Ormston House

 John E. Aldred’s banking firm, Aldred & Co., financed an empire of public utilities. Aldred was a director of gas, water, power, and electric companies, and at one point chairman of the Gillette Safety Razor Co. 

In 1916, Mr. Aldred hired the fashionable architect Bertram Goodhue (1869-1924), seen below, to design his Long Island estate. Goodhue buildings have a reputation for ponderous magnificence, mostly of the Gothic Revival and Elizabethan Tudor persuasion. Henry W. Rowe was hired to design the stables and gate cottages, and recognized sculptors such as J. Selmer Larson designed fountains and statues.  The Olmsted Brothers (of Central Park fame) laid out the landscaping and gardens. A true Anglophile, Mr. Aldred made sure the estate had a touch of monastic ambience, popular among English gentry, and even imported English servants.  He named the estate the Ormston House.

The "Anti-Trust" laws passed by Congress, along with the federal and local property, capital gains, and income taxes,  in the 1940s made it impossible for many in Mr. Aldred's class to hold on to their vast possessions without severely depleting their wealth.

Since 1944, the Ormston estate has been a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery called St. Josaphats. A handful of novices lives and studies in the enormous former mansion, whose furniture was auctioned off in 1940, and labors mightily maintaining grounds that once required 35 full time gardeners.

Sources:

Foreman, John. A Secret World in Lattingtown, 1 Jan. 1970, bigoldhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/a-secret-world-in-lattingtown.html. 

“History of St. Josaphat's Monastery.” + ST. JOSAPHAT'S MONASTERY +, www.stjmny.org/history-of-st-josaphats-monastery.html.