The pictures here were all originally all lantern slides (glass transparencies), each one hand-colored with a light enough touch to provide exceptional realism.
Gray Gardens still stands, and its website describes the property at the time as so: “Mr and Mrs Robert C Hill bought the home in 1913 as a summer cottage. At the time, the home stood on four acres of oceanfront land.
“Anna Gilman Hill, a dedicated horticulturist and garden writer, imported magnificent concrete walls from Spain to enclose the garden and temper the fierce winds and sea spray of eastern Long Island.
“With the walls and gorgeous wooden arbors in place, she then designed the garden with assistance from her landscape architect, Ruth Dean. They planted a variety of pale-colored flowers, including climbing rose, lavender, phlox, and delphinium.”
Come take a stroll through these gated gardens, and lose yourself in another era.
Northeast gate to garden
Bench inside northeast gate
View west to pergola
Pathway to sun room
ALSO SEE: Samuel Colt’s famously over-the-top Victorian mansion, Armsmear
Birdbath in the walled garden
East gate to tool house
Garden tool house
Northwest gate to the private walled garden
View east to pergola
View of walled garden
Full view of this beautiful walled garden
Sunroom overlooking walled garden
NOW SEE THIS: See the Vanderbilt Mansion, Biltmore: An American castle in the clouds
The ghosts of Grey Gardens: A look back from the 1970s
From the Miami Herald (Florida) March 24, 1972
In the 1920s, Grey Gardens was one of the most fashionable houses along the East Hampton shore. There were servants and a chauffeured limousine to take the Beales to society functions. Now a ’37 Cadillac rots on the front lawn.
