"Villa Marina" at Christmas

"Villa Marina" at Christmas 1922

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"Villa Marina" at Roslyn, L. I. The Home of Frank C.Henderson, Esq.

November 21, 1917

Frank C. Henderson Buys Long Island Estate.

Frank C. Henderson of New York President of the Oklahoma Oil Company, has purchased the George W. Eastman estate at Roslyn, L. I. The property is one of the show places of that section, and is in the immediate vicinity of the estates of Clarence H. Mackay(Harbor Hill), Judge F. K. Pendleton(?), Payne Whitney(Greentree), and Joseph P. Grace(Tullaroan). Mr. Henderson  contemplates making extensive improvements, and will lay out a private nine-hole golf course on the property. Cocks & Willets negotiated the sale.

February 16, 1919

At Roslyn, Frank C. Henderson has completed a new house on the former George W. Eastman property, which he

purchased last Winter. The house was estimated to cost $60,000 and was designed by Warren & Clark, architects.

    "Villa Marina," situated at Roslyn, Long Island, with its surrounding acres devoted to lawns and gardens, is used as an all-year residence.

Entrance Gate and Lodge 

The coloring of the entrance lodge is that of the main home, but it is more formal in type.

"Villa Marina"

On the front or south side of the house is the loggia, or breakfast room, overlooking a broad grass terrace, with its background of trees and a small garden. Birds and growing plants add to the cheerfulness of the surroundings here, with a recently established radio service as a diversion.

    The left wing of the house, as shown above, and of which the loggia is a part, contains all of the guest rooms, which are located above the living-room and dining-room, while the  right wing has been reserved for the owners' bedrooms, study, billiard room and library.

The terraced effect of the roof line is especially noticeable from the entrance driveway.

The dark green of the cedars emphasis the soft Italian coloring of the house-the red of the roof, the pink of the walls, the dull blue of the shutters, and the polychrome decoration over the entrance.

   
  The house is an interestingly developed series of wings, extensions, and galleries, with a variety of color none the less charming because unusual in these northern latitudes.

The gateway from the forecourt to the east terrace gives a glimpse of the dining room facade which fronts a semicircular terrace.

  

Above is shown the north side of the yellow stucco, red-roofed house. With these colorings sea blue blinds are a harmonious note of contrast.

At the rear of the house is a formal garden, overlooked by a shaded veranda that is a room in itself.

In the semi-circular Pompeian bath pergola, at the extreme end of the blue-lined pool, are the dressing rooms.   At the left is the golf course.

 
    The swimming pool is approached by flagged steps with ivy-grown balustrades leading from the Italian garden, and bordered by tall trees. 

Entrance Floor

   Plan of the entrance floor. The arrangement is unusual in having the hall on the floor below the main living rooms, and in the locating of the boiler room, laundry, etc., on the floor with the hall.

Main Floor

    
   On the first floor the living and dining rooms occupy the main part of the house, being flanked on one side by the service rooms, and the other by the family sleeping rooms.

Third Floor

   
   The third floor main house rooms are for guests the wings being given over to the servants quarters.

Old velvets, soft toned brocades, and seventeenth century Italian furniture, lend a pleasant feeling of dignity and restfulness to this spacious room.

 
   

Corner in Venetian living-room.

   In the Venetian living-room the rafters are toned green and decorated to match the flower-painted doors which lead to the dining-room.

Dining-room

Loggia or breakfast room.

Mrs. Henderson's Boudoir.

    Mrs. Elizabeth "Betty" Henderson achieved notoriety at the age of 71 by smoking a cigar at opening night at the Metropolitan Opera in 1947 and was photographed displaying her limbs on a table. 

Mrs. Henderson's Boudoir.

Mr. and Mrs. Frank C. Henderson

   After a year and a half of reconstruction and four years of  living at "Villa Marina" Henderson put the estate up for auction in 1923. Why the short occupation is unknown but he ended up ordering the auctioneer out of his house and the property was offered for sale in 1924. He settled in Palm Beach and died in 1943.

  Currently serves as the Pierce Country Day Camp for children.

Landscaping of the twelve acres was by Hattan & DeSuarez.  Private golf course by noted designer Devereux Emmet.

wikimapia LOCATION. 

BING

THE  FIRST  GOWN 

   Erte's description of this month's cover translated from the French.

   THE eternal story of the first temptation always interested me, and I used to try to decide on which chords of the feminine soul the Prince of Darkness had to play, when disguised as a serpent, in order to make woman fail into the abyss of disobedience to the Creator's laws.

   Once I dreamed of our ancestor, Eve, and this is what I saw: The serpent which became the embodiment of wisdom, thanks to the Evil One, had commanded the birds, who were in his power, to bedeck Eve with flowers. Although almost entirely concealing her form, her neck and arms were left revealed in quite a modern decolletage and when, finally, the birds encircled her head, suggesting an unusual coiffure, Eve began to believe herself a superior being.

   Urged by the Tempter, she wandered to a mirror-like pool where, like Narcissus, she admired herself, and with primitive coquetry, contemplated her beauty, and the words traced over her pliant body by the serpent—"La Premiere Robe".

   So now I see a charming young person—perhaps one of the readers of these very words—gazing in a mirror, an actual mirror. What she sees, I also see: there are flowers covering her gown, but they are artificial, being merely embroidered. Then, there is an artificial bird in her coiffure—quite different from those which the Tempter summoned to the Garden for Eve. But this modern gown has almost exactly the same decolletage as the first gown Eve wore, and always . . . always, there is the same serpent, invisible to most people, with that diabolic glint lurking in its eyes.