"Hutfield"/"Highfield" (Brookville, New York)

 residence, LIGC - Long Island Gold Coast, historic remains, Colonial Revival (architecture)

Estate home designed c. 1917 in the Georgian Revival style by John Russell Pope on originally 25 acres of land for J. Randolph Robinson {industrialist}. Robinson served as an executive of the Harbinson, Walker & Co. of Pittsburgh brick manufacturer. He later moved to a residence nearby designed by William Lawrence Bottomley in 1927 after selling "Hutfield" to Philip Green Gossler, Sr {capitalist, financier} who renamed the estate "Highfield". Gossler also had a townhouse designed by William Welles Bosworth at 14 E. 65th Street in New York City.

Gossler served as the chairman of the board and president of Columbia Gas & Electric Co. and director of Guaranty Trust Company of New York and was also a founder of the Museum of the City of New York. Gossler comissioned alterations by Pope and gardens, courtyards, and terraces by Ellen Biddle Shipman in 1925.

In 1935, the estate was purchased by E. F. Hutton {financier, industrialist} following his divorce from Marjorie Merriweather Post and returned the estate's name to "Hutfield". Hutton served as the founder of the E.F. Hutton & Co. investment banking firm, served as chairman of the board of General Foods Corp. and Zionite Products Corp, and director of Chrysler Corp. and Coca-Cola Co. He commissioned alterations to the home by James W. O'Connor in 1937 and alterations by Shipman in 1942. The dining room had paneling salvaged from the Richmond House in Plaistow of East London. He also converted part of the stables into his personal study which was located northwest of the main home. It was rumored that Hutton had a tunnel built underneath his home used for smuggling alcohol during the great depression.

After Hutton's death, his widow Dorothy Dear sold the home to Long Island University in 1962. While still recognizable, LIU has added on several additions, altered the driveway which formerly entered off of Wheatley Road, and reclad the siding. The main home and its former outbuildings have been adaptively reused for academic functions in the fine arts. The formal garden plantings, however, have largely been lost to time.

www.oldlongisland.com/search?q=j.+randolph+robinson
findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-a/ldpd_1392355...
archive.org/details/countrylife74gard/page/44/mode/1up
archive.org/details/countrylife35gard/page/n339/mode/1u...
archive.org/details/connoisseurill126128lond/page/n266/...
http://web.archive.org/web/20060901063739/www.cwpost.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/location/buildings/17.html
archive.org/details/artsdecoration2930newy/page/n597/mo...
archive.org/details/andrewwyeth0000wyet/page/202/mode/2...
www.nassaucountyny.gov/mynassauproperty/viewphoto.jsp?t...