National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior

Analysis of Historical Significance and Integrity by Resource Type
The Beaux-Arts phenomenon in urban areas helped to convey the wealthy's desired selfimage,
but apparently it did not translate well into residential "country" architecture. While the
classical revival styles were often employed, and the Beaux-Arts theory of interior axial planning
was becoming standard by the turn of the century, the use of Beaux-Arts exterior ornamentation
was seldom found at the country place. On Long Island, given its proximity to New York City
and its cache of architects who were designing in the milieu, one might expect to find a
multitude of houses totally designed using Beaux-Arts attributes. The opposite appears to be
true. Of 975 estates built on Long Island between the Civil War and World War II and included
in a computer-assisted survey of Long Island county houses conducted by the Society for the
Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, only three are classified as French Beaux-Arts. 1406 Two
of these appear to be mislabeled; in fairness to the survey, others appear to have been mislabeled
in the reverse. 1407 While many Long Island country houses exhibit classical detailing and
perhaps axial plans with Beaux-Arts hierarchical room arrangements, their exteriors are more in
line with Colonial Revival and Neoclassical styles, with none of the exterior detailing that would
classify them as Beaux-Arts.
The purist exceptions on Long Island might include:
� William K. Vanderbilt's bachelors' quarters and adjoined indoor tennis court, by Warren
and Wetmore in 1902-4. Vanderbilt's first house in Oakdale, also named Idle Hour
burned in 1899. He immediately had Richard H. Hunt redesign and build a new house in
the Renaissance Revival style using Dutch elements, to which Warren and Wetmore
added a few years later. "This glass-roofed Beaux-Arts pavilion, designed to blend with
the main house, is dominated on its interior by an open loggia, almost Baroque in
conception, with heavily rusticated base and supporting herms." 1408 The cartouched
doorway pediments contribute to its Beaux-Arts exterior.
� Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's retreat in Roslyn called The Studio, designed by Delano
& Aldrich in 1913. "The building is a solid cubic mass punctured by an elegant Palladian
entrance, carefully placed windows, and a rich frieze derived from Jacopo Sansovino's
Library of Saint Mark in Venice." The formality of the design extended to the landscape,
and is considered Delano's "most severely formal" design. 1409
It is interesting to note that both were Vanderbilt commissions.
Other structures that appear to have less exterior ornament but at minimum could be
classified as Neoclassical include:
� Bertram G. Work residence, Oak Knoll at Mill Neck, by Delano & Aldrich, 1916,
� William D. Guthrie residence, Meudon at Lattingtown, by C.P.H. Gilbert, circa 1900,
� Joseph R. DeLamar residence, Pembroke at Glen Cove, by C.P.H. Gilbert, 1916-18,
� F.W. Woolworth residence, Winfield Hall at Glen Cove, by C.P.H. Gilbert, 1916-20,
� Charles I. Hudson residence, Knollwood at East Norwich, by Hiss & Weekes, 1906-20.
1406 MacKay, 19. See also Appendix: Estate Owner Index, 481-533.
1407 Visual identification was made by the author studying the entire collection of published photographs
in MacKay. It must be recognized that not all photographs were clear or complete, and therefore
omissions are likely.
1408 MacKay, 227, 435.
1409 MacKay, 136-37.
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