bulkheads and side walls of white enamel. All decorations of the yacht are harmonious and have been executed with the greatest care and good taste. All the electric fixtures are of special design and the upholstery and furnishings are rich and handsome.
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| Setting sail on a 53-foot schooner such as BOUNDING HOME, owned by William Ziegler, Jr. can be a real feat of seamanship in a single-handed race. That's why only top skippers are invited to race in CB&S Creepstakes. |
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| WILLIAM ZIEGLER, JR., NORTON, CONN.
His father purchased Great Island in 1902 for a summer estate. Ziegler employed more than two hundred men to improve the property. The workers created an enviable estate, complete with a yacht basin, beach, mansion, outbuildings and a polo field. William Ziegler Jr. look up residency during the summer months and continued to improve the property over the course of several years. |
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| William Ziegler Jr. died at 116th East 55th Street March 3rd, 1952. |
William Ziegler, Sr., founder of the Royal Baking Powder Co., died on May 24, 1905, leaving his wife, Electa Matilda Ziegler, and an adopted nephew and niece, William and Florence Brandt, who were taken in after their parents messy divorce. William C. Brandt legally became William Ziegler, Jr., was 15 and still lived at home when William Sr. died and Florence Louisa Brandt was an adult living on her own. Years earlier Mrs. Ziegler had taken an intense dislike toward Florence and upon reaching adulthood Florence abrogated the adoption.
Ziegler Sr.'s will gave Junior the bulk of the estate when he turned 21 on
July 21, 1912, and was held in trust until then. It was provided that the payment of the principal of the entire estate should be made to the son in four installments as he reached the ages of 25,
30, 35, and
40 years. Legal questions arose regarding executor and trustee roles after one of the trustees died and petitions were filed by Electa and Florence, who sought to reverse her abrogation
on the grounds that her biological mother, Anna Nutting Brandt Haney, never consented to the abrogation. In 1913, when her
petition was denied, Florence was a 27-year-old kindergarten teacher in Davenport, Iowa, and William, Jr., inherited $16,500,000.
The conflict created ground-breaking case law involving adoption and the abrogation of adoption.
In 1907, Ziegler's mother, who had another son who was blind, founded the Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind, which soon became the worlds most widely circulated periodical that is printed in braille and a publication that still thrives more than a century later. Upon leaving Harvard, William Jr. bought three apartment buildings on Manhattans Park Avenue through which he "played a major part in the development of that thoroughfare," according to the New York Times. He subsequently became president of his fathers company, which later became American Maize-Products.
Upon
Matildas death in 1932, however, William Jr. turned his attention to her pet project, succeeding her as the magazine s publisher and later becoming president of the American Foundation for the Blind. He remained the magazines publisher until his death in 1958. After his death, Helen Keller wrote a
letter of tribute to the New York Times for his activities in support of the blind.
Frederick Sterner(1862-1931) was a native of England who came to this country in the 1870's. He settled in Denver, Colorado where he practiced architecture for nearly thirty
years. Among his important commissions were the Denver Athletic Club and the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs. In 1909 Sterner moved to New York where he received many commissions for the remodeling of town houses.
