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From the Bryant Room Archives
By Myrna Sloam ©March/April 2005
A View of the Mackay Estate Part V: The Front Drive, Gate House and Prince of Wales Visit by Stewart Donaldson
The following is part 5 of an ongoing series of reminiscences written in the 1950s by Stewart Donaldson (1907- 1994) who grew up on the Clarence H. Mackay estate in what is now East Hills. The complete stories are in the Bryant Library Local History Collection.
When you left the stables and went towards the west or towards the front drive, as it was called, you came to a “T” in the road. At the “T” you would make a right turn and pass between two marble lions, one on either side of the front or main drive to the Mansion. This part of the road from the lions to the front of the house was lined on both sides with Norway maples.
If you had proceeded ahead at the “T” you would have gone down to the front drive to the gate lodge or gate house, as we used to call it. The drive was supposed to be just one mile in length from the front door to the gate house. These big iron gates were always kept closed and opened by Mr. or Mrs. Ed Burke when Mackay guests arrived. The Burkes were usually notified by phone from the big house when anyone was arriving, otherwise they would not be admitted to the estate if Burke didn’t know them.
This was a long winding drive… [of] gravel, about twelve feet wide with a stone gutter on each side. Just beyond the gutter [was] a low barberry hedge. Behind the hedge was a grass plot. Beyond the grass plot, which varied greatly in width, were mass plantings of rhododendrons, azaleas, flowering shrubs, many types of specimen trees along the entire length of the drive. I remember when the Prince of Wales visited the Mackay estate in the 1920s [1924, ed. note]. These trees along this drive were lit up with Chinese lanterns hung from the branches. Each lantern had a small electric light bulb in it. The gutter along the main drive had small glasses, placed about fifteen feet apart with a candle burning in each glass.
They were one month preparing for this party. I helped Mr. Pietsch, who was head electrician on the estate during this time. The night of the party I ran the freight elevator for a while, then relieved one of the men on the roof. His job was to rotate the colored disks in front of the spot lights, which were showing on the fountain in the Italian garden. There were four spots. You would light one at a time and rotate the disks. Then, push the disk to one side and point the spot up in the air, turn it off, light the next one, point it at the fountain, put the disks on and rotate them. The lights became so hot they could only be kept on for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Then they had to be turned off.
When the Prince of Wales arrived, all the spots were put on and pointed at the gardens, fountains and rose trellis, then back to one spot for the rest of the time. It was some show, I’ll never forget it. That night they said there were over 1,000 people on the floor of the main hall or ball room. That’s hard to believe, but it is supposed to be true. Paul Whiteman and his band supplied continuous music, starting at 6 PM. He had forty musicians. They sat in the balcony overlooking the main ball room. In one band he had 25 men and in the other 15, plus his arrangers and stand by men. I remember there were 6 violins in the large band.
The cars that brought the guests were parked from the front of the house all the way down the north and east drive to the dairy and to the greenhouse on the north drive. When they wanted someone’s car, they had a telephone system. The wires had been hung in the trees days before and the chauffeurs had to wait at certain stations for their cars to be called. I believe there were eight or ten of these stations. At the station a man had a megaphone and would call out the owner’s name. To be continued….
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Email: localhistory@bryantlibrary.org