Cedarmere-Clayton Estates
Encyclopedia
The Cedarmere-Clayton Estates are located in Roslyn Harbor
, New York
, United States
, listed jointly on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1986. Cedarmere, the smaller of the two, is William Cullen Bryant
's estate
, located on the west side of Bryant Avenue overlooking Hempstead Harbor, now a historic house museum open to the public. Clayton, the bulk of the property, is the large landscaped Bryce/Frick estate
, now home to the Nassau County Museum of Art
. The two combined properties, with input from several notable architects, illustrate the development of estates on the North Shore
of Long Island
over a period of nearly a century.
Bryant originally owned almost the entire property. Fifteen years after his death, in 1893, Lloyd Bryce
bought the largely undeveloped inland portion of the estate and hired Ogden Codman, Jr.
to design a mansion
for it. In 1919, the dying Henry Clay Frick
purchased the estate for his son Childs
, who, after renovating it and expanding it, lived there with his family until his 1965 death. Four years later, it was turned over to the county for use as a museum.
, -story main block with two wings: a two-story multi-bay structure to the east and a smaller, single-story section to the north. All are covered in slate
gambrel roofs, fenestrated with trimmed gable
d dormers. Window shapes vary throughout the facades. The house is faced with stucco
, except for the visible stone
foundation
. A green glass-and-metal conservatory
protrudes from the front, and a porch
wraps around all but the north side.
A single-bay entrance pavilion
projects onto the south porch, overlooking the larger pond and its stone bridge. It is topped with a railed
balcony
. The doorway is heavily ornamented
with classical molded
surround, pilaster
s, sidelights, entablature
and leaded
transom
. The south elevation also has solid and latticework
supports with decorated baluster
s and brackets
.
At the other edge of the main house's pond is a small Gothic Revival building known as the mill, although it was never used as such and remains purely decorative, used mainly for storage. Its brick basement gives way to a board-and-batten
first floor, with heavy surface decoration, and then to a slate-covered cross-gabled roof with decorated bargeboard
s and filials, topped by a brick chimney. The windows have been trimmed with arches of various shapes and other decorative touches.
Other outbuildings include a small greenhouse
south of the garden and two more modern garages
to the north, some distance from the house. The latter two are the only improvements to the property not considered contributing
.
). The drive up, after passing a hipped-roofed
brick Neoclassical gatehouse to what is now the museum takes visitors through some of the pastorally landscaped 165 acres (66 ha) that make up the center of Roslyn Harbor. The main house sits on a high plateau, surrounded by plantings and a modern parking lot. It is a Georgian Revival building, brick with stone trim and copper
hipped roof, pierced by-gabled dormers, its eaves lined with modillions above a stone entablature.
The main block is two and a half stories high and nine bays wide. On both end there are symmetrical, two-bay pavilions outlined in quoin
s. The front facade has a five-bay open porch with Ionic
column
s and a flat roof, entablature and balustrade. The main entrance is a double door with semi-circular transom. On the east facade a series of round-arched French doors give access to the garden, topped by a balustraded balcony. Two one-story arcades
wings project from it. The mansion's interior features much original woodwork and plaster.
Near the main house is a garden
designed by Marian Coffin, with symmetrical plantings surrounding a central fountain
. The remnants of a private zoo
, primarily an old animal enclosure and tower. A narrow road leads to the Jerusha Dewey Cottage, originally built by Bryant for a friend of his and later used as a guest house, after extensive renovation by the Fricks. It is therefore a mixture of brick foundation, board-and-batten siding, slate roof and a mix of fenestration styles.
As at Cedarmere, two more modern buildings have been erected to support the property's current use as an art museum and sculpture garden
. They are the only ones of the 11 buildings and structures at Clayton not considered contributing.
, where he could contemplate nature and write his poetry. He expanded both the land and the house through the 1850s and 1860s into the present structure, following the then-popular principles of Andrew Jackson Downing
and disciples like Calvert Vaux
, who supposedly designed the mill house, calling for small Gothic Revival cottages, sometimes in a Picturesque
mode, that maintained harmony with their rural surroundings. At Cedarmere, as he later named the property, he received not only Vaux and his sometime collaborator Frederick Law Olmstead, but other cultural notables of the era such as painter Thomas Cole
, James Fenimore Cooper
and actor Edwin Booth
.
He sold it to his daughter Julia in 1875, as long as he was allowed to live the remainder of his life there; and he did, dying three years later. She in turn sold it to her nephew, Harold Godwin, in 1891. Eight years later, he sold the undeveloped property that became Clayton to Lloyd Bryce
, a former congressman
and heir to industrial fortunes.
The upper stories of Cedarmere were damaged considerably by a 1903 fire. On the other property, Bryce hired Codman, a young architect responsible for many seaside homes in the Northeast
, to design the main house, and began creating gardens in the property's northwest corner. The Fricks hired Charles Allom
to modify the house for their use when they moved in 1919, renaming it Clayton, but Codman's design remains largely unchanged. Allom's main changes were the replacement of the original entrance loggia
with the porch and, inside, creating a large entrance hall in keeping with the Fricks' intention to emulate an English country house
, a popular aspiration of wealthy Americans during the 1920s. To that end, Guy Lowell
designed the gatehouse, and Coffin added the main garden a decade later.
Four years after Frick's death, in 1969, the family sold the estate to Nassau County for use as an art museum. In 1989 the county transferred control to a private foundation. The Godwin family continued living in Cedarmere until they, too, donated it to the county for use as a museum in 1975.
Roslyn Harbor, New York
Roslyn Harbor is a village in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 1,051 at the 2010 census. It is considered part of the Greater Roslyn area, which is anchored by the village of Roslyn....
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, listed jointly on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1986. Cedarmere, the smaller of the two, is William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant
William Cullen Bryant was an American romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.-Youth and education:...
's estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
, located on the west side of Bryant Avenue overlooking Hempstead Harbor, now a historic house museum open to the public. Clayton, the bulk of the property, is the large landscaped Bryce/Frick estate
Estate (house)
An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority...
, now home to the Nassau County Museum of Art
Nassau County Museum of Art
The Nassau County Museum of Art is located 20 miles east of New York City on the former Frick Estate, a property in Roslyn Harbor in the heart of Long Island’s Gold Coast. The main museum building, named in honor of art collectors and philanthropists Arnold & Joan Saltzman, is a three-story...
. The two combined properties, with input from several notable architects, illustrate the development of estates on the North Shore
North Shore (Long Island)
The North Shore of Long Island is the area along Long Island's northern coast, bordering Long Island Sound. The region has long been the most affluent on Long Island, as well as the most affluent in the New York metropolitan area, which has earned it the nickname "the Gold Coast." Though some...
of Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
over a period of nearly a century.
Bryant originally owned almost the entire property. Fifteen years after his death, in 1893, Lloyd Bryce
Lloyd Bryce
Lloyd Stephens Bryce was a U.S. Representative from New York.His father, Joseph Smith Bryce, graduated from West Point in 1829, third in his class . J. S. Bryce was a Union Major in the Civil War, engaged in the defense of Washington D...
bought the largely undeveloped inland portion of the estate and hired Ogden Codman, Jr.
Ogden Codman, Jr.
Ogden Codman, Jr. was a noted American architect and interior decorator in the Beaux-Arts styles, and co-author with Edith Wharton of The Decoration of Houses , which became a standard in American interior design....
to design a mansion
Mansion
A mansion is a very large dwelling house. U.S. real estate brokers define a mansion as a dwelling of over . A traditional European mansion was defined as a house which contained a ballroom and tens of bedrooms...
for it. In 1919, the dying Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel steel manufacturing concern...
purchased the estate for his son Childs
Childs Frick
Childs Frick was an American vertebrate paleontologist.He was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and a major benefactor of its Department of Paleontology, which in 1916 began a long partnership with him. He established its Frick Laboratory...
, who, after renovating it and expanding it, lived there with his family until his 1965 death. Four years later, it was turned over to the county for use as a museum.
Estates
All of Cedarmere and most of Clayton were part of Bryant's original purchase. After his descendants sold all but the area around Cedarmere to the Bryces, they and the Fricks made some other additions as well.Cedarmere
Cedarmere is located behind a high stone wall on a 7 acre (4 ha) parcel along Bryant, with two small ponds and a landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. Its main house is a three-bayBay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
, -story main block with two wings: a two-story multi-bay structure to the east and a smaller, single-story section to the north. All are covered in slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
gambrel roofs, fenestrated with trimmed gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
d dormers. Window shapes vary throughout the facades. The house is faced with stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
, except for the visible stone
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...
foundation
Foundation (architecture)
A foundation is the lowest and supporting layer of a structure. Foundations are generally divided into two categories: shallow foundations and deep foundations.-Shallow foundations:...
. A green glass-and-metal conservatory
Conservatory (greenhouse)
A conservatory is a room having glass roof and walls, typically attached to a house on only one side, used as a greenhouse or a sunroom...
protrudes from the front, and a porch
Porch
A porch is external to the walls of the main building proper, but may be enclosed by screen, latticework, broad windows, or other light frame walls extending from the main structure.There are various styles of porches, all of which depend on the architectural tradition of its location...
wraps around all but the north side.
A single-bay entrance pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
projects onto the south porch, overlooking the larger pond and its stone bridge. It is topped with a railed
Railing
Railing may refer to:* Guard rail, a structure blocking an area from access* Handrail, a structure designed to provide support, such as on a staircase* Insufflation , the act of inhaling a substance, generally a drug...
balcony
Balcony
Balcony , a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade.-Types:The traditional Maltese balcony is a wooden closed balcony projecting from a...
. The doorway is heavily ornamented
Ornament (architecture)
In architecture and decorative art, ornament is a decoration used to embellish parts of a building or object. Large figurative elements such as monumental sculpture and their equivalents in decorative art are excluded from the term; most ornament does not include human figures, and if present they...
with classical molded
Molding (decorative)
Molding or moulding is a strip of material with various profiles used to cover transitions between surfaces or for decoration. It is traditionally made from solid milled wood or plaster but may be made from plastic or reformed wood...
surround, pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s, sidelights, entablature
Entablature
An entablature refers to the superstructure of moldings and bands which lie horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and are commonly divided into the architrave , the frieze ,...
and leaded
Lead glass
Lead glass is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically 18–40 weight% lead oxide , while modern lead crystal, historically also known as flint glass due to the original silica source, contains a minimum of 24% PbO...
transom
Transom (architectural)
In architecture, a transom is the term given to a transverse beam or bar in a frame, or to the crosspiece separating a door or the like from a window or fanlight above it. Transom is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece...
. The south elevation also has solid and latticework
Latticework
Latticework is a framework consisting of a criss-crossed pattern of strips of building material, typically wood or metal. The design is created by crossing the strips to form a network...
supports with decorated baluster
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
s and brackets
Bracket (architecture)
A bracket is an architectural member made of wood, stone, or metal that overhangs a wall to support or carry weight. It may also support a statue, the spring of an arch, a beam, or a shelf. Brackets are often in the form of scrolls, and can be carved, cast, or molded. They can be entirely...
.
At the other edge of the main house's pond is a small Gothic Revival building known as the mill, although it was never used as such and remains purely decorative, used mainly for storage. Its brick basement gives way to a board-and-batten
Batten
A batten is a thin strip of solid material, typically made from wood, plastic or metal. Battens are used in building construction and various other fields as both structural and purely cosmetic elements...
first floor, with heavy surface decoration, and then to a slate-covered cross-gabled roof with decorated bargeboard
Bargeboard
Bargeboard is a board fastened to the projecting gables of a roof to give them strength and to mask, hide and protect the otherwise exposed end of the horizontal timbers or purlins of the roof to which they were attached...
s and filials, topped by a brick chimney. The windows have been trimmed with arches of various shapes and other decorative touches.
Other outbuildings include a small greenhouse
Greenhouse
A greenhouse is a building in which plants are grown. These structures range in size from small sheds to very large buildings...
south of the garden and two more modern garages
Garage (house)
A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed.- British residential garages:Those...
to the north, some distance from the house. The latter two are the only improvements to the property not considered contributing
Contributing property
In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing resource or contributing property is any building, structure, or object which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic district, listed locally or federally, significant...
.
Clayton
Clayton's property begins across Bryant from Cedarmere, but its main entrance is located on Northern Blvd. (NY 25ANew York State Route 25A
New York State Route 25A is a state highway on Long Island in New York in the United States. It serves as the main east–west route for most of the North Shore of Long Island, running from the Queens Midtown Tunnel in the New York City borough of Queens at its western terminus to...
). The drive up, after passing a hipped-roofed
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
brick Neoclassical gatehouse to what is now the museum takes visitors through some of the pastorally landscaped 165 acres (66 ha) that make up the center of Roslyn Harbor. The main house sits on a high plateau, surrounded by plantings and a modern parking lot. It is a Georgian Revival building, brick with stone trim and copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
hipped roof, pierced by-gabled dormers, its eaves lined with modillions above a stone entablature.
The main block is two and a half stories high and nine bays wide. On both end there are symmetrical, two-bay pavilions outlined in quoin
Quoin (architecture)
Quoins are the cornerstones of brick or stone walls. Quoins may be either structural or decorative. Architects and builders use quoins to give the impression of strength and firmness to the outline of a building...
s. The front facade has a five-bay open porch with Ionic
Ionic order
The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...
column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s and a flat roof, entablature and balustrade. The main entrance is a double door with semi-circular transom. On the east facade a series of round-arched French doors give access to the garden, topped by a balustraded balcony. Two one-story arcades
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
wings project from it. The mansion's interior features much original woodwork and plaster.
Near the main house is a garden
Garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the display, cultivation, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The garden can incorporate both natural and man-made materials. The most common form today is known as a residential garden, but the term garden has...
designed by Marian Coffin, with symmetrical plantings surrounding a central fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
. The remnants of a private zoo
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
, primarily an old animal enclosure and tower. A narrow road leads to the Jerusha Dewey Cottage, originally built by Bryant for a friend of his and later used as a guest house, after extensive renovation by the Fricks. It is therefore a mixture of brick foundation, board-and-batten siding, slate roof and a mix of fenestration styles.
As at Cedarmere, two more modern buildings have been erected to support the property's current use as an art museum and sculpture garden
Sculpture garden
A sculpture garden is an outdoor garden dedicated to the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings....
. They are the only ones of the 11 buildings and structures at Clayton not considered contributing.
History
The property that became Cedarmere had been in use since the early days of local settlement in the 17th century. The earliest known house on it was built in 1787 by Richard Kirk, a Quaker farmer. Bryant bought a small house first built by Joseph Moulton in 1843 with the intent of establishing a retreat for himself from his job in the city as editor of the New York Evening PostNew York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, where he could contemplate nature and write his poetry. He expanded both the land and the house through the 1850s and 1860s into the present structure, following the then-popular principles of Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing
Andrew Jackson Downing was an American landscape designer, horticulturalist, and writer, a prominent advocate of the Gothic Revival style in the United States, and editor of The Horticulturist magazine...
and disciples like Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux
Calvert Vaux , was an architect and landscape designer. He is best remembered as the co-designer , of New York's Central Park....
, who supposedly designed the mill house, calling for small Gothic Revival cottages, sometimes in a Picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
mode, that maintained harmony with their rural surroundings. At Cedarmere, as he later named the property, he received not only Vaux and his sometime collaborator Frederick Law Olmstead, but other cultural notables of the era such as painter Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...
, James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
and actor Edwin Booth
Edwin Booth
Edwin Thomas Booth was a famous 19th century American actor who toured throughout America and the major capitals of Europe, performing Shakespearean plays. In 1869 he founded Booth's Theatre in New York, a spectacular theatre that was quite modern for its time...
.
He sold it to his daughter Julia in 1875, as long as he was allowed to live the remainder of his life there; and he did, dying three years later. She in turn sold it to her nephew, Harold Godwin, in 1891. Eight years later, he sold the undeveloped property that became Clayton to Lloyd Bryce
Lloyd Bryce
Lloyd Stephens Bryce was a U.S. Representative from New York.His father, Joseph Smith Bryce, graduated from West Point in 1829, third in his class . J. S. Bryce was a Union Major in the Civil War, engaged in the defense of Washington D...
, a former congressman
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
and heir to industrial fortunes.
The upper stories of Cedarmere were damaged considerably by a 1903 fire. On the other property, Bryce hired Codman, a young architect responsible for many seaside homes in the Northeast
Northeastern United States
The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States as defined by the United States Census Bureau.-Composition:The region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New...
, to design the main house, and began creating gardens in the property's northwest corner. The Fricks hired Charles Allom
Charles Allom
Sir Charles Carrick Allom was an eminent British decorator, trained as an architect knighted for his work on Buckingham Palace. Among his American clients in the years preceding World War I was Henry Clay Frick, for whom Allom furnished houses in cooperation with Sir Joseph Duveen, the eminent...
to modify the house for their use when they moved in 1919, renaming it Clayton, but Codman's design remains largely unchanged. Allom's main changes were the replacement of the original entrance loggia
Loggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
with the porch and, inside, creating a large entrance hall in keeping with the Fricks' intention to emulate an English country house
English country house
The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...
, a popular aspiration of wealthy Americans during the 1920s. To that end, Guy Lowell
Guy Lowell
Guy Lowell , American architect, was the son of Mary Walcott and Edward Jackson Lowell, and a member of Boston's well-known Lowell family....
designed the gatehouse, and Coffin added the main garden a decade later.
Four years after Frick's death, in 1969, the family sold the estate to Nassau County for use as an art museum. In 1989 the county transferred control to a private foundation. The Godwin family continued living in Cedarmere until they, too, donated it to the county for use as a museum in 1975.