Searching for Stanford White

By Rhoda Amon | Staff Writer

A definitive list of what Stanford White left behind on Long Island is a practical impossibility. White would make sketches on the backs of envelopes or napkins for friends, according to architecture historian Mosette Broderick. These plans were never recorded but, along with numerous structures not related to White in any way, are claimed by real estate agents fond of using his name as a selling point.

In addition, much of White's architecture has been lost to development. The private homes listed are closed to the public and some of the public structures are now private. Here are some of the designs known to be his:

Garden City
-- Garden City Casino at 51 Cathedral Ave., designed in 1896 and still used for village social events.

-- Prototypes for modest two-story houses built by developer C. Edson Gage. Owners may not know they live in a Stanford White design, according to Broderick.

Huntington
-- Granite shaft on Main Street dedicated to Revolutionary War patriot Nathan Hale. White prepared drawings in 1894 and donated the monument.

Montauk
-- Six shingle-style cottages on DeForest Road, on a bluff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. They were designed for the Montauk Association in 1882 and 1883.

Roslyn
-- Trinity Episcopal Church on Northern Boulevard, designed in 1905 and completed after his death.
-- Mackay Gatehouse on Roslyn Road, remains of Clarence H. Mackay Estate, built from 1899 through 1902, now the entrance to a swimming club.

St. James
-- Box Hill on Moriches Road, a farmhouse White purchased as his summer home and expanded from 1892 through 1900. Still owned by White's family.
-- The house on Harbor Road, Head of the Harbor, designed for White's sister-in-law, Kate Wetherill, in 1894 and 1895.
-- Sherrewogue on Harbor Road, expanded in 1895 for another sister-in-law. -- Bytharbor on Moriches Road, expanded in 1894 for another sister of White's wife, Bessie.
-- The St. James School House on Three Sisters Road, used briefly as a schoolhouse and now privately owned.
-- One, possibly two stained-glass windows in St. James Episcopal Church at 490 N. Country Rd., one in memorial to Charles Nicoll Clinch, Bessie White's cousin, and the second, possibly by White, dedicated to James and Ann T. Clinch, her grandparents.

Smithtown
-- The Judge J. Lawrence Smith House at 205 E. Main St., built around 1760, home of Bessie White's parents from 1845. White made additions. Now owned by the Smithtown Historical Society.

Southampton
-- The Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, first of its kind in the nation, was designed in 1892, expanded in 1895 and again in the 1920s.
-- The Dolphins, on the west side of Lake Agawam, built for James Hampden Robb in 1885.
-- The Edward S. Mead house, 1886, on Halsey Neck Lane and Hill Street, renovated by White from an old farmhouse.
-- The Samuel L. Parrish house, built in 1889 across from The Dolphins on First Neck Lane, now known as White Fence.
-- The William Merritt Chase house in Shinnecock Hills, built for the artist in 1892.
-- Whitefield on Hill Street. Originally the Orchard, expanded from 1898 through 1907 for James L. Breese. Now converted into condominiums.

Stony Brook
-- All Souls Episcopal Church on Main Street, designed in 1889.