About Connections: Love it or hate it, history is a map. Those who hate history think it irrelevant; many who love history think it escapism. In truth, history is the clearest road map to how we got here: America in the 21st century.
The Connections Hybrid: A periodic look at the Berkshire cottages and the connection between what they were and what they are now.
2015
In 2015 rumors were rife: Blantyre sold. What exactly sold was a separate question: was it the property or the management thereof? Whichever it was, there was no confirmation and the story died.
The buyer was never in dispute. It was Charles Royce of Rhode Island. Who is Charles Royce? According to the April issue of Forbes Life magazine, Royce is president of a well-regarded, small-cap mutual fund that carries his name. More to the point Royce is the enthusiastic restorer and manager of Ocean House, a high-end hotel in Watch Hill, R.I.
Built in 1868, Ocean House was part of Rhode Island’s Gilded Age when beach communities like Watch Hill attracted the noteworthy. Ocean House burned down, was rebuilt, reopened in the early part of the 20th century, and closed during the Depression. Tourism sagged, and so did the front porch.
The 21st century brought the ubiquitous developer with the boilerplate promises. His plan to subdivide and build would bolster the economy, expand the tax base, and provide jobs. Charles Royce stepped in.
Royce was not convinced. In fact, it was reported he was “appalled.” He thought development was a bad idea and voted with his pocketbook. With $11.5 million, he bought Ocean House.
Royce bought “Mr. Blanding’s Dream House.” Ocean House was beyond simple restoration: it was demolished and an exact replica was built on the original footprint. Many original architectural details including the front door, elevator car, fireplace faces and surrounds, and the original wicker furniture were saved.
Ocean House opened in 2010. Five years later, when Royce and President/Managing Director Daniel A. Hostettler approached Blantyre, Ocean House was a success.
Ocean House and Blantyre have a great deal in common. They are two of just 82 Relais & Châteaux properties in North America. Both are important pieces of architecture of the Gilded Age. Neither was developed as Cranwell or the proposal for Elm Court. Cranwell subdivided the property and built houses, and Elm Court proposes a major expansion of the number of rooms in the main house. In a move that seems counterintuitive to developers: Royce reduced the number of rooms from 159 cramped singles to 57 suites.
Ann Fitzpatrick had a similar set of circumstances and made similar decisions. Blantyre, one of the Berkshire cottages, was in receivership, unsalable, and crumbling. Under Ann’s guidance it went from disrepair to international luxury hotel. Ann oversaw the restoration, decoration, and management of Blantyre. It might have been a good fit; however, owner Ann Fitzpatrick was tragically ill and the negotiations halted.
1903
The story is that, in 1903, architect Robert Henderson Robertson was summoned to Lenox by cottager Robert Warden Paterson. Robertson drew a rough sketch on the back of an envelope which Paterson approved, and the house was built just as he sketched it.
Many called it a Scottish castle. The architectural style was Elizabethan and the name was Scottish: Blantyre. In the world there are only three places named Blantyre, and all relate to David Livingstone. Livingstone was the Scottish missionary and explorer to whom Stanley said, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” The three Blantyres are the town in Scotland where Livingstone was born, a town in Africa named to honor Dr. Livingstone, and Blantyre in Lenox. Paterson was related to Livingston through his mother, Ann Warden Paterson.
The Berkshire cottage Robertson sketched was 165-by-50 feet with a 30-by-75 feet extension for servants’ quarters. It was a design reflective of an era and built for an era now long gone.
Between 1900 and 1910, William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt (the “Trust Buster”) were in the White House. Upton Sinclair wrote “The Jungle” about the meat packing industry in Chicago that led to passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act. Henry Clay Frick was shot on the front steps of his New York City palace.
With $100,000, Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company. General Motors and Rolls Royce followed. J. P. Morgan organized the United States Steel Corporation. Albert Einstein published a paper on the theory of relativity.
In the same decade, Charles Worth – “le tyran de la mode” – said, “We live by and for luxury, therefore all the questions we ask ourselves are superfluous; we must assume our roles and that is all,” and Sigmund Freud published his first paper on “theories of human behavior.”
James Barrie wrote “Peter Pan,” Henry James wrote “The Golden Bowl,” and Beatrix Potter wrote “Peter Rabbit.” The first daily comic, “Mutt and Jeff,” and the first neon sign appeared, but certainly not in Lenox or Stockbridge where Dan Hanna, son of Mark Hanna, bought Bonnie Brier Farm; Newbold Morris built Brookhurst; the Fahnestocks built Eastover; Grenville Winthrop built Groton Place; William B. Osgood Field built Highlawn House; Edith Jones Wharton built the Mount; Samuel Frothingham built Overleigh; Mrs. Edwards Spencer built Shipton Court; John Alexandre built Spring Lawn; and Robert W. Paterson built Blantyre.
1904
Blantyre was formally opened by Paterson on September 12, 1904 with a large garden party. Mrs. Paterson received in the corner of the library/music room, and guests were then passed across the width of the house on the terrace and were served tea and chocolate in the conservatory. Sherry’s orchestra played seated in a palm bower constructed for the fête in the south corner of the terrace. All the ground-floor rooms, containing the Paterson art and antiques collection, were opened for the inspection.
The feeling of an English manor was replicated with a grand entrance hall that ran the width of the cottage from porte cochere to tiled terrace. At either end of the hall were two plant rooms filled with palms. Among the fronds were strings of miniature lights.
The doors from the hall to the dining room and salon were hung with tapestries. Pieces of the furniture were copies of those found in Hatfield House. On the walls were the heads of moose, elk, caribou, and deer.
The guest list numbered 70 including every cottager name from Alexandre, Barnes, Bristed, Foster, Frothingham, and Jesup to Sloane, Westinghouse, Wharton, and Winthrop.
Over the next few years, Paterson added to his estate. He acquired adjoining land turning the original 50-acre estate into 230 acres. Blantyre had 25 acres of lawn and 175 square feet of green houses heated by hot water in pipes and lit by electricity. Finally, he added an art gallery to Blantyre.
In addition to the Lenox estate, Paterson had a Canadian fishing lodge, a winter retreat in Georgia, and a New York home at 2 West 51st St. across from the Vanderbilt four-plex.
Paterson added an art gallery to Blantyre and moved his impressive private collection there. The paintings on the walls were by Gainsborough, Corot, Daubigny, Diaz, Decamps, Reynolds, Turner, Millet, Morland, Homer, Martin, and more.
In 1900 Paterson wrote a book, “Impressions of Many Lands.” One copy is inscribed “Mr. Andrew Carnegie with Best Wishes from R. W. Paterson Dec. 25, 1900.”
1939
Paterson was listed in “Notable New Yorkers 1896-1899.” Paterson was a poor but ambitious lad who came to the United States from Scotland via Canada: it was a 50-year journey to a Fifth Avenue mansion and a Berkshire cottage.
He made his fortune by founding the Army/Navy stores after the Civil War selling “shoddy.”
However, Paterson was an example of Carnegie’s “shirt sleeve to shirtsleeves in one generation.” Paterson lived in a city palace across the street from the Vanderbilt mansion and died in an apartment across from the Vanderbilt stables. Paterson’s widow survived financially by selling one painting a year.
In 1939, having turned down $300,000 earlier, Mrs. Paterson sold Blantyre for $35,000.
2016
Today Blantyre looks much as it did in Paterson’s day except the art gallery has been removed. It is a true restoration in that it can transport the guest back in time, something Royce would admire. Blantyre remains on the market but management intends to complete this season running Blantyre as Ann would have wanted it run: an homage to the past. Will Royce renew his offer?
No one expects him to. In January, Ocean House — now expanded to include Ocean House Management, LLC — announced Gates Realty Holdings appointed them to oversee the final renovations, opening, and on-going operations of the new Spicer Mansion in Mystic, Conn.
It would be nice if someone like Royce made an offer. Apparently, the Royce model does not demand density for profitability, does not demand building more bedrooms to enhance the bottom line, and respects original architecture. Lenox and Lenox infrastructure is under increased pressure from the increased density promised around Cranwell and Elm Court; perhaps Blantyre will give some relief.
