Chanticlare

Chanticlare was constructed in the 1920s for attorney and Union Carbide executive Jesse J. Ricks.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} The mansion, designed in the English Tudor-style by Frederick A. Godley, featured 42 rooms – including a music room/ballroom.^{[1][3][4][6][7]}

In the 1960s, following the deaths of Jesse Ricks and his wife, their children would sell off the remaining land.^[1][3][4][8] 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.^[1][3][4][9] A number of the homes built on as part of the development were designed by architect Stanley H. Klein.^[1][9]

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.^{[1][3][4][10]} However, in 1967, C.W. Post ultimately chose not to buy the property.^{[3][4][10][11]}

The Ketays soon after tried getting the Nassau County Cultural Society to occupy the home – although the plan was largely opposed by residents.^[3][4][12]

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.^{[3][4][10][11]}

In 1968, the pipe organ 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 in honor of their late parents.^[3][4][13]

The three-bank Aeolian electro-pneumatic pipe organ, valued at $115,000 in 1968, was installed in the Adams Playhouse at Hofstra, along with a memorial plaque.^[14] In order to house the components of the instrument, Hofstra had to add two chambers onto the Adams Playhouse, totaling 430 square feet (40 m²).^[14]

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.^[13][14]

The estate's guest house, located off Stonytown Road, still stands.^[3][4][5] Like the main mansion, it was also designed by Godley.^[3][4][5]

• Harbor Hill – Another Gold Coast estate, which was located in nearby East Hills.
• Sunset Hill – Another Gold Coast estate, which was partially in both Flower Hill and Plandome.

40°48′48″N 73°41′4″W / 40.81333°N 73.68444°W / 40.81333; -73.68444