I’ve been writing about Planting Fields, a Roaring Twenties estate on Long Island’s North Shore, Great Gatsby territory. The house, an impressive Tudor pile, was designed by Walker & Gillette in 1918-22; the garden was laid out by Olmsted Brothers. Like the more than five hundred country retreats that were built on the so-called Gold Coast during that era, it was inspired by the British country house, think Brideshead or Downton Abbey. But while the American versions of manors, chateaux, and villas, are beautiful architecturally, they are hollow representations of an unattainable ideal. These country family seats lasted less than one generation before their sprawling grounds were subdivided and sold off, the houses themselves either demolished or converted into institutional or commercial uses. In that regard Planting Fields is unusual. Its 400 acres survive as a state historic park and arboretum. It’s now been a public place longer than it ever was a private home. The house is there, too, a touching relic of a makebelieve moment.
