Thursday, May 19: The 9th Annual “Castles of New Castle” features five fabulous area homes

Monday, May 9, 2011
by Victoria Gutfreund

For the New Castle Historical Society’s Ninth Annual House Tour next Thursday, May 19, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. we’re showcasing five fantastic homes in a wide and wonderful range of architectural styles, each one entirely special and sure to delight.  We’ll feature houses dating from the early 1900’s (including a Federal Revival, once home to a convent chaplain) to a 1982 contemporary inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.  All five have been updated and lovingly restored.

Five fantastic homes

Millwood Hills, c.1915, is a charming and unusual survivor of the estate era in New Castle, which lasted from the late 1800s to the Depression. It’s almost all that remains of an estate of more than 100 acres that once included greenhouses, barns and chicken houses, tennis courts, a bowling alley, and a three-acre lake.

Like many other estate houses of its time, the building was designed to evoke the country mansions of the Renaissance nobility. But unlike those in the similar and more fashionable Tudor Revival style, this exterior recalls French country houses of the period, with its stucco walls, fieldstone chimney, and shingled roof curved at the eaves to resemble thatch. Its interior is dominated by a two-story great room, with a massive stone fireplace and soaring arched windows on each side.

The house and grounds, including a large walled garden, are being carefully restored by the current owners to bring back the spirit of an era when affluent New Yorkers transformed former farms into showcase country estates.

Also featured on the House Tour is a distinctive Mediterranean-style building which Frederic Guinzburg (1897-1981) erected on his father’s estate in 1917. He was beginning his long and successful career as a sculptor. Following their marriage in 1920, he and his wife, fellow artist Ruth Lewi Guinzburg, made this their home and studio.

The house retains many features of its artistic past. The present two-story kitchen and dining room, for example, was Mr. Guinzburg’s main studio area, with space for his most monumental works. It has large, north-facing windows, and still maintains the suspended pulleys used to move his heavier pieces. Throughout the house, several of his reliefs (as well as facsimiles of Classical and Renaissance originals) are incorporated into the walls as decorative architectural elements.

Mr. Guinzburg was also a talented and skillful horticulturist. Two raised koi ponds on the grounds are what remain of an elaborate Japanese-style garden.

A membership in the New Castle Historical Society included this year with your House Tour ticket

Tickets are $50 for members and $75 for non-members.  Members will be allotted tickets before non-members.  Due to the success of last years’ membership promotion, if you’ve never been a NCHS member before, we’ll include a complimentary 2011 membership with the $75 ticket.  Please check your membership status and send in your reservation early; we expect the tour to sell out once again this year.  Only 300 tickets will be sold—so go now to newcastlehs.org and get your tickets.

In addition, we’re offering an optional buffet luncheon at Crabtree’s Kittle House for $25. This luncheon, at one of Chappaqua’s finest restaurants, is the perfect cap to a day spent touring some of Chappaqua’s finest homes!  We hope you will take advantage of the “full experience.”

All proceeds from the tour will benefit the New Castle Historical Society.  If you have any questions please contact Victoria Gutfreund or Tory Miller at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Victoria Gutfreund is Co-chair, with Tory Miller, of the “Castles of New Castle” House Tour and a member of the board of the New Castle Historical Society.

Artwork by Anna V. Walker