Big Old Houses: Table Setting 101

BIG OLD HOUSES: TABLE SETTING 101



Who was ANNA GAMBRILL? And how could you not know how to set a table if you lived in a house like this?




First things first: Anna Gambrill bought a swanky Newport lot at 492 Bellevue Avenue in 1898. By 1900, according to a society squib in The New York Times, she was ready to commit $300,000 to a new villa. Completed in 1901, the main gate is on Victoria Avenue, a stone's throw from Bellevue and 2 blocks from the Breakers.



By the time the house was finished, there hadn't been a Mr. Gambrill for over 10 years. RICHARD A. GAMBRILL (1848-1890), native of Baltimore, graduate of Harvard, resident of Brooklyn, was practically a newlywed (married April, 1888) when he succumbed to the flu at age 42. At the time of his death he was on a steep upward career curve, in law and railroads. Fortunately, his widow, far from being impoverished, had considerable financial resources of her own.



Brooklyn born ANNA VAN NEST GAMBRILL (1865-1927) was one of the 2 daughters of railroad man ALEXANDER T. VAN NEST (died 1897). Sorting out the railroad holdings of these old guys is like playing Scrabble with an inexhaustible list of small midwestern cities. Illuminating to note, when Van Nest dropped dead prior to a directors' meeting of the Chicago Rock Island and Pacific, social and financial magnate OGDEN MILLS was elected to his seat. Anna's arrival in Newport was probably the result of an inheritance from her father's estate.



In the opinion of the 19th century's social Cerberus, WARD MCALLISTER, people either had a knack for society, or they didn't. Mrs. Gambrill clearly did. She dined with the VANDERBILTS in New York, lunched with MISS BERWIND of the Elms in Newport, opened her beautiful Newport gardens to appropriate charities, and entertained "de luxe." She is otherwise a cipher to me, one of the many rich and attractive people who pass through this world in remote luxury. Dead now for close to 90 years, she would be completely forgotten were it not for the survival -- touch and go, at times -- of her beautiful Newport villa.



Here's the western facade of Vernon Court, as originally designed by the famous architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings. Open porches on the north and south ends of the house were subsequently enclosed, and decorative carved swags above their arched openings were either removed or (more likely) simply fell off. This, however, is minor. Considering the many things that can and do happen to fine old houses, Vernon Court, at age 112, is in fantastic condition.



The early 20th century architectural critic, BARR FERREE, whom we love to quote, praised Vernon Court's "startling beauty and daring originality ... It is one of the truly greatest estates in America." A bit hyperbolic, perhaps, but this really is a gorgeous house.



Anna's sister JANE also hired Carerre and Hastings to build another famous summer villa, Bellefontaine in Lenox, Mass. Jane was married to GIRAUD FOSTER, a legendarily luxurious guy who, when he died in 1947, was the second to last (EMILY VANDERBILT SLOANE WHITE survived him) of Lenox's Gilded Age cottagers. Either Anna hired Carrere and Hastings because of Jane, or Jane did because of Anna; I don't know which. Bellefontaine fell on harder times than Vernon Court. Shortly after Foster died, it was gutted by fire, after which it languished for years in unaesthetic religious hands. In the late 1980s it was reconstructed -- in a manner of speaking -- as the Canyon Ranch in Lenox.



The Chateau d'Haroue in the Lorraine region of France is sometimes cited as the inspiration for Vernon Court. (I'd call that a stretch). Other famous CArden, whose former estate is today's HARRIMAN State Forest; Nemours, ALFRED DUPONT's house outside Wilmington, visited by "Big Old Houses" last month; HENRY FLAGLER's Whitehall in Palm Beach; H.C. FRICK's house (now museum) on Fifth Avenue; and we shouldn't forget, even though it's not a house, the New York Public Library.



We're back at the eastern facade which, if you believe early accounts, once had a view of the sea. (Hard to believe, frankly).



The labels on the first floor plan below are a little misleading, although the arrangement of rooms is very traditional. Distributed around the rectangular entrance hall, in a clockwise semi-circle from left to right, are library, drawing room, reception room, dining room, and serving pantry. The kitchen was originally in the basement under the pantry, and the pantry is today a modern kitchen. The originally unenclosed north and south porches, shaded on the diagram below, are now called the north and south loggias. I would consider the southern one more of a conservatory, and the northern a secondary dining room.



The hall as originally built really hasn't changed at all. Well, the sconces are different, as are pretty much all the lighting fixtures. I confess I thought at first that those showy columns were scagliola. However, they turn out to be Breche-violette marble.



So what, you may be asking, is going on here today? Vernon Court is now the home of the National Museum of American Illustration, described on founder LAURENCE CUTLER's card as "A National Treasure of Golden Age Illustration in Gilded Age Architecture." It is also Mr.lots of little rooms; attic storage, which in this case has been converted to Judy Cutler's studio.



There are famous (or famous looking) framed illustrations even on the walls up here.
Full Post