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Brief History of Coe Hall: Coe Hall was built for English born William R. Coe and his wife Mai between 1918 and 1921, by the New York City architects, Walker & Gillette. It was designed to look like an Elizabethan country house, using huge floor-to-ceiling windows which were an innovative feature of original 16th century English country houses. Ornamental chimney stacks, each one of a different design – a feature of Elizabethan houses - were also used. At Coe Hall the overseeing architect was an Englishman, and many of the stonemasons were British trained. The interior design company, (Charles, Antiques, Works of Art), based in London and New York City, was owned by an Englishman, Charles Duveen, brother of the famous art dealer Lord Duveen. Upon his death in 1938, the New York Times credited Mr. Duveen with having brought Elizabethan period furnishings to this country, and as an authority in Elizabethan decorative arts history. Most of the furniture at Coe Hall is in the Elizabethan style. In the front entry is an exceptionally fine stained glass portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and in the main entrance hall is yet another image of the Queen. Mr. Coe sold his 409 acre estate to the State of New York in 1949 for $1 so that the site would be saved in perpetuity and enjoyed by visitors. When Coe Hall was used as a college in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s (a precursor of the State University at Stony Brook), most of the house’s furnishings were removed. However since the late 1970’s the Planting Fields Foundation has returned about 80% of the furnishings back to the house, and continues to restore the mansion and its many rooms. For instance the dining room still lacks its 16th century tapestries of a stag hunt (one of Queen Elizabeth I’s great passions) that hopefully will one day be reinstated.

Exhibits

The exhibition Gold Coast Weddings: 1890 – 1940 will explore the world of glamorous weddings on Long Island’s Gold Coast at a time when the great mansions on the North Shore were becoming famous not only for their fascinating inhabitants—Captains of Industry—but for their splendor and style.

Natalie Mai Coe, the only daughter of William Robertson Coe and Mai Rogers Coe, married Commendatore Leonardo Vitetti, an Italian Diplomat from an aristocratic family, at Coe Hall, Planting Fields, in the spring of 1934. A Pathé newsreel, played in movie theaters across America, featured the wedding of the young couple who had met in Europe three years earlier. The Great Hall will be transformed for the exhibition and will highlight weddings distinctive of that era.

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