The Delamater-Bevin Mansion, also known as The Bevin House, is a historic 22-room
Victorian mansion on the north shore of
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
within the Incorporated Village of
Asharoken, New York
Asharoken is a village in the Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, on the North Shore of Long Island in New York. The population was 654 at the 2010 census.
History
Asharoken incorporated as a village in 1925, so as to have a greater abilit ...
. The estate is on the
Eatons Neck
Eatons Neck is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Huntington, New York, Town of Huntington in Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island, in New York (sta ...
landmass on the edge of Duck Island Harbor, an inlet of Northport Bay, off of
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...
.
History
The home was built by
Cornelius Henry DeLamater in 1862 in
French Second Empire
The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the Second and the Third Republic of France.
Historians in the 1930s a ...
architectural style, and was originally known as Vermland. DeLamater, who owned over of Eaton's Neck, was the owner of the DeLamater Iron Works located in NYC where W. 13th St meets the Hudson River. The turret, engines, and weaponry on the Ironclad "Monitor" were built by DeLamater's foundry under the direction of noted marine engineer
John Ericsson
John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States.
Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which com ...
. DeLamater named his summer estate "Vermland" after the Swedish province where Ericsson was born as the two men were best of friends and inseparable. After DeLamater's death on February 7, 1889, his Eaton's Neck estate was inherited by his wife Ruth Oakley Caller DeLamater, who died on December 7, 1894, leaving the estate to their daughter Laura DeLamater Bevin. Over time, the house gradually became known as "The Bevin House.
Laura DeLamater Bevin died on March 4, 1920 and her son Sydney Bevin inherited the property.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the exiled French writer and pioneering aviator
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of s ...
rented The Bevin House, which is where he wrote much of the well-known novel ''
The Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
'' during late 1942.
He lived there with
Consuelo de Saint-Exupéry
Consuelo, comtesse de Saint-Exupéry (née Suncín de Sandoval; 10 April 1901 – 28 May 1979), was a Salvadoran-French writer and artist, and was married to the French aristocrat, writer and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Early ...
, and they hosted their common friend
Denis de Rougemont
Denys Louis de Rougemont (September 8, 1906 – December 6, 1985), known as Denis de Rougemont (), was a Swiss writer and cultural theorist who wrote in French. One of the non-conformists of the 1930s, he addressed the perils of totalitarianis ...
.
On May 29, 1960 Sydney Bevin died, and The Bevin House was sold to Charles William Foesell in 1964. In 1979 the estate was purchased by real estate developer Nikos Kefalidis, who commissioned an extensive restoration of the mansion.
Kefalidis was killed in the crash of
Swiss Air 111 on September 2, 1998.
The Delamater-Bevin Mansion was added to the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1985.
File:CHDelamater.png, Cornelius Henry DeLamater 1821–1889.
File:BevinBack.jpg, Rear of The Bevin House, showing its employees' wing.
See also
* ''
The Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 an ...
''
References
Footnotes
Citations
External links
Official website of Antoine de Saint-Exupery
{{Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Mansions of Gold Coast, Long Island
Huntington, New York
Houses in Suffolk County, New York
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1862 establishments in New York (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Suffolk County, New York