"GREYSTONE" - GLIMPSES OF A FAMOUS GARDEN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

AN OLD WORLD GARDEN IN A NEW WORLD SETTING 

The Doheny, Jr., Estate at Beverly Hills By PAUL G. THIENE, A. S. L. A.

"GREYSTONE"
905 Loma Vista Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210

IN GENEREAL, the development of the hillside estate of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., presented many problems.

To the left of the gates stands the gate lodge with flagstone paths on a grass terrace and cut-flower garden, and thence ascends the drive, bordered with Cedrus Atlantica, and wide stretches of lawn.

Entrance to "“Greystone" the estate of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr. Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California.
 Paul G. Thiene, Landscape Architect
 Gordon B. Kaufman, Architect

The property, composed of hills and deep canyons, with a scattering of eucalyptus trees, necessitated excavating several hundred thousand cubic yards and tilling in approximately 30,000 cubic yards of top soil to get the place in a workable condition. Since the cost of the disposition of any undesirable earth would be excessive, an additional canyon was purchased, which was tilled to a depth of seventy-five to eighty feet, creating a large, level area designated as the meadow.

Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Terraces were created in back of the house to take care of the rapid rise, and the extremely high retaining walls were camouflaged with planting to foreshorten the visible height.

Numerous specimen trees, ranging from ten to thirty feet in height, were moved onto the property in boxes from five to eight feel in diameter. These included Cedrus Atlantica, Cedrus deodara, Libocedrus, crape myrtle., olive, oak, pepper, redwood, pine, sycamore and poplar.

Dynamiting was imperative and an extensive drainage system was installed to successfully cope with the soil and adobe.

South Elevation
 Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

South Elevation
 Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

South Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

A very complete garden lighting system answers a dual purpose. Besides being controlled by individual switches, a master switch located in the owner's bedroom may illuminate the entire gardens, thus acting as a burglar protection and attracting the attention of the night watchman.

In the event of large assemblies, provision has been made to call the chauffeurs by means of eight loud speakers from a microphone placed in the residence.

Driveway
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

On entering the electrically controlled, massive wrought iron gates of "Greystone", the visitor has a feeling of having been transposed into an old English garden.

Arrival Court
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Arrival Court
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Fountain in Arrival Court
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

On entering the arrival court, "The Child and the Swan” greets you. This attractive fountain figure, together with many of the other garden figures, was personally selected for its particular location and imported from England.

South Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

South Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

South Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Entrance From South Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Entrance From South Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Reflection Pool, South Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Reflection Pool
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Reflection Pool
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

End of Long Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

End of Long Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Cypress Walk
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Passing thru the arrival court and continuing on into the gardens, an easy flight of steps brings us to the “Lookout Terrace", where, beneath the shade of an interesting old olive, we view the waterfalls and other engaging bits of the gardens.

Intermediate Terrace
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Another short rise and we are on the intermediate terrace where a simple stone fountain bubbles refreshingly. From this point we look down the walk between two stately rows of perfectly matched eugenias, whose red and green foliage furnish the only touch of color in this unit. The wall is embellished with eight fountains carved out of Pouillenay Rose, an imported stone.

Entrance into the Formal gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Entrance into the Formal gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Ascending toward the formal gardens, our attention is drawn to a most unique lead cistern. Beyond, a bench nestled between two lovely oleanders beckons us to rest while our eyes wander over the surrounding beauties. The oleanders are planted in hand carved, teakwood boxes with wrought iron fixtures, as are many other specimen plants located at different points of vantage, where planting notes of size and color are needed, but not otherwise feasible.

Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

The blended colorings of the Mettowee stone paving lure us on to climb a semicircular stairway into the formal gardens.

Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

End of Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

End of Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

A wide grass panel edged with penstemon is terminated by a hand-carved, Pouillenay Rose fountain, on which the lights play alluringly at night. On the upper level the planting is interspersed with English yew. 

Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Sun Dial
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

A perpendicular sun-dial located on the wall of this garden was minutely designed to record time correctly. The sun-dial is cast in bronze, while the stone work surrounding it, as well as the other four plaques on the wall, are of the same material as the heads in the intermediate terrace and carved by the same sculptor.

Plaque in Wall of Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Plaque in Wall of Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Plaque in Wall of Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Plaque in Wall of Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

View of Formal Gardens
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Swimming Pool
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Along a winding, flagstone path, paralleled by plantings of vari-hued flower and foliage, we proceed to the swimming pool unit, which consists of the swimming pool, with adjacent dressing rooms. A tennis court is artistically surrounded with an ornamental lattice work serving principally as a backdrop. The swimming pool, equipped with high diving tower and spring board, is finished in shades of blue, glazed tile laid in pattern with Boise stone gutter and coping. A circulating system recirculates and filters the water, thus keeping it clear and at the same time conserving the supply, while a purifying system serves to keep the pool free from germs.

Former Swimming Pool 
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

The guest house is picturesquely located overlooking the upper gardens.

We are now ready to descend, and as we stroll along the flagstone driveway our attention is caught by a beautiful, emerald-green lawn known as the “meadow" or picnic area, on the southern edge of which has been erected a decorative lattice trellis which answers primarily as a rose arbor, being covered with the choicest of California’s climbing roses. Secondly, it acts as a safety measure, and as this area is used by the children as a playground it is also effective as a backstop. On the easterly boundary of the meadow, close up against the hill, has been built a barbecue pit. with adjoining kitchen and room equipped to accommodate outdoor parties. 

On we go down a twisting, shaded, flagstone path with now and then a flagstone platform, along banks planted with plumbago and chorizema, California holly or perhaps a clump of hydrangeas or cannas, whose vivid colors brighten many positions of prominence throughout the gardens. Enticed by the rippling of water we suddenly find ourselves standing on the brink of a wonderful lake. Casting our eyes down into the water we find thousands of trout. Gazing upward, we perceive the supply in the form of a cascade, whose background is the balustrade of “Lookout Terrace” many, many feet above.

Walk Leading to Lakes
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Walk Leading to Lakes
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Cascades
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Cascades
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Centuries might easily have elapsed, although in reality it is less than two years since this stream of crystal clear water started rushing down over its moss grown course, touched here and there by the shadow s of the overhanging plantings. The numerous rocks were all made by hand. The water is clarified by a circulating system which likewise regulates the flow as well as recirculates the water for the eighteen fountains and pools in the gardens above.

Cascades
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Cascades
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

As we leave the lake we follow a brick walk paralleling the wall below the house terrace. From this location we look north to the hillsides and if it happens to be spring the hills are a solid mass of pink and yellow, for the banks are heavily planted with flowering peaches, almonds and genista. If it is fall or winter, the pyracantha and holly are daringly showing their gold and red fruit. To the south is a rolling lawn.

The hillsides are watered by sprinklers, and the rapidity of the growth speaks assuringly of the capability of the system. The meadow is covered with rubber-topped sprinklers as a precaution against the children slipping while at play, while the extensive lawns are provided with pop-up heads. In accordance with the laws of nature, all watering is done while the sun’s rays are hidden. Therefore these gardens are watered at night by means of an automatic system controlled from the gardener’s cottage by a master clock. Thus the proper quantity of water required for each area may be adjusted by simply moving a few pins in the clock. Automatic irrigation is regarded as an essential in California, particularly in fall. 

Stables
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

  And now your visit to the English gardens of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., is but a memory, but you have covered approximately thirty acres, at least with your eyes. Perhaps you did not notice the rose garden with its hundreds of bush and tree roses, or the cut-flower garden with its bounty of continuous blossoms, or the orchid house with its wealth of bloom; but all these units were in your path as were the propagating gardens and mushroom cellar. The minutest detail has not been overlooked.  

     TWO VIEWS OF THE INTERIOR OF THE HOME OF MRS. L. H. DOHENY, JR.

Entrance Hall
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Entrance Hall
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Living Room
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Living Room
Residence of Mrs. E. L. Doheny, Jr., Beverly Hills

Jo Van Ronkel, chairman of Citizens for Greystone, is shown at the swimming pool on the Greystone Estate. His group is seeking to preserve the landmark by converting it into a public park, a cultural facility, and a reservoir.  NOTE the diving tower.

Welcome to the Friends of Greystone

NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY
NOMINATION FORM

Walking the Grounds of Massive Historic Beverly Hills Mansion

Freyzel Productions

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greystone_Mansion

The Continuing Mystery of The Greystone Mansion Murders

"LITTLE IPSWICH" - RUBY ROSS WOOD - IN HER OWN WORDS

 "WHY did you build it on one floor?" "Is it adapted from Jefferson's "Monticello"?" "Was it suggested by the Petit Trianon?" "Was it inspired by a Greek temple?" "Did those Palladian houses on the Brenta Canal influence you?" "Why did you build it on one floor?" Those are the repeated questions we have to answer.

It is pleasant to have a house that suggests so many origins, but it really was inspired by none of them—American, French, Greek, or Italian. Its real inspiration was the gate-house of Kimbolton Castle, built by Robert Adam. True, the gate-house was not of white painted brick, but of grey stone. It was a long, low structure with no wings but from its lovely facade, I began. I love houses built around large courtyards, and I love high ceilings, and there you have the reason for a one-storey house. You can have neither large courts nor high ceilings in small houses of more than one story. To get the same low, gracious effect, you will have to build a house four times as large.

"LITTLE IPSWICH"
 by RUBY ROSS WOOD

When I had drawn my ideal plan, after months of changes I took it to Mr. Delano, and be made a house of it. He stood it on its end and gave it form and substance and sense and dignity, and, we confess, we think great beauty, as well. He placed it on the west side of our pond, to that it might look across a vista between two great oaks whose trunks were just fifty-two feet apart, and so we made our courtyard fifty-two square. The afternoon sun is consequently on the front of the house, and the paved court is in the shadow in the afternoon. I say the paved court, because there is a greater white-walled court one hundred feet square in the front of the house.

You enter a round hall with a domed ceiling, painted from Isabella d'Este's lovely ceiling with the hearts, in the palazzo del Te, in Mantua. We went all the way to Italy to see that ceiling, and it was worth it. The original ceiling was in many colors with brown-red hearts, but ours is painted in tones of terra-cotta and white and black-brown, because the hall floor is of cream and black-brown terrazzo. The only furnishings are four English terra-cotta figures of the seasons, signed "Coade, Lambeth,  1791."

Before you enter the house, you are aware of our hobbies—horses, swans, and sphinxes. Two small stone sphinxes from Italy sit on the wall of the entrance court and another pair is on the high retaining wall on the south side of the court. On the dome, a gilded swan is the weather-vane. The house is full of swans and sphinxes and horses and there are real horses in the stables and real swans in the pond, but, so far, we haven't found a real sphinx.

THE ROUND HALL IN MR. AND MRS. CHALMERS WOODS HOUSE

As you enter the round hall, you look straight across the pond through the two great oaks to the riding-field beyond. 

On the left as you enter is the dining-room. In front of you is the loggia projecting into the paved court. On the right is the library, through which you must pass to reach the long hall of the south wing.

A LONG ISLAND LIBRARY
The book-shelves reach to the ceiling of the library of "Little Ipswich", the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Chalmers Wood, at Syosset, Long Island. The room is built of pine, and the Adams overmantel came from an old London house.

The library began from an Adam overmantel that Isabella Barclay found in an old London house, a mysterious affair, because some of its detail is undoubtedly English, and other detail is French. It is a circle of mirror upheld by two sphinxes and garlanded with two wreaths of flowers, a la Grinling Gibbons, standing free from the mirror. An urn surmounts the mirror. The other great treasure of the room is a Directoire Aubusson rug, with four great swans. I really suffered in having to put it on the floor of this room, which is necessarily a passage by day, but there it belongs. Over the windows, classic paintings of white figures on black are inset. The books go all the way to the ceiling, on all four walls. The room is built of pine stained to match the tone of the lime-wood of the Adam overmantel as nearly as possible.

From the library, you enter a long corridor with French windows opening onto the paved court on the north ride, and on the south side are the doors that lead into my bedroom and my husband's bedroom. A small writing-room and bath open from bedroom, and a bath lies between my room and my husbands. At the extreme end of this corridor, you enter the living-room, which has a French window the north opening into the court, another to the south opening into a sunken flower-garden, and a great flower-filled bay-window that looks out over the pond. There is another door that opens onto a long south terrace, outside our bedrooms. From this terrace, you go up a flight of steps to the swimming pool, which is completely enclosed by a high hedge of spruce with tall cedars back of it

Going back to the entrance-hall, you enter the dining-room.  You are faced by the mantel wall, which has two doors, one leading to a guest-room and bath, and the second to the pantry. This wall has a long, curved alcove in which the mantel is set. Again, there is a long corridor, leading to the servants hall, kitchen, and servants bedrooms. At the extreme end of this wing, there are two guest-rooms and a bath, which occupy the relative space as the living-room in the south wing. So you have the geography of the house.

The dining-room is painted a very pale grey, and has curtains of superb Directoire satin in very dark blue patterned with enormous white swans and conventional Directoire wreaths and borders. I have tried to keep this room as cold as possible, with mahogany furniture, black leather chairs, a set of black-and-white engravings by Canova, gilt mirrors, and an old black lacquer high-boy. Four ivory figures of the seasons are on the grey-and-white marble mantel, and a great white Greek vase, with projecting figures of horses is on the top of the high-boy. The room gives the impression of black and white, in spite of its mahogany and dark blue curtains.

MRS. WOOD'S BEDROOM IS BOTH FRENCH AND ENGLISH

In this short space, I can only mention briefly the things that brought the various rooms into being. My own room has the most beautiful old French floor, the squares made up of stars and compasses in black and white wood inlaid in oak. Kathleen Tysen found this floor for me in France, as she knew my old collection of stars. I was fortunate in finding a very small four-poster Adam bed painted in very dark green and a painted wardrobe of the same period.  This Adam furniture quite at home with the dark brown marble mantel and carved wood overmantel, which are French. The room is a mixture of French and English furniture of about the same period.

My husband's room has one of our greatest treasures on the mantel wall, an old hunting-frieze discovered in a house in Roanoke. Virginia, which is supposed to be the earliest known American painting of this sort. The curtains in his room are of old flowered serge. The rug is embroidered Persian felt made from the lining of a tent, which, strangely enough  is the most durable rug in the house. There are a Chippendale mahogany secretary, a walnut cheat of drawers, two leather chairs and a painted bed, which does not seem to mind its masculine surroundings.

OLD LEATHER SPORTING PANELS FROM ENGLAND

In the living-room are our leather panels of which we are very proud. They came from Longnor Hall, in Shropshire, and are dated 1723. There are three of them, depicting racing, one wrestling, and the  third stags hunting. They are of the most luminous quality, the leather having been first covered with silver, then gold, and then painted. We hope they are by Thomas Wooten, but we can not prove it. The living-room has a very large rug, which is also debatable, because while it looks English, its border is undoubtedly Persian. It has an olive-green ground with garlands of pink flowers and circles of enormous white acanthus-leaves. The ground of this rug it olive-green, and from this I painted the walls of the room. The curtains are of a little darker olive-green damask. There is a fine Japanese screen, very early, on each panel of which there is a horse in a stall. I found a pair of these screens in London, and, not having a place to use two, had them mounted back to back as one screen. so that both sides can be enjoyed.

The long corridor leading from the library to the living-room is papered with a Chinese paper of the Queen Anne period. The corridor was so  narrow that there was no room for furniture, and to hang pictures would mean too many, so I used this old paper, which fills the hall with decoration. The curtains are of taffeta made up of checks in every color of the rainbow, which looked very modernistic when I found it in London, but, as all of the colors are repeated in the wall-paper, seems quite conventional in this hall.

PRIMROSE PATH

From the south terrace, there is a long green garden, which opens a cedar vista. You look down the green garden to an enormous oak-tree in the woods, a most extraordinary Italian effect. The green garden is made up entirely of grass and ivy, like a French garden. As we live here all the year round, we have tried to use material that will be green in winter, as well as in summer.

VIEW FROM REAR COURT ACROSS POND

REAR, POND SIDE

Together we have planned this house

With love have sought, brick and stone

To model here a perfect home

So fashioned that the shadows fall

In pleasant patterns wall,

And so disposed that rooms have sun,

With space and air i every one.

It's finished . . . Only time can

Whether we've done it ill or

For me, who love both you and it

The time has come to write "exit."

Before I leave one thing I do:

Pray God that peace may be you.

North Shore Long Island: Country Houses, 1890-1950 by Paul J. Mateyunas

Completed in 1928, for Chalmers Wood Jr. (1883-1952) and his second wife, the interior designer Ruby Ross Wood (1881-1950). The Woods named the house for Chalmers' childhood home in Massachusetts where his mother's family (the Appletons) had lived since 1637.

Chalmers survived his wife by two years. After his death in 1952, the house became the summer home of Count Giorgio Uzielli (1903-1984), a New York stockbroker from a notable Florentine banking family related by marriage to the Rothschilds. He renamed it "The Lakehouse" though locally it was still referred to as Little Ipswich. After the Count died in 1984 the house stood empty, gradually falling into disrepair and becoming victim to vandalism. In 1995, Little Ipswich was demolished and its 28-acres were sold for development. Today, 21 houses known as the Pironi Estates stand on the grounds.

Architect Delano liked the house so much he chose it as the backdrop for his official portrait. https://americanaristocracy.com/houses/little-ipswich

Location at wikimapia. 

Follow THIS LINK for all past posts on "Little Ipswich".

THE GIBSON BOYS—WITHOUT THE "GIRLS"

 

THE GIBSON BOYS—WITHOUT THE "GIRLS"

Charles Dana Gibson, the distinguished artist and illustrator, with his son, Langhorne Gibson, and the latter’s sons, Charles Dana and Henry Taylor Gibson, in the library of Ensign Farm, the Mt. Kisco estate of the Langhorne Gibsons. Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson is the former Miss Irene Langhorne, one of the prominent Langhorne sisters of Virginia. Mrs. Langhorne Gibson, who has just been elected as joint M.F.H., Goldens Bridge Hounds, to share the leadership with her husband, was, before her marriage, Miss Marion Taylor, daughter of Mrs. Moses Taylor, who makes her winter home at Villa La Saadia, Marrakech, Morocco.

"ENSIGN FRM"
A NEW STEEPLECHASE IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY
 At the inaugural meet of the Ensign Sweepstake Steeplechases on the estate of Mr. and Mrs. Langhorne Gibson at Mt. Kisco, New York, when five events provided prime sport.

"ENTERTAINING IS EASY WITH A COOK-A-MATIC" says Elsa Maxwell - Internationally Famous Hostess

Elsa Maxwell 

 It's EASY TO ENTERTAIN and have fun with your guests, too,” says Elsa Maxwell. I prepare hot hors-d'oeuvres right at the table, so that I’m never away from the party. Next time you entertain, surprise your guests with some of my new recipes.

“Cook-a-matic’s large capacity is a wonderful help at parties, for snacks and family meals. You really should have one.”

Landers, Frary & Clark New Britain Conn.

Elsa Maxwell Entertaining Hints

AI Overview on Elsa Maxwell's entertaining philosophy - 

Elsa Maxwell's entertaining philosophy centers on a "ruthless" selection of guests to ensure a lively atmosphere, emphasizing originality and wit over extravagance, and encouraging hosts to inject "weirdness" like serving courses backward. Her core principle was to conquer boredom by connecting diverse people and using unconventional ideas to create memorable, fun experiences. 

Key Entertaining Principles:

Ruthless Guest Selection: Be highly selective and strategic about who you invite, as the wrong guest can "murder" a good party, according to Vogue. 

Embrace Originality: Original ideas are more valuable than lavishness; don't be afraid to be unconventional, such as serving dinner backward. 

Conquer Boredom: The ultimate goal of a party is to defeat boredom by bringing interesting and different people together, suggests Womanica. 

Connect People: Maxwell was known for connecting the rich but dull with the interesting but less affluent, ensuring a dynamic mix for a good party. 

Be a Character: Her own life and parties exemplified this philosophy, embracing eccentricity to create memorable events, notes YouTube. 

Keep it Entertaining: Advice from her classic book How to Do It includes specific strategies for events and navigating tricky social situations. 

"WELD" - An Estate of Originality - RESIDENCE of LARZ ANDERSON in BROOKLINE, MASS. Little and Brown, Architects

 "WELD" - An Estate of Originality

 RESIDENCE of LARZ ANDERSON in BROOKLINE, MASS. 

Little and Brown, Architects

The conservatory sidewall decorations consist of a series of interesting frescoes, one of which depicts the famous ‘‘Spanish Steps" in Rome leading down to the water. 

A replica of the fountain in Rome, which stands in the Piazza di Spagna, is set among flowering shrubs close up to the wall. The miniature gondola, cut in stone, adds to the realistic effect. The furniture is upholstered yellow brocade.

A marble tiled foyer connects the ballroom with the hall. Here the ceiling is of lattice work with mirrored walls.

 Rich Oriental hangings and exquisitely carved Chinese screens contribute to the beauty and charm of the room.

   In the Chinese ballroom the painted sidewall panels, window, and furniture carry out in detail the Chinese feeling.

A Buddha is a distinct feature of the over-mantel, with bronze Dogs Fu as andirons. The furniture and fireplace seat are covered with black and gold brocade.

   On the third floor of the house is Mrs. Anderson's study. This is distinctly Japanese with walls of smooth, perfectly matched wood, decorated panels and screens. The ceiling is decorated with floral motifs of Japanese origin. The fireplace of blue tile is unique, for it is sunken, a semicircular seat surrounding it.

   The Larz Anderson gardens, which cover many acres of this beautiful estate, are divided into gardens of different character and uses. The  main garden, which joins the house is connected with it by graveled walks and terraces. 

. "The Wild Flower," by Henry Berge.

 

  The facade has several niches, in one of which appears a bronze wall fountain.

A corner the Japanese garden showing a statue of Buddha. Here are little ponds, stepping stones and bridges about which are planted dwarfed trees, iris, and wisteria in a characteristic setting, that has a the charm of a garden Japan.

   Below this lies vegetable and beyond what is known as the lower garden, a natural garden laid out like a park. 

   

ARBOR

   Nearer the road is the Chinese rockery in which is seen a pagoda and an arbor, three hundred feet or more in length, with an arched top, over which are trained cherry trees and grape vines.

A charming feature of pagoda in the Chinese garden is the marble figure of a winsome flower girl with her lap filled with blossoms, looking down into the bird bath below.

https://downeastdilettante.wordpress.com/2011/01/22/this-garden-was-made-in-1901-and-named-weld-2/

https://brooklinehistoricalsociety.org/archives/listPhotos.asp?mainList=archives&subList=Larz

          Erte description of this month's Harper's Bazar cover translated from the French - 

"The thoughts of a young girl—these are beautiful flowers in life's garden. That queen of flowers, the rose, symbolizes them in its short but exquisite career. The young bud offers the bright hope of regal beauty to come; the sumptuous full-blown rose represents the enjoyment of present happiness; the petals falling scented tears, are scattered memories of happiness past. ... Do not the roses adorning the hair of a young girl symbolize the whole cycle of the feminine soul—which consists of hopes, of fleeting joys and of happiness past.... And the thorns, which often prick pretty fingers, have they perfect semblance to the passing dangers and disillusionments which confront every woman? Thorns, like bees hovering about flowers, are but the guardians of beauty. They keep the timid at a distance. But he who loves the rose and admires its beauty will know how to pluck it. And he who loves a woman will never fear that under her tenderness he will find thorns that will scratch him."

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

   IN developing Laurelton Hall, his Oyster Bay home. Mr. Louis Tiffany kept clear of the temptation to reproduce a Roman villa or French chateau. Being an artist with an intense feeling and love for the leagues of his own country, Mr. Tiffany created what he considers a distinctively American house. Before planning his estate, even on paper, the artist had the site carefully surveyed and a clay model of it made to scale. The valley, meadows, hills and trees were made in miniature. With this model before him, he formed in wax, to the same scale, his conception of the house. The building is very long, and its main rooms face either the harbor or the wonderful flowered hills. 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

  The grounds are marvelously beautiful, perhaps because nature has been assisted, not interfered with. Laurelton, by the way, has lost practically all its locust and other deciduous trees, for the North Shore of Long Island is bleak in winter, and Mr. Tiffany has planted pine or hemlock wherever the former trees have faltered in their growth. 

   The interior of the house shows a rare feeling for color, for here the genius of the designer has had full play. 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

  The most striking feature of the whole house is the central court—this room, for such it really is. Is suggestive of the Persian. It is a perfect riot of color, not only architecturally, but because it was designed as a place for flowers. From early spring until midwinter this court is a symphony in color. The crystal fountain resembles a large bottle or vase of the clearest glass. The water, coming from the lily pond in the garden, enters the vase at the bottom and overflows the slender neck in a silent sheet of limpid spray that reflects all the brilliant colors of the flowers. 

THE TIFFANY HOUSE at OYSTER BAY L. I.

   The distinguishing features of the main rooms of the house are their size and color. The living-room cannot be labeled, it belongs to no period or style. Rectangular, with no breaks and no excrescences, green predominates in its decorations, and there is a pervading sense of restfulness within its wainscoted walls.

THE GOLDEN BOUNTY OF SPRING - "Welwyn" - the Harold Irving Pratt estate on Long Island

THE GOLDEN BOUNTY OF SPRING
PAINTING BY J. FLOYD YEWELL

   Spring ushers in a glorious pageant of color at "Welwyn", the Harold Irving Pratt estate on Long Island. 

  From March, when the earliest blossoms show their heads, until November’s frost cuts them down, there are always flowers blooming in one of the many gardens on the estate. 

  The artist here portrays for us a view of the West Garden in its gay and colorful spring dress.

Living room in the residence of William Lawrence Bottomley, Esq., Brookville, LI.

 

Living room in the residence of William Lawrence Bottomley, Esq., Brookville, LI.

  The vivid greens and blues of the scenic wallpaper in this room call for strength and intensity in its color scheme in order to have its color values harmonize. Accordingly the curtains are a gay yellow chintz flowered in old pink, the furniture repeats the yellow note, and the Spanish rug done in squares with the signs of the zodiac, adds another touch of strong color and bold design. 

Follow THIS LINK for more on "HICKORY HILL" THE SUMMER HOME OF ARCHITECT WILLIAM LAWRENCE BOTTOMLEY.

A FARM GROUP IN THE ITALIAN MANNER - Arthur V. Davis - Mill Neck, NY

   Although situated at Mill Neck, Long Island, this picturesque little farm group on the estate of Arthur V. Davis, Esq., might well be somewhere in Italy. The warm biscuit-colored stucco walls with the red tiles of the roofs and the blue trim of doors and windows make a charmingly colorful picture to which the black and white reproductions of the camera do scant justice.

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect 

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect

Arthur Vining Davis Farm Group Mill Neck, New York
Guy Lowell, Architect

https://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=40.888130&lon=-73.554336&z=17&m=w&show=/14167796/Arthur-Vining-Davis-Residence-Farm-Group

THE ROOM OF THE MONTH The library in the residence of Mr. Paul M. Bowen, at Grosse Pointe, Mich.

 

THE ROOM OF THE MONTH
The library in the residence of Mr. Paul M. Bowen, at Grosse Pointe, Mich.
HENRY F. STANTON, Architect

The potential beauties in wood that wait the seeing eye and skillful hand of the master could not well have a better exemplar than in the paneling of this room, and especially in the exquisitely simple yet wholly lovely overmantel.