The turn of the nineteenth century saw the building of many fine estates along the North Shore of Long Island. Glen Cove was the chosen country residence of notable financiers like J.P. Morgan Jr. and industrialists like Henry Folger. Their opulent mansions would account for the area’s illustrious appellation, the Gold Coast. Among the grandeur, the Pratt family’s enduring legacy in the Glen Cove community and landscape stood out. The family constructed a group of estates and surrounding buildings in the Dosoris Park area of Glen Cove. Today, all but one estate have been saved from dismantling and have been adapted to re-use: a college, conference center, rehabilitation facility, musem, and retreat center. Much of the splendor and original details of these mansions have been preserved.
The Pratt Family was a close-knit family whose city dwellings and country estates were built in near proximity to one another. Charles Pratt, the family patriarch, amassed a fortune first in the kerosene refinery business and later as a partner in Standard Oil with John D. Rockefeller. Beginning in 1890, Pratt acquired parcels spanning approximately 800 acres of land from Charles Dana and John Coles in the northern section of Glen Cove known as Dosoris Park. This bucolic expanse was named by Rev. Benjamin Woolsey in the 1700s after "dos uxuris", latin for wife’s dowry, when he received it as a gift in marriage.
By 1891, Pratt expanded his holdings to nearly 1000 acres. He gave each of his six sons and two daughters $20,000 and ample acreage to build their country homes in Glen Cove. All but one daughter would construct estates in the Dosoris Park area.
Charles Millar Pratt "Seamoor"
Lydia Pratt-Babbot (Babbot Residence)
Frederic Bailey Pratt "Poplar Hill"
George Dupont Pratt "Killenworth"
Herbert Lee Pratt "The Braes"
John Teele Pratt "Manor House"
Harold Irving Pratt "Welwyn"
2nd row from bottom - 2nd man from right is George Dupont Pratt
3rd row behind George Pratt sitting by wall - Herbert Pratt
3rd row - 2nd man from right - Frederich Lee Pratt
4th row from right, unknown woman, Harold Irving Pratt, unknown woman, John Teele Pratt
5th row (last row) from right: Helen Deming Sherman Pratt with children, unknown woman without child, Charles Millard Pratt.
Dosoris Park quickly became the hub of Pratt family activities outside of Brooklyn. Charles Pratt planned for a grand new estate, The Manor, to replace the original John Coles house. However, he suffered a fatal heart attack in 1891. After Pratt's untimely death, his wife, Mary Helen Richardson, and sons would continue overseeing the construction. The Manor was one of seven Pratt estates in Glen Cove.
The neo-Georgian mansion designed by George L. Platt was completed in 1910. John Teele Pratt and his wife Ruth Pratt would call the 55-acre estate their home. Country Life Magazine listed The Manor as one of the twelve best country houses in the country in 1913.
Seamoor was built for Charles Millard Pratt, the eldest of the Pratt children. He joined Standard Oil and served many roles as director, treasurer, and secretary. Pratt also headed the syndicate that operated the LIRR. Seamoor was designed by the architect firm, Lamb & Rich and at one time, spanned nearly 150 acres. The estate was demolished in 1969.
George Dupont Pratt (third son of Charles Pratt) commissioned the architect firm of Alexander Buell Trowbridge (brother of his wife, Helen Sherman Pratt) and Frederick L. Ackerman to design Killenworth. Country Life in America elected the Jacobean manor house to be the “Best House of the Year” in 1914. By 1944, it fell into disrepair and was sold to Thomas Miller, owner of a military hardware and foot locker business, who used it as an office space. In 1946, the Soviet government purchased the estate as the country retreat for the Russian Mission to the United States.
Poplar Hill was the country estate of Frederic B. Pratt (second eldest son) and Caroline Ladd Pratt. The Louis XV style architecture was designed by Charles A. Platt and sits on the highest point of Glen Cove overlooking the Long Island Sound. The location of the estate is purported to be on the grounds of an old Native American and Spanish trading post; indeed, relics and coins dating back to the 1770s unearthed during construction seem to verify this belief. Since 1974, the estate has been used by the Glengariff Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center.
The neo-Georgian estate of Harold Irving Pratt (youngest of Charles Pratt’s eight children) and Harriet Barnes Pratt was designed by the architect firm of Delano and Aldrich, in 1919. The Pratts were civic-minded and benefactors to Glen Cove. He served as the president of North Country Community Hospital (Northwell) and she served for more than 20 years on the Glen Cove Planning Board. They donated lands and paid for the architect’s fees for the original city hall and public library.
The Braes, home of Herbert L. Pratt, was
built in 1912 by architect James Brite, and landscape architect, James Leal Greenleaf in Jacobean style
The estate is situated on 26 acres facing the Long Island Sound with view of Westchester. Since 1945, it has been the home of the nation's premiere naval architecture college, Webb Institute.
Pratt Oval served as the administrative and operational center for the surrounding Pratt estates. Additionally, it was used as a stable. Buildings including a dairy and greenhouse were constructed around 1899-1904 in the Beaux-Arts style. The buildings were converted for industrial use during World War II.
Pratt Family Mausoleum - the 22-acre land is still privately owned by the Pratt family. The pink granite mausoleum was built in the early 1890s following the sudden death of Charles Pratt, shortly after the purchase of Dosoris Park. It was designed by William Bunker Tubby, long favored architect who was commissioned by the family for at least 36 other buildings. A mosaic ceiling was patterned after the tomb of Galla Placidia built in the fifth century Ravenna.
Louis Comfort Tiffany designed the windows and mosaics, and Frederick Law Olmstead, the famed landscape architect of New York City’s Central Park, designed the grounds. No expense was spared to procure the best building materials; the sarcophagus was made of solid Egyptian onyx, the walls used Nova Scotia granite,and the wrought bronze front doors weighed 1,600 pounds apiece. The tower holds chimes which were awarded the top prize from the 1893 World's Fair. It is estimated that more than 2,000 tons of stone were used in the construction.