SPLIA hosts a variety of events and programs throughout the year. These activities serve our mission of understanding, celebrating and preserving Long Island’s cultural heritage. Events and programs include lectures, walking tours, book signings, preservation workshops, festivals and nature walks.
A Private Tour and Reception with Henry Joyce, Executive Director of Planting Fields Foundation
DATE: Saturday, September 19, 2015
TIME: 6:00 PM
Reservations are required:
$40 Members & Young Preservationists (Under 30)
$50 Non-Members
Once the country estate of William Robertson Coe and his wife, Mai Rogers Coe, Coe Hall is an architectural treasure that survives today through a decades-long partnership between New York State Parks and the not-for-profit Planting Fields Foundation. It is nestled within a 409-acre park-like setting designed by the Olmsted Brothers and was built between 1919 and 1921 in the medieval revival style to the designs of Walker & Gillette. In recent years, Planting Fields Foundation has been working to refurnish and interpret new rooms and restore decorative murals. With insights provided by Mr. Joyce, our tour provides an exciting opportunity to get an insider’s look at the preservation work taking place at Coe Hall, including the ongoing restoration of the Buffalo Room murals painted by Robert Chanler and the recently acquired Huguette Clark furniture that now adorns the Gallery.
Prior to joining Planting Fields Foundation, Henry B. Joyce was Chief Curator at the Shelburne Museum in Vermont, Curator of the Duke of Bedford’s Collection at Woburn Abbey in England, and Director of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum/Parsons School of Design Graduate Program in the History of Design.
Fall 2015 Walking Tours
This year, SPLIA’s Walking Tours provide an opportunity to explore some of the neighborhoods that are discussed in our latest book, Gardens of Eden: Long Island’s Planned Communities of the Early Twentieth Century, published by W.W. Norton and Co. and available for purchase through our office (631-692-4664).
Reservations are required:
$15 Members & Young Preservationists (Under 30)
$20 Non-Members
PLEASE NOTE:
Starting points will be provided after tickets are purchased.
All walking tours will proceed rain or shine.
Space is limited.
A Woman’s Touch: Mrs. Helen Marsh and the Creation of Bellerose
Saturday, October 3, 1PM-3PM
During a period when few women had a voice, Mrs. Helen Marsh developed an oasis of suburban living on Long Island with full control of business and aesthetic matters in what has become the Village of Bellerose. Village Historian, Alan Woodruff leads a tour through Mrs. Marsh’s vision along wide planted boulevards radiating from the railroad station to trace the history and transformation of a former gladiola farm into an idyllic early-20th century planned community pioneered by a remarkable woman.
The McKnight Realty Company’s Great Neck Estates
Sunday, October 18, 1PM-3PM
At more than four hundred acres of wooded hilly terrain overlooking Little Neck Bay, the McKnight Realty Company’s Great Neck Estates was the largest Long Island planned community of its time. Village Historian and Great Neck Historical Society board member, Ilse Kagen leads a tour through Robert Anderson Pope’s curvilinear streetscape, past the homes of Roaring Twenties celebrities while discussing the neighborhood’s eclectic architecture which includes Frank Lloyd Wright’s only Long Island commission.
Dean Alvord’s Idea: Brooklyn’s Prospect Park South
Saturday, October 24, 1PM-3PM
Join Brooklyn native and tour guide Norman Oder on a fascinating, brisk-paced tour featuring enormous contrasts: the stunning mansions of Dean Alvord’s Prospect Park South, the once/still grand apartment buildings of early 20th century Flatbush; civic landmarks like Erasmus High School and theaters along busy Flatbush Avenue repurposed into retail and religious uses, as well as the recently restored Kings Theater.
Herbert Hapgood’s Shoreham: Arts and Crafts by the Sea
Sunday, November 1, 1PM-3PM
Nestled within the tree-covered bluffs overlooking the sandy beaches of the North Shore, Herbert Hapgood’s planned community, Shoreham was first developed as a summer colony emphasizing the natural landscape. Local historians and preservationists, Mary Ann Oberdorf and Joseph Falco will lead this tour discussing the use of native flora and topography to create a park-like landscape and the Arts & Crafts approach to home designs featured in Gustav Stickley’s popular magazine, The Craftsman.
2015 Long Island Applefest
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2015
Time: 11AM-4:30PM
NO PETS PLEASE
Admission: $7.00 Adults
$5.00 Seniors and Children (ages 2-12)
The sights and sounds of traditional harvest activities will enliven the pastoral setting of the Sherwood-Jayne Farm on Sunday, September 20th from 11AM-4:30PM, when the 26th annual Long Island Apple Festival takes place.
The festival is held at the Sherwood-Jayne House, an 18th century farmhouse that retains its original apple orchard, where some of the trees are over 100 years old.
The whole family will enjoy a host of activities including old-fashioned games like apple relay races, tug-o-war, and apple-head doll making. The festival features open-hearth colonial cooking demonstrations, an Apple Pie Baking Contest and pie auction and tours of the historic Sherwood-Jayne House. Take a hike on new nature trail and learn about the farm’s natural habitat with Seatuck Environmental Association. There will also be storytelling, pony rides, traditional music, an old- fashioned hay ride, sheep shearing, face painting and many other events for people of all ages.
(Some of these activities will have an additional charge.)
The festival also features apples of all kinds,apple pie, fresh apple cider, fresh popcorn, hot dogs and candied apples. Colonial craftspeople will be on hand to demonstrate and sell their products,
This community event is sponsored by Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, Homestead Arts and the Three Village Historical Society.