Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany Estate, Laural Hollow, LI, NY

In back of me stands the minaret from Laurelton Hall, Louis Comfort Tiffany's estate in Laurel Hollow.  It's only a handful of ruins that's left of the original estate which burned to the ground in the late 50's.  It was originally used as a smokestack for the power house.

Ruins of the covered bridge

Laurelton Hall was built between 1902 to 1908 as Tiffany's country estate. Built on a hill overlooking the Long Island Sound, this estate had eight floors and was filled to the brim with his favorite art pieces from his own collection.  The number of rooms differ from each article and range from 65 to 84 rooms and also differs on the size of acreage which measures anywhere from 580 to 600.   On the grounds were conservatories, tennis courts, a private bathing beach and included 60 acres of formal gardens. 

It also contained the Tiffany Chapel which was housed in a separate building that was shown in the Columbian Exposition of 1893. 

In 1915, Tiffany opened a small school on the grounds of the estate,  In 1918 he began the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation as a summer retreat for artists and craftspeople.

Tiffany died in 1933, but the Foundation continued to function until 1946 when the estate was sold. It was abandoned soon after and fell into disrepair.  Laurelton Hall burned to the ground in 1957, but many of the original pieces were salvaged by owners of the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida.  In 2010, a new exhibit was built to display the remaining artifacts of the estate.  The loggia Laurelton Hall is still on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

There are lots of links including black and white photos of Laurelton Hall in 1924.

Old Long Island with pictures of the Laurelton Hall estate
http://www.oldlongisland.com/2009/02/laurelton-hall.html

Article in the St. Petersburg Times
http://www.tampabay.com/features/visualarts/a-wing-devoted-to-tiffany-treasures-opens-at-the-morse-museum-in-winter/1156239

Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurelton_Hall

The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation
http://louiscomforttiffanyfoundation.org/

The Morse Museum Collection with more on Laurelton Hall and Tiffany.  Contains history and black and white photos.
http://www.morsemuseum.org/collection/laurelton_hall.html

Wikipedia article on Louis Comfort Tiffany

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Comfort_Tiffany

Laurelton Hall Loggia a new site that is still under construction.  Gives a bit of the history and shows more black and white photos. 

http://www.laurelton-hall.com/loggia.html