I spent much of last month zipping around all over the place, mainly fulfilling long-planned visits to friends we rarely see because they live so far away. This included a lightning five-day trip to Long Island (nuts, I know, but she is a very GOOD friend and sadly on her own since her husband died a couple of years ago).
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| Coe Hall, Planting Fields Park, Long Island, USA. |
Now Long Island, as you probably know, is famous for several massive mansions built in various historical styles by nineteenth and early twentieth century industrialists who had made huge fortunes in America’s growing economy. The period is known as the Gilded Age, and some of these houses and the wealthy people who owned them are said to have inspired Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The families have now long gone and many of these fine houses been demolished, sadly, or (much better fate) turned into museums. Our friend took us to see one, Coe Hall in Planting Fields Historic State Park, a Tudor-style house built in 1918 by William Robertson Coe, who’d made his fortune in insurance.  |
| Flagstone corridors in Coe Hall, Planting Fields. |
I’m not sure what I expected. Probably some kind of gleaming, over-the-top, anachronistic pastiche, plastered with portraits of Edwardian women in heavy silk dresses, displaying great chunks and swathes of jewelry. But what I saw took my breath away.
The Coes clearly had the money (and artistic sensitivity) to build something as close to the real thing as they possibly could, using top quality materials and craftsmen. Not being an architectural historian myself, I accept there were probably many things in the construction and decorating whose lack of authenticity would jump out to a professional. But I could readily have believed that the vaulted entrance hall, flagstoned corridors, dark, heavy staircases and carved oak doors were the real thing.  |
| Dark oak and stone staircase, Coe Hall. |
Some of the décor was indeed historic: the stained glass windows below, for instance, came from 14th century Hever Castle in Kent. |
| Dining room at Coe Hall with stained glass windows from Hever Castle |
And this family portrait isn’t a 19th century copy, but an original one of the Speaker of the House of Commons, William Lenthall with his family, painted in 1649 by Jan Weesop.  |
William Lenthall, Speaker of the House of Commons,
painted with his family in 1649 by Jan Weesop. |
When Coe’s second wife, Caroline, died in 1960, Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park became fully operated by the Planting Fields Foundation, a nonprofit public educational organization founded by William R. Coe in 1952.
Go, if you’re ever on Long Island. I haven’t described half its beauties and we had no time to spend exploring the Arboretum, greenhouses and stunning landscape gardens.
Quick plug to end with: I’m taking part in the Oxford Indie Book Fair in the splendid Examination Halls, High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BG on Sunday, 22 November, 11 am – 4.30 pm. Come and find me at Table N41, if you happen to be in Oxford, and ESPECIALLY if you need Christmas presents for aged 9- 13. Can’t go wrong with a book, can you? |
Oxford Indie Book Fair, OX1 4BG,
Sunday 22 November, 11 am - 4.30 pm |
Find out more about Griselda Heppel here:
and her children's books:
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