The Firestones in Newport

Harvey S. and Elizabeth P. Firestone sailing onboard a ship to Europe, 1958.

Mr. and Mrs. Harvey S. Firestone Jr. were amongst the wealthiest couples in Newport, with a combined net worth in the range of seventy-million dollars. They summered at their Newport residence, 'Ocean Lawn', which Mr. Firestone had purchased in the early 1950's. In addition to 'Ocean Lawn', the Firestones maintained homes in New York City, Ohio and Palm Beach. The Firestones were a dedicated couple, having wed in 1921, and remained married for over fifty years, till Harvey Firestone's death. Afterwards, Mrs. Firestone remained in seclusion at 'Ocean Lawn', leading a very lavish livelihood. 

Elizabeth Parke Firestone (1897-1990)

Harvey and Elizabeth Firestone were known in Newport for their extensive collections, particularly Elizabeth. Elizabeth Firestone was said to collect just about everything, and she carefully marked, catalogued, sorted and organized her collection into a massive inventory. She was particularly fond of couture dresses, which she collected by the hundreds. Her collection of clothes was so massive, she had a three-story walk-in closest carved out of guest bedrooms at 'Ocean Lawn'. Elizabeth also had a passion for collecting silver and porcelain pieces, which she housed in a small anteroom at 'Ocean Lawn', featuring specially designed class cabinets for their storage. 

'Ocean Lawn' ~ The Firestone cottage in Newport, Rhode Island.

With 'Ocean Lawn' bursting at the seams full of her collection, Elizabeth decided that more property needed to be purchased. In addition to the main house, the property at 'Ocean Lawn' included a guest house, gardener's cottage, pool house, green houses and a playhouse for the Firestone grandchildren. A few years later, Mrs. Firestone purchased the two neighboring properties: 'Southside' and 'The Orchard', to not only buffer 'Ocean Lawn' from other neighbors, but also to utilize the homes as more space for her collection. 'Southside' became completely devoted to Elizabeth's collection of Jamaican furniture, which had originally graced the Firestone residence in Jamaica. 

'Ocean Lawn' 

Elizabeth Parke Firestone, photographed by Cecil Beaton.

Elizabeth Firestone was a perfectionist, carefully concerned and mindful of her appearance. She had a fit routine which she practiced with care every morning. She had breakfast every morning in her bedroom, and planned every meal she ate with her the Firestone's cook. After breakfast, her maid would come and do her hair and nails in the beauty parlor chair and hair dryer she had installed in her room. Afterwards, she would exercise by the pool with her personal trainer. Many remember, that at a certain age, Elizabeth began having facelifts done every seven years to retain a youthful look. She had them done in Florida, by a surgeon who did all the Hollywood stars. Elizabeth also took very very VERY great care in what she wore. She favored pinks and blues, and had swatches of fabric next to each of her shoes to make sure the servant picked the right outfit to match with the shoes. She had her clothes washed in Paris, though pressed at home. Her system of organizing her clothes was so well planned, that she never lost a thing. 

Mrs. Firestone's dressing table at 'Ocean Lawn'.

With Mrs. Firestone's death in 1990, 'Ocean Lawn' was valued at $6 million. Her fabulously collection of dresses was given to various museums, including the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, Michigan. Christie's New York was given the honor of auctioning off her marvelous jewelry and decorative arts collection. 'Ocean Lawn' was eventually sold for $1 million, and 'Southside' and 'The Orchard' were also sold. Today, both 'Ocean Lawn' and 'The Orchard' still survive. 

To read more about 'Ocean Lawn', click HERE. 

To read more about Mrs. Elizabeth Firestone, please click HERE  and HERE to read about her fabulous wedding dress, currently on exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. 

'Beechwood' Evolves!

Sketches of Larry Ellison's plan for 'Beechwood'.

'Beechwood' today, currently in the process of exterior and interior
restoration. 

It was big news in 2010, when Oracle billionaire Lawrence Ellison purchased the deeds to the Astor family cottage in Newport, Rhode Island, 'Beechwood'. It shocked everyone even more, when he announced plans to turn the residence into a museum, and purchase the original acreage to the property and restore both the house and the gardens. The new estate would serve as a museum to Ellison's art collection, which would adorn the walls of the manor house.

Originally built by Andrew Downing and Calvert Vaux for merchant Daniel Parrish, 'Beechwood' was later purchased by William Backhouse Astor Jr., the grandson of America's first millionaire John Jacob Astor, for his wife, Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, known officially as THE "Mrs. Astor". Mrs. Astor was renown as queen of New York City society, keeping the outsiders out and the insiders in with her list of socially acceptable New York families, known as the "400". It was her so-called "court jester" Ward McAllister, the man who wrote the "400", who led her to Newport, describing it as practically a "gated-community". Since 'Beechwood' possessed no ballroom, renovation had to be made. Mrs. Astor commissioned her friend and fellow Newport neighbor, architect Richard Morris Hunt, to oversee the renovations. A few months later, 'Beechwood' was ready for occupation, and Mrs. Astor moved in. Very soon, 'Beechwood' became the new scene of the "400", and Newport where they flocked every summer to escape the New York heat. Mrs. Astor held the grandest entertainments in her Newport ballroom, which featured wall scones designed with nymphs and Poseidon. The Astor's Summer Ball was the official opening of the Newport summer social season, and invitation to such event was highly sought after, something which could make or break one's social standing. With Mrs. Astor's failing health in 1907, 'Beechwood' saw less and less entertainments, the events there becoming more family related. Mrs. Astor's son, John IV also summered at the cottage with his mother, and frequently used the home as an escape from his domineering wife, Ava. Mrs. Astor died in 1908, and left the home to her only son, who quickly turned around and divorced his wife, later marrying a Bar Harbor socialite named Madeleine Force, who was 18 to his 47 years. It was a scandalous marriage, held in the ballroom at 'Beechwood'. The Astors fled to Europe to escape gossip, and shortly after returned with news that Madeleine was pregnant with Astor's third child, John VI. Astor had two other children from his marriage with Ava, Vincent and Ava. 

On their return trip home, the Astors booked passage on the newly complete Titanic as the richest passengers onboard. The Titanic sunk days into it's maiden voyage on April 15, 1912. Madeleine escaped the ship in one of the few lifeboats onboard. John, however, like most of the men onboard, perished. In his will, John left 'Beechwood' and a $5 million trust fund to Madeleine, so long as she did not remarry. He also left a $3 million trust fund to his unborn son, to be received at the age of 21. Madeleine continued to use 'Beechwood' during the summers, and was known as a big-spender, turning the entire third-floor of 'Beechwood' into her own walk-in closet. She eventually remarried, and relinquished use of the estate to Vincent, who sold the estate again to a Count and Countess. In the 1960's, 'Beechwood' became home to Palm Beachers Mr. and Mrs. James Clark, whose beagle William was known in Florida as "the mayor". The Clarks closed down seventeen of the forty-eight rooms and summered there seasonally. After Mrs. Clark's death in 1980's, the home was sold again, and later made into a living-history museum, known as "The Astor's Beechwood", which featured actors dressed in period costume and pretending to be Astor family members before the Titanic. The company operated the home until it's purchase from Ellison.

To read more information on the restoration currently going on a 'Beechwood', please click HERE. 

If you are interested in the Newport "cottages", such as 'Beechwood', please visit my Facebook group, "Newport ~ Queen of Resorts" by clicking HERE, and please ask to join. With almost 400 members, we can so be called the Newport "400"! 

Also, please show your support and visit Gilded Age Era's Facebook page, by clicking HERE, and please give us a like in support! 

Also, if you are on Pinterest or Twitter, please follow me by clicking HERE and HERE.

'Blair Mansion' DEMOLITION

The historic 'Blair Mansion' in Tulsa, Oklahoma, long a Tulsan symbol of
history, a mere days before it's demolition to make way for a $200 million
park plan. 

On February 1, 2014, Tulsa's historic 'Blair Mansion' 

facing Riverside, overlooking the Arkansas River, 

was demolished after attempts to move the 

residence to make way for a park. Demolition begun 

at 8:00 a.m. and was completed by 10:00 a.m. With 

it, went a piece of sacred Tulsa history.

Constructed in 1952 for Tulsa millionaire, B. B. Blair, 

one of the largest investors in Canal Refining Co. 

and Western Supply Co., and his wife Priscilla Blair 

on their dream lot, 33.2 acres overlooking the 

Arkansas River on historic Riverside Drive, a plot 

that the Blair's cozily called their little 'farm'. The 

Blair's commissioned local architect John Duncan 

Forsyth to design their southern plantation-style 

home, inspired by 'Beauvoir', the Mississippi home 

of John Davis, President of the Confederacy during 

the Civil War. With two stories, expansive gardens 

and wide veranda, the home for many years 

functioned as a full working farm, complete with a 

large vegetable garden, fruit trees, and a manager's 

cottage. Many can recall driving by the mansion in 

50's and 60's and smelling the aroma of Blair's 

freshly mown alfalfa. 



Blair died in 1980, after which it was inherited by 

Priscilla Blair, who was a member of the Tulsa 

Garden Club and also a charter member of the 

Philbrook Art Museum. The home was passed onto 

the Blair's only son, John Blair, a longtime resident 

of Swan Lake, Montana, upon Priscilla's death in 

1995. John Blair promptly sold the residence. In 

2012, Dan Buford, a nursing-home builder and 

twenty-year resident of the Blair Mansion, sold the 

property to the George Kaiser Foundation, with the 

intention the Buford would be given a year to try 

and relocate the home. After consulting numerous 

architects, the plan was to have the home split into 

three halves and moved to a separate location. This 

would prove to be nearly impossible and extremely 

costly. After a year, Buford gave up. It wasn't till the 

day of the demolition, February 1, that I realized the 

home was being demolished. 


It was 7:15 a.m., and the crews had already arrived 

at the site, to meet 

the 8:00 deadline. I was still bewildered why the 

home was being demolished. "To make way for a 

Tulsa Parks Gathering Space" the papers said. But 

why did the home need to be demolished? Couldn't 

this "gathering space" be built somewhere on the 

other 33 acres of the property? Or why couldn't the 

home itself be used? The lavish interiors would be a 

perfect fit for weddings, receptions and other such 

events. Why did the home have to be demolished? 

That question will forever ring in my mind "Why did 

it have to go.. why... why was The 'Blair Mansion' 

demolished??"


The 'Blair Mansion' will forever remain in the hearts of 

Tulsans as a symbol of history, elegance and stately-hood.


To read more about this magnificent piece of history, please 

visit my FaceBook page about the property, "The Legacy of 

The 'Blair Mansion'", and give us a like. Click HERE to do so. 

The Stately World of Newport

Being fitted for a costume ball, Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse tries on a 19th
Century Gown long treasured in a trunk.

Harold Vanderbilt and guest Winthrop Aldrich look out to sea from the
fog-shrouded lawn of Vanderbilt's Newport mansion, Rock Cliff.

In a Newport mansion a lady stood stately and erect while her maid pinned her gown. On the lawn of a palatial Newport estate two yachtsmen gazed wistfully toward the sea. They were all anticipating the excitement and splendor that they and the famous resort once knew - and would never forget. In Newport's grandiose prime a half century ago a party wasn't really a party in one of the great marble homes 200 guests, attended by 100 knee-breeched footmen, sat down to dinner before solid-gold plates. The grandeur has simmered down since then, but enough of it remains so that, on the proper occasion, the elite can once again perform extravagantly.

     This week, such an occasion arises with the sailing of the America's Cup races off Newport's shores. Mansions maintained by nostalgic owners with skeleton staffs of four to eight servants will come alive with lights and polite revelry. In great houses that have been turned into museums there will be enormous receptions. Harold Vanderbilt, victorious skipper in the 1903 America's cup defense, will reign as the resort's patriarch. The younger New Guard of Newport will, for this occasion, join with the Old Guard in a collective effort to show when Newport decides to entertain is has no peer for pomp

          ~ LIFE Magazine, September 21, 1962. 

Click HERE to read the full article, which also includes pictures of many of the Newport socialites and cottages. 

Seafair - a.k.a "The Hurricane Hut"

'Seafair' - The V. Reed Cottage

In the 1930's, Verner Z. Reed Jr. (1900-1986); Vice-President of the Chase Manhattan Bank and later appointed Ambassador to Morocco by President Reagan; called upon British architect William Mackenzie to design for him and build an impressive mansion upon a monumental seaside plot of land. The cottage, once completed, was said to be the last of Newport's famed "cottages" built along the sea. 

After a series of massive hurricanes that hit the house ~ earning it the nickname "Hurricane Hut" ~ which did particular damage since the house sat jutting out, exposed to the sea. The house was sold, and later divided up into condominiums. In the 1940's, the home was rented out to William Van Alen, whose mother, Daisy Van Alen Bruguiere lived at 'Wakehurst' a few miles down. In 1945, a Hurricane hit the home as Van Alen and his family were evacuating. Eventually water struck the three Van Alen Rolls Royce, filled with Van Alen, his family and their servants, which were on their way to Van Alen's brother's place, 'Avalon', which was on higher ground. Three servants died in the incident, and soon after, Van Alen and his wife, Bessie, headed out for Philadelphia. 

After a wave of owners, a few more wave crashes, Seafair was finally purchased by Rick Bready, chairman of Nortek Inc. in Providence, RI. He and his wife occupied the estate for about four years. In 2013, the couple listed their high-price estate for $19 million. They also listed a separate condo on the property for $3 million. Check out the links below for more information on the listing. 

254 Ocean Av, Newport Rhode Island

Seafair - A Historic $19 Million-Dollar Waterfront Property in Newport, RI

Seafair - $19,000,000

SEAFAIR 


If you are interested in Newport and it's historic "cottages", or even have a general love for architecture and the Gilded Age, and have a Facebook, please ask to join my group, "Newport ~ Queen of Resorts" for plenty of information, floor plans, photographs and stories of Newport cottages and the people who lived in them. Please also give The Gilded Age Era's Facebook page a like, by clicking HERE, and showing us your support. To see photographs of many of the Gilded Age properties, including the Vanderbilt homes, Astor palaces, Widener estates and Rockefeller compounds, please visit my Pinterest account, by clicking HERE. 

Demolition of Inisfada

'Inisfada' Front facade. 

Today, December 5, 2013, demolition was officially begun of the historic 'Inisfada' estate on Long Island, which happens to be the 4th largest home built in the United States. Built between 1916 and 1920, the estate was constructed for Nicholas and Genevieve Brady, a wealthy Catholic couple. After Mr. Brady's death, the house was willed to Genevieve, who in turn gave it to the St. Ignatius, who used the residence as a retreat house. In 1936, the home served as the base for Pope Pius XII during his U.S. tour. 75 years later, the home was listed up for sale by the institution, who decided to sell the place after previously auctioning off several furniture pieces dating back to the Brady ownership. It was sold for $36 million in August of this year, and was rumored to be demolished. After a last-ditch attempt by preservationists, demolition crews finally showed up this morning, ready to begin. Already, the solarium and many exterior walls lay in a pile of rubble. Here are some links regarding the estate and the demolition. 

'Great Gatsby'-Era Retreat House Dismantling Begins

North Hills OK's Inisfada Demolition Permit

Inisfada Furnishings Net $51K At Auction

Inisfada Sold To Developers For $36.5M

Preservationists Try and Bar Demolition of 87-Room Mansion

Gold Coast Goodbye 

Kennedy Family - Book Recommendations!

"After Camelot: A Personal History of the Kennedy Family"
by J. Randy Taraborrelli 

The Kennedy family is perhaps one of the most iconic and well-known families in America today. Their lives have been the subject of hundreds of articles, films, TV shows and books. Originally descended from farmer John Kennedy, the family first gained notoriety for Joseph "Joe" Kennedy, who was appointed U.S. Ambassador to England. Patriarch Joe and his wife Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (who would go on to outlive the majority of her family, dying at the age of 104 in 1995) gave birth to the most legendary of the Kennedy clan: JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Ted Kennedy. Then there were the glamourous Kennedy wives: most notably Jackie (d. 1994) and Ethel (-). Though JFK, his brothers and Jackie are dead, they continue to impact America and the world today (Most recently, the fiftieth anniversary of JFK's assassination.) The following is a list of great books I recommend about the Kennedy's and their influential lives. 

"Grace and Power: The Private World of The Kennedy White House"
by Sally Bedell Smith 

"These Few Precious Days: The Final Year of Jack with Jackie"
by Christopher Andersen 

"Capturing Camelot: Iconic Images of the Kennedys"
by Kitty Kelly 

"Portrait of Camelot: A Thousand Days In The Kennedy White House"
by Richard Reeves 

"Janet & Jackie: The Story of a Mother and Her Daughter, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis"
by Jan Pottker