41,000 Square Foot Mansion on Long Island's North Shore NY

DuPont-Guest Estate - White Eagle, Brookville New York

Date added: November 19, 2024

Mansion east elevation and terrace (2009)

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The DuPont-Guest Estate was intended as a summer home for Alfred I. DuPont, a prominent American businessman from an important gunpowder manufacturing business that traced its roots to the late-eighteenth century. DuPont commissioned the house in 1916. An important American businessman of the early twentieth century, DuPont was a player in the larger group of American industrialists of the time, many of whom commissioned their own mansions along the Long Island north shore patterned after the grand estates of European royalty. The estate later became the home of Mrs. Frederick F. E. Guest from 1923-1959. Mrs. Guest was from the prominent Phipps family, well-known for its industrialists and politicians, some of whom also had houses built in the Westbury area. DuPont never resided in the mansion and Mrs. Guest made several changes after taking possession. All changes were done under the supervision of architect Thomas Hastings.

The DuPont-Guest Estate was the work of Thomas Hastings, from the firm of Carrere and Hastings who had strong connections to the wealthy families of the East Coast, bringing them several important commissions and opportunities to design country homes for these prominent families. Along with firms such as McKim, Mead and White, the designs of Carrere and Hastings set the standard for the American country estates of the era with their high style designs, attention to detail and wealthy clientele. In addition, Carrere and Hastings were considered masters, among the top architects of their time, due to their broad influence in American architecture through the infusion of the Beaux Arts tradition into their many high-profile commissions.

Records were lost as to who specifically was responsible for the estate's garden/landscape design. John Carrere had been known for landscaping plans, most notably the grounds of the Buffalo, New York Pan-American Exposition in 1901, but he died before DuPont made his commission to the firm. Whoever worked with Thomas Hastings clearly followed the firm's philosophy of carefully integrating the design of the house with the gardens.

Following the fashionable trend of wealthy New Yorkers building large summer estates in the country, Alfred I. DuPont (1864- 1935) commissioned Carrere and Hastings to design his summer residence in 1916 that was to be located in the north shore area on Long Island. These large estates in scenic, rural areas were designed to be summer retreats from the crowded, urban areas where the wealthy maintained permanent residences. For the estates on Long Island's north shore, most of the residents were from New York City and maintained permanent residences in Manhattan. Since the 1890s, wealthy urbanites traveled to the resort areas in Long Island such as Sea Cliff or established sporting clubs such as the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club at Oyster Bay and the Meadow Brook Polo Club. In addition to the clubs, William K. Vanderbilt had the roads improved leading east from his summer estate Deepdale in Lake Success through the countryside. This improved roadway known as the Long Island Motor Parkway was used by Vanderbilt to host races that attracted large numbers of spectators.

The Guggenheims were another prominent family who established family estates on Long Island's north shore, specifically Daniel Guggenheim who purchased the Gould Estate in Sands Point in 1917, and his son Harry F. Guggenheim who built Falaise in 1923 on adjacent land. The estates built by the DuPonts, Guggenheims and other well-known families were places that reflected their wealth and prestige in society, but also their interests in art, gardening, gentleman farming and other fashionable activities such as polo, yachting, golf, and tennis. These homes became seasonal gathering places for artists, scientists, politicians and other prominent figures in society depending on the backgrounds and interests of the estate owners.

Long Island's north shore region of Roslyn, Brookville, Old Westbury, Wheatley and Jericho became the area of choice for these large, fashionable estates. A rural area of mostly Quaker farms, the land was still undeveloped by the turn of the twentieth century and featured vast meadows and impressive views toward Long Island Sound. Several factors united to bring the wealthy to the north shore, most notably improvements in transportation with new roads and expanded railroad service and the availability of large tracts of land. Theodore Roosevelt praised the area for its beauty and after he established his summer home in Oyster Bay in the 1890s, others began looking at the area for seasonal living. By 1915, the area was home to the well-known families of the Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Morgans and featured the estates of Charles Pratt of Standard Oil, Edward F. Hutton and Joseph H. Harriman.

Before establishing a New York City investment firm, Alfred I. DuPont was Vice President of Operations for his family business in Delaware, the well-known E.J. DuPont de Nemours Company, gunpowder manufacturers since the eighteenth century. The company was founded by Alfred's grandfather, and Alfred's father served as a partner in the company until his untimely death when Alfred was thirteen. After working for the family business for many years and gaining much wealth as the second-highest stockholder in the company, Alfred abruptly resigned due to a rift within the family. He then established the investment firm Nemours Trading Corporation in New York, an import-export business. Alfred and his wife Alicia (daughter of prominent judge Edward Bradford) had plans to relocate to the north coast of Long Island from their other Carrere and Hastings designed Delaware home, called Nemours. During construction of the estate that they called White Eagle, Alicia died unexpectedly of a heart attack and after it was completed in 1918, Alfred sold it fully furnished (by Charles of London) and never lived in to Captain and Mrs. Frederick Guest in 1923.

Alfred left for California in 1921, and remarried the same year. He returned to the East Coast with his new wife, and settled into his Nemours home in Delaware. Alfred later relocated to Jacksonville, Florida where he started a new business, Almours Securities, Inc., and invested in large tracts of land on Florida's panhandle. Upon his death in 1935, his Florida estate was valued at over fifty-six million dollars.

The Guests were also quite a prominent family. Captain Frederick Guest (1875-1937), was a British politician best known for being Chief Whip of Prime Minister David Lloyd George's Coalition Liberal Party between 1917 and 1921. Guest was the grandson of the seventh Duke of Marlborough, and Winston Churchill's first cousin. His wife Amy Phipps Guest (1873-1959) was the daughter of Henry Phipps, Jr., an American industrialist. Henry Phipps, Jr. was boyhood friends with Andrew Carnegie, and became Carnegie's business partner in the Carnegie Steel Company. He was also a successful real estate investor and developer. Mrs. Guest was well-known in society and was the financial backer of Amelia Earhart's flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1928. Later in life, she embarked on a private mission in 1956 to open peace talks between Egypt and Israel.

The Guests moved into the mansion in 1923, renamed it Templeton, and had the property remodeled under the direction of Thomas Hastings, punching new windows into the facades, and reworking the dining room and kitchen to their liking, including the construction of a glass-enclosed atrium garden room off of the dining area. In addition, Mrs. Guest brought in a white marble stair hall removed from her parent's New York City residence and had it rebuilt in the entry hall. Mrs. Guest resided at Templeton from 1923 until her death in 1959. She spent significantly more time at the house than her husband, who was frequently in England for business. The Guest's son Winston, a well-known international polo player, took over ownership of the estate upon Mrs. Guest's death.

In 1972, New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) purchased the mansion from Winston Guest, converting it for use as a conference center, offices and classrooms. The property surrounding the house became part of the NYIT Old Westbury Campus, though the institute sold fifty-six acres of surrounding land in the early 2000s to residential developers for use as private residences.

These two prominent American families contributed significantly to the development of country estate settlement along the north shore of Long Island in the early twentieth century. While DuPont never took up residence at the estate due to the emotional impact of the untimely death of his wife, he was tied to the house in as the one who commissioned Carrere and Hastings for the design and allowed Hastings, the master architect, freedom to create one of his finest country homes and gardens. Mrs. Frederick A. Guest occupied the mansion for over thirty-five years and as a member of the locally prominent Phipps family, was part of the wealthy social set active in the area in the first half of the twentieth century. Her involvement as a noted woman's suffragist and philanthropist also gave her notoriety at the national level.

The firm of John Merven Carrere (1858-1911) and Thomas Hastings (1860-1929) rose to national prominence after winning the commission to design the New York Public Library in 1897. The firm was well known as one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. The partnership of Carrere and Hastings lasted from 1885 until 1911, when Carrere was killed in an automobile accident. Thomas Hastings continued to practice under the firm's name until his own death in 1929.

Thomas Hastings met John Carrere when studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The two later worked at McKim, Mead and White before branching off together to form their own practice. Due to the wealthy status of both principals and their connections to the upper class (Hastings's father was a well-connected Presbyterian minister in Manhattan), the firm was granted many unique opportunities to showcase their Beaux-Arts training, working to create a modern American architecture from centuries-old traditions. They were among the best-connected New York architects, designing for the richest and most powerful clients in the city, though their connections carried their work as far as Paris, London, Rome and Havana.

Carrere was most active in the firm's large civic and commercial projects, designing the House and Senate office buildings in Washington, D.C., the Manhattan Bridge, and the New York Public Library, while Hastings took interest in injecting his Beaux Arts philosophy into smaller-scale projects and residential design. The firm's stylistic influences on architecture were abundant. The attention to sculpture and surface decoration in their work was always closely tied to the axial planning of their highly functional floor plan organization. They were most noted, however, for their adaptation of classical architectural design to suit modern American architectural tastes.

In addition to their large-scale civic projects and city planning efforts (working in coordination with Daniel Burnham, a leader in the City Beautiful movement of the time), Carrere and Hastings also became influential in their contributions to country home and garden design, introducing compositional and stylistic ideas that shaped residential design for decades. Their gardens have been extensively studied and published.

The most appropriate architectural style for the American country home was widely debated amongst architects of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Carrere and Hastings's solution was to create a new American "villa" continuing the Renaissance tradition of classical building and landscape design styles, using Italian-inspired site plans with stylistically eclectic houses. Their desire to find a modern classical vocabulary that would be distinctly American manifested itself by 1895 with the design of the house at Indian Harbor (owned by Hastings's father-in-law), which established Carrere and Hastings as one of the leaders of the house and garden movement that swept the United States at the turn of the century.

Hastings's design of the DuPont-Guest mansion was a fine example of Carrere and Hastings' mastery of the modern American country house, done in an English Georgian Revival style. Common English Georgian elements used included the gabled, hipped roof (only occurring in the Northeast region of the Unites States on high-style landmarks), the two-room deep floor plan, the five-bay division on the south facade of the house with double-hung windows aligned horizontally and vertically, the centered doors with decorative crowns supported on pilasters, and the cornice with tooth-like dentils. The cupola projecting above the roof, while common in Georgian public buildings, is found on only a handful of houses and is a unique element of the mansion.

The integration of the house with the garden was another major component of Carrere and Hastings country home design style. The firm incorporated garden design from the very beginning of the architectural process. They were among the first American firms to establish a service in their office offering the layout of both the house and garden of a country estate. After Carrere's death, Hastings began a particularly fertile period of country home and garden design, superbly integrating house and garden ensembles in his modern American style, borrowing many classical design elements from French, English and Italian traditions. Hastings believed that nature was full of order and geometry, and that employing straight lines and geometric shapes in the landscape design would highlight the natural beauty of the site.

Hastings' method of integrating the house with the garden began with establishing the logical delineation of the boundaries of the site, and continued with the extension of lines from the house's floor plan through to architectural elements in the landscape such as terraces, porches, loggia and porticoes. These elements reinforced the relationships of the building to the site. His designs became a single, unified ensemble rather than a series of discrete gardens.

This echoed the style of landscape design Hastings employed at the DuPont-Guest estate. The boundaries of the landscape were clearly outlined by the natural clearings surrounding the house from the wooded areas. The lines of the house extended outward to form terraces all around, and a portico off of the west elevation framed a grass lawn. The simple technique of extending lines from the floor plan and forming architectural elements in the garden created unity throughout the entire site.

Not only was the mansion noted by scholars as being the most elegant of Hastings' late country houses, it was also celebrated as being one of his finest facades. The DuPont-Guest Estate served as a solid example of Carrere and Hastings mastery of the Beaux Arts design tradition and their influence on modern American architecture. Furthermore, the gardens emphasized the firm's interest in the union of the landscape with the built environment. Stated by one historian, "Of the remaining Long Island country houses designed by the firm, it is the closest example of the sublime art of Carrere and Hastings' marrying the building with its natural surroundings." The design of the DuPont-Guest estate by the master firm of Carrere and Hastings certainly placed as a high achievement in Hastings's career and further emphasized the grandeur of Long Island's north shore, famous for its impressive country estates and gardens from this era.

Site Description

Currently known as the De Seversky Center, the DuPont-Guest Estate is located on New York Institute of Technology's (NYIT) Old Westbury Campus in Old Westbury, New York, on Long Island's north shore. The campus is located on Northern Boulevard, east of Glen Cove Road and West of Route 107. The estate is on NYIT campus's West Road, west of the road and according to property maps is technically in the Village of Brookville even through the bulk of the NYIT campus is in the adjacent Village of Old Westbury. The estate was originally used as a seasonal, country retreat, though its use is now as office space and as a conference and meeting center for the NYIT campus. The property consists of a residence, surrounding gardens and landscape, and garage.

Set in a semi-rural residential area, the portion of the NYIT campus nearest the mansion was left as an intact natural landscape, emphasizing the original country home atmosphere of the site. The landscape directly surrounding the mansion is comprised of heavily wooded areas, accentuating the sense of seclusion. The 41,000 square-foot house was commissioned in 1916 and completed in 1918 in the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century Georgian Revival Style. The house is red brick with significant features that include limestone and marble embellished facades, terraced landscape elements, and a highly organized floor plan. The house is in good condition and demonstrates high integrity in its original materials, workmanship and character, though some additions and alterations have occurred throughout the life of the dwelling. While the setting has been altered (with the sale of fifty-six acres of surrounding land), the original landscape elements are intact, and the country estate feeling is apparent due to the preservation of the original surrounding acreage.

Commissioned in 1916 by Alfred I. DuPont, the mansion was designed by Thomas Hastings from the prominent architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings, who also designed DuPont's Delaware country estate, Nemours in 1910, and was completed in 1918. The house was designed in the English Georgian Revival style, and is a handsome example of Hastings' late country house work. The massing is recessive in nature, with a wing stemming off of the west side of the main block of the house, allowing the main body of the house to remain symmetrical. The house is two stories plus a basement level, with a red brick facade, white marble and limestone embellishments and a gabled, slate roof. The multi-planar, pyramidal massing echoes French and Italian Baroque influence but is clearly Georgian in its overall character.

The south elevation serves as the formal entrance to the mansion and features a simple entablature and a cornice with large dentils running the length of the facade, as well as a refined marble entrance portico in the central double-wide bay. The triangulated pediment with a decorative crest and floral-themed entablature is supported by four Corinthian columns featuring acanthus leaf embellishments. The wood entry double doors below the entry portico have a small pediment above with a garland-themed entablature and ionic-engaged columns. On the second floor above the entry doors is a double-hung six-over-six wood window with a limestone surround featuring a Greek key pattern in the lintel. A limestone garland frames the window on either side.

The symmetrical flanking masses of the south elevation's main block are subdivided into three bays each, with each bay consisting of a first-floor wood-framed glass door with a second-floor window directly above (in the same style as the entry portico window). The first-floor doors of the main block of the house are tall wood-framed rectangular double doors with two-over-four glazing in each door. Above the doors are small two-over-one windows. Each door has an arched limestone surround in-filled with limestone detailing and a limestone keystone laid into the brick surrounding the arch.

In 1923, additional windows were punched into the facades of the mansion by the request of the owner Mrs. Frederick A. Guest and done under the supervision of Carrere and Hastings. On the south elevation, these new openings were placed on the second floor, centered in between the two bays of fenestration, in each side mass of the main block of the house. The newer windows appear identical in style and materials to the originals, but have only a thin limestone sill (instead of the full limestone surround seen on the 1918 windows). A small, narrow four-over-four wood window is crowded into the westernmost corner of the second story, with a small limestone sill, and was also added in 1923.

Along the east facade, a dramatic elliptical colonnade curves out from the living room (now ballroom), creating a shallow terrace, framing views of the landscape beyond. The doorway from the ballroom out to the colonnaded terrace features a segmented pediment, placing a central focus on the facade. The pediment ties the colonnade's semi-circle into the plane of the house's east facade, melding the two elements. The pediment's large scrolls frame a decorative urn, encircled by a recessed oval in the brick wall of the facade behind it. The pediment lies centrally on the main mass of the east facade, which is delineated from the rest of the facade by a balustrade along the roofline and strands of marble running vertically along the facade, creating a frame to delineate the mass's borders. Off of the main mass, the rest of the east facade is composed of two symmetrical flanking masses (each side mass with one bay of fenestration). The east elevation of the main house features the same cornice and entablature as the south elevation.

Windows and doors in the main mass of the east elevation are the same as the south elevation, but without the limestone decoration. Instead, second-floor windows are treated with a simple limestone sill, and first-floor doors have an inlaid rectangle of limestone decoration in the brick wall above them. The flanking masses have only one bay of fenestration each: the doors with limestone rectangular decoration on the first floor, and the six-over-six wood windows with limestone surrounds featuring a Greek key design in the lintel on the second floor. A colonnade stands one story high, supported by Doric columns. Sets of two decorative urns sit atop the colonnade, anchoring its ends. A cornice and entablature are decorated in floral motifs with unique cow skull embellishments etched into the cornice as well.

The main block of the north elevation features the same entablature and cornice as the rest of the main block of the house. The massing of the north facade is similar to the south facade, except that the two masses flanking the central mass push out past the central mass, creating a U-shaped facade. The central mass is comprised of four bays with second-floor windows (with Greek key lintels and full limestone surrounds) and first-floor limestone-arched doors, though only under the first and fourth windows. Under the two center bay windows of the main mass lies only one door. In between the second-floor windows are decorative concave limestone ovals set into the brick facade. There is a 1923 addition window in between the westernmost door and the central door of the main mass. The door is plain with no limestone trim or rectangular decoration above. The western mass of the north elevation is one bay, centered in the mass, with a first-floor door with a limestone arch surround and a second-floor window with Greek key lintel and limestone surround. The eastern mass of the north elevation's main block of the house has two bays with doors and windows for this facade.

Extending off the west facade of the main block of the house is a wing housing a kitchen, bar room, dining room and glass atrium garden room. An addition constructed after 1972 connected the wing to the 1923 garage, which now holds offices and classrooms. The west wing has a significantly smaller cornice than the main block of the house, with no entablature below. All second-floor windows are six-over-six wood windows of the main house, decorated with a simple limestone sill and no limestone surround. First-floor windows are slightly larger versions of these windows. The west wing maintains the aesthetic of the main block, with red brick walls and gabled slate roofs.

The north elevation of the western wing is comprised of two masses: a small mass stemming out of the west of the main block of the house, and a long, narrow mass extending off of that. Off of the north of the narrow mass is a large glass atrium space running nearly the entire length of the addition, pushing out onto the terraced landscape beyond. The long narrow mass is divided into five bays, each with a second-story window, and doors with no decoration on the first floor under the second and fourth windows. The other first-floor bays have larger six-over-six wood windows with marble sills common to the west wing.

The garage was originally built in 1923. It is connected to the west wing on the north elevation by a one-story red brick fence. The garage's style is the same as the west wing, with simple marble window sills, a red brick facade and a gabled slate roof. Many doors and windows along the north facade of the garage have been in-filled. Along the western facade of the garage, the two first-floor windows and a second-floor circular window have been in-filled as well. There is also a small shed built in the same style as the west wing attached to the western elevation of the garage. Along the southern elevation of the garage, four large arched garage doors with limestone surrounds and one central rectangular garage door have been in-filled. A modern steel door allows access to the garage area (now classrooms and offices).

Between the west wing and the garage on the south elevation is a modern, one-story brick structure linking the two buildings. It contains three arched entryways, now in-filled. The south elevation of the west wing mirrors that of the north elevation, with a small mass connecting to the original house, and then a long narrow mass extending west from there. In addition, at the westernmost edge of the addition is a mass extending out toward the south, housing the modern stairwell and industrial kitchen. It is this mass that connects to the hallway linking it to the garage.

The south facade of the west wing contains one bay in the mass extending out to the south, with two six-over-six windows. The long mass is broken up to delineate the dining room (the original kitchen) from the bar room, with the bar room area extending slightly out past the dining room. The bar room section of the facade features three second-story windows with simple limestone sills. Above the center window is an in-filled semi-circular window with limestone trim and a limestone garland decoration. On the first floor, a taller first-floor window is centered below. The mass of the dining room area is divided into three bays, with windows on the first and second floor in each bay, except for the second-floor central bay where there is a taller, narrow wood window with a small iron balcony below it. Next to this window is a 1923 second-floor window with a limestone sill.

The south facade of the small mass connecting to the main body of the house features two bays, and is decorated in a similar style of the more decorative main block- with a large marble cornice and entablature, and marble surrounds on the windows. The second-floor windows have Greek key designs on the lintels. The first-floor windows are large six-over-six windows, but with marble surrounds.

On the first floor of the main block of the house are the arteries of circulation as well as the primary entertaining spaces. The entry hall and stairway sit centrally located, flanked by the original living room on the east and a library, sitting room, original dining room, and parlor to the west. The entry hall serves as a double-height stair hall providing circulation to the second floor and basement. The space is paneled in dramatic white marble, with a white marble stair and balustrade. The use of the entry hall as the stair hall was a 1923 alteration. When Mrs. Frederick Guest purchased the estate from Alfred I. DuPont, she converted the front entry hall to a formal stair hall with the supervision of Carrere and Hastings. The new stair hall features a grand marble stair transported directly from Mrs. Frederick Guest's father's (Henry Phipps) New York City residence. The original stair hall was thus converted to a parlor.

The original living room is now used as a ballroom. The room features dark-stained oak paneling on the full height of the walls in a grid pattern, with wood-engaged columns holding wall sconces. The ceiling is decorated with a detailed geometric plaster design. The living room also features a large white marble fireplace. Above the wood double doors leading to the entry hall is a piece of intricately carved oak paneling with an Oriental fan design.

The library is located at the north end of the entry stair hall, and contains a green marble fireplace, as well as built in bookcases and wall moldings. The library also contains a surprise feature: a door hidden in the bookcases filled with faux books, which leads to a hall to the west wing of the mansion. Next to the library, along the north end of the mansion, is the original dining room, similar to the library in design with wood wall moldings and a green and white marble fireplace. The original dining room also features intricate ceiling moldings with a Greek key design and dentils. Spaced evenly along the walls are full-height fluted green pilasters with Ionic order capitals.

The current parlor is the original location of the stair hall before the 1923 conversion of the entry hall into the stair hall. The room is oak paneled floor to ceiling with a dark wood stain, and contains a small marble fireplace surrounded by wood-paneled columns and a pediment. Off of the parlor is hall leading to the west wing of the house where the kitchen, bar room and dining rooms are housed. The hall also contains restrooms. The bar room is the first room upon entering the west wing of the mansion, featuring dark-stained oak paneled walls and a white marble fireplace with surrounding intricate oak paneling decorated in floral arches and geometric themes.

The main dining room of the west wing is very large, and has been altered since NYIT's acquisition of the estate in 1972. The room is carpeted and is paneled in a light-stained wood with thin wood moldings. The original plaster ceiling has been covered by a modern dropped ceiling. The dining room was formerly part of the Guest's original kitchen, and is attached to an enclosed glass atrium called the garden room. The garden room features slate tile floors and modern electric ceiling fans.

The 41,000-square-foot mansion includes thirteen upstairs bedrooms and parlors, all decorated in classic European country style. These rooms are currently being used as offices by NYIT. The original wood floors remain, with inlaid geometric designs. The second-floor space of the entry stair hall is also white marble, with marble columns and balustrades. The second floor also features electric lighting panels that pre-date NYIT's acquisition of the property, set into the ceiling in the stair hall and hallways and made to appear to be skylights. The interiors of the mansion were originally furnished in full by Charles of London according to a New York Times article.

The mansion's exterior is highly intact with minimal deterioration. There are some signs of brick spalling and cracking on the facades, and occasional locations noted with repairs performed on mortar cracks on the elevations. Historic alterations to the exterior include the 1923 addition of windows and doors, and the creation of a glass-enclosed atrium by Mrs. Frederick A. Guest, with the supervision of Carrere and Hastings. The concrete in-fill of the garage windows and doors by NYIT was done after 1972 and is another noted alteration that occurred with the conversion of the garage to offices and classrooms.

Historic interior alterations from 1923 include the conversion of the entry hall to a stair hall, and the subsequent removal of stairs from the original stair hall in its conversion to a parlor. The west wing was altered to accommodate the owner's kitchen, dining room and garden terrace room (enclosed glass atrium space), then later altered by NYIT to accommodate a large-scale dining room operation, industrial-sized kitchen, and stair hall. The dropped ceilings and carpeting in the west wing were part of this alteration, as was the modernization of the restrooms in the west wing. Other alterations since NYIT's 1972 acquisition include the conversion of the garage to classrooms and offices, the creation of a hall linking the garage to the west wing of the main house, and the conversion of second-story parlors and bedrooms to office spaces. Wood floors on the first floor have been replaced.

Gardens/Landscape

Slightly over forty-four acres remain of the original 260-acre site of the estate, which is approached from a road leading south, then curving east to arrive at the main entry on the south of the house. Two towering limestone pillars mark the entrance to the oval driveway, which is framed by Linden trees. Down the road, past the oval drive (at the west end of the house) there is another pair of matching limestone pillars. Centered in the oval drive is a small circular garden with a large marble urn. Directly across the entry road from the house is a path leading to another small circular garden with an urn matching the one in the circular drive. Directly south of this is an alley of trees leading to the heavily wooded area beyond. A modern parking lot is located west of the alley of trees, screened by shrubs. A low brick wall follows the path of the entry road, and a one-story brick wall extends along the west of the main symmetrical block of the house, screening a maintenance area and modern garage beyond. To the east of the circular drive is a garden surrounded by a low brick wall.

East of the house, off of the elliptical colonnade lies a grassy lawn bordered on the east by a limestone balustrade with a grand limestone stair leading down to a lower lawn area. Past this lawn is a wooded area screening the house from the road. The land to the north of the house is a series of undulating meadows overlooking a fifteen-acre natural pond. Views out to the pond are provided by the extensive terraced landscaping along the north facade. Directly along the main symmetrical block of the house are a series of paths, some leading down to a lower, narrow grassy terrace, and others leading west toward a large stone patio protruding from the enclosed glass atrium room of the west wing.

Along the north facade of the garage is a terraced lawn with a large oak tree. The entire north facade terrace area is lined with limestone balustrades, with a grand limestone stair leading from the western edge of the grassy terrace to the natural landscape below. Wooded areas border the property to the west. The gardens at the estate emphasize Carrere and Hastings mantra of "marrying the building with its natural surrounding." The gardens frame views of the natural landscape beyond. Their delicate level changes, terrace walls, uncomplicated plantings and large, stately trees establish a discourse with disciplined lines of the house.

Alfred I. DuPont originally acquired 250 acres in the Westbury area of Oyster Bay, Long Island for his new estate. Much of the original property is now in the New York Institute of Technology's ownership, though fifty-six acres of land were sold in the early 2000s to developers to build private residences. Over the years the acreage has been reduced to the remaining 44.24 acres that includes the house and its existing original landscape features such as the meadow, natural pond, surviving ornamental gardens and wooded areas around the property that helps to retain its "rural country house" feeling. The surviving acreage is currently part of the New York Institute of Technology's campus and the house and gardens are most often used as a conference center. A guest house is a related feature, originally part of the original estate property that has since been separated from the estate. It is now private property not associated with the university. The guest house sits on fifteen acres and has twenty-eight rooms and eleven bathrooms. It has been greatly altered over time, with many additions. In addition, the school has developed the campus to the east of the estate across West Road.