Stewart Donaldson (1907-1994) was born and raised on the 600+ acre Clarence H. Mackay Estate in Roslyn, which is now part of East Hills. His father, William, was a coachman and then a chauffeur, for the Mackay family from 1902 until the estate closed down in the 1930s. In the 1950s, Mr. Donaldson began to write down his reminiscences of his life in Roslyn, which included detailed descriptions of the buildings and layout of the estate. He later donated these writings, along with numerous photographs, to the Bryant Library Local History Collection.
1. North Entrance and Tennis Casino
If you were able to take a tour of the Mackay Estate called “Harbor Hill,” you would most likely come from Roslyn via Northern Blvd. and through the old railroad tunnel at Frick’s [Nassau County Museum of Art] then to the North Drive entrance opposite the Roslyn Cemetery…. This was a gravel road about 16 feet wide, with a stone gutter on each side of the road and a grass plot from the gutter to the edge of the woods. The grass plot varied in width from 10 to 14 feet. As you rode along, the land would be at road level then rise up to probably 8 or 10 feet above the road level on the right side, while on the left side you looked down into quite a deep gully and wood thicket which covered up or screened the bay tree house and the old root cellar and piles of earth used for the greenhouse benches.
After traveling along this road for perhaps 800 to 1,000 feet you came to a crossroads, with a mass planting of rhododendrons on the four corner plots and all along the drive.
The edges of the drive were planted with dogwood trees. In the middle of May this was a fairyland of pink and white dogwood blossoms, with daffodils in large clumps in bloom and as the dogwood faded out the mountain laurel and rhododendrons came into bloom. About Decoration Day, the crossroads presented a beautiful spectacle of all colors of rhododendrons with the background of large trees in full leaf. It was a beautiful sight.
Now, as you turned right and took the road towards the west, you would go up a winding hilly road banked with rhododendron bushes, laurel and trees. After 1,000 feet or so, you came to the casino or indoor tennis court and swimming pool. You would pass through a privet hedge as you entered the yard to the court. On your right and to the east of the casino were the outdoor tennis grass courts. After you passed through the privet hedge opening you entered a gravel court area, completely edged with a grass plot. Between the grass area and the wall of the building were large half ball shaped bay trees planted in large green tubs. These trees were probably 12 to 14 feet high and trimmed at the top in the shape of a ½ ball. In the fall these trees were transported back to the bay tree house on large flat wagons drawn by a team of horses, which were heated in order to keep the trees from dying during the winter months. I believe they came from Belgium and it was quite a costly affair, as you can see.
As you entered the [casino] building, you entered at the inner corner of this T shaped building, and you looked straight ahead into a large sitting room. It reminded you of a hunting lodge. There was a large fireplace to the left side of the room (the west side) and to the north, doors which led outside. On the floor in front of the fireplace was a white polar bear rug, with the polar bear’s head baring its large white teeth and around the room [there were] comfortable divans to sit on. I think the floor was parquet. As you entered, to your right you went down a stairway to the handball court and just beyond the court was a hallway which led to several rooms and a warming kitchen. If you went out the door to the left of the sitting room, you passed the north end of the indoor tennis court and you opened a door which led to the tile swimming pool. This room had a tile wall, as well as floor, with a glass roof to let in the sunlight. Along the sides of this room were dressing rooms, exercising apparatus, scales and rubbing tables. I remember William Baldwin was Mr. Mackay’s masseur, Mr. Cecil Fairs was Mackay’s tennis instructor and tennis partner, and he always won all the games from Mackay when they were playing for money. Mr. Mackay could never understand this.
After you left the swimming pool [if] you came back into the sitting room, then you would turn to your right pass the front door and proceed on a carpet covered walk past the indoor tennis court south, to the far end of the building and another turn to the right would take you into the living quarters of John Canary and his family. John was caretaker of the court and building.
2. The Greenhouse
After you left the Casino you would travel down the road to the east, towards the cross roads and [then] straight ahead to the greenhouse. On the way down there was a road to the south (on your right) which led to the Polo stables and dairy. At the greenhouse you would enter the yard between a hedge, and you would [then] enter the potting shed, as it was called. In the potting shed there was the soil bench where the plants were potted, closets for the storage of watering cans, seeds, labels, records of plants and a toilet for the men. To the right was the greenhouse foreman’s office. You passed through this office to the propagating house, where the cuttings and seeds were started. From here to the rose house. Here the temperature was kept at a range of 57 to 62 in winter. Then you would go to the right, through another propagating house where mostly seedlings were started, and then to the carnation and mum or snapdragon house. In the spring sweet peas were grown here, along with asparagus fern. The temperature of this house ranged from 52 to 57 degrees in the winter. You couldn’t do much about summer temperatures.
In the propagating house the lower part of the benches were closed in, because the bottom of cuttings must be kept warm and the tops cool. The reason for this was to start root growth faster. They had no fancy “dips” or hormones in those days to start root growth faster. In the last house were the beautiful snapdragons, as well as chrysanthemums, and any other plant that required a cool growing temperature. In the greenhouses it was necessary, especially in the late summer, to light nicotine papers to destroy the aphis or aphids. This was called fumigating the house.
You would put a small rolled piece of nicotine paper in a clay flower pot, close the house up tightly, place probably 6 to 8 pots with nicotine papers in them along the concrete walks and light the paper and let them smoke. This was usually done about 4 PM (and on an overcast day) and left overnight. I used to like to light the papers and then run out of the house and watch it fill with smoke. The next morning the house would be aired and the pots collected. There were also liquid sprays. You had to mix your own ingredients and as I remember it, soap was used with most mixtures to make it stick or adhere to the leaves. As a boy it was an interesting place to be and I was lucky that I could be there.
Now, as you left these houses and returned to the potting shed, you turned again to your right and you entered the palm house. There were also orchids grown here. The temperature in this house was from 67 to 72 degrees in the winter. They used to white wash the glass in the summer to keep the temperature down. To the left and right of the palm house were two more rose houses, one on the north and one on the south side of the palm house. In the palm house were grown all types of tropical plants. This house always smelled so good and felt damp as you walked through it. Around the outside of the greenhouse the lawn was kept cut and the edges trimmed. It always had that clean “front yard” look.
As you left the greenhouse and started west again, you came to a road to the left which would take you to the polo stables and dairy, before you reached the crossroads. If you took this road, you would probably travel about 1000 feet before you reached the polo stables. But, if you went to the crossroads and turned to the left and traveled up the north drive, you would come to the front of the mansion after you crossed the stone arch bridge.
3. The Polo Stables and Cow Barns.
The road to the polo stable from the greenhouse road was bordered on the right by a forest of giant trees and bushes. On your left were open fields, part of which in June, were covered with daisies. The hay for the dairy was cut in this field, when there was any available, and this was seldom. The road from the polo stables to the dairy and from the dairy to Glen Cove Road was bordered on each side by Norway maples. There were also clumps of white birch and large clumps of flowering shrubs such as forsythia, deutzia, viburnum, weigelia, and in the background, plantings of white pine trees.
The polo stables was built in the shape of a U. The horse stables were on the south side, an overhaul shop for autos in the north wing and the center wing was used for storage purposed in the 19teens. Overhead was an apartment or living quarters where the Andersens lived.
When you leave the polo stables and proceed south to the dairy you pass the green or breeding stables on your right, then the little swan pond on your right and the dairy building on your left. [If] you turn left at the Farm Drive, to your right is the barn and cow stables. As you pass the barns, around the barn to the south again, and past the estate superintendent’s house on your left, you would proceed straight ahead to the orchard on your left and the cattle pastures on your right. There was a cold storage house in the hill, next to the orchard, for the storage of fruit. If you took this road straight ahead, you would come to Harbor Hill Road.
The cattle were Guernseys, all registered, pure bred cattle. I would imagine the herd numbered 55 to 60 head with possibly 20 to 25 milking cows. The rest are bulls and heifers. The prize bull of the herd was “Mashore Galore.” He lived to be about 19 years old and I can remember when he was probably 16 or so years old, when he saw us kids come along he would sit down on the corner of his hay rack (which was low) and wait for us to come into the pen and scratch his head. It was so funny to see a bull his size sit down on the rack and look at you so mournfully and let you pet and scratch him for hours if you would do it. He just loved it, but in his youth he was a terror.
I can remember the story they used to tell of Allen King who worked at the dairy and would clean Mashore Galore’s stable. One day while Allen was cleaning the pen, he heard a noise and looked around and here was the bull heading right at him. So, Allen dropped to the floor in the corner of the stall as this bull rammed his horns into the wood. Allen laid there and the bull slowly backed away just far enough for Allen to grab his pitch fork and jab it in the bull’s face. Allen gave him a terrible beating and he always shied away from Allen after that ordeal. But Allen watched himself too, always after that.
Now, we go back to the Farm or East Drive, turn left and proceed up the hill. Now the little pond is on your right and about 500 feet further on, on your left you see the kennels.
4. The Dog Kennels and Main Stables
The kennels [were] built in a half moon shape, with the “dog runs” coming into a central point, more or less. There [was] a cottage on each side of the circle. In the east cottage, Mr. & Mrs. Mercer lived. He was the butler in the 1920s. In the right, or west cottage, Mr. & Mrs. Adam lived. He was the chef in the 1920s. The kennels were brick about 4 feet up, then heavy wire mesh above that. The yards were laid with a small white brick. All they had to do was hose down the yard to keep it clean. And, of course it did not get muddy in wet weather.
As you left the kennels and proceeded up the hill, or to the west, you soon came to a road turning sharp to your left. This was the chicken farm drive and it [would] wind its way through the woods, finally coming out on Harbor Hill Road. If you turned to your left up the hill, you came to the main stables…. This was the garage in the 1920s. The cars were kept in the left wing of the building. After [that] you passed through the wash room, where many a hand of pinochle was played over the years, while the boys were awaiting orders. I never saw them play for money.
In the center part was the carriage room. These carriages [were] on blocks and chocked up, just standing there for show purposes and they were beautiful. There was a carpeted walk through this portion of the building. When you reached the opposite end of the carriage room, you entered the horse quarters. On the right side was the trophy room where all the ribbons won at Madison Square Garden Horse shows and other shows on the Island were kept in a glass covered case. Several of them, in fact. The little room next to that was the harness room, where the harness hung on the wall, shining and neat and clean. The silver decorations all polished so brightly.
Then, straight ahead to the horse box stalls. The horse’s name was above his stall. There was Land O’ Burns and Ben Hur, Bannister and two or three more. I guess there were about five horses all together. Beautiful, big black stallions. If you got too close to the bars, Land O’ Burns would nip you.
Another interesting thing was the spiral stairway up to the feed room and hay loft. I used to run up and down these stairs. Bill Carl took care of the horses. The initial “M” in silver was on all the harness. I remember one of the autos was Mr. Mackay’s Rolls Royce with a Brewster body. This car cost $18,000 in those days. There were other cars such as a Chandler, Packard, Buick, 2 white trucks and a black suburban, a Metz and a few more that I can’t remember. Over the center part of the carriage room was the living quarters of Jack Mackie who was in charge of the horses and garage. There was a large gravel yard with an iron railing fence around it. [There were] bay trees in front of the building and geraniums in the window boxes, with ivy trailing down. The area was enclosed with a privet hedge.
5. The Front Drive, Gate House and Prince of Wales Visit
When you left the stables and went towards the west or towards the front drive, as it was called, you came to a “T” in the road. At the “T” you would make a right turn and pass between two marble lions, one on either side of the front or main drive to the Mansion. This part of the road from the lions to the front of the house was lined on both sides with Norway maples.
If you had proceeded ahead at the “T” you would have gone down to the front drive to the gate lodge or gate house, as we used to call it. The drive was supposed to be just one mile in length from the front door to the gate house. These big iron gates were always kept closed and opened by Mr. or Mrs. Ed Burke when Mackay guests arrived. The Burkes were usually notified by phone from the big house when anyone was arriving, otherwise they would not be admitted to the estate if Burke didn’t know them.
This was a long winding drive… [of] gravel, about twelve feet wide with a stone gutter on each side. Just beyond the gutter [was] a low barberry hedge. Behind the hedge was a grass plot. Beyond the grass plot, which varied greatly in width, were mass plantings of rhododendrons, azaleas, flowering shrubs, many types of specimen trees along the entire length of the drive. I remember when the Prince of Wales visited the Mackay estate in the 1920s [1924, ed. note]. These trees along this drive were lit up with Chinese lanterns hung from the branches. Each lantern had a small electric light bulb in it. The gutter along the main drive had small glasses, placed about fifteen feet apart with a candle burning in each glass.
They were one month preparing for this party. I helped Mr. Pietsch, who was head electrician on the estate during this time. The night of the party I ran the freight elevator for a while, then relieved one of the men on the roof. His job was to rotate the colored disks in front of the spot lights, which were showing on the fountain in the Italian garden. There were four spots. You would light one at a time and rotate the disks. Then, push the disk to one side and point the spot up in the air, turn it off, light the next one, point it at the fountain, put the disks on and rotate them. The lights became so hot they could only be kept on for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Then they had to be turned off.
When the Prince of Wales arrived, all the spots were put on and pointed at the gardens, fountains and rose trellis, then back to one spot for the rest of the time. It was some show, I’ll never forget it. That night they said there were over 1,000 people on the floor of the main hall or ball room. That’s hard to believe, but it is supposed to be true. Paul Whiteman and his band supplied continuous music, starting at 6 PM. He had forty musicians. They sat in the balcony overlooking the main ball room. In one band he had 25 men and in the other 15, plus his arrangers and stand by men. I remember there were 6 violins in the large band.
The cars that brought the guests were parked from the front of the house all the way down the north and east drive to the dairy and to the greenhouse on the north drive. When they wanted someone’s car, they had a telephone system. The wires had been hung in the trees days before and the chauffeurs had to wait at certain stations for their cars to be called. I believe there were eight or ten of these stations. At the station a man had a megaphone and would call out the owner’s name.
6. The Mansion and Gardens
The ceiling of the main ballroom was two stories high. It was a huge room. In fact, everything about this mansion was huge–the front door was enormous, the front hall was large. When you entered the house and if you turned left, and walked ahead, you came to the main stairs on your left. Hanging over this stairway was a gigantic chandelier of cut glass- it was huge- that’s the only way I can describe it. The fireplace in the main ball room was so large [that] at Christmas time they would build a scaffold inside the chimney for Mr. Pietsch to stand on. He would dress up like Santa Claus and wait until signaled, then come down a ladder with his bag of toys to be distributed to the children. And that was big.
As you walked to the back of the ballroom, on your right was the entrance to the main dining room, and beyond that, you went into the pantry. On the left of the main ballroom were more rooms. I don’t remember what was in them, but one was a music room at one time [that] was changed into a room housing some of the robes of the Pope and other religious things. [Mr.] Mackay being Irish Catholic, went in for this sort of thing.
When you returned to the front hall and turned to the right, you again came to the main stairway on your left. But, if you went straight ahead you came to the old conservatory and then out at the west end of the house. Then, for several hundred feet straight ahead of you to the west, was the Italian gardens- all methodically laid out with white pebble walks, designs in boxwood and each portion edged with grass.
There were three levels from the main house. You walked down a set of steps to the first terrace, then on to the west, to another set of steps which curved down around a small pool. The big pool and fountain was on the terrace you were just leaving. The last terrace was bordered with evergreen trees and at certain spots along each side of the garden were small niches or recessed in which [there] were statues. At night these were lit up by spot lights in the woods fastened to high supports. Each statue had its own spot, a sort of soft light shown on them. It was beautiful on a moonlit night to see the statues glow, so to speak. At the west end of the garden, on each corner, was a statue of a life size horse and man holding it. One of these horses is now (1962) at the Roslyn High School and the other stands on its old base in someone’s backyard on Harbor Hill. These were a copy of the “Horses of Marly.”
The rose trellis on the north side of the garden was another example of how immense everything on this place was. This trellis was about 15 feet high, built in a half moon shape. I would guess it was about 75-80 feet around. On the corners were two large baskets (at the top that is) which were filled with cut flowers. This was only on special occasions, of course. I can remember Kay Mackay’s [oldest daughter of Clarence and Katherine] wedding. Wadley and Smythe of New York decorated the mansion for this affair and hundreds of roses were tied to the trellis and the two large baskets were filled with gladioli. In fact, the wedding picture was taken in front of this trellis. Kay married Kenneth O’Brien. The railings along the side of the gardens on the walls and from terrace to terrace were made of stone, a granite, I think. Underneath the Italian gardens was a cellar and sub-cellar. In the cellar were electric pumps and maze of pipes and the lead covered electric cables to supply water to the fountain and the lights around the gardens. In the sub-cellar were the large water storage tanks to supply the water to the pool and fountain. The fountain water would spurt up in the air for a height of probably 40 feet, maybe more, then fall back into a round pool. In the pool were life size men riding large fish made of bronze. Then there was another half moon pool just below the second terrace as you came down the stairs. They curved around either side of it and had a small stream of water flowing into it out of the wall. This pool and the fountain had colored lights under water which made it look so pretty at night.
7. The Library, Pantry & Kitchen
If you started again in the Front Hall and this time walked to the east, towards the back of the house, you would come to the library with its heavy old worm eaten door. This door was brought over from Europe. In this room was a fireplace, tapestries hung on the wall and [it was] lit indirectly by very small pin spots concealed. When they were turned on the picture[s] would seem to come to life and glow. The tapestries in the main ball room were lit the same way. In the library was a guest register, this was signed by all who visited and was signed by Pope Pius XII when he visited the Mackays, as Cardinal Pacelli, by King Edward VIII, when he was the Prince of Wales, by Charles A. Lindberg, and by foreign dignitaries and American statesmen and many others.
After you left the library [if you] then [turned] right again to the back hall, where the elevator was, then to the right again through a doorway into the long hall past the pantry, the first servants dining room, the kitchen, the silver polishing room and other small rooms, and after you passed the stairway and the freight elevator, you would come to the pantry on your left. The first door led to the main pantry. The pantry was divided into two parts. This part was the one food was served from, also the ice boxes were here. [There were] small warming ovens and on the left, midway in the room, was the walk-in safe where the silver was stored. This silver for forks, spoons, knives, plates, etc., came from the famous Comstock Lode mine in Virginia City, Nevada, where old John W. Mackay made his fortune.
The other portion of the pantry, the part which attached to the kitchen, had a sliding door at the kitchen end, so that food could be passed through from the kitchen and then prepared for serving to the main dining room. This room had closets for glasses, towels and other storage, and large sinks for washing. You left this pantry through a door into the hallway and turned left down the hall to another door to your left. Now you were in the west end of the kitchen. At this end of the kitchen was a small dining nook with a table and chairs, where the kitchen help ate and had their coffee break. Also, this is where the small door between the pantry and the kitchen that I spoke of before, was located.
Straight ahead were the sinks on the west wall. On the north wall was a big, long black coal stove. In fact, it was several stoves tied together with a large canopy over it, for the entire length of the stove. In the center of the kitchen was a long table where food was prepared for cooking and at the east end of the table was a large wood chopping block. Opposite the chopping block was the opening to the dumb waiter, which went down to the ground floor to bring up produce and so on, from the big ice boxes. Also on this side hung the pots and pans for cooking—always clean and polished.
The kitchen walls were tile. At the east end of the kitchen was a small room with a desk and ice boxes in it. This was the Chef’s office. Mr. Adam was Chef in the 1920s. I heard it said that in the summer time, it would get as hot as 150 or 160 degrees in the kitchen. There was no air conditioning in those days. The chef wore his white coat and pants and his high white hat. The girls in the kitchen wore white dresses and the kitchen “boys” wore blue pants and aprons.
8. The Cellar
As you left the kitchen, across the hall was the first servants’ dining room. Here the Butler, Chef, Valet, Housekeeper, Nurse, and old Mrs. Mackay’s maid, etc., [would dine.] They had servants waiting on servants in this place. Nellie Burke was waitress for the first servants. To your left and out onto a screened porch [there was an] area for the servants to sit out on the warm summer afternoons and evenings.
[If you went] down the stairs to the cellar or basement, with its double doors leading to the back court yard [and] turn to your left, on your right hand side [you would find] four large walk in ice boxes. Here the sides of beef, fish, poultry, vegetables and anything that required refrigeration was kept. Opposite were a chopping block and the dumbwaiter. Old Mike Smith, a Hungarian with big flat feet and a mustache, [worked here and] used to remind me of Charlie Chaplin. He was the ice box man. He would get the meats, fish, vegetables or whatever the kitchen ordered and would cut up the meats and poultry on the block. He would send it up in the dumbwaiter. He would also empty the garbage cans from the dumbwaiter and [do] any odd job required in the cellar.
Behind the dumbwaiter, at the foot of the stairs, was the second servants’ dining room. This included all those who did not eat upstairs. They had a waitress, who set the table, served them and cleaned up. Her name was Hilda, a Swede. Then as you walked on down the hall to the back of the cellar, you passed the laundry. I think the laundress was Lizzy Proudfoot. Further on to your right was the boiler room and coal bin. And, when I say coal bin, I mean coal bin. You could build an average small house of today in that area. There were three boilers and a railing alongside the walk, so that you wouldn’t fall into the coal pile. As you walked by, a man by the name of George Sheppard, I believe, was one of the boiler men. I can’t remember the others.
As you walked further on, you came to the carpenter shop where Oscar Wiggins and Walter Penny, the carpenters, worked. A little further and to the left was the electrical shop. Here Mr. Edward Pietsch and Angelo Graziosi had their shop. There were also the painters, Jed Freeman and Ed. Mott. The painters did not work in the winter time. I remember Ed. Mott who lived on Main Street, Roslyn and used to go to Florida in the winter. He rode a motorcycle to work at Mackays. The plumber on the estate was Daniel Dickinson.
Also at the end of the cellar on the left hand side was the wine cellar, where all the champagne, wine, cordials, etc., were stored. Every now and then the bottles had to be turned and relabeled. It was amazing to see the number of bottles on the shelves, in their own little booths, so to speak, with their necks down in order to keep the corks wet so they would not shrink up. There was a lot of money represented here.
You could take the elevator to the top floor and on a clear, bright day look to the south and see Freeport and the Atlantic Ocean. Then, to the north– New York and Connecticut. To the west you would see New York City and the Hudson River and Jersey. And, of course, to the east, away out on Long Island you could see Dix Hills, the highest point on the island. There was also a telescope up there that you could look through. The bedrooms of the Mackays and the guest rooms were on the second floor. I don’t remember this layout at all, as I very seldom went up there. On the third floor were the servants’ rooms, which I do not remember either, as I seldom went up there.
9. The Electrical and Water Systems
The Electrical system on the Estate was all underground. It seems that when the place was being built they had planned to build a power house near the mansion. But, a number of millionaires who lived in Roslyn, Wheatley and Old Westbury in the summer time, and in the city in the winter, had been accustomed to the convenience of electricity, water, ice, etc., [and] wanted this same convenience in the country. So, they decided to build a power house. They formed a corporation, designated the Roslyn Light, Power and Ice Company and bought property near the railroad on what is now Power House Road.
Two buildings were constructed. One, a boiler room and steam driven alternator room. The steam engines drove the alternators with large belts. The other building was an ice making house and store house. The steam was piped across underground, to drive the steam driven compressors that were used to compress the ammonia, which was used for making ice in those days. There was the compressor room, the ice making room and the ice storage room. In the yard there were tracks and a hand car which ran along this track, after being loaded with ice, and taken to the wagons that were waiting to be loaded. It would then be taken to the several estates and also sold around town. This took place about 1898 or 1900. Mackay, Payne Whitney and Stanley Mortimer and more, were the starters of this. It lasted until about 1910, when the large ice companies began to move out from New York [City]. In 1909 this [power company] was sold to the Nassau Light and Power Company. The ice making business was not continued much after this.
As for water. In 1898, when the Mackay Estate was being built there was no public water works. So, Mackay bought a plot of ground in Roslyn behind the Hicks lumber yard site or behind the present Washington Tavern [now, The George Washington Manor Restaurant] location and here drilled a well and installed a steam driven pump. Pipes were laid from this point in Roslyn, up the Mill Dam or Willow Avenue [now, Old Northern Blvd.] then past the Mansion House, up the hill under the railroad and to a high water tower just to the south west of the front drive.
Mackay laid a water pipe system throughout the entire estate, taking water to all the buildings and cottages. The estate had water about 11 years before the village of Roslyn. The pumping station later had an electric motor installed and a gasoline driven pump, as well. Ed Harwood was the engineer in charge of the pumping station.
10. The Orchard, Dairy Herd and Greenhouses
Now for special places such as the orchard. This was located to the south of the Hechler’s house and was mainly apple trees of many different varieties and mostly late apples for storage. There was a cold cellar, but most of the storage apples were taken to New York[City] to a cold storage house where they [were] packed in crates and kept to be taken whenever ordered by the house.
When the estate was first opened in 1902 there was a Jersey herd of cattle. But, this was sold in 1904 and the Guernsey herd was purchased. Mr. William Sanders was dairyman then. He bought many young cattle to build up a good registered herd, and since there were so many young cattle, they could not supply the wants of the house. Mrs. Mackay got angry with Sanders when he tried to explain to her that he was trying to build up a good herd by buying young cattle, thereby saving money.
She finally let Sanders go in 1907, as she said she was displeased with his excuses. After this Mr. Charles Hechler came to Harbor Hill and as he was a great Guernsey enthusiast he built up the herd. Peter Letson came as dairyman in 1914 and stayed until the estate closed down. There were tests run on these cattle and those under test would be milked four times a day. [They] were fed weighed rations, kept in box stalls and were on this test for probably a month at a stretch. These animals were shown all over and won many ribbons at the Mineola Fair and other fairs. There used to be a standing joke on the estate that Mackay charged .25¢ for a quart of milk that it cost $2.00 to produce.
Frank Demak was in charge of Mackay’s greenhouses and gardens. He was a brilliant horticulturist and developed many types of new flower strains, among which were chrysanthemums. One he named after Ellin Mackay. There were new snapdragons, one named Sunrise Trail [and] also gladiolus, dahlias and roses. He originated, as far as we know, one of the first ever blooming climbing roses about 1914, [called] “Climbing Ophelia.” His bulbs were sold by John T. Scheepers & Co. and his seed by Andrew Kennedy, Seedsmen, New York. I liked the greenhouses as a boy and became very good friends with Demak. When Demak was fired by Anna Case Mackay in 1931, I got him a job on Cornelius Kelly’s estate in Manhasset.
The greenhouses had roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, sweet peas, snapdragons, asparagus fern and others. There was a violet house and the violets were almost as big as pansies. Also a cold house, so called, where freesias, calendulas and such were grown. Then there was the tropical or palm house. This was a six sided house with a domed top, with the palms and orchids in the center and other tropical plants around the outer sides of the walk. There were vines growing and almost everything you would find in the semi-tropics.
11. The Greenhouses and Soil Preparation
There were many interesting things, to me that is, about the greenhouses.
First- The watering was usually done in the morning, on a sunny day. You did not water if it was cloudy or overcast. When you watered, you sprayed the foliage, as well as watering the soil well. You did not water in the greenhouse every day, only when the plants needed it. This was all in the know-how of the profession.
Second- When the flower buds appeared it was necessary to feed the plants. If it was done too early you got heavy leaf growth. If it was too late, you wasted the food. Also, is the temperature was not controlled and kept in the proper range, you would either get long weak stems, or if they became too cold the plants might mildew and rot off, etc. In those days you applied your own nitrogen, blood, soot, bone meal and any other type of food.
Third- Another phase of the green house work was the proper controlling of pests. And, fumigating was a very important item. Earlier in this article I mentioned how we set up and lit the nicotine papers in flower pots, and let them smoke overnight. There was also, of course, the wet spray type of controls.
Fourth- Probably the most important item of all was the selection and preparation of the soil to be put in the benches of the greenhouses. This was quite a ritual. Frank Demak [Head Gardener] would go out into the fields and select a certain spot of earth. This was somewhere south of the greenhouses in the open fields. The grass or hay would be cut off and then sods cut by hand. These were loaded on a flat wagon (John Jan[n]otta’s) and taken to a location north of the bay tree house. Here a pile of prepared earth about 50 feet long, by 8 feet wide, by probably 4 or 5 feet deep, was built with the sides sloping from top to bottom in the following manner: Two layers of sod, each sod was about 4 inches thick, then a layer of cow manure (well rotted) then a light sprinkling of lime and a sprinkling of bone meal and dried blood. This was continued until the mound was completed. Now the pile was allowed to “sleep” for a year.
How the weeds would grow on the sides and top of this pile! The next year the pile would be turned over and cut up and a new mound made adjacent to the old one. As the earth was being relocated and turned over, more dried blood, bone meal and probably a little lime [was] added. Then the pile was allowed to “sleep” again for another year. A new dirt pile was started each year and allowed 3 years to cure. The third year, and the same procedure. Men with shovels turned the pile again, back to the original spot…. Then, usually in July or August of the third year, the old dirt was removed from the benches [in the greenhouses] and this new soil was put in. This dirt was put in “chunky” as it was cut with the shovels, never sieved and the bench was filled to about even with the top of the bench. When it settled, it would be about 1 inch or so below the top of the bench. After a week or two the new plants, whether they [were] roses, carnations, chrysanthemums, sweet peas, or what have you, [were] all planted in the same prepared soil as above.
Remember, new dirt piles were started each year. Now you can see what an extensive job this greenhouse business is. You just don’t grab a shovel full of soil and put a plant in it. It has to be right to get the best results. I never remember Frank Demak taking a vacation. He was a bachelor, lived over the potting shed, taking his meals at Lizzie Huers in North Roslyn. He worked 7 days a week, 365 days a year. I really never remember him leaving Roslyn. About the only place he would go was [to] the bank to deposit his dividend checks. He owned many stocks.
One thing you must always remember when working in the greenhouses—NEVER pull a weed or disbud a bloom and throw it in the bed or on the walk of the greenhouses…. This was a cardinal sin. The men wore aprons with pockets in them and when they disbudded or pulled weeds, they put them in the large pockets of the aprons. The greenhouses were about 18 feet wide and maybe 40 feet long. The lower part of the houses was brick veneer for about 3 feet up from the ground. Climbing on the brick wall portion was a vine called euonymous, variegated leaf. This made a pretty appearance.
The architecture of the [out] buildings on the estate was alike, that is, the dairy, barns, polo stables, potting sheds at the greenhouse and the kennels. There [were] brick corners combined with shingles and some red brick panels. On the brick part of the buildings grew a vine called Virginia creeper and sometimes called woodbine or American ivy. It had bluish-black berries.
12. The Mansion Staff (Housekeeper, Butler, Chef, Valet and Nurse)
As I remember, there were about 40 persons employed in the main house, or mansion, itself. There were others who worked on the estate, as well as in the house, such as the carpenters, etc. The housekeeper was Katherine Thompson, a Canadian. She was in charge of 5 housemaids. These girls made the beds and cleaned the house. There were 2 laundresses who did the washing and ironing. Miss Thompson had charge of ordering the household supplies, such as lines, towels, sheets, and any other item that was necessary for keeping house. She lived in the mansion, as did the maids.
The butler was Mr. George Mercer, an Englishman. He was in charge of the pantry and had 4 footmen and 2 handymen under him. He was responsible for the wine cellar, liquor supply, buying of fruit and specialty items, candy and canned items. He also had to see to the chinaware and the famous Mackay silver, which was kept in a special vault. He had to see that the [food] dishes were prepared and garnished properly after they left the kitchen. The butler made up the menu for each member of the family on a special china standing plate. He wrote on this with a black chalk pencil. This was submitted to each member of the family for their approval. When it was returned to him, he sent it to the chef who prepared the meals, as requested. The footmen not only waited on the main table, but had to answer the main door when anyone arrived. The handymen cleaned the dishes, and cleaned in general, after the meals. They also cleaned the silver and even helped the valet in cleaning the suits, clothes and shoes, etc.
In the pantry was a huge vault where the Mackay silver was kept. This set consisted of 1350 pieces and was made by Tiffany & Co. for the Mackays. Also in the pantry were large electric heating ovens to keep the food warm until it was served, as well as a large walk in icebox. The butler never waited on the table, but was always around to see that the food was properly prepared and served, and that the table settings were just right.
The chef was Mr. Adam, a Frenchman, and he had worked all over Europe and the British Isles. In America, he had been in the kitchen of one of the big hotels. He had a sous-chef, or second chef, who was always on duty and took over when the chef was away. The chef always supervised the preparing and cooking of all meals when the family was at the house. He had his own small office with a small icebox in it for his needs, as well as a couple of bottles of the best cognac—for himself, of course. He also kept milk, butter, and other items, on a small scale that he would need in cooking. The larger amounts of milk, butter, etc. were kept in the big walk-in iceboxes in the basement.
Mr. Adam had an icebox man, Mike Smith. He was in charge of cutting the meat, sending necessary supplies the chef needed and ordering the ice. Originally ice was made at the plants on Power House Road, but in later years Mr. C. C. Woodin of the Roslyn Ice Co., supplied the estate. They would deliver the ice in large open-back trucks with solid rubber tires. I can still see these trucks come lumbering up the hill. They would deliver 100 pound cakes of ice which were put in the top part of the iceboxes. He also supplied ice for the upstairs boxes, as well as the tennis courts and the dairy. In addition to Mike Smith, there was a clean-up man who helped Mike and [who] also washed the tile floors in the kitchen, halls, pantry and elsewhere. The chef and butler were both married and lived in small cottages on the estate next to the kennels.
The valet was Mr. William Mundy, an Englishman. He was C. H. Mackay’s right hand. He put out his clothes and helped him dress. Mr. Mackay, believe it or not, could not dress himself—he always had to have help. Mundy saw that Mackay’s suits were cleaned and pressed, bought all of Mackay’s clothes, saw that his shoes were shined, and traveled all over with him. In fact, he was Mackay’s constant companion. He never had a vacation that I knew of.
The family nurse was Miss Mary Finnerty, an Irish woman. She was, of course, an R.N. and an important member of the household. Always ready to give an aspirin when needed. She looked after Clary (as Clarence Mackay was known) and Louise, the mother of Clarence Mackay and wife of John W. Mackay, one of the 4 Silver Kings of the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada. Louise lived in the house [after the death of John W.] and died in her 80s. Mary cared for [Clarence’s children] Katherine, Ellin and young John. Mr. Mackay’s personal doctor and surgeon was Dr. J. Russel of the Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Mary Finnerty lived in the mansion and also lived in the New York City house when the Mackays were there. In the early years, Katherine, Ellin and [son] John W. each had a governess. Later Kay [Katherine] and Ellin had personal maids and Willie [John W.] had a companion tutor.
As to [the] dress for the servants– the chef always wore the white pants, white coat and the big floppy white hat [toque] that chefs wear. The kitchen cooks and help wore white dresses and shoes. Mike Smith (the icebox man) wore blue and white striped pants and a blue coat. The footmen were in a uniform of brown with white wing-collars and white ties. The butler always wore the full dress morning swallow-tail suit, the pants were a striped black and steel color. In the evening his suit was all black with a wing-collar and dark tie. The maids wore the little caps, dark skirts, stockings and shoes. The nurse was as usual dressed in white. The housekeeper was usually dressed in a gray or light color dress. All of these uniforms were laundered by the laundresses and paid for by Mr. Mackay.
13. The Superintendent and Farm Manager
The Superintendent of the Mackay estate was Charles Hechler…. The estate office, or Mr. Hechler’s office, as we used to call it, was down below the mansion near the coal pockets, or bins. He had the lower floor of this long building and Louis Hall (a footman at the house) lived overhead. Mr. Hechler had an office manager, Peter Hess, and Pete had 3 assistants. All of the business and bills from the estate were handled through this office…. Hechler came from Missouri and was a very quiet, sober and smart individual. He was not at all friendly with most of the folks on the estate, but he did belong to the Masons and went to the lodge with my father quite often.
Mr. Hechler was given his house just west of Glen Cove Road, near the cow barns. He was also given an automobile, his vegetables, milk, cream, light, heat, phone and a servant in his house…. Mr. Hechler was a great admirer of Guernsey cattle and had Mr. Mackay’s Guernsey cattle registered in the Guernsey Club of America.
Mr. Frank Lupton, an Englishman, was Farm Manager and reported directly to Mr. Hechler. He lived on the estate, in a white cottage west of the North Drive on Northern Blvd…. Mr. Lupton was in charge of the estate gangs. There were 3 gangs of 7 or 8 men each under the gang foremen, Jim Walsh, Hen Hendrickson and Patty Daly. They raked the gravel roads, weeded the gutters, trimmed the bushes, planted and cultivated the field corn and crops, and did the haying. In the winter they would trim the trees, clean up the woodland, shovel snow and keep the estate in good looking order….
After the gangs cleaned up and raked the mile-long front drive, Dan Dickinson, (who was the plumber on the estate and also ran the steam roller) would roll the front drive from the gate house to the front door. The laborers would use a pine branch broom and swish the fine gravel over the roads. Dickinson, as we called him, was kept quite busy…keeping the plumbing in repair for all the cottages, as well as the mansion, dairy, kennels, tennis court, greenhouses, etc. Dan would also take over for Ed Harwood at the water pump house, on Ed’s day off. Dan had a small store room of supplies at the polo stables.
Mr. Lupton was also in charge of the teamsters and stables. John Kern was the cleanup man in the farm horse stables. He fed the horses, cleaned the stables, ordered the feed and cleaned the harness, etc. Besides John, were the teamsters, Matt Lyons, Alex Tymma and Ike Eato (a Negro). There was also Old George Washington, who drove the garbage and ash wagon. Old George was born a slave and came up from the south right after the Civil War. He got a job on the estate about 1902 and worked there until he died…..
Mr. Lupton was in charge of the coal pockets. Whenever you needed coal, you called Lupton and he would send Ike Eato over with a load of coal. Mackay bought coal by the carloads and it was stored in the large coal bins, or pockets, near the office. A spur from the Long Island Railroad came in over these bins and emptied the coal…. The teamsters were kept busy plowing in the spring, then cultivating the corn fields…. They plowed the snow on the estate roads in winter. They would also cut the hay, bale it, and cart it to the hay mow in the barn. They hauled in the corn for silage, sprinkled the roads with [water from] large round water wagons during the hot dry spells in summer and much, much more.
Mr. Lupton was in charge of the 2 grounds men, Louis Genova and another Italian, at the tennis courts. He was also in charge of the estate blacksmith, John Linden …. [whose] shop was down near the estate office building. He would shoe the estate horses, as well as horses on other estates. He [would also] make iron products and put the iron blades on the snow plows that were horse-drawn.
Post Note: Charles H. Hechler (1881-1962) was Superintendent of the Mackay estate from 1907 until the estate closed down in the 1930’s. He and his wife, Catherine Hauhart (1880-1976) were originally from Missouri and were married in 1909. The Hechlers raised their family and continued to reside in East Hills after the Mackay estate was closed. Both were active in local and county politics and Charles served on the Roslyn School Board. Their son Ken (1914– ) graduated from Roslyn High School and went on to become a Congressman and Secretary of State for West Virginia. Their son Charles, Jr. (1912-1995) also a graduate of Roslyn High School, later served as Historian for the Village of East Hills, and was a life-long resident. The Bryant Library and the greater Roslyn community are indebted to the Hechler family for their generous donation of materials concerning their family history and the history of the Mackay estate.
14. A Trip to New York City and Back to Roslyn, With My Father, William Donaldson
NOTE: Stewart’s father, William (1879-1939) was born in Ireland. After emigrating, he became a coachman and later a chauffeur, on the C.H. Mackay estate in what is now East Hills. William worked on the estate from 1902 until 1931, when the estate was closing down. In 1906 William married Ella Pollack, the granddaughter of Roslyn carpenter Stephen Speedling. Stewart (1907-1995) the eldest of their three children, was born and raised on the Mackay estate. Always interested in local history, in the early 1960s he wrote a series of memoirs detailing life on the estate in the 1910s and 1920s.
The south part of the stable [on the Mackay estate] was converted into a garage after 1911, with living quarters for the workers overhead. They had 5 chauffeurs and 2 wash men. Every time a car entered the garage it was left on the wash stand to be washed and cleaned, then filled with gas and the oil checked [and made] ready for the next call or trip. They had a large underground gasoline storage tank.
The chauffeurs were Jim Gillispie who drove the boss [Clarence H. Mackay]; Jim Donohue who drove Mr. Mackay’s mother [Louise Hungerford Mackay]; Jim Ludlam who drove Katherine [the first wife of Clarence Mackay and his eldest daughter were both named Katherine]; and Teddie Mackie who drove [daughter] Ellin (she later married Irving Berlin the famous song writer) and William Donaldson who drove the trucks and suburban…. W. Donaldson usually drove the Buick suburban to Roslyn for the mail and to [William] Pickering’s [store] for the daily papers, which he brought back to the mansion and to Mr. Hechler’s [the estate superintendent] office. He did this every morning and afternoon 6 days a week and on Sundays, went for the papers….
In the winter…William Donaldson would bring the flowers in from Roslyn [to Mr. Mackay’s townhouse in New York City] three days a week, as well as [bringing] the milk, butter cream and what ever vegetables were available [from the estate.] Then William would go to the different merchants… [to get] supplies for the [Mackay] house.
I remember going to New York City from Roslyn [in] about 1925 with my father “Billy Donaldson” in C. H. Mackay’s Buick suburban, or station wagon. We left home (North Roslyn) about 8:30AM taking the North Hempstead Turnpike (Northern Blvd) [west] down the hill to Roslyn Village, then across the Mill Dam [Old Northern Blvd.] past the Clock Tower, up the hill which we called the West Turnpike—past Flower Hill on the right, still on the turnpike [and] past open land to Manhasset. [We went] on by Plandome Road, down a hill past Payne Whitney’s estate on the left, then up Spinney Hill (still Northern Blvd.) on past Middle Neck Road, which went to Great Neck to the north, or Lakeville to the south, and then crossed the Nassau County/New York City line just as we came to Little Neck. [We went] on through Little Neck to Bayside, then down a hill and through the meadows, past the North Shore Traction Company car barns on the north side of the road. Now the area was becoming more “city-like” with many homes.
We went through the outlying area of Flushing and then the Flushing city area. Now there were quite a few stop and go lights along the route which was slowing us up somewhat. Then we crossed over a small bridge over the creek. Now the area was well built up from here on into the city. We went through Corona, Elmhurst—there were a few small truck farms along the highway to Jackson Heights. From here on in it was densely populated as we passed by the Long Island Railroad yards to the south of us and we could see the National Biscuit Company building above the buildings along the highway. Then we came to Long Island City and we turned right under the electric elevated railroad line and on across the 59th Street Bridge (the Queensborough Bridge) over Blackwell’s Island (now [in 1962] Welfare Island) [renamed Roosevelt Island in 1973] to First Avenue.
We would turn right off the Queensborough Bridge and onto First Avenue, then go “uptown” to about 75th Street, then left to C.H. Mackay’s “townhouse” at 3 East 75th Street. We would arrive here at around 9:45 or 10:00AM, depending on how heavy the traffic was on the way in….
I can recall going in with him to the townhouse, having coffee and some delicious French pastry, then down to the grocers, a Mr. Hughes, on Madison Avenue and then to Hicks Fruit store, also on Madison Avenue. After I had a chocolate soda there we would go on to Kelly’s fish market on Third Avenue. The men working here always wore straw hats and [had] white paper sleeves from their wrists up the arm a ways. After this [we went] to the French butcher on First Avenue to pick up the meat and poultry which Mr. Mercer the butler, or Mr. Adam the chef, [on the Mackay estate] had ordered. I usually received candy or a large yellow banana or hot house grapes to take home from these stores, such as you could not by in the country….
On the way home from New York my father would [also] pick up things from Hughes, Bruns, Hicks and the French butcher to deliver to estates on the Island, such as the Graces, Milburns, Phipps, Steeles, Ryans and Bradys. We had so much pot roast and noodles, that they came out of my ears. The butcher would always give my father a big pot roast and liver and bacon for delivering the meat for him….
Going home we would leave around 2 or 2:30 PM, go downtown to 57th Street and then [make] a left turn and [go] across to the 59th Street Bridge, across the bridge and make a left turn in Long Island City to Hunter Point Road. [We] took this southeast across to Horace Harding Blvd. [now the Service Road of the Long Island Expressway] and [went] east on Horace Harding through Rego Park, Flushing Meadows, down the hill through Alley Pond and Lake Success. [We] then took Power House Road [now the service road of the Long Island Expressway] east to Roslyn Road in the Roslyn Heights, left to Harbor Hill road and east to the Chicken Farm Drive on the Mackay estate and [then] through the estate to North Hempstead Turnpike and home [at] about 4 PM….
15. The Dairy
The [cow] barns and dairy [from 1914 onward] were in [the] charge of Peter Letson. The herdsmen were Frank Mackshimac, Fred Grunner, Rocco Abbondondola and Pete Letson [father of Peter Letson]. They fed, milked, cleaned up and cared for about 15 head of registered Guernsey milking cows, 10 heifers and I think 5 bulls, one of which was a champion, Masher Galore.
There were always 3 cows on butterfat tests. They were always kept in stalls and milked 4 times a day, and fed just as often. Each milking was weighed and recorded for the Guernsey Club of America. These tests went for about 30 days at a time and these cows never left the stalls while on test!
The milking was all done by hand [and milk was] put into 20 quart milk cans and transported over to the dairy across the road in a 2 broad-wheeled iron conveyor. The cans were taken into the dairy, where Mr. Drake (Peter Letson’s father-in-law) and Mr. Letson (Peter Letson’s father) poured the milk into a large container. The milk ran through, or rather around, water-cooled pipes. It was then put into steam washed glass bottles. They separated whatever cream was necessary for the [mansion] house to make butter. They [also] ran an electrically operated butter churn and put the butter up in one pound packages with an imprint of “Harbor Hill” and a cow on each package. The milk, cream and butter were kept in a large walk-in ice box in the dairy. They also had buttermilk, which was delicious….
The dairymen and herdsmen wore white coats, knee length boots and white skull caps with wide brims on the sides. The herdsmen came in at 4:00AM and worked until 10:00. Then they were off until 2:00PM and worked until 5PM. This was a nine hour day. Each man had one day off a week. At 4:00AM, they would bring the cows in, put them in their stanchions, then [they would] wash the udder and under belly and dry them, feed them, and later milk them by hand. Next, [they would] take the milk over to the dairy for the dairymen to cool and bottle. At 6:00AM [they would] put the cattle out to pasture, clean and wash up the barns, take care of the bull pens, and feed the bulls and young cattle…. One man each week had to take the long shift and milk the test cows at 10:00PM.
The test cows were milked 4 times a day—at 4AM, 10AM, 4 PM, and 10PM. In the dairy the milk bottles would be steam cleaned, the milk chilled by letting it flow over ice-water cooled pipes, down into a container, which had a faucet at the bottom. The bottle would be placed under the faucet and filled, capped and then refrigerated.
The front part of the dairy [building] and the 2 top floors were living quarters for Mr. Letson. There was Peter Letson, his wife, 2 sons, 3 daughters, his father, father-in-law, plus 2 school teachers. This made a total of 11 folks living there. That was a big family.
Mr. [Frank] Lupton [the farm superintendent] grew corn for fodder and also some clover and hay. But, the greater amount of hay was purchased, along with the bran and other feeds, from Hennessey, later Hamilton’s feed store, in Roslyn. The cattle were always shown at the County Fair and usually did well in getting blue ribbons. They had a special trailer (a low bed type) that was used to transport the cattle to the Nassau County Fair Grounds, [and] also to take cows to other estates to the bull for breeding purposes, or if necessary, to cart [any] cattle that they sold to other estates. They were always buying and selling in order to improve the herd. There was a great deal of kidding about the cost of a quart of milk on the C.H. Mackay estate. Someone once said it cost Mackay at least $5.00 a quart for the milk and probably $3.00 a lb. for the butter. I can tell you [that] these cows received the best tender loving care.
16. Activities of Mr. and Mrs. Mackay
Mr. Mackay was a great sportsman. He liked every type of sport. He spent a great deal of time, first at the Piping Rock Club in Locust Valley and later when the Creek Club was formed, also in Locust Valley, he joined that. The Creek Club was very exclusive and expensive to belong to. He would go to the races at Belmont Park in Queens quite often. He always attended the championship Polo matches at the Meadowbrook Club in Westbury. In the early years Mr. Mackay would show his horses at the famous Madison Square Garden horse show, and he won many blue ribbons with these horses. They were trained by Jack Mackie, who was the head coachman and one of the best horsemen in America….
Mr. Ted Armstrong, an Englishman, was in charge of the [Mackay] kennels. [In the early years of the estate] they had a good number of hunting dogs and fox hounds. About 1920 Mr. Mackay closed the kennels and moved the dogs to [his property] in Jamestown, North Carolina. Mr. Armstrong would make all of the arrangements for Mr. Mackay to go to Europe or to North Carolina and had charge of Gardiners Island [Long Island] which Mr. Mackay had leased for 25 years…. Mr. Mackay would go to Jamestown in the fall, “turkey” shooting, for probably two weeks. Mr. Armstrong had to arrange to have three railroad cars brought out to a siding in Roslyn which Mr. Mackay and the servants, who went with him, would board. Then a train from Oyster Bay would pick up the cars and take them to Penn Station, there they would be transferred to a south bound train and taken to Jamestown, where the cars would remain until Mr. Mackay wished to return….. After Mr. Mackay died, Ted Armstrong bought the hunting lodge….
Gardiners Island was leased by Mr. Mackay and was stocked with ring neck pheasants and deer. There were three men housed on the island permanently to feed, raise and care for the birds, etc. Mr. Mackay had a 110 foot twin diesel yacht that ran from Sag Harbor or Greenport, to the island, whenever Mr. Mackay and his friends wished to go over. This was usually in November and December, for maybe six weeks of shooting. They went over on Thursdays and came back on Sunday. Mr. Scott was a New York State game warden stationed on the island. Captain Horton was in charge of the yacht [and] Henry Bowler (who was English) [was the] steward. There was also two deckhands, an engineer, and Charley Hanff, an apprentice boatman. They were hired the year round….
During several summers after the First World War, Mr. Mackay would go to Scotland, grouse hunting. As usual, Ted Armstrong would go over several weeks before ‘the boss” and make all of the necessary arrangements. They sailed over on the Cunard liner to Southampton, England. [They] spent a few days in London, then on to Scotland for several weeks of hunting, and then home. He might then rent a place in Southampton, Long Island for a month. So, you can see that he did not spend too much time at Roslyn. He was always on the go. He was a great lover of the opera and gave a good deal of money for its upkeep.
Both Mr. C.H. Mackay and [his first wife] Katherine Mackay were very community conscious and were always doing something for Roslyn. Mrs. Mackay served on the Board of Education for a number of years and gave the Bryant Library a great number of books. She gave financial assistance and brought out professional talent from New York City to put on plays in the school. She really got the High School started in Roslyn [1904] and she [re]built the Episcopal Church [Trinity] in memory of her mother. This was a $50,000 donation to the folks of Roslyn.
Mackay was in the Roslyn Neighborhood Association. He was active in the planning for the War Memorial Building and when it was dedicated [1920] he brought the United States Marine Band to Roslyn to play for the dedication ceremonies. He also had them play a concert with several opera singers from the [New York City] Metropolitan Opera Company on the lawn in front of the mansion at Harbor Hill, charging $5.00 admission to help defray the expenses for [erecting] the War Memorial Building. [Located on East Broadway, it became the home of the Bryant Library in 1952.]
These large estates did help the town folks in those days. I remember nearly all the harness needs were bought at J.T. Fearns harness shop, in the little flat iron building (the Remsen building) on School Street [Old Northern Blvd.], opposite the [Hewlett Remsen] garage. Groceries were bought at J.T. Hicks store on Willow Avenue [Old Northern Blvd.]. Fruits and vegetables [were bought] at Masini’s on Willow Avenue and sometimes fish [were bought] at Somerindykes, also on Willow Avenue. The daily and Sunday papers were bought from William Pickering’s store on East Broadway. Gasoline, I believe, was bought directly from Mobil Oil.
There were feed, hay, and cattle needs, that were bought at Jere Hennessey’s at the station and the hacks were hired from O’Leary’s and Hamilton’s. Then of course, there were the servants, who lived year round in the villages adjoining [the estate.] They bought continually from the local merchants. So, these estates had a great bearing on the economy of the local merchants and fellow neighbors.
17. The Donaldson Family
[My father], William Donaldson [1879-1939], was born in Rathfriland, County Down, North Ireland on February 27, 1879. He didn’t care for farm life and left Ireland in 1896 and went to Rutherglen, Scotland where he worked as a stableman for his cousins, the Allens, who had a carriage service. He came to America in May 1900 at 21 years of age. As he stepped off the ferry that brought him to New York [City] from Ellis Island, he was welcomed by a smiling-faced gent who shook his hand heartily and asked him if he desired lodging and wanted his money changed to American money. My father, being a “greenhorn” as they used to call them [new immigrants], gave him all of his money. He waited, and waited, and when it started to get dark, and the lights came on in the greatest city in the world, he realized he had been taken over. All of sudden he felt lonely, broke, and did not know anyone. He was in a strange land and all of the addresses he had were to people in the Pittsburgh, PA area, but, he could not get to Pittsburgh without money, so he started to walk the streets of New York. It was getting dark and getting late, as he walked by a stable he heard some Scotsmen talking. He went up to them and told them his story, and he was hired as a stableman, and later became a coachman, for Mrs. Sarah Cooper Hewitt. He stayed with Mrs. Hewitt until May 1902, when he came to Roslyn to work as a coachman for the Mackays [Clarence H. and Katherine Duer] on their new estate, “Harbor Hill.” He lived on the estate in Roslyn, L.I. for the rest of his life. [The Mackay estate became part of the Incorporated Village of East Hills in 1931.]
My mother, Ella Clementeen Pollock Donaldson [1886-1946], was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on September 11, 1886. She was the daughter of Sarah (Speedling) Pollock and William Pollock, a printer who was working in Brooklyn. In 1890 her father died of tuberculosis, so Grandma [Sarah] had to send Ella back to Roslyn to live with the Speedlings [Stephen and Clementeen], on the West Turnpike. This section [of Roslyn] was sometimes referred to as “Methodist Hill,” as so many Methodists lived here. In 1894, Grandma [Sarah] married John Conklin and lived on West Turnpike also, and my mother then went back to live with her mother. After my mother left the grammar school, she went to work as a clerk in “Jot” Hicks general store on the Mill Dam [now the Roslyn Post Office on Old Northern Blvd.] and worked there until she got married. On June 20, 1906 she and William Donaldson were married in the Old Methodist Church on Main Street, Roslyn, by the Rev. Allen A. Clark. [This building was located just south of 180 Main Street. It was sold and removed in 1921, when the Methodists bought property for a new church in Roslyn Heights.] She was given away in marriage by her grandfather, Stephen Speedling.
My mother and father [first] lived in a small cottage on the north side of Warner Avenue, opposite Jefferson Avenue, Roslyn Heights. [They] then moved to a cottage on the east side of Glen Cove Road. This was part of the C. H. Mackay estate…. [and] I was born [in this cottage]…. on Friday, June 14, 1907 at 7:32 am. [Living on the estate] was to be temporary, but my father was later [1910] put in charge of the polo ponies and stables, and [we] lived on the estate [in the upstairs living quarters, over the polo stables] for a number of years…. This I remember as my first home…. [and] my brother George was born [there] in 1913…. When we lived at the polo stables we had electric lights, central heat and a bathroom. This was something [special], for most folks in 1912 and 1913 had kerosene light, a hand pump from a well and a privy in the back yard….
In 1914, right after I had started school in “Bull’s Head,” North Roslyn, the Donaldsons and the Andersens traded houses. [Ed Andersen was the auto mechanic on the Mackay estate.] We moved from the polo stables to the cottage on Town Path, opposite the greenhouses and gardens…. It was off of the estate, but it was still part of the Mackay estate…. I was 7 years old at the time, but I very vividly remember it. The dishes were wrapped in paper and put in old flour barrels. In those days flour was delivered to the stores in large wooden barrels, about 4 feet high. Mr. Hechler [estate superintendent] had [Oscar] Wiggins and [Walter] Penny, the carpenters [on the estate], enlarge the house right after we moved in. They added on the kitchen and also added a bathroom upstairs. This gave us another bathroom. We had running water from the water system on the Mackay estate, also a hot water heating system, and kerosene lamps. This my mother did not like… I can still remember the stink of the kerosene lamps. It seemed, after awhile, that everything in the place smelled of kerosene. You had to clean the globes, or chimneys, every day and fill the lamps. You also had to trim the wicks about once a week and, if they were not trimmed square across, the lamp would smoke and get black soot on the inside of the chimney. My mother kept after Pop [William Donaldson] until he finally got Mr. Hechler to have Angelo Graziosi, who was the electrician on the estate, to wire out the cottage for lights….
Our nearest neighbor was Barney Feeney who lived up a bit from us on the opposite side of Town Path. The Feeneys would not sell to the Mackays when they were buying up property for the estate. Mr. Feeney owned about 4 acres which Mackay’s estate surrounded. Our neighbors to the east were mostly men who worked on the estate. Angelo’s father lived behind us, Mr. Tyma, who was a teamster, Tony Martino, who worked for Mr. Lupton [farm superintendent of the estate] as a laborer, and the Donohues. They [the Donohues] all worked for Mackay in one job or another. Jim was a chauffeur, Tim and his father, worked in the greenhouse, as did Mr. Feeney….
The family doctor for as far back as I can remember, was Dr. John Mann from Old Westbury. Mr. C.H. Mackay paid Dr. Mann so much a year (I heard it was $10,000) to take care of the servants on the estate. There was no limit to the calls or number of visits…. In the early 1910s there was no outside phone service, but there was the estate inter-building phone service [which operated] between the mansion, polo stables, main stables, dairy, greenhouses, tennis court and the estate office, as far as I can remember. If you needed the Doctor, or in any emergency, you simply rang, that is [you] twisted the crank on the side of the phone box, for so many rings. When you reached either the office or the mansion, whichever one you happened to ring, you simply asked for the doctor and they in turn, called on the outside phone….He was always available when you wanted him.
18. Estate Roadways
The [Mackay] estate was a network of roads, bridle paths and walking paths. The Front Drive was exactly one mile long from the gate house [on Harbor Hill Road] to the front door of the mansion…. The North Drive, which ran in a curving, rolling fashion, crossing the road to the tennis court and greenhouses, [ran] on up the hill over the small stone bridge…. As you approached the mansion the road forked off to the East Drive…. The East Drive started at Glen Cove Road and the dairy, and ran west up the hill past the cow barns, dairy, then the kennels, and on up to the intersection of the road to the stables and Chicken Farm Drive. This road [East Drive] ran under the little stone bridge down to the estate office and up to the rear door of the mansion. At the dairy it forked to the right and went cross over to the polo stables and finally met the road to the greenhouses. The Chicken Farm Drive ran from Harbor Hill Road up through the woods to the East Drive and then either way to the dairy or the main house. The East Drive continued past the road to the rear door of the mansion and went to the office, then past the coal pockets on to Northern Blvd.
There were bridle and walking paths all through the estate. They amounted to about 10 miles of roadways all told. Horses were not allowed on the walk paths because of the droppings. Mrs. Mackay [Katherine Duer Mackay, first wife of Clarence H. Mackay] was very stern about this rule. She almost fired my father [coachman and later chauffeur, William Donaldson], because she found horse manure on the walk paths, and he had a hell of a time to convince her that his horses had not done it.
Norway maples were planted all along the perimeter of the estate and along certain drives. There was [a] green slat fence, behind which was a privet hedge, from Northern Blvd. and the L.I.R.R., down Northern Blvd., Town Path to Glen Cove Road, south to Harbor Hill Road and then, west along Harbor Hill Road, to the gate house. It took four men all summer to keep this hedge trimmed, as well the hedges around the tennis courts and stables. …This trimming was all done with a pair of hand shears. The fence had to be painted about every four years and posts and boards replaced. The painters painted the fence and [Mike] Bostok and [Dominic] DiPaolo [handymen on the estate] replaced the posts and boards. The painters did a portion of the fence each year.
The walking paths were about three feet wide and the bridle paths were about six feet in width. [All of them] were just plain dirt paths, but kept in good, clean condition. They went all through the woods from the polo stables up and across the East Drive, on through the woods across Chicken Farm Drive, then to the Front Drive, across that and on down to the North Drive, then into the woods both east and west.
Just west of the North Drive Mr. Mackay had a mechanical deer track. The deer were run by electricity and as they went by he would shoot at them. If he hit them in a certain spot, they would fall over. He sat in a blind and shot into a hill as the deer came out of a tunnel. They went at a good rate of speed. In several places along the walking paths were rustic cabins where you could sit down and rest. In fact, they even served tea there, if Mrs. Mackay wished it. After she divorced Mr. Mackay, the cabins and other things went to hell…. [Katherine Duer and Clarence Mackay were married in 1898 and divorced in 1914.] Before the Mackays bought this property it was owned by Samuel and Stephen Tabor. [The initial purchase of the Harbor Hill property was made by John W. Mackay, father of Clarence Mackay, as a wedding gift. Stephen Tabor built an Observation Tower and had a picnic area here. He would lease the area to Mr. A.A. Reed, a local hotel proprietor, who would rent it out to local clubs, etc., for outings and picnics. He never charged Sunday schools or churches for its use. It was known for years for its wonderful view. [The Mackays closed public access to the tower and picnic grounds shortly after acquiring the property.]
19. Sunday Outings and the Mackay Armor Collection
Every Sunday afternoon [in the 1920s] during the Spring and Fall, when Mr. Mackay was at Roslyn, Mr. Adam (the chef on the Mackay estate) would like to visit the chefs at other estates. Maybe Marshall Fields in Lloyds Neck, the Phipps estate in Wheatley, or maybe we would go to Harry Payne Whitney in Manhasset. There were many estates we could go to where he knew the chefs, and believe me, he went to these places. It was usually the same routine. I would pick him up at Mackay’s mansion after the midday meal, help him put on his coat and scarf, if it was nippy out. Then he would take his small briefcase, check everything in the kitchen, give some orders in French to the second chef (Gaston LaVanche) and then we were ready to leave. We’d go down to the old Dodge touring car, I would help him in, [and] then [I’d go] around to the drivers side and start out.
After we left the estate, say we were going to Marshall Fields, we would probably get to somewhere like Syosset and he would say, as he tapped me on the shoulder, “Stewy, do you know a nice side road, where we can stop for a few moments?” I would say, “yes, sir, I do.” So, after turning into some unknown side-road and stopping, Mr. Adam would get out, take his briefcase, open it, take out a clean linen napkin, spread it out on the running board (oh, yes, we had running boards on the cars in those days) [and] take out two small glasses and then a bottle of cognac. He’d pour each of us a drink, pack the things back in the bag, and we would again proceed. Then, [he’d ask again] “Stewy, do you know a little side road?” And, the same routine [would start] over again. It was fun, but boy did we get drunk before this ordeal was over….
On other occasions, Mr. and Mrs. Adam (and myself driving the car) would go to Mr. Tachaux in Roslyn Heights. Mr. Tachaux was in charge of the armor and antiques at the Mackay estate. Being French, he was very friendly with the Adams [who were also French.] Boy, this would be a day! We would get there about 3:30 PM, sit down—the women together and the men together– and there would be others besides us. They would talk in French and apologize to me every now and then for not speaking English. But, as we were sipping wine, I didn’t care if they talked Chinese, and didn’t worry about what they were saying. Then a delicious supper would be served. When we got back to Harbor Hill (the Mackay estate) Mr. Adam usually gave me a $10 bill. The next week it would be someone else’s house, so I went and enjoyed it….
Mr. Mackay had, I think, 8 suits of armor standing on pedestals around the sides of the main ballroom, as well as huge tapestries, which were old, rare and expensive. He had a very expensive collection of antiques, which is why he employed Mr. Tachaux to care for them. Mr. Tachaux at one time, worked for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York [City.] The armor was old and was complete suits. A suit consisted of a helmut, gorget, shoulder-piece, palette, breastplate, elbow piece, skirt of tasses, tuille, gauntlet, cuisse, kneepiece, jambout and solleret. As you entered the front hall, or corridor, and went to your left, at the end of the hall and at the base of the great stairway, stood a full sized stuffed horse with genuine black hair. Astride the horse was a full suit of armor crouched forward with a long spear under his right arm, as if going into battle…. There were [also] many expensive paintings throughout the house which Mr. Tachaux and his men took care of. Mr. Tachaux was a very pleasant person. I used to cut the lawn at his home in Roslyn Heights and did other odd jobs for him. He lived with his daughter and her son….
End Note: Clarence Mackay was well known as an avid art collector. After his death in 1938, many of the art treasures which once adorned the mansion, were sold at auction and some of his armor and tapestry collection became part of the holdings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Other parts of his armor collection are in the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA.
20. A Full Season at Harbor Hill
Let’s see if we can picture a full season [in the 1920s] at Harbor Hill. The Mackay family [would] have spent the winter in New York City [in their townhouse] at 3 East 75th Street. In early May, as the weather gets warmer, some of the servants [would] come out to Roslyn to open the mansion [and] remove the winter coverings. The mansion has been painted and now it remains to be cleaned, aired and set to rights. The front drive has been cleaned, raked and rolled, and the entire estate in general has been “manicured.” The bay trees placed, hedges, grass and shrubs cut and trimmed.
The Mackay family will be out on the weekend, so the flowers are arranged. There are vegetables and milk, cream and butter from the dairy. Clarence, his mother [Marie Louise Hungerford Bryant Mackay], Kay [Clarence’s daughter, Katherine], [daughter] Ellin, and [son] John, finally arrive. Now the peace and quiet that has reigned at Harbor Hill in the greenhouse, dairy, stables, mansion, and other places, has suddenly turned into a nightmare of activity. The estate awakens and now becomes a beehive, with all the workers moving here and there. There are guests– at the tennis court, then for a swim in the indoor pool, then to the mansion for dinner. The next week end– tennis, then to the Creek or Piping Rock club, back to the tennis courts, dinner again. This is repeated over and over again. It continues until the 4th of July, when a large dinner party is given for guests and [the day] ends with a display of fireworks.
After the 4th of July, when the weather begins to get hot, the Mackays go to Southampton, L.I., or to Europe, or to the [Adirondack] mountains. This goes [on] through July and August and the place quiets down again until about Labor Day, when the family returns to Harbor Hill. And again [it’s] golf at the clubs, tennis, swimming pool and dinner parties until mid-October. Then the Mackay family will move back to the City, but will keep the Roslyn house open, as Mr. Mackay will go to Gardiners Island for the Fall hunting. Mackay has stocked this island with deer and pheasants (ring-necked). Since he has a special [New York] State permit, he can shoot either male or female of anything on the island. So, they proceed to slaughter left and right. He keeps a working force on this Island all year round. Mr. Ted Armstrong heads up the care and maintenance of the Island, as well as the Mackay’s lodge at Jamestown, North Carolina, [which is used] for turkey and partridge shooting.
They usually go to Gardiners Island on Thursday afternoon [in] Mackay’s power yacht, the Machonoch, a 110 foot, twin screw. The power yacht is waiting at the dock at either Greenport or at Sag Harbor, where it takes the party to the Island. They spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday hunting, and come back to Greenport late Sunday evening, where all the chauffeurs and limousines are waiting to carry Mackay and his guests back to Harbor Hill or the city, as the case may be. Billy Donaldson [the author’s father], who had driven a two ton white truck to the boat, now loads the deer, pheasants, duck and geese on the truck and takes them back to Harbor Hill, where the deer are put in the iceboxes and the others are hung in a special house with screen covers, [and] open sides, to keep the ducks, pheasants, etc., cold. During the week these deer, ducks, pheasants, etc., will be taken to Mackay’s friends and to hospitals all over New York City and Long Island.
About Christmas time, the Mackays move the servants permanently to the city and close the mansion for the winter. All winter, Billy Donaldson [would] make three trips a week to [the townhouse at] 3 East 75th Street, New York City, with flowers, milk, cream and butter, and anything else the house would need. He would then do the shopping in New York for the butler and chef, and any other matters that might have to be taken care of. He would get back to Roslyn about 3:30 P.M., and then he was through for the day. He and some of the horsemen might play a few hands of pinochle and then he would drive his car home.
During the winter months the outside men, those working on the estate, that is, would go through the woods and clean out the dead trees and underbrush. Then the boxwood and tender shrubs had to be covered with burlap to keep them from winter kill. This was done about November. They also repaired the farm equipment, and after a heavy snow storm they would shovel out the paths to the dairy, greenhouses, tennis court, and other places. They [also] pruned trees, etc. On an estate the size of this, there was always something to do to keep you busy.
The men at the greenhouse were busy with weeding, watering, spraying, and potting. The outside men were on shifts tending the boiler or furnace day and night. The rest of the men were busy with work at the cottages and other places on the estate. In the winter the Mackay family chauffeurs kept the cars in a garage in the city and had apartments in the city, themselves, returning to Roslyn in the late spring when the Mackay family returned. There was always work to be done [and] as fast as one job was done, another one came along. Then in the spring, the painters came back to work, started to paint the house again, and the cycle started all over again….
[When the estate was in full operation, there were] approximately 126 personnel to be paid, and in many cases, housed, and fed. It certainly accounted for a good size payroll, even though wages were low in those days. Clarence H. Mackay never owned Harbor Hill, as it was given to his [first] wife Katherine, by Clarence’s father, Mr. J.W. Mackay. When she divorced C.H. Mackay [in 1914], she put it [the property] in [her son] young John W. Mackay’s name. When Clarence Mackay died in 1938, the place went down and was ransacked by vandals. It was sold [by son John W. Mackay] to a Mr. Roth, a Manhattan builder, in 1954, who built small country estates there. The mansion was demolished around 1947.
Note: The housing development of Country Estates at East Hills, The Park at East Hills (formerly the Roslyn Air National Guard Station), as well as the Roslyn High School property, were once all part of the Mackay estate. The exact demolition date of the mansion has not been determined.
