Box Hill was an estate owned and designed by Stanford White with the help of McKim & Mead between 1884-1906 in St. James. White had married Bessie Smith of Smithtown in 1884 and purchased a small house in neighboring St. James. White apparently later regretted not tearing the house down to begin with and starting fresh but would go on build numerous additions over twenty years.
The house was originally a farmhouse. Stanford enlarged it several times after his wife received a large inheritance, around 1884. In 1903, he covered the entire building in “pebble dash” (rocks pressed into mortar). When it came to the interiors, Stanford was a compulsive purchaser. He collected temple ornaments from Japan, carpets from Turkey, tiles from Holland and mashrabiya screens from Morocco. Then, he filled rooms with as many pieces as could fit.
The dining room is covered in anaglypta, which is paper pressed to look like paneling. Repeated freezing and thawing - Box Hill had no heating system until 1938 - caused the paint on the anaglypta to develop a crackle finish.
The estate features a one-story verandah defined by a range of fluted columns. Also on the property are a cottage, barn, carriage house, stable, and water tower. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
Its current owner is Stanford’s great-grandson Daniel White, who bought it from his parents and has been restoring it for more than 20 years.
Sources:
Bernstein, Fred A. “Tour the Houses of Stanford White with the Revered Architect’s Great-Grandson.” 1stDibs Introspective, 13 Feb. 2021, www.1stdibs.com/introspective-magazine/samuel-white-stanford-white/
“Box Hill Estate.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Jan. 2025, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_Hill_Estate
L., Zach. “Box Hill.” Old Long Island, www.oldlongisland.com/2010/05/box-hill.html. Accessed 10 July 2025
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