"Cedarmere" (Roslyn Harbor, New York)

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

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Farmhouse c. 1787 in the Colonial Revival style which was built for Richard Kirk who was a Quaker farmer. The land was purchased in 1843 by William Cullen Bryant {publisher, attorney}. Bryant served as the publisher of the New York Evening Post. He remodeled a small house built by Joseph Moulton in the 1850-60s as a country retreat. Those alterations were made by Thomas Wisedall. During Bryant's tenure, notable personalities like Edwin Booth, Frederick Law Olmsted, Thomas Cole, and James Fenimore Cooper were guests at the house. Bryant also commissioned noted landscape architect Olmsted to design the landscape.

Also on the property is a decorative mill in the Gothic Revival style supposedly designed by Calvert Vaux with a slate-covered cross-gabled roof decorated barge-boards and decorative finials topped with a brick chimney. The windows are trimmed with decorative details, including arches of various shapes. The main side window has 'W' 'C' 'B' (William Cullen Bryant's initials) etched in the top panes.

In 1875, Bryant sold the property to his daughter Julia while preserving a small portion of it for himself. She only lived there for a short time before moving to Paris, France. In July 1891, she sold "Cedarmere" to her sister's son, Harold Goodwin. In 1902, the house caught on fire but most of the furnishings were saved. The home was restored by Lewis H. West with alterations designed by Goodwin himself. They also added a great room which was decorated in a Hispano-Moresque style with paneling and a chandelier which was salvaged from family townhouses in New York City. Goodwin continued to live on the estate until his death in 1931.

The estate was left to Nassau County by Godwin's daughter, Elizabeth, to preserve as a memorial to Bryant. The home was most recently leased after it was closed in 2008 by Nassau County by the Hagedorn Foundation who restored the estate prior to their disbanding in 2017. It is now occupied by the Friends of Cedarmere nonprofit.

www.roslynlandmarks.org/projects/cedarmere
books.google.com/books?id=H6sLhey465YC&lpg=PA53&...
www.roslynlandmarks.org/img/projects/files/House%20Tour...
archive.org/details/longislandillust01long/page/82/mode...
digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-669a-a3d9-e0...
digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-8411-a3d9-e0...
digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-6699-a3d9-e0...
www.locationdepartment.net/locations/3413