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The recent restoration of de Seversky Mansion at the New York Institute of Technology in Old Westbury, NY, employed Vermont marble from a demolished mansion built in 1905
As one of the top venues for private events in the New York metropolitan area, the de Seversky Mansion at New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) has a picturesque facade and a new staircase complete with marble that was quarried more than 100 years ago. The Vermont marble that was used for new balustrades and railings, among other architectural elements, came from the demolished Phipps Mansion in Manhattan, which was built in 1905.
"The marble was removed and stored under the Roslyn viaduct for several years, and then the lease was lost for what was a cheap site, and so the marble was 'for sale' or pickup to anyone who had the means to come get it," explained Susan Hillberg of Ronnette Riley Architect of New York, NY.
More than a century ago, Henry Phipps hired Towbridge & Livingston to build him a marble mansion at the corner of 87th Street and 5th Avenue. The marble was used extensively on the exterior as well as the interior, and it stood until Henry's death in 1930. At this point, his wife sold the lot to a developer and had the house demolished, but not before removing the entire white marble facade and shipping it out to her daughter Amy's estate, "Templeton," which was later renamed "de Seversky." "It sat there in a field for many years, waiting for something to happen to it," Hillberg explained.
"An unusual twist in the story is that the marble stayed in the family, with a few side trips," Hillberg explained. "The marble was originally worked in 1905, and then reworked in 2012 - over 100 years later. For 80 years, the exterior marble drifted around the north shore of Long Island, from the...