Comments by "Uncle Dave" (@UncaDave) on "This House" channel.

Marion Davies and Hearst used to be flown to Mexico to his ranch in a red Waco biplane, very rare as it had an enclosed cockpit. A old friend of mine owns and flies it out of Albert Whitted field (SPG) in St. Petersburg, FL. I have flown in it with him and it is truly a trip into yesterday’s age.
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This was a really informative and descriptive video on FLW. I never knew those personal background stories. He definitely created a unique design in all of his work. However, the reality of his limits sets in when over time his work demanded a fair amount of repair or extensive maintenance. He was an architect but structural engineering was not his forte. I remember a story where builders told him the Falling Water design of the Kaufman house would ultimately fail. He ignored them. The builders even beefed up the structure without his knowledge sadly without a structural engineer’s input. You know the rest of the story when you get the history of Falling Water. Still he left us a definitive approach to consider when designing a structure for a residence or office. As a former developer of rehab of old department stores into alternate use spaces, i.e. offices, call centers, etc., I once employed an architect student to assist in our construction to expose him to the practical and physical realities he would face with any design. It left him with additional items to consider in his future work. Thanks again for a great video!
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Mostly unknown is that Waldemere was not completely bulldozed. A section of it was kept intact and floated by barge to an adjacent area in Stratford, CT called Lordship. It is believed to be the center section. It is located at 1 Pauline Street, Stratford, CT and was once owned by the noted actress Nancy Marchand of the TV series “Lou Grant” fame. It might still be owned by her daughter Katie Bowe. I grew up in Lordship and we often admired this home’s gingerbread style on the bluff overlooking Long Island sound.
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I like the original cabin.
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Wealth is what possibly can be the worst curse not just a thing like a diamond. With wealth like power, comes great responsibility. What good is done with both is the true measure of great fortunes.
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Great story with a sad ending but wonderful the glass was saved. Do you know what ever happened to the land and residue structure? Would be an interesting epilogue to this video.
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@lisathuban8969 Yes across Tampa Bay before the bridge was built.
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Really nice that the home is preserved and repurposed for the Merchant Marine Academy.
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@lisathuban8969 Lisa that whole area is nice. St. Petersburg is a beautiful clean city with sidewalk dining, museums, art and Rays baseball. Next you are there head over to Whitted airport and dine at the Hanger restaurant and watch flights come and go. Also check out Gulfport, FL and artsy pretty little town minutes away.
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Wonderful that you decided to do this on Gillette Castle. In the 1950’s my Dad took me there but all we could see was the outside as it was closed. I have always wanted to go back and find it but now I Iive far away. Wonder what happened to the railroad and also how it became a CT state park. Very glad it was preserved. Thank again. Another interesting building is the Barnum Museum still standing in Bridgeport, CT where P.T. Barnum was once the mayor. Check it out.
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Needed more history on the house, who owns it now, condition, etc. Contemporary designs are kind of cold to me. Surprised he didn’t do something that blended the landscape into the house, more Frank Lloyd Wright might have done.
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That’s an amazingly well kept and restored home. Its definitely Greek Revival on the exterior but some kind of blend of Greek on some details but very period design on the rest of the interior. Well done explanation and tour. Thank you!
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@lisathuban8969 Don’t think so. Is that a shop? For me it was Stella’s for lunch or breakfast and an occasional stop at O’Maddys or the shoreline eateries like Caddy’s, the Neptune Grill or Little Tommies Tiki. My favorite place to grab a t-shirt is the Bazaar.
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James check out Geary Plaza in Charleston, WV for modern day piece of Art Deco. As it’s developer for Geary Securities Co. I had this former Montgomery Wards Department store redesigned into what you see now. The name over the front door, the fascinating marble of the lobby and the window designs were all driven by my wish to revisit Art Deco. The architect I worked with was a fellow named Richard Sillman, a rare man who could still physically draw elevations and designs, even on a napkin. Another building I did there was One Davis Square, formally a JC Penny building and designed by architect Howard Johe of Silling Associates. My desire there was driven by Lincoln Center in NYC. Another interesting building I had Sillman design was 216 Brooks Street in Charleston, WV. This was originally designed for Equitable Life Assurance Co. as a tenant for two full floors and is a copy of sorts of a building built in 1772 on Nantucket Island called the Pacific Club. It even has a widows walk on the roof. I owned it with a partner for many years but sold it sometime in 2001or 2002. It is a great example of a colonial structure used originally as a warehouse and offices of a whaling company that owned three ships on Nantucket Island. It’s still standing too, a true test of good structural design. The building in WV is a steel frame brick elevations design. Google these buildings if you wish to see them.
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What is an even bigger shame is how all that money could have helped people during that tough time other than giving temporary jobs to builders and craftsmen.
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You are great Dad and that should build a forever memory.
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Plus Flagler developed the Florida east coast and the Keys as a destination. Many of his buildings still stand, i.e. Flagler College and more.
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I always enjoy your observations of these old homes. However this time, knowing they made their fortune in coal and knowing the brutal and oftentimes fuedal conditions men and even their children as “breaker boys” endured, it’s hard to look at this as it was built at the expense of human misery.
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The Vanderbilts also had a small “cottage” on Nantucket Island. I think it has either become private residence or part of a development. For many years it was an inn on the island formally called Westmoor Inn. It is now a private association called Westmoor Club. Pretty snazzy! Check it out.
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For look at what life was like with these people read “Maverick in Mauve”.
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And just remember this. All that income to support that beautiful life came on the backs of people who worked their businesses for marginal wages. There is always another side to wealth not often seen.
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@gerihughes1290 Lordship was really an ideal and special place to grow up in. Even Lordship Elementary School was such a great school and I always have remembered my teachers there, MSs. Everette, Bason, Donning, Koverchek and Cannon but especially our Principal Mrs. Coles. There is a great website for Lordship history which has much information. Many great places for us too, Gerstills Drug Store later Community Pharmacy with Marty and Nina Palukis, and soda fountain, the Long Beach Skating Rink, Pansy’s later Nick’s Hideaway and later Marnick’s, Eddie Mariano’s, Malafronts Grocery actually called East End Market, our churches, Our Lady of Peace, the Congregational Church, Boys and Girl Scouts, the Lordship Fsthers Club, Aherns, later Maracis, Howies, the Cricket, and many more. Hope you check it all out down memory lane!
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Those squares would get old with me. US Steel made homes at one time too.
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I wonder what happened to John Kellog?
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Amazing DuPont’s wealth increased during the depression. Any thought to help those less fortunate in his area or region???? Nah, let’s just build a bigger estate, after all it’s all about me. Other than Carnegie there aren’t a lot of wealthy people that stand out as people that have shared their good fortune.
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@pinkaholic09 The Shriners provide free medical procedures to needy children.
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Man, right out of Charles Dickens with that comment. “Are there no prisons, are there no work houses??????”
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Plant made contributions to start Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater, FL, still a wonderful and thriving place. They do 700 by-pass surgeries there a year. His story is interesting too.
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Maybe now they are shoveling coal into the devil’s furnaces. Amazing how so many industrialists of this time had no feeling at all for their workers especially in the coal industry too.
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She married him for the money and she got it. Now the rest of the story would be what happened to her and the money???
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@LJB103 I agree. Plus Flagler is really a much more interesting fellow to read about. The man had vision for sure. The stories of land speculators and developers in Florida is fascinating. Even building roads and bridges in that hostile swamp environment. Read about the Tamiami Trail that Collier built across the Everglades even using something called a “walking dredge”. One is still on exhibit at the Collier-Seminole SP.
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Steve, what language are you using for the abbreviation of letters? Latin or Spanish? I can’t find these words in my limited Latin dictionary. Or might they be in the old vulgate Latin?
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When Ringling died it’s true there was just a little cash in his account. However when his heirs started to get into settling the estate, which took close to 20 years, they found in his papers deeds for property all over the country. He even had a ranch in Montana in a town I suppose he named himself, Ringling. Every where the circus went he bought property. Remember, it was a cash business and there was little or no taxes then. So when they marshaled all the assets the estate was still worth quite a lot of money.
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John, as someone who has preserved, reused and even built historical replica properties, I have an intro to a solution for you. First, of course if the “bones” of the house exhibit structural integrity, it should be preserved and that is better done by incorporating the house and its architecture into the design of the new addition to the symphony hall. You should first get the symphony board to allow time to study this possible alternative. You should try to involve a local or state university School of Architecture, encouraging a project solution with multiple alternatives. The students with architects should look at the needs of the symphony hall, including design areas and sizes. Then they would brainstorm possible designs which included the house, joined, in or around, even over the house. Key thought: the reason music exists is because of the space and meter of and between the notes. This is what composers do to seek a harmony and balance in their composition. That is the challenge to bring the house in some way into the desired needs and uses of the symphony hall. How can that space in the house be incorporated into the space needs of the symphony hall, even making it a dramatic statement and impression. I have done this with three old empty department stores, a Sears, a Montgomery Ward and a JC Penney’s in Charleston, WV. I also was in charge of construction inspection of the old Diamond Dept. Store into a state facility in the same town. Further my family restored a colonial home built in 1799 in Stratford, CT and lastly I built an office building in Charleston, WV of a close replica of a building built I think in 1777 on Nantucket Island know as the Pacific Club building. It sits at 216 Brooks Street in that same WV city. I am not looking for any work as I am retired and happy of it. However, my “two cents” is these buildings should somehow be saved and “where there is a will, there is a way!”.
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