Where
Jay Heritage Center
210 Boston Post Road
Rye, NY 10580
Driving Directions
For further information please contact us at (914)698-9275 or
jayheritagecenter@gmail.com
The 1907 Carriage House built by Warner Montagnie Van Norden & his wife Grace Talcott housed both horse drawn carriages and automobiles. Though his vessel of choice for speed was a Seabury motorboat called "Brush By" - one of the fastest on Long Island Sound - Van Norden was also one of the earliest members of the Automobile Club of America.
After 1911, later residents, Edgar and Zilph Palmer, housed their Renault here (pictured here in the foreground) and an Isotta Fraschini (notice the 2 pairs of headlights inside the Carriage House vestibule on the right). In fact, subscribers to the 1921 Automobile Blue Book were encouraged to drive past "the Homestead of John Jay, U.S. diplomat who concluded the celebrated treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1794 ...on south side of Post road...now the home of Edgar Palmer."
Speed, Style & The English Country House:
Auto, Horse and Airplane Racing at
England's Historic Estates
Start your New Year with an afternoon lecture at the Jay Heritage Center!
Curt DiCamillo, a noted authority on English country estates returns for his second lecture at the Jay Heritage Center. Following up on his whirlwind presentation about the "real" world of Downton Abbey this past fall, Curt will immerse us in the intoxicating sphere of British horse, auto and airplane racing of the early 1900s.
***********
Fast living surrounded by bright young things - that's the image we have today of the Interwar Years, when, between 1919 and 1939, fast cars and fast horses and an abundance of glamour and glitter was the order of the day for England's upper classes. However, there is much more to the story. This lecture will go back hundreds of years, beginning in the 17th century, when the turf ruled the aristocratic taste for racing and horses were de rigueur for the fast set. Learn about Goodwood House in Sussex, home of the Glorious Goodwood festival (Thoroughbred horse racing), one of the highlights of the English social season, and Higham Park in Kent, one of the first centers of auto racing in the early 20th century. Stories of lions, murder, and movies, all mixed carefully with soaring ambition and stunning houses filled with sublime art comes together to reveal fantastic stories that have left a mystique for us to marvel at today. From James Bond's ancestry to the Flying Duchess - it's a world that would be recognized by Charles II and Evelyn Waugh.
***********
Architectural Historian Curt DiCamillo brings years of insight to his presentation through his expertise as Executive Director of the National Trust for Scotland and work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain and an alumnus of the Royal Collection Studies Program and the Attingham Summer School for the Study of Country Houses. In addition he is a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and a Trustee of Boston's Nichols House Museum.
$15 per person. $10 Seniors. Free for JHC Members