PLANTING FIELDS FOUNDATION / PLANTING FIELDS ARBORETUM, OYSTER BAY, NEW YORK SPRING 2016 NEWSLETTER MR. COE’S BEDROOM NEWLY RESTORED Story page 6 1 Board of TrusTees SPRING IN FULL BLOOM officers IN OYSTER BAY Michael D. Coe Chairman Now is the time when the marshes ring Hal Davidson President With the peeper’s bell-like song of Spring And the weeping willows begin to show Sarah Coe Vice President A green-gold fringe, and the pale shad blow Stands like a ghost, in the Schoolhouse Woods, Peter Tilles And the skunk-cabbage shows its purple hoods, Vice President And the sun dances over a laughing bay, Peter Tiberio And I take my coat off when I play Treasurer – Mary Fanning Youngs John Casaly Secretary Oyster Bay has long been home to home she was born in, one that TrusTees G. Morgan Browne the simple pleasures, remarkable stayed in her lineage for 260 years. Hannah Burns old houses, the bay, and woods Her poems were sent to Colonel Carol M. Canter which bridge old time Long Island and Mrs. Roosevelt, to ‘amuse Mary Ciullo life to the present. them and their grandbabies’. They Ronald F. Foley were so taken by the rhymes that Robert Foschi The above excerpt, Theodore Roosevelt Margaret Frère Thomas J. Golon from a poem by wrote a forward for Constance Haydock Mary Fanny Youngs, the book. In it he Anne Coe Hayes* is one of many in expresses his Bruce Herlich her compilation enjoyment of the David R. Holmes, Jr. When We Were Little, changing seasons and Jeffrey Lee Moore Children’s Rhymes of that the old-fashioned Andrew F. Nevin Count Ernesto Vitetti* Oyster Bay, written country life was Jennifer A. Wiggins from fond memories fundamentally a *Emeritus that tell of the work wholesome one. and play of those Ex Officio living on Long Planting Fields boasts Henry B. Joyce Island in the early a glorious landscape Executive Director, Planting Fields Foundation twentieth century. in the spring, with the harmony of foliage colors and flowers Vincent A. Simeone Ms. Youngs, who grew up in blossoming anew that evoke the Director, Oyster Bay Cove, cherished the era of Mary Fanning Youngs. Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park Book, When We Were Little, Children’s Rhymes of Oyster Bay By Mary Fanny Youngs With an Introduction by the late Theodore Roosevelt Copyright 1916 By E.P. Dutton & Company Rhyme Title: The Four Seasons I.Spring In the collection of Planting Fields Foundation. 2 FEATURED STORIES MR. COE’S BEDROOM 6 NEWLY RESTORED To guide the curatorial selections in recreating the original 1921-1922 furnishings of William R. Coe's bedroom, there are, in the archives, four excellent photos of the room from this period. GREAT OCEAN LINERS: 1900-1940 20The exhibition examines the history of the White Star Line, owners of the Titanic and of Cunard, who owned the ill-fated Lusitania. Competition between the two lines is a focus of the show. 1916 LIFE WITH 22 THE COE FAMILY At the end of March 1916, William R. Coe and his wife Mai arrived back at Planting Fields after six weeks of winter travel that had taken themo t Jamaica, the Panama Canal, and Palm Beach, Florida. Entrance to Coe Hall 3 This year, the Italian Garden is one hundred years old. 4 MESSAGE FROM THE ExECuTiVE DiRECTOR DEAR MEMBERS Our December holiday weekend went off very collection was featured on the second floor of Coe successfully with many activities at Coe Hall, including Hall. Demonstrations of Chinese calligraphy and making gingerbread houses, a program that attracts painting were held in the Main Greenhouse classroom. more and more families each year. We enrolled forty- five new members which is a record on a single Our spring and summer exhibition, Great Ocean Liners: weekend. The tropical greenhouse looked magnificent 1900-1940, opened on April 2nd at Coe Hall and with its specially grown poinsettias. springs from the history of William R. Coe's career in marine insurance, it tells the amazing story of trans- OThe Foundation's Deck the Halls benefit was a splendid Atlantic crossings in the age of great Cunard and evening with the fireplaces lit in the gallery and the White Star shipping lines. Members enjoyed a preview dining room. The house was decorated with nearly fifty party on Friday, April 1st, and also were able to see Mr. trees and a glorious fifteen-foot tall fresh tree in the Coe's bedroom restored as well as his valet's room. front entrance hall. Thank you to all our supporters who bought tickets for the party and to those who were Lastly, it is exciting to report the visitor parking lot sponsors. It is our biggest annual fundraiser. has been completely rebuilt with a permeable pavement and bio-retention system. It opened the day In the New Year Newsday gave us the front page of their before the Chinese New Year weekend celebrations, Explore LI, promoting our third annual Paradise at and was full all weekend long. The Arboretum staff Planting Fields which is a weekend celebration of the did an amazing job of clearing the snow. This year we tropical greenhouses. We had more visitors than ever celebrate the centennial of the Italian Garden (see page before at the event. The Arboretum staff made the large 24). Please come and see how wonderful Planting tropical house look fantastic, and there were activities Fields is in the spring and summer. The park really is for children in the Main Greenhouse classroom and one of Long Island's great treasures. music at Coe Hall. In February, we launched a new two-day festival to Warmest regards, welcome the Chinese New Year. The Foundation co- hosted the event with the Long Island Chinese- American Association and had many special performances, including Chinese music, opera, and Henry B. Joyce dance. A rare jade exhibition from the Foundation's Executive Director, Planting Fields Foundation 5 Mr. Coe’s Bedroom in 1928, photo by Mattie Edwards Hewitt. MR. COE’S BEDROOM NEWLY RESTORED BY HENRY B. JOYCE studio in 1913. She specialized in Garden, and the park. They are a jobs for interior designers, remarkable resource. To guide the curatorial selections in architects, and landscape architects. recreating the original 1921-1922 She photographed extensively Only two original pieces from Mr. furnishings of William R. Coe's throughout the Metropolitan area, Coe's bedroom have survived in the bedroom, there are, in the archives, and her work has a significant place room: the mirror over the mantel four excellent photos of the room in the history of American with a carved and gilded William from this period. architectural photography. In the Kent style frame and a Chinese Foundation's archives, there are porcelain vase, now wired as a lamp They were taken by Mattie Edwards over one hundred Hewitt on the gate-leg table in the center of Hewitt, a professional photographer photographs documenting the the room. Both were donated to who established her New York City building of Coe Hall, the Italian Planting Fields Foundation by 6 Newly restored bedroom in February 2016. Michael D. Coe, Chairman. letters from the fashionable antique antiques and interior design firm. For dealer and interior designer Charles over three generations, the Duveen Miss Hewitt made many visits to Duveen, between 1921 and 1923. family created one of the largest Planting Fields and photographed Duveen was the brother of the international empires in art and Mr. Coe's bedroom on at least two famous art dealer, Joseph Duveen, and interiors. Charles’ sophisticated occasions, probably in the summer of for over twenty years they worked rooms at Coe Hall reflect this 1921 as the room was just finished, together in the family business in heritage; they were designed in the and again, in 1928 as the bedroom's Paris, London, and New York. After high style taste that American and furnishings were fine-tuned with World War I they separated the firm, English upper classes came to value. relatively small alterations and thenceforth, professionally, Charles additions to finalize the decorative gave up the family name and began Charles Duveen was born in Hull, ensemble. There are also bills and using "Charles of London" for his England and worked in Europe as Continued on next page 7 The Chinese vase as a lamp, about 1921. The Chinese vase as a lamp today. 8 Continued from previous page well as the U.S. with his father, homes for wealthy businessmen. uncles, and brothers, until he gave The weekly publication was the up the English part of his Charles most influential high-style of London firm in 1933 to architecture and interior design concentrate on his many U.S. magazine of its time. A copy can be clients. He worked out of his seen on the center table in one of elegant New York City gallery Miss Hewitt's 1930s photos of Mr. located at 52 East 57th Street. In Coe's bedroom. country Life image from Charles Duveen's 1940 obituary, Continued on next page 1928, shown on the center the New York Times wrote that the table in one of Mattie Hewitt’s photographs. gallery "was more like a museum than an antique store" and that "it was Mr. Duveen who introduced the Elizabethan period furniture to this country, especially English oak furniture and paneling." Duveen had several clients on Long Island, including J. P. Morgan and W. G. Loew; today Coe Hall is the best surviving example of his work in the New York area. His business was immensely successful.