United States of America -- New York -- Suffolk County -- Huntington
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes worksheets and photocopies of articles.
General:
Oheka was the grandest estate of its time in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island's North Shore, styled after French farmhouses but with 126 rooms. The house was designed by architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich in circa 1921. In 1917 the Olmsted Brothers planned the grounds of the 443-acre estate, which included the entrance drive bordered by red cedars, the golf course, and extensive bridle paths. It took two years to move the earth and build up a rise on which the house was sited. A distinctive parterre in front of the house was comprised of eight reflecting pools to show the changing sky and surrounding mountains, with grass borders. In 1919 Adele Wolff Kahn commissioned Beatrix Farrand to design more intimate spaces, including a Dutch garden, an octagonal garden, a rose garden and a water garden. The formal Dutch garden enclosed by vine-covered brick walls displayed tulips and flowering trees in the spring, in parterre beds separated by brick walks laid out in a herringbone pattern. The octagonal fragrance garden featured yellow and purple pansies followed in summer by lavender, nepeta and pink carnations. Farrand's designs were formal and highly detailed to the extent that each week's blooms could be anticipated.
Garden features included greenhouses, an orangery, a croquet lawn, stables, pools and tennis courts. Courtyards at the house featured single mature trees supplied by the Long Island nursery, Lewis & Valentine. The estate was too costly to maintain and the gardens were destroyed in 1948. A partial restoration and conversion to a hotel in the 1980s reinstalled the Olmsted Brothers landscape designs but not Farrand's.
Persons associated with the garden include Otto H. Kahn and Adele Wolff Kahn (former owners, 1914-circa 1934); Eastern military Academy (former owner), Gary Melius (former owner), Olmsted Brothers (landscape architects, circa 1917); Beatrix Farrand (landscape designer, 1919-1928); Lewis & Valentine (nurserymen, circa 1928); William Adams Delano & Chester Holmes Aldrich (architects).
Related Materials:
Oheka related holdings consist of 2 folders (29 35mm slides and 3 photo prints)
Other archival materials related to Oheka are located at the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California at Berkeley, Huntington Historical Society in Huntington, New York, the Nassau County Reference Library
Records related to this site can be found at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Olmsted Job Number 06499, Otto H. Kahn.
See others in:
J. Horace McFarland collection, 1900-1962.
Lewis & Valentine Company records, 1916-1971.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
The Lewis & Valentine Company Collection contains records of the Lewis & Valentine Company dating from 1916 to 1971 including photographs, negatives, brochures, books, trade catalogs, company papers, letters from clients, customer lists and a history of the company written by Harold Carman Lewis. Photographs document the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, estates in Long Island, New York, and the properties of Hugh D. Auchincloss, Eugene du Pont, Walter P. Chrysler, Otto H. Kahn, F. W. Woolworth, Pierre S. du Pont (Longwood Gardens), Charles M. Schwab and Edward T. Stotesbury. This collection contains only a sampling of the records of Lewis & Valentine and should not be considered comprehensive.
Arrangement note:
The collection is arranged into 3 series:
Series 1: Documents
Series 2: Photographs
Series 3: Videotape
Biographical/Historical note:
Specializing in moving and replanting large trees, Lewis & Valentine was one of the most prominent landscape contracting companies in the eastern United States during the first half of the twentieth century. The Lewis & Valentine Company was formed by five brothers whose father had hoped that his sons would grow up to be lawyers. Instead, the Lewis brothers formed a landscape design, installation and nursery firm that specialized in developing "successful methods for transplanting full-grown trees." Their success was based on "doing well the task which is usually considered impossible."
The company was the inspiration of H.C. Lewis, the oldest of seven brothers, who believed that estate owners should have the luxury of immediate landscapes, rather than waiting decades for their landscapes to mature. The Lewis brothers started their business in the early 1900s. Shortly afterwards, a Mr. Valentine, roommate of Albert Addison Lewis at the Amherst Landscape School in Massachusetts, invested in the business. After three years Mr. Valentine moved on and the Lewis brothers bought back his interest, but continued to keep Valentine part of the company's name.
Lewis & Valentine was the largest firm in America devoted to transplainting mature trees in the years leading up to the Great Depression. It claimed to be "the most experienced and most versatile, backed by an intimate knowledge of horticulture and the development of fine estates." The company was noted as a leader in providing complete landscape services, from selling and guaranteeing the plants, to designing and installation, requiring that its staff be men "of good character and not afraid of hard work." This was evident in the firm's principle of no limitations to the size of trees that they were willing to deliver. The trees were often full-grown and ranged in age from twenty to a hundred years old. Many were so large that 20 or more tons of earth had to be moved during the relocation process.
During its first 25 years in business, Lewis & Valentine opened nineteen offices east of the Mississippi serving such notable clients as Charles A. Schwab and Pierre du Pont at his estate, Longwood. The business was set up as an organization of independent companies. Each was incorporated under the laws of the state in which it operated. The offices were located in Connecticut (Darien), Florida (Palm Beach), Illinois (Chicago), Maryland (Baltimore), Massachusetts (Boston and Hanover), Michigan (Detroit), Pennsylvania (Ardmore and Pittsburg), New Jersey (Ashbury Park and Morristown), New York (Buffalo, Roslyn-Long Island, Rye, Valley Stream-Long Island, New York City), North Carolina (Winston-Salem) and Ohio (Cleveland and Cincinnati). Although no longer owned by any members of the Lewis family, the company still exists and operates in Long Island under the name Lewis & Valentine Nurseries.
Separated Materials:
Dozens of historic photographs from the Lewis & Valentine Co. were found In the Eleanor Weller Collection at AAG amongst images that had been amassed by Weller for possible use in The Golden Age of American Gardens: Proud Owners, Private Estates, 1890-1940. These photos were removed from the Weller Collection and added to the Lewis and Valentine Co. Records.
Provenance:
Gift from Hewlett Withington Lewis, former owner of Lewis & Valentine Nurseries.
Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Topic:
Nurseries (Horticulture) -- United States Search this
United States of America -- New York -- Suffolk County -- Huntington
Scope and Contents note:
The folder includes worksheets and photocopies of articles.
General note:
Oheka was the grandest estate of its time in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island's North Shore, styled after French farmhouses but with 126 rooms. The house was designed by architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich in circa 1921. In 1917 the Olmsted Brothers planned the grounds of the 443-acre estate, which included the entrance drive bordered by red cedars, the golf course, and extensive bridle paths. It took two years to move the earth and build up a rise on which the house was sited. A distinctive parterre in front of the house was comprised of eight reflecting pools to show the changing sky and surrounding mountains, with grass borders. In 1919 Adele Wolff Kahn commissioned Beatrix Farrand to design more intimate spaces, including a Dutch garden, an octagonal garden, a rose garden and a water garden. The formal Dutch garden enclosed by vine-covered brick walls displayed tulips and flowering trees in the spring, in parterre beds separated by brick walks laid out in a herringbone pattern. The octagonal fragrance garden featured yellow and purple pansies followed in summer by lavender, nepeta and pink carnations. Farrand's designs were formal and highly detailed to the extent that each week's blooms could be anticipated.
Garden features included greenhouses, an orangery, a croquet lawn, stables, pools and tennis courts. Courtyards at the house featured single mature trees supplied by the Long Island nursery, Lewis & Valentine. The estate was too costly to maintain and the gardens were destroyed in 1948. A partial restoration and conversion to a hotel in the 1980s reinstalled the Olmsted Brothers landscape designs but not Farrand's.
Persons associated with the garden include Otto H. Kahn and Adele Wolff Kahn (former owners, 1914-circa 1934); Eastern military Academy (former owner), Gary Melius (former owner), Olmsted Brothers (landscape architects, circa 1917); Beatrix Farrand (landscape designer, 1919-1928); Lewis & Valentine (nurserymen, circa 1928); William Adams Delano & Chester Holmes Aldrich (architects).
Related Archival Materials note:
Other archival materials related to Oheka are located at the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California at Berkeley, Huntington Historical Society in Huntington, New York, the Nassau County Reference Library
See others in:
Garden Club of America Collection, ca. 1920-[ongoing].
Related Materials:
Records related to this site can be found at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Olmsted Job Number 06499, Otto H. Kahn.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
1 Photographic print ((mounted on cardboard), black and white, mount 8.5 x 10.5 in.)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Place:
Oheka (Huntington, New York)
United States of America -- New York -- Suffolk County -- Huntington
Date:
05/20/1922
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
1 Photographic print ((mounted on cardboard), black and white, mount 8.5 x 10.5 in.)
Type:
Archival materials
Photographic prints
Place:
Oheka (Huntington, New York)
United States of America -- New York -- Suffolk County -- Huntington
Date:
05/20/1922
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
United States of America -- New York -- Suffolk County -- Huntington
Scope and Contents:
The folder includes worksheets and photocopies of articles.
General:
Oheka was the grandest estate of its time in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island's North Shore, styled after French farmhouses but with 126 rooms. The house was designed by architects William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich in circa 1921. In 1917 the Olmsted Brothers planned the grounds of the 443-acre estate, which included the entrance drive bordered by red cedars, the golf course, and extensive bridle paths. It took two years to move the earth and build up a rise on which the house was sited. A distinctive parterre in front of the house was comprised of eight reflecting pools to show the changing sky and surrounding mountains, with grass borders. In 1919 Adele Wolff Kahn commissioned Beatrix Farrand to design more intimate spaces, including a Dutch garden, an octagonal garden, a rose garden and a water garden. The formal Dutch garden enclosed by vine-covered brick walls displayed tulips and flowering trees in the spring, in parterre beds separated by brick walks laid out in a herringbone pattern. The octagonal fragrance garden featured yellow and purple pansies followed in summer by lavender, nepeta and pink carnations. Farrand's designs were formal and highly detailed to the extent that each week's blooms could be anticipated.
Garden features included greenhouses, an orangery, a croquet lawn, stables, pools and tennis courts. Courtyards at the house featured single mature trees supplied by the Long Island nursery, Lewis & Valentine. The estate was too costly to maintain and the gardens were destroyed in 1948. A partial restoration and conversion to a hotel in the 1980s reinstalled the Olmsted Brothers landscape designs but not Farrand's.
Persons associated with the garden include Otto H. Kahn and Adele Wolff Kahn (former owners, 1914-circa 1934); Eastern military Academy (former owner), Gary Melius (former owner), Olmsted Brothers (landscape architects, circa 1917); Beatrix Farrand (landscape designer, 1919-1928); Lewis & Valentine (nurserymen, circa 1928); William Adams Delano & Chester Holmes Aldrich (architects).
Related Materials:
Oheka related holdings consist of 2 folders (29 35mm slides and 3 photo prints)
Other archival materials related to Oheka are located at the Environmental Design Archives at the University of California at Berkeley, Huntington Historical Society in Huntington, New York, the Nassau County Reference Library
Records related to this site can be found at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Olmsted Job Number 06499, Otto H. Kahn.
See others in:
Garden Club of America Collection, ca. 1920-[ongoing].
J. Horace McFarland collection, 1900-1962.
Lewis & Valentine Company records, 1916-1971.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
United States of America -- Florida -- Palm Beach County -- Palm Beach
Varying Form:
Also known as Oheka.
General:
Postcard circa 1926-1945.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Richard Marchand historical postcard collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid in this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
United States of America -- New Jersey -- Morris County -- Morristown
General:
001: Residence of Mr. Otto Kahn, Morristown, N. J. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
002:
003: "Normandy Heights" Residence of Mr. Otto H. Kahn. Morristown, N. J. G.M. Lambert, Hand-colored. Postcard circa 1901-1915.
004: Sunken Garden, Physiatric Institute, Morristown, N. J. Postcard circa 1915-1930.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to original archival materials by appointment only. Researcher must submit request for appointment in writing. Certain items may be restricted and not available to researchers. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Collection Rights:
Archives of American Gardens encourages the use of its archival materials for non-commercial, educational and personal use under the fair use provision of U.S. copyright law. Use or copyright restrictions may exist. It is incumbent upon the researcher to ascertain copyright status and assume responsibility for usage. All requests for duplication and use must be submitted in writing and approved by Archives of American Gardens. Please direct reference inquiries to the Archives of American Gardens: aag@si.edu.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Richard Marchand historical postcard collection.
Sponsor:
A project to describe images in this finding aid in this collection received Federal support from the Smithsonian Collections Care Initiative, administered by the National Collections Program.
The value of art to the people, an address by Mr. Otto H. Kahn at the annual dinner of the American Federation of arts held in Washington on May 16, 1924
