A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 141

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 141

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"There was something so distinguished about his personality that Mr. Godwin asked of one of the attendants the stranger's name. The answer was so carelessly given that the next day Mr. Godwin again made inquiries

911

NORTH HEMPSTEAD.

and was told that the man was William Cul- len Bryant, who was a transient boarder dur- ing the absence of his family from the city, and that he had sought this unpretentious place because of its quiet and nearness to the office of the Evening Post. The interest was mutual, however, and ordinarily shy and reticent as Mr. Bryant was, he one day, find- ing himself seated near Mr. Godwin, and the two the only occupants of the room, inter- rogated him in a friendly way as to his occu- pation, which Mr. Godwin frankly acknow !- edged was only in embryo. 'Then,' said the elder man, 'as you are not busy, why can you

AT ROSLYN.

not take the place of my assistant, who is ill." Godwin tells with much humor that he assured Mr. Bryant he could be of no earthly use to him, as he had never been in a newspaper office. But he accepted the offer, and the reg- ular assistant dying soon after, he continued to serve with Mr. Bryant the interests of the Evening Post from 1837 to 1853, and after a long interval resuming editorship in 1865 for another period of years. The business rela- tions with Mr. Bryant led to a friendly in- timacy, resulting in the marriage of Mr. God- win to Mr. Bryant's eldest daughter. An epi- sode of his journalistic life which was always of interest to him was when as editor of Put- nam's Magazine Miss Bacon presented to hin

her appeal to the public to dethrone Shake- speare and substitute Bacon as the author of the immortal plays and sonnets. Mr. Godwin has always been an ardent student of Shake- speare, and he published the article only as a literary curiosity, the mental disorder of the writer being quite apparent, and it was a satire of fate that Miss Bacon should offer her uncanny imaginings to a man who had studied his Shakespeare as devoutly as he loved and believed in his personality.

"In the early years of Mr. Godwin's mar- ried life he occupied in the summer an old- fashioned home on the southern part of Mr. Bryant's estate at Roslyn. It was simple in construction, but quaintly attractive, and stood midway between the waters of Hemp- stead Harbor and the winding lake front which the place takes its name. It was here, on the grassy slope just above the salt waters, where Margaret Fuller, a frequent and be- loved guest, would throw herself after a swim in the harbor and talk breezily to her friends with that captivating magnetism which made her a beloved companion at Brook Farm. "When the Godwins were living at Roslyn occurred the frightful storm which ship- wrecked on Long Island Sound the vessel on which Margaret Fuller Ossoli, her husband and child were passengers, and it was a curious psychological fact that Mrs. Godwin was so much under the influences of the night of disaster that she could not sleep, but rest- lessly walked her room until morning, insist- ing that some one they knew and loved was in danger. The first person Mr. Godwin met the next morning near the Evening Post building was Bayard Taylor, who told him of the sad news, which was a mutual sorrow.

"In the gradual developing of the Cedar Mere grounds the low brown house was torn down, and some time later on its site was built an attractive cottage, known as Golden Rod. It has of recent years been rented for the summer, one of its tenants having been Albert Sterner, who used the west balcony

912

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

for a studio. Among the changes Mr. God- win deplores is the shutting out of the Sound view from Clover Croft piazzas by the mag- nificent trees of Willow Mere. When these were planted by the direction of the mother of Mrs. Richard Storrs Willis, Mr. Godwin foretold they would prove a future barricade to his view; but his neighbor assured him that they would not be likely to give hini trouble, as years would come and go before they would attain such proportions as to change the landscape. 'To-day Mr. Godwin is the only one left to bear witness to the truth of his prediction.

"For a man who has in his nature the es- sentials of a dreamer and a poet Mr. Godwin has had a keen and practical interest in poli- tics, and at one time was deputy collector of the New York Custom House. Many of the reforms he advocated in the Democratic Re- view were afterward embodied in the consti- tution and code of New York. Mr. Godwin's years of Shakesperean research have culmi- nated, since his retirement from newspaper work, in an analytical arrangement of the sonnets of Shakspeare. He began by careful and continuous reading, determined to find the author's meaning which he believed the sonnets were written to convey, at last group- ing them, adding marginal notes, after thoughtful readings, and now he declares that the key to their various moods is that they tell the history of the author. Mr. Godwin, with this loving tribute to the great master, closes his literary work. He believes that his vigorous physical and mental vitality is due not only to the inheritance of a sound mind and body, but to his restful summers at his Roslyn country home and the exer- cise of horseback riding. Friendly guests at both homes of whom Mr. Godwin often speaks are Bayard Taylor, Hawthorne, Fitz-Greene Halleck and Richard Storrs Willis, Edwin Booth, Salvini, Lord Houghton, Sir Henry Irving, Justin McCarthy, Orville Dewey, Rob- ert Collyer, Edwin Forest, Horatio Green-

ough, Samttel J. Tilden and scores of others, of whom many were women prominent as sing- ers, writers and artists."

It has been said that Bryant brought fame to Roslyn and made its beauties known to thousands, inducing many to build homes within its boundaries or to select it as a place in which to recuperate mind and body in a summer rest each year. Bryant and later Parke Godwin used to declare that they owed much of their triumph over the wear and tear of years by the splendid health-giving qualities of Roslyn's pure air and its restfulness. Per- haps the most advanced form of this spirit of home building has been the palace on Harbor Hill which has been erected for Clarence Mackay, son of one of the California mil- lionaires. By it Harbor Hill is now closed to the public, and the palace rises on the apex where for many years the United States Gov- ernment maintained an observatory by the un- dignified right of "squatter sovereignty." When he selected the site for his summer residence Mr. Mackay bought up as much of the surrounding farmland as he deemed was necessary for his purpose and the proper se- clusion of his home and of its appendages in the way of barns, stables, cottages for work- people, etc., and now it is said is in possession of some 650 acres, all enclosed and all in process of development, for at the date of this writing neither the house nor the "improve- ments" on the property have been completed. The whole "scheme" of the estate is. being worked out according to carefully thought-out plans, covering the most minute details, and everything has had to give way to these front Uncle Sam's observatory and public roads to a humble negro burying ground, which had been in use for a century or more. The fol- lowing newspaper account of the details of the work is fairly correct and is worth preserving :

The estate itself was, and to a great ex- tent is yet, simply a wild waste of hill and dale, covered with a tangled mass of under- growth, so thickly intertwined that in most

913.

NORTH HEMPSTEAD.

places it is impossible to force a way through it without an axe and a bush hook. Stately oaks, massive hickories, groves of mammoth chestnuts, pine, cedar and maple, undisturbed by the woodman's axe, abound. It is a wilder- ness which for hundreds of years has been in- vaded only by the hunter. Two roads only intersect the property; one, the primitive road cut through from the village to the site of the old United States observatory; the other, a miere bridle patlı running diagonally across the estate, the closing of which a month or so ago aroused the animosity of a few of the villagers. The daily papers had the stories of how the Roslyn residents purposed to invoke the law to uphold their alleged prescriptive riglits to pass through the property over this road. When, a week ago, I made inquiries about Roslyn in reference to the alleged unlawful closing of the old road, I was unable to find a resident of the place who would admit that he had any grievance against Mr. Mackay on ac- count of his action in the matter. They all said that it was simply a path through the jungle, which, although it had been used for many years, never was a road, and conse- quently had not become a right of way by pre- scription.

Early in the course of the preparation of plans Mr. Mackay made known his preference for the natural wilderness of the estate and of his desire to preserve this feature as much as possible:

It was decided that the house should be built on the very apex of the hill, with a tower which should extend even higher than the old United States observatory, which for- merly occupied the space, so that an even bet- ter general view of the surrounding country could be obtained. To reach this spot, high above the surroundings, a long road was nec- essary. The point nearest the railroad station, only about three minutes' ride by carriage from it, was chosen for the site of the lodge, the entrance to the estate. Here it was de- cided to build a gate, modeled after the old English style. The lodge, the foundation of which has already been completed, is to be of solid granite. It will consist of two houses or structures, with a bridge containing other rooms, connecting the two, over the roadway leading into the estate.

A huge iron gate, suspended between the two main wings of the lodge, will be closed to all except the friends and invited guests

of the owner. A gatekeeper will be in- stalled in the lodge, who has for years been- a servitor of the Mackay family and has mar- ried and grown gray in the service. He has a number of children, who, following the old English feudal idea, are all stanch adherents of the Mackay family. Having served in the family since the days when the Mackays be- gan to keep a retinue of servants, the gate- keeper and his wife know every friend or ac- quaintance of the family, and there is little chance of their affronting anyone for whom Mr. Mackay has the slightest regard. The quarters of the gatekeeper, who will be in supreme command of the guards surrounding the estate, will be in every way superior to many fire-class city residences, not only in architectural beauty, but in size, surroundings and fittings as well.

The problem which was submitted to the civil engineers connected with the huge staff engaged in the work of laying out the es- tate was how to run the road to the summit of the hill so that the grade might be uniform throughout the whole distance, without abrupt rises, or too many short turns. That they have solved the problem is a feather in their caps, which all engineers who have looked over the work are willing to recognize. A topo- graphical map of the entire estate was first made, and from it the route was laid out. It winds in and out like a snake, through cuts in the hills, over seemingly natural bridges, through defiles and over filled-in ravines, keep- ing the same relative rise for its entire dis- tance, of from a mile to a mile and a half, all within the Mackay domain, until it finally ends at the terrace leading to the house. This road is nearly completed. There is no por- tion of it less than sixty feet wide, and in many places it broadens out to 100 feet. Throughout its entire length it is to be mac- adamized, under a guarantee that it will be as lasting as the best macadam road in this city.

In its windings it meets hills, through which it is necessary to bore. This has been done, and in one instance the cut is between thirty and fortv feet deep. Then it meets ravines, which have been filled in, some of them to the depth of from twenty to thirty feet. In one instance it was necessary to skirt a hill with a sheer, almost perpendicular de- scent of a hundred or more feet. A portion of the side of the hill had to be excavated,

914

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

but, as in a short time if left in that condition the weather would have washed the new road entirely away, it was necessary to build a stone stay or abutment on the precipitate side. This was done with unhewn rocks dug from other portions of the road. The retain- ing wall at its deepest point is about fifty feet, and extends from one side of the gully to the other, something over 500 feet.

This retaining wall at the bottom is twenty feet thick, tapering up to a nine-foot thickness at the level of the roadbed. Just before reach- ing the apex of the hill, where the castle is to be situated, a valley is met, which has taxed the ingenuity of the engineers. After trying all sorts of plans, it was finally decided to fill it in for the roadway, and this is now being done-has been in course of fill- ing for upward of a month.

Mr. Mackay has kept· careful count of everything which has transpired in the effort to transform the howling wilderness into a luxurious abode, and has personally conducted many of the plans. He is jealous of his wild woodland effect, and is spending tens of thou- sands of dollars in saving the trees. One instance of this was shown when he ordered a change from the original lines of the road. because if the work were continued on the original plan it would cut through a noble grove of old chestnuts and naturally destroy many of them. It cost him between $4,000 and $5,000 to change the route, but he seemed to consider the money well spent when it saved his beloved grove of chestnuts from destruc- tion. Strict orders were given by him that no tree or shrub, however insignificant, should be destroyed if money could save it.

In complying with these orders, thousands of trees which grew in valleys along the site of the road, and which would have to be buried or half buried in filling in the ravines for the road were encased in boxes from the roots to a height above the level of the filling, with air space between the trunk of the tree and the boxing. One noble oak which I noticed, standing just on the edge of the sur- veyor's line, in the bottom of a valley, would have been buried to its lower branches in the filling in earth, and would have eventually died had it not been boxed in from the roots to the lower branches, fully twenty-five feet. The tree measured fully four feet in diameter at the bottom. To encase it for twenty-five feet, took a square box four by four by twenty-

five feet, allowing for the necessary air space. The timber used was spruce-worth five cents a foot. The saving of this one tree cost twenty dollars, for material alone, not counting the extra labor. One little maple sapling, which the owner insisted upon saving and which the ordinary mortal walking through the woods would smash witn his cane, without a second thought, cost him eight dollars for boxing, so that it should not die !

His love for nature at her wildest, to- gether with his fear lest some portion of his magnificent domain should be marred by the ruthless hand of the contractor and his em- ployes, has led Mr. Mackay into extravagance which he scarcely could have contemplated in the beginning. The original contract for cut- ting through the mile or so of road to the site of the residence was moderate. His ex- actions since then, in respect to the saving of trees, shrubbery, etc., which was not con- templated in the original agreement, will prob- ably augment the total cost to at least three times the original contract price.

The approach to the mansion alone will cost close to $150,000, and this is only the actual approach and does not include the ap- propriation for the landscape engineer. Every cut through a hill will have to be sodded, seeded, planted and set out so as to carry out the general scheme of native wilderness. All of the ravines which have been filled in will have to be mossed over and måde to look natural. Every portion of the approach will have to be so treated by the gardeners and architects in order that it may be a complete contrast to the surrounding estates. So much for the approach to the house alone.

Then will come the fencing in. A portion of the vast estate will be inclosed by heavy, substantial stone walls. Another portion will have a high and closely woven wire fence as a protection, and still another section will be inclosed by a thick thorn hedge. It will de- pend entirely upon the topography of the ground. And this, also, is but the beginning:

The house, which Mr. Mackay has said would be "his little summer place," will, as a matter of fact, probably be the most mag- nificent summer home in America. It is Mr. Mackay's ambition to eclipse all others. The homes of the Vanderbilts, Astors, Whitneys and Goulds are to be nothing in comparison to the splendid place planned by Mr. Mackay. The house proper, which the builders after

IN AND AROUND PORT WASHINGTON.

915

NORTH HEMPSTEAD.

nearly a year's work have gotten up to the second story, is 238 feet wide-larger than the ordinary city block-and 110 feet in depth. This is the main building and does not em- brace various small L's and additions. On the north side of this is to be a glass con- servatory, 100x100 feet, which will make the actual frontage of the mansion 338 feet.

The outside foundation wall is of granite, the inside walls being of pressed brick. Above the floor level the building is of Illinois sand- stone, handsomely chiseled and of the same shade as the granite foundation.

The entrance to this palace will be in the center, facing south, and is composed of three doorways. One big double one and two smaller -- one on each side. These lead into a hall forty by eighty feet, in which, it will be seen, four ordinary small city houses could be put. To the right of this will be the salons, reception rooms, music rooms, etc., while to the left will be the banquet hall, dining room, picture gallery, breakfast room, etc.

The second floor will be divided into suites of apartments for the family and guests, and the third floor will contain the billiard room and other rooms for guests, while in a wing, separated from the main structure, will be the servants' rooms. The ceilings of the main floor are eighteen feet in height and of the two upper floors fifteen feet each. There will also be a tower from which the finest view obtainable on Long Island may be enjoyed.

Under the whole house is a concreted cel- lar fifteen feet deep, and intersected by pas- sageways, running both lengthwise and across. Here one can almost lose himself. The vari- ous rooms are of brick and most of them are to have iron doors. They will be laundries, store rooms, cold-storage plant, wine cellars, etc. Two elevators run from the cellar to the top floor, and a large steam and hot-water heating plant will furnish warmth of two dif- ferent and independent sorts. The electric- light plant is situated in a natural valley, some distance from the house and entirely hidden from it by surrounding trees. It is proposed not only to light the house, stable and imme- diate grounds, but the entire mile and a half of roadway, the lodge and other buildings con- nected with the estate, from this plant, which will also furnish power for a pumping station to fill a perfect little reservoir near the house from springs on various parts of the estate, from whence the water will be pumped to the house, stable, etc.

The approach to the house is to be a marvel of beauty, built on the old Roman order of ar- chitecture. Just in front of the house will be an oblong plaza, nearly as large as the main front of the house. In the center of this will be a fountain, capable of presenting prismatic effects in the evening. Around this will be . rare plants, and on the outside a marble walk, surrounded by solid marble balustrades. At the side opposite the house three steps will lead down to another marble plaza, with antique lamp posts at either end. Three more steps will lead down to a third level like the second, and so on until the final circle is reached, where the carriages stop. For use on rainy days, when the owner may not wish to ascend the graduated plazas, a road will be built from the carriage circle to the left, and through a tunnel under the main plaza into the cellar of the house, where an elevator will take the occupants to the rooms above.

It is proposed by Mr. Mackay to keep the property as far as possible in its present state of wilderness, and it will be stocked with game of various kinds.

It is estimated by those who are conversant with Mr. Mackay's plans that it will cost all of $5,000,000 to carry them out, and that the place will be one of the most magnificent, if not the most magnificent, of America's sum- mer residences.

Great Neck has risen in importance and in- creased in population since the opening of the railroad through it, but although it has been settled since about 1670, there is little about it to call for notice beyond saying that it is a prosperous agricultural community. The splendid estate of ex-Mayor William R. Grace, of New York, which bears the name of Grace- land, is one of many attractive properties which wealth and taste combined have created out of what was indeed a wilderness.

Port Washington is the terminus of one branch of the Long Island Railroad, and with the opening of that bit of railroad line in 1898 its annals as a modern resort will in the future date. But at present its story is mainly of the past. Up to 1875 it was known as Cow Bay, and its oystering business gave employment to the bulk of its adult population, and it could rejoice in its antiquity, as it was the scene of

916

HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

the surrender of the English to the Dutch, already narrated in this chapter. In the early part of the eighteenth century two tidewater grist-mills were erected at Cow Bay, and with them the village may be said to have begun.

Manhasset looms up a little more promi- nently than its two neighbors we have just been writing about from the historian's point of view. It was formerly called Cow Neck by its white inhabitants, and Sint Sink by the red men, but Manhasset has been its legal designation since 1850. Since the opening up of the railroad it has added greatly to its population, and it promises ere long to be one of the most popular resort towns on the north shore. In most of the guide books a tradition- ary story is printed which connects Manhasset with a very remote past and may be reprinted here :

"Stout Miles Standish came so far, and with him a young man named Davis. The latter was of fine stature and gentle birth, so there must have been some unusual attraction in the Indian girl who ensnared his heart. The story is as old as the region of which we speak. It has been told of other lovers in all climes, but it loses no interest because of the romantic surroundings here. The girl was loved by a young brave of the village, but she returned the affection of her white admirer, and sought to flee with him. He was faith- ful even unto death, and when they were pur- sued, with his back against the great stone upon which is engraven his name, fought gal- lantly until they slew him. Plucking the fatal arrow from the heart of her lover, the Indian girl took her own life, and they were buried where they fell. Rugged vines and great patches of moss are on the stone near where they rest, but their names, graven upon the rock, are yet to be deciphered, and the lovers of to-day who make of the spot a favorite trysting place, repeat the ancient story with hushed voices and find a tender inspiration in recalling it."

Turning to another section of the town,

we find the rifle ranges of Creedmoor, where year after year the State militia compete for marksmen's badges and where the famous series of international rifle matches for the "Palma" trophy were held in the 'seventies. At that time the rifle butts of Creedmoor were as well known as those of Wimbledon, but in recent years its competitions have been local and humdrum. Floral Park is the site of the Childs Nurseries, and one of the prettiest sights on Long Island is that of these gardens in bloom,-and something or other seems to be blooming there all the year round. The little village beside the nurseries, Floral Park, is of modern date, but already boasts a popu- lation of about 400. Hyde Park was for- merly a horse-racing center, and at one time bore the name of Newmarket. Hyde Park was formerly the residence of Judge George D. Ludlow, and his mansion was for many years the most notable dwelling in the neigh- borhood. Judge Ludlow was an intense Tory during the Revolution and his brother Gabriel was Colonel· of a regiment of American loy- alists during the same period. As a result of this, when peace was declared, their estates were forfeited and the two brothers settled in New Brunswick, Canada, and Hyde Park saw them no more. In 1816 William Cobbett, the English political reformer and agitator, was compelled to leave London on account of hav- ing excited the ire of the Government of that day, and coming to this country until the storm should blow over, leased a farm at Hyde Park. He resided in the old Ludlow mansion, and it was while in his occupancy, in 1817, that it was destroyed by fire. Cobbett did not remain long in America, for in 1819 he was again in England and earning his livelihood by his pen.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 141

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188