Roslyn -- Roslyn Hall

Garvan Estate

The first owner of Roslyn Hall (also known as the Garvan Estate) 101-acre estate was Stanley Mortimer, who had the Tudor style mansion built in 1891 by the architect James Brown Lord, and the garden designed by landscape architect Nathan Franklin Barrett. There were stone steps and gravel walkways with large plantings of evergreens and other trees and expanses of ground cover, tea gardens, and barns. An ornate wishing well stood in the center of the circular driveway in front of the house. The property was sold to Francis Patrick Garvan (1875-1937) in 1919, who hired Olmsted Associates landscape architects ca. 1930. Copper beech trees were planted by Olmsted Associates. Some of the original garden features remain, including stone arches and garden architecture, but the house, except the chapel, which was demolished in 1974 by developer Robert Praver who subdivided the property.

Francis P. Garvan (b.1875-1937) was a prominent New York attorney as well as the president of the Chemical Foundation of America. The Mabel Brady Garvan Collection (10, 00 items including art and decorative arts) are at Yale University. His correspondences concerning his collections are in the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art.

Nathan Franklin Barrett (b.1845-1919), who designed the first gardens for Stanley Mortimer, was one of the earliest landscape architects in the US, beginning his professional practice in the 1870s.

Persons associated with the garden include Stanley Mortimer (former owner, 1891-1919), Francis P. Garvan (former owner 1919-1937). The Garvan family (former owners, 1937-1974), Nathan Franklin Barrett (landscape architect, 1845-1919) and Olmsted Associates (landscape architects, ca. 1930s).