place

The Crimson Beech

Frank Lloyd Wright buildingsHouses completed in 1959Houses in Staten IslandModernist architecture in New York CityNew York City Designated Landmarks in Staten Island
Staten Island building and structure stubs
Crimson Beech Partial Front View
Crimson Beech Partial Front View

The Crimson Beech (also known as the Cass House) is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright located in the Lighthouse Hill neighborhood of the New York City borough of Staten Island. Its original owners, Catherine and William Cass, had it manufactured by Marshall Erdman in kit form in Madison, Wisconsin and shipped to Staten Island where it was erected in 1959. It is the only residence designed by Wright in New York City and one of eleven Marshall Erdman Prefab Houses that were built. The particular model is known as the Prefab #1. The house features a combined kitchen and family room, a sunken living room with a cathedral ceiling, and a gallery that leads to four bedrooms. All interior walls are paneled in Philippine mahogany, with raised horizontal bands set about a foot apart.The house is a long and low L shape, with wide hip roofs. The exterior, red brick and largely clad in cream-colored Masonite, is similarly striped with redwood battens that emphasize the low-slung lines. The front of the house has one story, while the rear, because of the sloping site, has two. The roof is made of terne.At the time of construction, the components of the house cost $20,000 and assembly cost a further $35,000. The house was declared a landmark in August 1990 and the original owners resided there until 1999 when it was sold. It remains in private hands.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article The Crimson Beech (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

The Crimson Beech
Manor Court, New York Staten Island

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: The Crimson BeechContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 40.575131 ° E -74.142319 °
placeShow on map

Address

The Crimson Beech

Manor Court 48
10306 New York, Staten Island
New York, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Crimson Beech Partial Front View
Crimson Beech Partial Front View
Share experience

Nearby Places

Staten Island Light
Staten Island Light

The Staten Island Range Light, also known as the Ambrose Channel Range Light, is the rear range light companion to the West Bank Lighthouse. Built in 1912, the 90-foot tower sits more than five miles northwest of the West Bank Lighthouse, on Staten Island’s Richmond Hill (Lighthouse Hill), 141 feet above sea level. It shows a fixed white light that can be seen for 18 miles, by all vessels bound to New York and New Jersey Ports coming in from the Atlantic Ocean (on range only).The original hardware, including the second magnitude Fresnel lens and glass reflector, remain in place. However, the original mineral oil-burning lamp has since been replaced with a 1000 watt General Electric-manufactured Airway Signal incandescent lamp, with the backup light, which automatically turns on in the event of primary lamp failure, being the same. Many lighthouses have transitioned to LED systems, but this legacy equipment remains in use at this light. The Staten Island Range Light also has a second light, the Swash Channel Rear Light. This light is also a steady white light beacon, and shines continuously 24 hours a day. The Swash Channel is not a major shipping lane like the Ambrose Channel. Rather, it is akin to a "secondary road," connecting the Ambrose Channel with the Sandy Hook Channel. This secondary light is not within the lantern room, as is the main light, the Rear Ambrose Channel Light. Both the Ambrose Channel Light, as well as the Swash Channel Light, have backup lights independent from each of the main lighting systems (and the main systems' backup lamps). Neither light blinks or rotates, and each is only visible on range. Additionally, the Staten Island Range Light may be powered by banks of on-site batteries in the event of power failure.It was designated a New York City Landmark in 1968 and remains a valuable aid to navigation for ships entering the Ambrose Channel in Lower New York Bay. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art
Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art

The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art is a museum located on the residential Lighthouse Hill in Egbertville, Staten Island, New York City. It is home to one of the United States' most extensive collections of Himalayan artifacts. The museum was created by Jacques Marchais, (1887-1948) an American woman, to serve as a bridge between the West and the rich ancient and cultural traditions of Tibet and the Himalayan region. Marchais designed her educational center to be an all-encompassing experience: it was built to resemble a rustic Himalayan monastery with extensive terraced gardens and grounds and a fish and lotus pond. The museum was praised for its authenticity by the Dalai Lama, who visited in 1991. In 2009, the site was listed on the New York State Register and National Register of Historic Places. A writer in the New York Times referred to the museum's founder under the name Jacqueline Klauber, noting that she used Marchais as her professional name. Jacques Marchais Coblentz was born in 1887 in Cincinnati, Ohio. After a career as a child actress in Chicago she went to Boston and married at age 16, had three children, and divorced in 1910. After a brief second marriage, she moved to New York City, returned to acting, and associated with people who were interested in Eastern religions and Buddhism. About 1920 she married the owner of a chemical factory and they lived in the rural Staten Island. There, she began collecting. She opened an art gallery in Manhattan in 1938. In 1945 she opened a research library next to her home in Staten Island.Marchais had never visited Tibet or the Himalayas, but she had a lifelong interest in the region and sought to find a permanent home for her collection. The museum officially opened in 1947. The museum, its collection and its history in Staten Island has been chronicled in a book by the same name and 60th anniversary exhibition.The museum has not been able to benefit from the Department of Transportation's initiative to draw traffic to the borough's cultural organizations via a new signage program because it lacks a dedicated parking lot and as such it remains somewhat hidden among New York City's cultural organizations. Bicycling clubs, however, having easier parking, make it a destination.