Matinecock Point

About

Matinecock Point was a 57-room Neo-Georgian home on East Island in Glen Cove, Long Island. The home was designed by architect Christopher Grant LaFarge for Jack Morgan of the Morgan banking family. The original estate of 140 acres was particularly noted for its magnificent gardens and the mile-long tree-lined driveway that burst to life in Spring with daffodils.

Jack Morgan, the only son of J.P. Morgan, purchased the estate in 1909 from the heirs of the late Leonard Jacob, a native of the Isle of Wight. Morgan hired Christopher Grant LaFarge of the architectural firm, LaFarge & Morris, to build his 57-room (plus 18-bathrooms) home, which served as his principal residence, and construction was completed in 1913. It had 14-foot ceilings, reception rooms that each measured roughly thirty feet by thirty, marble fireplaces and sinks, carved moldings, a small gymnasium, and secret panels hidden in several walls. LaFarge also laid out stables, cottages, outbuildings plus an extensive farm complex for Morgan's prize-winning herd of Blue Ribbon Jersey cattle, chickens, and hothouse flowers. The gardens were planted with all sorts of exotic trees and flowers, and even up until the 1970s orange trees could still be found on the lawns. Taken as a whole, the bill for the construction of the Matinecock Point estate came in at $2.5 million.