At one time, it was the second largest
home in the United States. Hi everyone, ken here, welcome to "ThisHouse" Today
we are exploring Shadow Brook. Hit that subscribe button so you never miss
an exciting episode of "ThisHouse" In 1838, Anson Phelps Stokes was born into
a wealthy, New York Family. His father was an incredibly successful business man who
headed Phelps, Dodge, and Company importing and exporting goods as well as having extensive
mining operations. But this wasn’t new money, the family had long been wealthy
and part of New York’s High Society, including being members of
Mrs. Astor’s 400 later on. When Anson was of age, he entered his father’s
company, eventually taking over the family business. He married Helen Phelps, the sole heir
to her father’s multi million dollar fortune and the two moved into her Madison Avenue Townhouse
in New York City. They wasted no time starting a family of their own, having 9 children. But the
city was no place for a bunch of active children to run about and play, so they purchased
their first country house on Staten Island. A stately second empire style mansion which
had been built in 1862. They made virtually no changes to the lavish interiors which
included a wood paneled library with an extensive art collection and half heigh bookcases
overflowing with novels for the children to enjoy. While the kids played with each other, Anson
set sail on the water, yachting until sunset. Anson kept himself in shape, taking every
opportunity he could to go on yacht, go on hunts, and play sports with his
friends and kids. But as the years passed, the once sparsely populated countryside
of Staten Island became crowded with new construction never ceasing. The area had
all but lost its charm as a getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city, so Anson and
Hellen began searching for a new country house. They headed up to the Berkshires in Massachusetts
and began buying up land starting with an old country home which was simply named Homestead.
Now that their children were starting to grow up, they needed a house to facilitate social
functions such as courting. Homestead was perfect, it had over 40 rooms including grand
classically styled halls and a massive ballroom with a minstrel gallery. But they quickly
outgrew this mansion as their now teenaged children began to entertain their own friends.
Only a few years after purchasing Homestead, Anson and Hellen hired the architecture
firm of McKim, Mead, and White to design for them what would become the second largest
house to ever be built in the United States. Early on, Hellen and Stanford White got into an
argument and she fired him from the job site and brought in the little known architect H. Neill
Wilson to oversee the construction of the house. The 100 room mansion took a team of 500 workers
nearly 2 years to complete. The sprawling Tudor Revival Style mansion stucco walls broken
up by timbers with the stone accents being carved from rough cuts of marble below a brown
tiled roof. The expansive gardens were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead who had worked on
several large projects including the planning of New York City’s Central Park. He included
area’s for the active family to play various sports and yard games including tennis courts,
stables, even a dedicated field for croquet. Walking inside, the foyer was decorated
with oversized furniture below timbered ceiling inset with ornate plasterwork and
large hearth to welcome you with warmth. The Pompeian Hall, as it was called, was
clad in painted panels both on the walls and the ceilings with figures of humans and horses
carved into the frieze surrounding the room in its entirety. Here you would find the treasures
the family had acquired from their trips abroad including a tiger skin rug and potted exotic
plants paired with fine Chinese porcelains. The morning room continued this theme with white
walls and ceilings, as well as intricate fretwork dividing one corner of the room from a tower.
This room was decorated with floral prints on all the furniture and textiles and the
walls were wainscoted with pilasters reaching towards the frieze from which plaster
garland elegantly draped over silk wallpaper. The main focal point of the parlor was the gothic
fireplace with blown out proportions offering spiraling vines worked into its upper mantle’s
relief work. Fluted Ionic columns were used not just as decoration in this house, but also for
much needed support of the expansive ceilings. The library offered a more rustic
approach to décor with unpainted millwork crafted into gothic arches
and paired with the rough texture of bricks on the fireplace. Diamond pained
windows were set below stained glass, adding to the ambiance provided by the
English antiques which filled the room. Though the house had 3 dining rooms,
this one was the largest. The exposed ceiling beams were supported by large corbels
evenly spaced to line up with the pattern of the wallpaper over half heigh board and
batten wall panels. To give you an idea of just how large this room was, the
rug was said to measure 30 by 48 feet. While guests certainly had enough space to
spread out, no house of this magnitude would be complete without a ballroom. Its rich wood
panels were carved by master wood workers to feature seamless transitions between each panel.
The ceiling was truly unique to Shadow Brook with a dizzying array of geometry built in layers
and lit by electric lights in its medallions. The house continued on with artisan millwork
at every nook and cranny. The second floor was reserved for guests with over 20 guest
suites and the third floor was set aside for the family with each of the 9 children’s
bedrooms boasting their own private bathrooms, something which was rare for the time
period regardless of social class. Now that the house was finished, the Stokes
could entertain as often as they liked, hosting huge parties for Christmas
and New Years. They offered their younger guests sleigh rides while the men
competitively ice fished in the frozen ponds. But Anson and Hellen’s paradise
didn’t last long. In the summer of 1899, Anson was riding his horse around the
property, one of his favorite activities, when something spooked the horse out in the
woods. He threw Anson from his saddle, which sent Anson crashing into trees. His leg was so badly
mangled that it had to be amputated shortly after. With Anson unable to enjoy playing golf, riding
horses, or any other sports for that matter, he and Hellen decided to place the house up for
rent and move back to the city. Shadow Brooke was leased out for a few years before being purchased
by Henry W Merrill who used the estate as a hotel, with 100 guest suites scattered about its upper
floors. The hotel flopped, so after being open for only 2 years, Merrill sold Shadow Brook to
Spencer Shotter who enjoyed the house until 1909 when he was tried for violating anti-trust laws.
He ended up winning his case, but in doing so, had spent nearly his entire fortune on his
legal defense. In desperate need of money, Spencer leased Shadow Brook to Maggie
Vanderbilt for 15,000 dollars per month, or the modern day equivalent of
about 442,000 dollars per month. Mean while, US Steel magnate, Andrew Carnegie’s
health was failing. His doctor’s had advised him not to travel to his beloved castle in Scotland,
but rather to stay near the city, up in the mountains where he could get fresh air. That’s
when he decided to rent the Brick House which Anson and Hellen had built in Fairfield County,
Connecticut when they left Shadow Brook. It was a grand estate with perfectly manicured gardens.
Inside, grand halls were classically styled, leading large rooms finished out with wood paneled
walls. When Carnegie’s daughter came to visit him here, she mentioned that the same family who had
built this house had also built a beautiful home remotely situated in the Berkshires. Carnegie
decided to look further into this dreamy property which his daughter had described. He found that
Spencer Shotter no longer owned the property, even though he was collecting rent on it,
in fact, the bank had foreclosed on him. So Carnegie purchased Shadow Brook from the bank and
moved in to spend his final seasons in one of the nation’s largest homes. He lived here comfortably
until his passing in 1919 when his widow put the house up for sale. She sold it for a bargain price
to the Jesuits of the Province of New England who used it as a seminary until 1956 when the house
spontaneously exploded, taking 5 lives. Upon investigating the tragedy, it was found that the
large reserves of oil stored in barrels had caught fire when a broiler malfunctioned. The explosion
and following inferno left the house in ruins, with no practical way of restoring or
rebuilding it. So it was lost forever. Of the Stokes Family’s other homes, The Brick
House went on to be used by their politically active adult children as a meeting place for
the Communist Party of America before it was gifted to the Convent of the Sacred Heart to
be used as an all girl’s school. Tragically, when the school shut down in
1966, most of the house was demolished with only 2 of its wings being
reconfigured into single family houses. Homestead ended up catching fire
the same year the Stokes moved out of Shadow Brook. Because the
house was all wood construction, the only thing remaining after the blaze were
the brick chimneys, the rest was a total loss. On Staten Island, When the Stokes moved out,
Anson had developed a handful of houses on the property’s grounds to create a small neighborhood.
He sold the main house to another member of Mrs. Astor’s 400, John G Wendel, who let the
house fall into a state of disrepair. By 1928, John had abandoned the property and it was
torn down out of a concern for public safety. But thankfully, one of their homes did
survive. Their town house at Madison and 37th in Manhattan went on to become the Morgan
Library with much of its façade remaining intact. Having seen so many elegant houses of
different architectural styles once owned by the Stokes Family, which one did
you find the most appealing? Did you have a favorite? Let me know down below in the
comments section. And while your there, hit that subscribe button so you never
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