Explore the History Behind a Long Island House Museum with Elsie de Wolfe-Designed Interiors and Gardens by the Olmsted Brothers

For the first time, the recently published Planting Fields: A Place on Long Island is diving into the extensive history of Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, a 400-acre gem of a landscape in Oyster Bay, New York. The property also includes a Tudor-revival mansion known as Coe Hall, along with Elsie de Wolfe-designed interiors and gardens by the Olmsted Brothers. The home belonged to William R. Coe, chairman of Johnson & Higgins, and his wife, Mai, a Standard Oil fortune heiress.

Edited by Gina J. Wouters and Jerome E. Singerman, the book features essays by Witold Rybczynski, John Dixon Hunt, Arleyn A. Levee, Jennifer L. Anderson, and Patricia M. O’Donnell, as well as photographs by David Almeida. Wouters, the President and CEO of Planting Fields Foundation, tells Galerie about the Olmsted Brothers’ role in the landscape design of the property. “Four of the five essays in the book address the Olmsted Brothers-designed gardens at Planting Fields in some fashion, so there is a significant amount that was written about their work for the site in the publication.” 

One such example is Arleyn Levee’s essay, which “largely focuses on the Olmsted Firm and places the work they did at Planting Fields within the context of other Olmsted projects on Long Island. She foregrounds the contributions of one of the firm’s principals, Frederick Dawson, who had an enduring relationship with W.R. Coe and was at the ready for the project for nearly two decades. Levee superbly conveys how the prolific firm, which was involved with numerous projects for grand estates on Long Island, ensured singularity in the designed landscapes of Planting Fields,” explains Wouters.

Throughout Coe Hall, works by various contemporary artists can be seen on display. One such example includes Robert Winthrop Chanler’s Buffalo Mural, which Wouters describes as “an iconic space that is emblematic of evolving tastes in the 1910s. The mural is immersive, meaning that it covers all the walls and ceiling of the space.” This is just one of two murals by Chanler that remain accessible ot the public; the rest are owned by private collectors. 

“[The Buffalo Mural] is an artwork you experience. The iconography reflects the Coes’ love of the American West. It is quite eclectic to enter a Tudor Revival home with corresponding interiors and then to step into a scene with Native Americans, buffalo, and elk. But that is what adds to the singularity of Planting Fields,” muses Wouters. 

Additionally, the Coes hired Everett Shinn to decorate the interiors of the Tea House and also Mai Coe’s dressing room. It was previously believed that Elsie de Wolfe designed the Tea House’s interiors; however, “new scholarship and a thorough investigation of archival records has determined that there is no evidence of her involvement,” Marie Penny, Planting Fields’s Michael D. Coe Archivist, tells Galerie. “The Tea House was designed solely by Everett Shin. Everett Shinn was a protégé of de Wolfe and was certainly influenced by her style.” 

It should be noted that de Wolfe did, in fact, design Mai Coe’s bedroom, which boasts hand-painted walls and murals by Chanler, who also played a role in the design of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney’s Manhattan studio, in addition to the Colony Club, also in New York City, and various private estates throughout the U.S. 

Another artist involved in the creation of Planting Fields was Samuel Yellin, who crafted hand-wrought ironwork located throughout the house and in parts of the gardens. Today, Planting Fields honors the Coes’ artistic patronage by enlisting artists to create new site-specific works each year, as part of a program called Catalyst.