Chanticlare (often spelled Chanteclair) was a Gold Coast estate in Flower Hill, on Long Island, in

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Description

Overview

Chanticlare was constructed in the 1920s for attorney and

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executive Jesse J. Ricks. The mansion, designed in the

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-style by Frederick A. Godley, featured 42-rooms – including a music room/ballroom.

Failed preservation efforts

In the 1960s, following the deaths of Jesse Ricks and his wife, their children would sell off the remaining land. Originally, the developers of the Chanticlare at Flower Hill subdivision, Edwin and Walter Ketay, wanted to save the mansion, and made attempts to do so. One of the plans for its preservation was for C.W. Post University (now LIU Post) to purchase it and use the space as a music school, an accounting school, and/or administrative offices, amongst other proposed uses by the school.MINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING AND REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE VILLAGE OF FLOWER HILL. NASSAU COUNTY. N.Y. May 1, 1967. Village of Flower Hill, New York. However, in 1967, C.W. Post ultimately chose not to buy the property.MINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING AND REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE VILLAGE OF FLOWER HILL. NASSAU COUNTY. N.Y. 1967-1969. Village of Flower Hill, New York. The Ketays soon after tried getting the Nassau County Cultural Society to occupy the home – although the plan was largely opposed by residents.MINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING AND REGULAR MEETING OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE VILLAGE OF FLOWER HILL. NASSAU COUNTY. N.Y. December 4, 1967. Village of Flower Hill, New York. With all preservation efforts failing, preserving the building proved to be too costly, and the estate was ultimately demolished in the late 1960s and replaced with an additional 4 homes as part of an amended plat map and plan for the Chanticlare at Flower Hill subdivision made by Edwin and Walter Ketay.

Remnants of the estate

Chanticlare pipe organ

In 1968, the

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''rank ...

formerly located in Chanticlare's music room was donated by John Ricks and Jane Ricks-King, the children of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Ricks, to

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of N ...

in honor of their late parents. The three-bank

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electro-pneumatic pipe organ, valued at $115,000 in 1968, was installed in the Adams Playhouse at Hofstra, along with a memorial plaque. In order to house the components of the instrument, Hofstra had to add two chambers onto the Adams Playhouse, totaling . The donation of the organ meant that students at Hofstra studying the organ could practice on-campus as opposed to having to travel off-campus to the nearby Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation.

References