Old Westbury Gardens was recently awarded a prestigious grant for $131,545 by the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation to support its efforts to preserve and protect New York State and Long Island’s cultural and architectural history. The grant will be used to help recreate and restore the service wing portico and courtyard at Westbury House.
“Old Westbury Gardens is one of Long Island’s most valuable and meaningful landmarks. Since opening to the public more than 50 years ago, generations of Long Islanders have visited Westbury House and our stunning gardens to experience life on Long Island in the early twentieth century,” said Nancy Costopulos, president and CEO of Old Westbury Gardens. “Visitors have particularly been interested in exploring the service wing of the house; now, with this grant, we will be able to restore the service wing portico and courtyard to the way it was when Horace Trumbauer designed it in 1911.”
Old Westbury Gardens was selected to receive this grant as a result of its continued dedication to protecting New York’s rich heritage and its ongoing community education programs to engage current and future generations in its mission of historic preservation.
“The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation provides an incredible service to preserve Long Island culture, history and art,” said Costopulos. “We are grateful and truly honored to receive this grant to help further our goal to provide guests with the best possible experience.”
“This restored portion of the house will offer visitors entrée to an entirely different experience at Old Westbury Gardens. Behind the grandeur of Westbury House had an army of staff who saw to every aspect of its management and daily life. Restoring the court yard and portico will allow at least a glimpse into the servant’s part of that story,” said Kathryn Curran, executive director of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
The service wing portico was the main entrance for domestic operations at Westbury House. It was designed and built to provide additional accommodations for staff, food preparation areas, dumbwaiters, silver vaults, linen storage and the servants’ dining room.
The original wood portico was removed in 1970 due to structural instability, and decades of weather have eroded and created fissures in the original brick. The Robert David Lion Gardiner grant will support Old Westbury Gardens’ efforts to recreate the service entrance portico based on Trumbauer’s plans and restore the courtyard to its former glory. The courtyard will serve was a hub for expanded house tours and community programming, as well as complete the stabilization of all the facades of Westbury House.
Old Westbury Gardens, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is the former home of John S. Phipps; his wife, Margarita Grace Phipps; and their four children. Completed in 1906 by the English designer George A. Crawley, the magnificent Charles II-style mansion is nestled amid 200 acres of formal gardens, landscaped grounds, woodlands, ponds and lakes. Westbury House is furnished with fine English antiques and decorative arts from the more than 50 years of the family’s residence.
Old Westbury Gardens welcomes visitors of all ages for guided tours of Westbury House and Gardens, in-depth tours of the formal gardens, school visits, children’s programs and events, family programs, museum exhibits, classic car shows, indoor and outdoor classical concerts, summer concerts, slide lectures, book signings, horticultural demonstrations and workshops, botanical arts and gardening classes, and educator-led talks and tours of topics relating to horticulture, art, history, design and architecture.
Old Westbury Gardens seeks to inspire appreciation and knowledge of the best qualities exemplified in the American country estate of the early 20th century through faithful preservation of its landscape and gardens, architecture and collections.
For more information about the Old Westbury Gardens and upcoming events, visit www.oldwestburygardens.org.
The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, established in 1987, primarily supports the study of New York State history. Robert David Lion Gardiner was, until his death in August 2004, the 16th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner’s Island, NY. The Gardiner family and their descendants have owned Gardiner’s Island since 1639, obtained as part of a royal grant from King Charles I of England. The Foundation is inspired by Robert David Lion Gardiner’s personal passion for New York history.
The purpose of the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation is to educate and inform the general public; cultivate foster and promote interest in Long Island’s societal heritage; encourage and sponsor the of historically relevant documents; and to sponsor and encourage the preservation, restoration and exhibition of at least one facility appropriate to such purpose.
