Mill Neck, New York recent comments:

I am not saying you are wrong about 11 Dock Lane, Great Neck- she may have owned that as a 2nd house I don't know, BUT my grandmother who was a relative of Muriel was Muriel's secretary, and she lived on the top floor and the house had dormer windows, I know because I visited her there and slept overnight and distinctly remember waking up in the middle of the night and looking out the window at the water a little distance away and seeing a ship making it's way along. I remember a big wood staircase leading down to a formal library and kitchen, the library had books floor to ceiling and a rolling ladder. On two large tables I remember she had two large antique miniature room boxes encased in glass, I only remember one of them had a livingroom theme with it's furniture, carpeting, lamps and fixtures. I was told after her death they were given to a couple of girls in the family. With her money she would have paid lot for those! I remember she had a cook, housekeeper, gardener and my grandmother for her secretary. I was told by my sister that there was something in Muriels' background that had to do with "shipping" as to where her money came from to afford all that. She died when I was 7, 1967 and her obituary was in the NY Times citing her "war work" arts and charities, indeed- as I remember she sculpted figure sculptures, I remember a room in the house that was full of bronze figure sculptures she had made, one of them was gifted to my late sister. The obituary mentioned she was of Horseshoe Road and also Middlebury Ct Some papers and info I have, including the 1940 census has Muriel, John (son) Bronson (son) and 3 servants- Annie, Herta and Elizabeth, and that Murial was the owner of the house, valued at $178,000, her husband John H died Sept 4, 1943 in Florida. They were married by 1915 as they both applied for a document to visit Canada for the purpose of a honeymoon, his occupation was real estate it says. The 1925 census looks like they were at 30 Hoyt Dr, North Hempstead- John, Murial, Jeanette (daughter) John H JR (son) Bronson (son) and 4 servants from Germany- Annie, Emma, Anna Marie? and one other.

Henry Townsend (one of the three "original" Townsend brothers - Henry, John and Richard) is indeed buried here, his brother Richard is not, having been interred somewhere in Lusum (now Jericho). The "RT" stone is instead that of Henry's 20-year old son, Robert, who died October 4, 1687. Both his headstone and foot stone are extant, whereas Henry's "HT" stone, documented in the nineteeth-century Peter Townsend manuscr ipt is not.

owned by the town of oyster bay for many years now, the historic property is poorly maintained, deteriorating and under serious demolition by neglect threat thanks to no effort of maintenance by the town.

I can confidently tell you that all four of these pictures are of Three Harbors Hill in Mill Neck. This house was originally owned by Mr Peters (and I think may have originally been called Hawirt.). The house is now owned by me.

Last year of Beekman ownership was 1949; it was then purchased by my husband's grandparents. They sold it in the mid 1970's. We loved the place. It was very grand. I am sad most of it was torn up.

I grew up in the William Parish McCoun house two doors over. This was the Underhill's house. I don't believe there was a Beekman connection.

Three Harbors Hill (name of Mrs. Eden's House appears to be the same property. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e4-83ab-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Mrs. Eden lived on Horseshoe Lane in the 1960s and her son BBT Eden lived nearby on Cleft Rd. I played with her grandsons at the pool that she installed in the 60s for them. This pretty much looks my memory of the house on the property but I spent all my time at the pool..

Renaming as "Oakley Court" was done by Cornelius Vanderbilt (Sonny) Whitney after he purchased the estate from his cousin A.G. Vanderbilt.

Muriel Tuttle Eden lived at "Topping", now 11 Dock Lane, Great Neck, once known as 226 Kings Point Rd. There are numerous citations in papers in the 30's and 40's referring to the Tuttles and their residence in Kings Point. I can find nothing in the property records or newspapers of the period linking the Tuttle family to either Hawirt or to Mill Neck in general. Hawirt was a house on a very large scale, probably 5 times the size of Topping. They were both Georgian in style but there the similarities end.

I dont think this is accurate, Peters died in 1931 and 2 photos of the house taken by a photographer who was active supposedly between 1900-1920s are in the NY public library with the caption on the backs that the house was the Muriel Tuttle Eden house- a distant family member of mine I used to visit as child around 1965, Eden died in 1967 at age 76, So since she was a widow at that point that is why the photographer captioned it the MURIEL Eden house and not the John H Eden and Muriel T Eden house, I don't know where this John Marsh guy fits in but I have to assume the Edens bought the house in 1931 since Muriel lived there around that time and died in 1967

In regards to the last sentence of the introductory posting, the Beekman family owned "The Cliffs" until a little past the early 1900's. I checked Nassau County records and they say that the Beekman's were the owners up until either 1949 or 1950. The cards were overlayed and both dates were displayed, so I wasn't sure which year was their last year of ownership.

ted hefner was the superintendent

Good place for a Wiccan sabbat back in '93.

This bridge has got to go.

Remarkably intact? I guess you haven't been inside. The mid-1990s Arab owner ripped everything out above the ground floor and turned it into an atrocity. It now resembles something like a cross between yacht cabin, a disco, and a Turkish bath -- we're talking curved walls, lots of tile and glass brick.