FROM THE BRYANT ROOM ARCHIVES
By Myrna Sloam ©Jan/Feb 2006
A View of the Mackay Estate by Stewart Donaldson, Part VIII: The Cellar
[Note: The following is part 8 in a series, taken from the reminiscences of Stewart Donaldson (1907-1994) who grew up on the Clarence H. Mackay estate in what is now East Hills. The complete text can be found in the Bryant Library Local History Collection.]
As you left the kitchen, across the hall was the first servants’ dining room. Here the Butler, Chef, Valet, Housekeeper, Nurse, and old Mrs. Mackay’s maid, etc., [would dine.] They had servants waiting on servants in this place. Nellie Burke was waitress for the first servants. To your left and out onto a screened porch [there was an] area for the servants to sit out on the warm summer afternoons and evenings.
[If you went] down the stairs to the cellar or basement, with its double doors leading to the back court yard [and] turn to your left, on your right hand side [you would find] four large walk in ice boxes. Here the sides of beef, fish, poultry, vegetables and anything that required refrigeration was kept. Opposite were a chopping block and the dumbwaiter. Old Mike Smith, a Hungarian with big flat feet and a mustache, [worked here and] used to remind me of Charlie Chaplin. He was the ice box man. He would get the meats, fish, vegetables or whatever the kitchen ordered and would cut up the meats and poultry on the block. He would send it up in the dumbwaiter. He would also empty the garbage cans from the dumbwaiter and [do] any odd job required in the cellar.
Behind the dumbwaiter, at the foot of the stairs, was the second servants’ dining room. This included all those who did not eat upstairs. They had a waitress, who set the table, served them and cleaned up. Her name was Hilda, a Swede. Then as you walked on down the hall to the back of the cellar, you passed the laundry. I think the laundress was Lizzy Proudfoot. Further on to your right was the boiler room and coal bin. And, when I say coal bin, I mean coal bin. You could build an average small house of today in that area. There were three boilers and a railing alongside the walk, so that you wouldn’t fall into the coal pile. As you walked by, a man by the name of George Sheppard, I believe, was one of the boiler men. I can’t remember the others.
As you walked further on, you came to the carpenter shop where Oscar Wiggins and Walter Penny, the carpenters, worked. A little further and to the left was the electrical shop. Here Mr. Edward Pietsch and Angelo Graziosi had their shop. There were also the painters, Jed Freeman and Ed. Mott. The painters did not work in the winter time. I remember Ed. Mott who lived on Main Street, Roslyn and used to go to Florida in the winter. He rode a motorcycle to work at Mackays. The plumber on the estate was Daniel Dickinson.
Also at the end of the cellar on the left hand side was the wine cellar, where all the champagne, wine, cordials, etc., were stored. Every now and then the bottles had to be turned and relabeled. It was amazing to see the number of bottles on the shelves, in their own little booths, so to speak, with their necks down in order to keep the corks wet so they would not shrink up. There was a lot of money represented here.
You could take the elevator to the top floor and on a clear, bright day look to the south and see Freeport and the Atlantic Ocean. Then, to the north-- New York and Connecticut. To the west you would see New York City and the Hudson River and Jersey. And, of course, to the east, away out on Long Island you could see Dix Hills, the highest point on the island. There was also a telescope up there that you could look through. The bedrooms of the Mackays and the guest rooms were on the second floor. I don’t remember this layout at all, as I very seldom went up there. On the third floor were the servants’ rooms, which I do not remember either, as I seldom went up there.
To be continued in future issues…….
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