Courtney Gubista Old Westbury Gardens / Old Westbury House

Old Westbury Gardens is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is an original place where the land is encompassing and a mansion is sprawled out on the grounds of botanical gardens that is nestled in the heart of 71 Old Westbury Road in Old Westbury, New York and has been here since approximately 1906. The property was converted into a museum home in 1959. In 1976 it was named to the National Register of Historic Places and is noted for its architecture and landscape design. Old Westbury Gardens was the home of John Shaffer Phipps who was born August 11, 1874, and became a lawyer and businessman and was an heir to his family's fortune. He was also a director of Hanover Bank, and US Steel Corporation and W.R. Grace & Company. He was a shareholder of his fathers' shipping line, Grace Shipping Lines. 

Old Westbury Mansion is significant and relevant whereas, today it is an educational haven for all to come and visit and also go back into time and be inspired by the 20th Century History the estate has to offer. With preservation in-tact inside the mansion, with the outdoor as well as indoor architecture, rooms, walls, molding, furniture and linens, one thinks they are back into time. The collections and pieces are well protected, yet you can see the history that is behind all the maintenance of the home, the grounds, and the precious gardens. Visitors have borrowed this venue to learn about horticulture and educational facilities have also used this facility for informal classroom meetings on architecture, history, and horticulture. Various other social events are often captured here such as book signing and author writing and artists capturing different views.

This historic site is now considered commercial property; that is a not-for-profit association, but was accessible to the public up to 10/31/2021. To enter the historic site today you are required to sign up as a member for a yearly membership fee ranging from $50 - $120 a year and includes family members.

Old Westbury Gardens and Mansion is an original place where the land is encompassing and a mansion is sprawled out on the grounds of botanical gardens that is nestled in the heart of 71 Old Westbury Road in Old Westbury, New York and has been here since approximately 1906. The property was converted into a museum home in 1959 and converted to a not for profit organization. In 1976 it was named to the National Register of Historic Places and is noted for its architecture and landscape design. Old Westbury Gardens was purchased by American lawyer and businessman and John Shaffer Phipps in 1903.

Notable John Shaffer Phipps married Margarita Celia Grace from a prominent Irish family in1903 from England. Her family controlled the Grace Shipping Line business along with owning fifty other companies. John brought Margarita back to America and promised to build her a home similar to the one she lived in back in England. Therefore, he purchased a160-acre Quaker farm to build his large mansion with magnificent gardens. The house was designed in English Restoration-style by England’s George Crawly and John ensured that 70 acres of the property were reserved for gardens as the English tradition of their time.  Over the years they had four children and each had their own portraits hung along with others in the manor. The manor was decorated with the finest English antiques which are still present today. 

Margarita was born into a wealthy family with her Irish roots and her uncle, William Russell Grace was the first Roman Catholic Mayor of New York City from 1832 to 1904. Therefore, he was the Mayor when her and John moved to New York. William was also the founder of W.R. Grace and Company. As we examine and research the history of this historic site we find the social context of the times were the roaring twenties, thus the grounds and the mansion were adorned. With their political Irish roots and powerful financial means they enjoyed luxuries for themselves and as well as their children. John built a house for himself in Florida in1921 and today the house remains in the family. Remembering this all was before the 1929 stock market crash, the Gilded Age was the roaring twenties and people spent money on things for fun. The Phipps children all had their own fun space to entertain friends and play such as, 10 foot log cabins for the on the property and a cottage built as a doll house which remains on the property today.

As the years forged ahead, and we are entering the social and cultural change of the 1950s, John and Margarita's daughter turned the property into a historic museum in 1959 and Hollywood started to request the use of filming movies on the property. Movies were filmed on the property using the driveways and interior of the home. Films such as: Love Story, The American Gangster, The Age of Innocense, Wolf, To Wong Foo, Thanks to Everything!, Cruel Intentions, Hitch, Bernard and Doris, etc., and many more.

As the Old Westbury Manor still is adorned by viewers of all ages throughout the years the gift of the manor is now appreciated by the public and artists can set up their easels, couples can have a romantic walk, historians can appreciate the history of this era, as well as students continue to go on tours or college students visit with friends and learn about this historic site. The appreciation for this site just continues to evolve over time and appreciate of history lives on. The manor has an architecture that looks older than its years, as meant to be with the glamorous English architecture that was established over a millennium ago.

Accessed December 6th 2021. https://classicnewyorkhistory.com/history-of-old-westbury-gardens/.

Accessed December 6th 2021. https://www.discoverlongisland.com/wp-

Accessed December 6th 2021. https://www.oldwestburygardens.org/aboutontent/uploads/2016/02/CH_Oct_09.pdf.

https://www.oldwestburygardens.org/planyourvisitextd/#discountedorcompadmissions.

Accessed December 6th 2021. https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-great-gatsby-mansions-real-life-homes-that-inspired-the-book-and-film#.Ya6AxtDMI2w.

Accessed December 6th 2021. https://www.tclf.org/landscapes/old-westbury-gardens.