Matinecock Point
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Matinecock Point | |
|---|---|
 Matinecock Point in February 1913. | |
 Interactive map of the Matinecock Point area | |
| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Architectural style | Georgian Colonial |
| Location | East Island in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York |
| Coordinates | 40°53.62′N 73°38.13′W / 40.89367°N 73.63550°W |
| Construction started | 1909 |
| Completed | 1913 |
| Demolished | 1980 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Christopher Grant LaFarge |
Matinecock Point was a 57-room Neo-Georgian home on East Island in Glen Cove, Long Island.[1] The home was designed by architect Christopher Grant LaFarge for Jack Morgan of the Morgan banking family. The original estate of 140 acres was particularly noted for its magnificent gardens and the mile-long tree-lined driveway that burst to life in Spring with daffodils.
Jack Morgan, the only son of J.P. Morgan, purchased the estate in 1909 from the heirs of the late Leonard Jacob, a native of the Isle of Wight. Morgan hired Christopher Grant LaFarge of the architectural firm, LaFarge & Morris, to build his 57-room (plus 18-bathrooms) home, which served as his principal residence, and construction was completed in 1913. It had 14-foot ceilings, reception rooms that each measured roughly thirty feet by thirty, marble fireplaces and sinks, carved moldings, a small gymnasium, and secret panels hidden in several walls. LaFarge also laid out stables, cottages, outbuildings plus an extensive farm complex for Morgan's prize-winning herd of Blue Ribbon Jersey cattle, chickens, and hothouse flowers. The gardens were planted with all sorts of exotic trees and flowers, and even up until the 1970s orange trees could still be found on the lawns. Taken as a whole, the bill for the construction of the Matinecock Point estate came in at $2.5 million.
In 1913, Jack Morgan, succeeded his father as the head of J.P. Morgan & Co., and he used his friendship with the British ambassador to the United States, Cecil Spring-Rice, to secure a deal for his firm to become the sole munitions and supplies purchaser for the British and French governments throughout World War I. In July, 1915, Morgan was entertaining Cecil Spring-Rice at Matinecock when a man forced his way past the butler and in through the front door.[2] Morgan and Rice threw themselves on the intruder who was bearing two guns and had several sticks of dynamite inside his jacket. In the struggle, two shots went off catching Morgan in the hip and the abdomen.
The would-be assassin was Eric Muenter, a former German professor at Harvard University who was already wanted in Massachusetts for the murder of his pregnant wife. He maintained he had only wanted to take Morgan's wife and children hostage until Morgan arranged the end of the war, but this didn't tally with his other actions which included exploding a bomb that destroyed a reception room at the U.S. Senate, fortunately without injury.