GROUND ZERO

 

Visiting The Remains Of The

J. F. Knapp Estate Grounds

Nov 1, 2003

 

The Main Entrance Drive

or the original Southern End of Knapp Rd.

 

Back in July of 1994, I took my 10 year old son Erik with me for his first trip to Long Island. I was there working on my book Long Ride On A Short Track. One of the side trips we made was a visit to my hometown of Mastic Beach. One of the sites he really wanted to see was the place where "the mansion" he had heard stories about was. Well wasn't I surprised when we drove west down Ramshorn Rd. from Jefferson Dr. and there was a large split level home on the site. The surprises kept coming as we turned right onto Monroe Dr. and Lo there was another large home! and if that wasn't a kicker, as we beared right following the curve of the Monroe & Dogwood junction, another very large home appeared. Well I thought I wonder when they went up? When I left the area in 1975 it was still the large empty field it had been since Knapp's mansion burned to the ground in Feb. of 1959. I also thought gee NICE PLACES...how fitting considering what once was there before them.

 

Well I forgot about it until December of 2000 when I wrote the short story "The Mansion" Then a few months later, I was back in NY with Erik looking at prospective colleges. I was just starting this Knapp stuff not knowing where it was going to lead. We took a little side trip to Mastic Beach and I snapped photos of Knapp's dock and the three houses.... and as regular readers of the website know things kind of escalated from there. When I was planning this last trip (which was pretty impromptu) I sent letters to the three homes just using their house #s telling them about this project. They logged onto the net and two of three families called me. We met Saturday morning Nov 1st at Knapp Ground Zero.......

Number 8 Ramshorn Rd.

 

Edie Padilla & Will St. George who live on Ramshorn Rd. have the distinction of having the footprint of the mansion itself for their backyard. Their home faces the south just as the Knapp's did. Also it's interesting that in NYC, Edie lived about a block from George Sutter (she did not know him) who bought the mansion in 1941 & sold it to St. Jude's in 1950.

 

Looking west : this area and more was once covered with the Knapp's 3 story 22 room home.

The remains of it are buried under that sod.

Looking north .....That's the back of the third home that faces Dogwood

 

That is a frame of an old wheelbarrow. Perhaps it was Willie Schluder's ?

There are some bricks piled in there too. The foundation and the 3 chimmneys were brick.

SAGE BRICK CO. They are listed in the 1910 Greenport LI Phone Book. This one came back to Nashville with me

 

This walk once ran on the eastern face from the side terrace entrance to rear one by the kitchen

 

Number 133 Monroe Dr.

 

Ed & Marilyn Albano have lived here for about 10 years. They moved from Alder Dr. Mastic Beach. Marilyn told me when they first arrived, an older woman from the neighborhood told them about a mansion that used to be there and that she had photos of it. Unfortunately Marilyn does not recall who she was or exactly where she lived. I have a strong feeling it may of been the late Flo Stevens whose even later husband Charles was a professional photographer.

Charlie took the photo of it that St. Jude's used in all their PR and I'm sure he took many more. Flo gave his photo equipment away to James Dermody Sr. who I have heard left it to his son James Jr. who is now the president of the LIRR, but as far as I know still lives on Dogwood Dr. a stones throw from ground zero. A letter I sent to him about this over a year ago remains unanswered. ......but I digress

The Albanos like Edie & Will were very gracious and showed us around the grounds of their home which was built on the Knapp's west lawn.

 

 

The actual driveway into the mansion passed between those trees. It came up to the rear of the house. Ed said he was told there was a large archway there at one time. My guess is it said "CLAIREDALE"

 

Ed and his dog walking up the original drive.

 

I think the Knapps would of approved of the Albano Landscaping!

 

The Albanos planted these firs. 80 some years before The Knapps brought in many specialty trees. I learned from Mrs. Schulz on this trip that Dodi paid a lot of attention to the care of his trees. "He woud have them tied so they would grow straight"

 

What once was a grove

 

Looking out to the corner of Ramshorn & Monroe

 

THE MONEY TREE

Adolph Almasy told a tale when we were little kids that Knapp hid his money in this tree and sealed it up. The tree is gone but the cement remains.

COULD THIS BE THE ROOTS OF THE KNAPP FOUNDATION ? (Hah! an inside joke)

 

Ed showed us this... he said when he first saw it he thought it was an animal skull. It's wedged in pretty good. It's cement and from examining the underside of it, which still has some shape , I think it was a west terrace rail post that probably fell there when the walls collapsed from the fire.

West Terrace

 

YOU CAN SEE THE THREE HOMES FROM 2001 BY CLICKING HERE

 

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