THREE MORE DEGREES OF INTERIOR DECORATION.

Okay, I admit it. One needs a GPS to navigate the beginning of this story, but we'll get there.  It all began in New York Social Diary with an article I wrote about menservants behaving badly in gilded age Bar Harbor.  In the course of the story, some interconnected relationships were revealed.  That led to a second story posted last week in this blog, called 'Six Degrees of Interior Decoration', in which I picked up some threads of those relationships and carried it through several more houses before taking it back to where it began in NYSD.  Here we wrap it up for the moment, with three generations of decoration in the same family.

There are two choices:  One can read the dizzying synopsis in the paragraph below or go back and read the first two stories (Pt. 1 HERE and Pt. 2 HERE), if one hasn't already.  If you have read these stories, and don't need or want a synopsis, simply skip the next paragraph, and venture to the new territory.

Baymeath, the J.T. Bowen house at Bar Harbor

Mrs. J.T. Bowen of Chicago, friend and patroness of Jane Addams, built a summer home, Baymeath, at Bar Harbor in 1896.  She had two butlers who  fought in the butler's pantry.  Snatched each other's wigs off.  Joseph Pulitzer bought a house, Chatwold, at Bar Harbor in 1894.  He had some lazy footmen who smoked cigars when they were supposed to be sweeping the drawing rooms.  Pulitzer's daughter Edith married W.S. Moore, great grandson of Clement Moore.  Their Bar Harbor cottage was Woodlands, which burned in the Bar Harbor fire.  After the fire, Mrs. Moore bought Baymeath, where any problems with her butler are lost to history.  Got that?  Then, in the 'Six Degrees' post, I picked up the threads.  W.S. Moore's brother Benjamin, and his wife, Alexandra Emery, built Chelsea, a lovely and famous house on Long Island, designed by Delano and Aldrich.  Alexandra Moore's mother, Mrs. J.J. Emery, later the Hon. Mrs. Anson,  owned a granite pile at Bar Harbor, called the Turrets, designed by Emily Post's father, Bruce Post, another thread we won't follow.  Her son, J.J. Jr., built another handsome Delano & Aldrich house, Peterloon, in his native Cincinnati.  His wife was the daughter of Charles Dana Gibson, and a first cousin of decorator Nancy Lancaster, but we didn't follow that thread, so forget that.  However, another of his sisters, Audrey, twice married to Russian princes, built  a stylish Regency House in Palm Beach, later owned by Mme Jacques Balsan, the former Duchess of Marlborough, nee Consuelo Vanderbilt.  Mme. Balsan was a great friend of her first husband's cousin, Winston Churchill, who was a not so great friend of Nancy Lancaster's aunt, Nancy Astor---but we said we weren't going to follow that thread today, so forget I mentioned it.  Mme. Balsan's cousin, Frederica Webb, married Edith Pulitzer Moore's brother Ralph, which almost gets us back to Bar Harbor and Baymeath.  Did you get all that?  I feel like Suzy Knickerbocker on speed. 

Thorncraig was perfectly sited at the summit of Point Lookout

Near Baymeath, on Lookout Point in Hull's Cove, was a cottage called Yule Craig, designed by Rotch & Tilden of Boston for the son of Senator Yulee of Florida. In 1904 The house was purchased by Mrs. Bowen's friend, Jane Addams and Miss Addams's lady friend Mary Rozet Smith.   A half mile path connected Baymeath and Yule Craig, and there was much visiting back and forth, as Mrs. Bowen was one of the chief supporters of Jane Addams's Hull House Settlement in Chicago, and donor of the Bowen Country Club.  Miss Addams once famously said that she could raise more money in a single month in Bar Harbor than all the rest of the year back home in Chicago.

In 1931 Jane Addams died, and though the exact sequence isn't clear, it appears that the house was purchased 1932 by the Harry Hill Thorndikes.  Mrs. Thorndike's sister, Miss Belle Gurnee, owned the property between Yule Craig and Baymeath, a large chalet built in Switzerland and imported to her property on Lookout Point.  Miss Gurnee's uncle Augustus Gurnee was one of Bar Harbor's largest taxpayers a generation earlier.

Thorncraig, Entrance Front.  The house was set slightly into the summit of its little hill--one stepped down from the front door into the house, and the facade had a whimsical quality, with curved entrance hood, turret and curved brackets.

The Thorndikes apparently did not take immediate possession of the cottage, which they renamed Thorncraig, as the next summer found Mrs. Bowen's daughter Helen and her husband William McCormick Blair, in residence for the summer.  The design savvy reader will have a frisson of recognition, for Mrs. Bowen's daughter and son-in-law were the builders of a highly revered house designed for them by David Adler in Lake Bluff, Illinois.  If you don't mind a quick six degrees moment, don't forget that the front door of that house was inspired by one owned by the Blair's great friends, the J. Watson Webbs, he the cousin of Mme. Balsan, and the brother of Edith Moore's sister-in-law, Frederica Webb Pulitzer.  Got that class?  You may be quizzed.

Port of Call, the William McCormick Blair house on Crab Tree farm in Lake Bluff, designed by David Adler

Thorncraig was inherited by the Thorndike's son, Augustus Gurnee Thorndike, and was later purchased by John J. Emery.  Emery was the grandson of the Cinncinati real estate tycoon who had built the Turrets in the 1890s, and his aunt was married to Benjamin Moore, brother-in-law of Mrs. Moore who later owned Baymeath. Thorncraig proved to have notoriously irresolvable plumbing troubles, and was demolished in the early 1980's. The design of Thorncraig was  imaginative and playful, a large shingled cottage designed to appear smaller than it really was, and the roofs and central stair turret exactly echoed the hilltop whose summit it graced.  I always enjoyed seeing Thorncraig ahead on its on its hilltop as I left Bar Harbor, a cheerful little shingled chateau overlooking Frenchman's Bay.

Mrs. Bowen's Hall at Baymeath, Bar Harbor

Mrs. Bowen's daughter Mrs. William McCormick Blair's all at Port of Call, Lake Bluff, with the famous arrangement of Currier & Ives Prints set into the woodwork.

Mrs. William McCormick Blair Junior's stair hall in Washington, decorated by Billy Baldwin (House Beautiful, via Toby Worthington

It is interesting to to track sensibilities as style travels through several generations, as can be seen in these photos of Mrs. Bowen's Hall at Baymeath, the hall, living room, and library of her daughter Helen Blair in the Adler House at Lake Bluff, and the famous hall, drawing room and library decorated by Billy Baldwin in the Washington house of Mrs. Blair's daughter-in-law, Mrs. William McCormick Blair Jr..  At Baymeath, we see the early Colonial Revival in play, with touches of Victorian taste still lingering.  In the William McCormick Blair Sr. house, we see the version of Colonial decor made high style, as popularized by Henry Davis Sleeper at Beauport, and adopted by many fashionable people in the 1920's and 30's, with humble objects chosen for their aged charm and soft colors, romantically arranged for modern living.  

Mrs. William McCormick Sr.'s living room at Port of Call, with 18th century paneling from Virginia

Mrs. William McCormick Blair Jr's. Washington Drawing Room (Horst, Billy Baldwin Decorates/TW)

And though we don't have a picture of Mrs. Bowen's library at Baymeath, we can see it through the doors beyond the stairs, lined with books and mementos, and engravings and large travel photographs so ubiquitous to the era. Here are the next two generations: 

Mrs. Blair Sr.'s Library at Port of Call.

Mrs. Blair Jr's. library in Washington, by Billy Baldwin (Eric Boman, HB/TW)

 And last but not least, we have Edith Pulitzer Moore's redecoration of Baymeath after she purchased the estate in 1948.

Baymeath, drawing room

Baymeath, Hall (photographs by Elizabeth Mills, courtesy Sargent M. Collier)

There, have I forgotten anything?

Oh yes, thanks, Beth, for the photos of Thorncraig 

WILL THE REAL LA LANTERNE PLEASE STAND UP

Lanterne, or Not Lanterne, That is the Question

This is territory which has been covered before by other bloggers, but being the Down East Know-It-All,  I want to set the record straight on a small point.  As the regular reader knows, I am fascinated by design inspiration and sources, and strive for accuracy in noting those sources.

The Original:  Pavilion de La Lanterne at Versailles

One of the most perfect, and most admired, houses of 18th century France is Pavilion de la Lanterne, so called because of the transparency effected by its many windows combined with its shallow depth.  Architect unknown, attributed to Louis Le Vau, it was built as a hunting lodge at the edge of the Park at Versailles by the Prince de Noailles, head of the Royal Hunt and governor of Versailles.

As the palatial French Beaux Arts styles that had been the standard for grand houses in America fell out of fashion in the early 1900's, simpler French styles came into favor, based on smaller chateaux and manor houses, and La Lanterne was a popular source, with many adaptations built from coast to coast.   Herewith a few of those copies, plus my point of disagreement with previous attributions.

 Entrance Front

 Garden Front

(Above) The Carolyn Morse Ely house in Lake Bluff, a brilliant but not slavish adaptation by David Adler

The Carolyn Morse Ely House in Lake Bluff, Illinois, designed by David Adler in 1923, is generally considered the finest of the adaptations, and the Dilettante does not argue. Adler makes the design his own, with graceful scale and well chosen details.  The house is of buff brick rather than the stucco of the original, the first floor windows are gently arched, and the second floor windows do not go to the floor, as in the original.  Neo-classical porches flank the garden facade, and mansard roof wings flank the entrance court, as in the original.  The facade of the Ely house is more rustic than in the original, with pared down detail, and punctuated by oeil de bouef dormers in the carefully textured roof.

La Lanterne on steroids.  Horace Trumbauer's huge version, based on both the original and the Adler version, for banker James Clews, built on the eve of the Great Depression. 

Next up is the Brookville, Long Island estate of James Clews, head of the banking house of Henry Clews & Co., designed by Horace Trumbauer in 1929, called, originally enough, La Lanterne.  Trumbauer may have given up the palatial beaux arts style of his earlier palaces, such as The Elms in Newport, but the scale of this house was, as typical of the architect, enormous, with huge rooms and over size doors and windows.  The wings are two full stories, and larger than the original.  Trumbauer copies the Oeil de Bouef windows from the Adler version, which he would have known from architectural publications.  The Dilettante is convinced that Trumbauer's measuring tape showed a foot as 18 inches.   After years as a convent, the center section of the house was torn down, and the wings became two large and separate country houses, the one on the left home of stylish Thelma Chrysler Foy's daughter Cynthia Rupp.

 Ker Arvor, the Snowden Fahnstock residence in Newport, Rhode Island, the closest adaptation of La Lanterne.

In Newport, Rhode Island is Ker Arvor, built for Snowden Fahnestock in the early 1930's.  Its stucco facade suffers much  from heavy applications of white paint.  Here we come to one of the Dilettante's Don'ts.   Don't paint stucco.  Let it age.  Really. 

 But, I digress.   Also in Newport is  the pretender that is my bone of contention.  Champ Soleil, a lovely French manor house designed by Polhemus and Coffin for Mrs. Drexel Dahlgren, is often called, especially by realtors, a copy of La Lanterne.  It is not.   The entrance pavilion is based on that of La Lanterne, as are some window lintels, but there the resemblance stops.  The house itself has steep roofs, and is composed in three parts.  It is modeled on any number of French Manor houses and chateaux of similar composition, and its type was also a favorite from the Beaux Arts onward to the Champ Soleil.

 Entrance Front

 Garden Front

(Above) Champ Soleil, in Newport, designed for Drexel Dahlgren by Polhemus & Coffin in 1929.  See the difference?.

 The Chateau Courances, in France, shows the three-part steep roof composition, typical of French architecture of the era, that inspired many American houses of the early 20th century.

So, are we clear on this?  To recap:

 La Lanterne

House in Newport which does copy La Lanterne

 House in Newport which does not copy La Lanterne

Class dismissed.

 Advanced Seminar:  Six Degrees of Separation:

The Library at Champ Soleil, as decorated by Jansen for the Goelets

In 1947, Champ Soleil was purchased by Robert Goelet, who was seeking to downsize from Ochre Court, the 60 room French Medieval chateau in Newport that he'd inherited from his father years before.  He immediately upsized Champs Soleil, adding a ballroom wing and hiring the uber fashionable firm of Jansen to do the interiors.  Years earlier, Goelet's first wife, Elsie Whelan, had left him for sculptor Henry Clews Jr., first cousin of James Clews, owner of the Brookville 'La Lanterne'.  Elsie & Henry fled Newport for the French Rivera, where they renovated the Chateau de la Napoule, which gloomy pile was decidedly not inspired by La Lanterne, so we can stop here.

Now, who else tells you these things?

Intermission: Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun, With Double Porticos

Typical Dilettante, I've got half a dozen posts in some stage of completion, but am very busy for the next few days, so until I get there here is quick post from the files.

A few months ago, this architectural rendering, of a proposed house by Daniel Romualdez for fashion designer Tory Burch, to be built in one or another of the many Hamptons, was doing the internet rounds.  I saved it because I was interested in the design, of two wings terminated by porticos, forming a courtyard.  It was a popular motif in houses many years ago.  The plan offered plenty of light and air, with  3 exposures possible in many rooms, many balconies and porches for a summer afternoon, and worked well for hierarchical separation of public, family, and service areas.   Here are  a few other examples:

The granddaddy of them all appears to be 'Beacon Rock' in Newport, RI, designed in 1887 by McKim Mead & White for E.D. Morgan.  A very large house, with 3 floors, it was designed to appear as a one story ancient Roman villa, and was quite radical for an era still in thrall to turrets and verandas.

 Beacon Rock, Newport Watercolor by Vernon Howe Bailey, 1887 (Vareika Fine Arts, Newport)

 (Dilettante Tangent: Even great architecture can extract a cost.  Before its top was blasted to provide a site for the house, Beacon Rock was one of the most beloved subjects for 19th century painters visiting Newport, including luminist John Frederick Kensett who painted this sublime view in 1857)

This house on the Down East coast of Maine seems to be next up in the chronology.  It was designed in 1911 as a summer cottage (seen here on an early postcard) for F.B. Richards, vice president of the M.A. Hanna Company in Cleveland, by Frank Chouteau Brown, one of the leaders of the Colonial Revival.  Here the porticos have grown to two stories, with square columns inspired by Mt. Vernon, on a house otherwise inspired, on blown-up scale, by classic New England Federals. The courtyard formed by the two wings contained a 'colonial' garden designed by Beatrix Farrand

Architect Howard Major, later known for his suave tropical houses in Palm Beach, designed this Glen Cove, Long Island house in 1918 for William Beard.  Looking at this picture, one is tempted to speculate that Major had seen at least the postcard published of the Richards cottage, as his design includes not only the double porticoes with square columns, but nearly identical fretwork railings at second floor level.

In 1919, Tobacco and Utilities magnate James B. Duke, wishing his daughter Doris to be better acquainted with her home state, as well as the Newport whirl that her mother preferred, purchased a Colonial Revival house in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He had local architect C.C. Hook triple it in size, to the present configuration.   He named the place Lynnewood, and here Doris sometimes attended local schools.  Not a man to do things by halves, Duke took the design idea to the limit, with two facades featuring the twin porticos, as it also appears does Burch's proposed house, where this ramble started.  Despite his hope that the house would foster an affection for North Carolina in young Doris, the house was sold upon his death, the only one of his four homes not retained by his widow and daughter.

Last up, below, is a country house in Minnesota designed by the great David Adler in the 1920's for the Egil Boeckmans, she the daughter of railroad tycoon James J. Hill.  The house is pleasant, although lacking in the usual elan of Adler's work