Lape-Read House

Lape-Read House. . , I had my first long drive through the countryside yesterday. I had spent Wednesday night with Miss Esther Lape at her home in Westbrook, Connecticut, and in the evening we stood on an upstairs porch and saw the moon shine on the fields, with the background of Long Island Sound in the distance. , - Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day, September 22, 1945, Views of the Sound , Esther Lape and Elizabeth Read, the women who bought the property that became Salt Mead in 1927, were content to stay in the old Murdock farmhouse for the first two years their ownership., Then in 1909, they decided to build a much larger house right to the old one. The new house would have a garage, front parlor for staff, two huge bedrooms upstairs and -most importantly- two large verandas on the second floor. The high porches would provide views of the Long Island Sound, just over a mile south of here., A Unique Building , The architect Lage and Read hired to design the house gave them the type of building not often found in the New England countryside. Referred to as a "cascina," the style originated in the Italian Alps., The builders used local fieldstone and wood to construct the house, and then incorporated many salvaged materials that the ladies acquired. Either Lape got the wrought iron railings because her New York City bus happened to stop along 34th Street just as workers were dismantling the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Taken off the guest rooms balconies, the man in charge of the hotel's demolition told Lape she could have several large sections of ironwork "if you take them away at once." She arranged to have them shipped to Westbrook shortly after., Other salvaged materials that were used in the building include an antique marble fireplace mantle and one-hundred-sixteen old doors, taken from a Fifth Avenue mansion, and turned into wall paneling throughout the second floor., Contemplation and Conversation , The new house, with its ample space quicky, became a favorite place for the ladies to host their friends. But many gatherings that took place here throughout the 1930s and 1940s were not just about entertaining. It was the era of the Great Depression and World War II and Lape and Read were activists interested in finding solutions to the world's problems., They did this by organizing both formal conferences and informal discussions on topics including healthcare for the poor, immigration, and international relations. Many of the conversations that started here at Salt Meadow led to invitations to the White House or Hyde Park to brief the president and Mrs. Roosevelt, with whom they were very close., ( photo captions ) , (upper left) , The railings on the second floor porches were salvaged by Esther Lape from the old Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. , (upper right) , Detail of a marble fireplace mantle in the West bedroom of the main house. , (lower left) , (Left to right) Elizabeth Read, Esther Lape, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Malvina Thompson gather around the rustic stone table in front of the main house during the late 1930's. , (lower middle) , Guests pose for a photo in the pasture in front of the main house. The fields south of the house were kept wide open so the views of Long Island Sound would be unobscured. This photo was taken around 1937. , (lower right) , Esther Lape (third from left) poses with friends near the front door of the main house in 1956.