Taking care to stay out on the road, I headed for the sound and then saw through a clearing, a tennis court. But the Knapp House was calling....and figuring I had nothing to loose by speaking with whomever was playing on the court, I walked back to the gate and headed in that direction. The path went off in the woods and down a terrace. When I reached the court, there were four women on the far corner who appeared to have just finished up playing. They were busy gathering their things and talking amongst themselves. Mindful I was on private property, I stood outside the gate for what seemed an uncomfortable amount of time, I waved but got no response.... when finally one of them came over to see what I wanted. I asked if any of them was the owner of the big house up the hill... "No we are just friends of Bunny, she is probably home but her elderly husband has just returned recently from the hospital"......
I told her briefly about my interest in the house and asked if she would give the owner a note for me...she said yes. I hightailed it back to the car which was still parked way down the road by the tower..... wrote a hasty note and drove back up to the main gate (We Are Talking about 12 Acres Here). The note explained very briefly that I was from out of town and writing a book about the people who built the house in 1912, that I had the architects plans and some photos of it when it was new.... If they didn't already have them I would be more than happy to give them copies of what I had and that if they were interested, I would really like to speak with them about their fine home....I left the number where I was staying ( Kenny Vittelaro's ) and headed off to look for Gyro Sperry ....... on the drive to Brookville , which was beautiful through towns like Cold Spring Harbor, I was thinking other than the trees growing up around Knapps place, it still looked amazingly like it did in the photos I found in the December, 1914 issue of American Architect magazine.....
I also thought if it hadn't of been for the tower I would of never found it (the map has the property reversed)...... which reminded me of how I first discovered the Knapp place in Mastic Beach over 50 years ago. (their water tower and windmill) and of course I was hoping someone would call me too.
This Wing Was Brand New In 1914
Alterations was an understatement ....Below is what Knapp started with..... a circa 1787 Farmhouse
Although the house is halfway between the villages of Greenlawn & Centerport, the address then as it is today is Huntington.
What Knapp Bought in Jan 1912......It had potential though and 12 really nice acres of ground around it. Potential was aided by $75,000.00 in improvements which went a lot further in 1912 even though there was no Home Depot or Lowes.
There's the Tower along with the stables J. P. Knapp added for Claire's show horses like Zulal.
The rest of Friday the 13th went very well too.....although when I reached Brookville cemetery it was unattended and pretty big.....After a half hour or so of looking for Lawrence & Winnie Sperry's gravesite, it started to pour. ..... As I headed for my car I held his book up and hollered ..."HEY GYRO.......I WAS HERE TO SEE YA PAL.....AND IN CASE YOU DIDN'T KNOW IT , THEY WROTE ONE HECK OF A BOOK ABOUT YOU.....IT SHOULD BE A MOVIE ...... WINNIE YOUR IN IT TOO! " ( Winifred Allen was a Silent Screen Star when she married Gyro on Feb 19, 1918 ) I then headed south for the Cradle Of Aviation Museum and my meeting with curator Joshua Stoff, The Cradle is an amazing museum...... and it has one of Gyro's planes ( Sperry Messenger ) among it's vast holdings. While shooting the breeze with one of the guys in the restoration shop, I got to see what he was working on .....A Sperry Analog Computer from 1940.... an amazing piece of machinery from a WWII Bomber that used gears and gyros to aim the guns. Note : "Gyro" is featured in The Knapp Aero Files