HistoricHouses

Richard Branson's Luxe New Retreat Near NYC

Filed under: Dining, Luxury Travel & Hotels

Sir Richard Branson's plans for a luxe new retreat in New Jersey, which we first wrote about back in 2005, are finally coming to fruition. When completed the complex will consist of a culinary center, resort, spa and private club called Natirar 45 minutes from New York City. Situated on a beautiful 500-acre estate that was once the King of Morocco's summer home, and centered on a historic 40-room 1912 mansion (above), the first phase of the property is the just-opened Ninety Acres at Natirar Culinary Center, housing a restaurant, bar / lounge, cooking school, wine school and working farm. The resort will open this summer with guest cottages, a media room, a 4,000-square foot swimming pool, tennis courts, fitness facility, croquet pitch and greenhouses. Horseback riding and fly-fishing will be among the activities on offer. The invitation-only Club at Natirar will give members unfettered access to all the property's delights. The plan is for Natirar to eventually be the first U.S. outpost of Branson's Virgin Limited Edition Collection of luxury retreats.

[via JustLuxe]

Tags: club, historic houses, HistoricHouses, Morocco, Natirar, New Jersey, New York, NewJersey, NewYork, Richard Branson, RichardBranson, Virgin

The Classicist: Mrs. Astor's Beechwood

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, The Classicist

Beechwood, the Mrs. Astor's 39-room Italianate mansion in Newport, Rhode Island and one of the last great relics of the Gilded Age, is now being offered for sale for $14.9 million. The 19,000-sq.-ft., 15-bedroom house on Newport's famous Bellevue Avenue, was listed at $16 million last year (as my colleague Deidre Woollard reported) and has since served as a "living history museum" showing what life was like for the Gilded Age idle rich before they were forced to sell off their mansions.

The museum is a bit cheesy, with events like "An Evening With the Astors", but Beechwood does have a very rich history. In fact, with the $1.1 million discount it might even be something of a bargain. Cole Porter was said to have written Night and Day, one of his most famous songs, while visiting Beechwood, and the house also made an appearance in the 1956 Bing Crosby / Frank Sinatra / Grace Kelly movie High Society. Originally constructed in 1851 by Calvert Vaux - co-designer of Central Park - and Andrew Jackson Downing for drygoods magnate Daniel Parish, it was on the market when well-bred debutante Caroline Schermerhorn married billionaire merchant William Backhouse Astor Jr., giving the Astors some much needed social cachet.

Gallery: Mrs. Astor's Beechwood

Mr. Astor owned the Ambassadress, the largest private yacht in the world at the time, and a beautiful Hudson River mansion called Ferncliff. "The Mrs. Astor" as she soon insisted upon being referred to, intended to entertain in grand style with her husband's money and needed a Newport mansion in which to do it during the summer season, which lasted for eight precious weeks. The Astors bought the place in 1881 and spent $2 million on improvements, including the addition of a mirrored waterfront ballroom by architect Richard Morris Hunt (who designed the Fifth Avenue facade of Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum of Art) complete with bas reliefs depicting Poseidon and Aphrodite.

Mrs. Astor soon became the reigning queen of New York society, and her Summer Ball at Beechwood was the highlight of the season. She and social arbiter Ward McAllister then founded the famous "Four Hundred", referring to the strictly limited number of socially acceptable families (i.e. not nouveau riche) in New York - which some people are still trying to get into. Her son, John Jacob Astor IV, who inherited Beechwood, later went down on the Titanic, the ship's wealthiest passenger.

Tags: Astor family, AstorFamily, Beechwood, Calvert Vaux, CalvertVaux, Gilded Age, GildedAge, Historic houses, HistoricHouses, Mrs. Astor, Mrs.Astor, New York society, Newport, NewYorkSociety, Rhode Island, RhodeIsland, Richard Morris Hunt, RichardMorrisHunt, William Backhouse Astor Jr., WilliamBackhouseAstorJr.

The Great Houses of Texas

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Estates, Books

Photo by Grant Mudford

The Lone Star State, which was part of Mexico until 1836, is not particularly known for its architectural treasures. There are some amazing estates scattered among its vast tracts, however, as author Lisa Germany and photographer Grant Mudford reveal in their excellent new book, Great Houses Of Texas (Abrams, $50). The Texan landscape -- "combined with the larger-than-life personalities who were drawn to the brutal hardships of the frontier and the architects who designed these extraordinary homes" -- is the unifying theme of the 25 houses, ranging from the intimate to the ornate, collected in the book. Among them is the beautiful Crespi Mansion in Dallas, designed by Swiss architect Maurice Fatio in 1939, pictured above; and the Nowlin House in Austin designed by Paul Lamb in 2002, which was partially based on Mayan ruins. See the gallery for more.

Gallery: Great Houses of Texas

The cover showing King Ranch, Kingsville, 1915 (Adams & Adams)

Parrot-Orlowsky House, Dallas, 1940 (Charles Dilbeck).

Breakfast room, Crespi Mansion, Dallas, 1939 (Maurice Fatio).

Tags: Architecture, Austin, Dallas, Great estates, GreatEstates, Historic houses, HistoricHouses, Paul Lamb, PaulLamb, Texas

Great Houses of Greenwich Village

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Books

Beware of acute real estate envy setting in with a new book called The Houses of Greenwich Village (Abrams, $45), by Kevin D. Murphy and Paul Rocheleau. We happen to think it's the nicest neighborhood in New York, and having resided there on occasion look forward to retuning some day - preferably to one of the palatial places pictured in this amazing anthology.

From the incredible Walter W. Price house, built in 1866 (the elaborate parlor of which is pictured above), to the quaint row houses that still command prices in the millions, Greenwich Village is a throwback to a simpler and more gracious time in the city's rich history. And thanks to the unswerving efforts of preservationists, it's likely to remain that way. Check out the gallery for a tour through this exclusive and desirable district.

Gallery: Houses of Greenwich Village

Front parlor of the Jeremiah Terbell House, 1846-47.

Source

Tags: Abrams Books, AbramsBooks, Greenwich Village, GreenwichVillage, Historic houses, HistoricHouses, New York City, NewYorkCity

New England's Great Estates

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Decor, Estates, Books

Three centuries worth of New England's magnificent houses and mansions are collected in an equally grand new book from Rizzoli: Great Houses of New England, by Roderic H. Blackburn (text) and Geoffrey Gross (photography). Spanning a wide range of styles, these stately houses are the originals from which many of today's McMansions have been copied. They're more than just artifacts, however; as Blackburn writes, "Through the architecture and decorative arts we see the development of a people and their region."

Among the more splendid examples in the book is the Jeremiah Lee Mansion in Marblehead, Mass., dating from 1767 (pictured here), the impressiveness of which is "conveyed by its subdued monumentality," Blackburn notes. Lee, a shipping merchant, built it to emulate aristocratic estates in England, so you might say not all that much has changed. Also of note are the beautiful brick Georgian Macpheadris-Warner House in Portsmouth, N.H., dating from 1716; Rosecliff, a palatial McKim, Mead & White mansion which was the setting for the movie version of The Great Gasby; and Brookside, a gracious Greek Revival in Orwell, VT. See the gallery for more.

Gallery: Great Houses of New England