Chanticlare

Chanticlare
Chanticlare as pictured in 1929.
Interactive map of the Chanticlare area
Alternative names	Chanticlair; Ricks Estate
General information
Status	Demolished
Type	Home
Architectural style	English Tudor
Location	Stonytown Road, Flower Hill, New York, U.S.
Construction started	1920s
Demolished	1960s
Design and construction
Architect	Frederick A. Godley
Other information
Number of rooms	42

Chanticlare (often spelled Chanteclair and also known as the Ricks Estate) was a large, Gold Coast-era estate located in the Village of Flower Hill, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States.

Chanticlare was constructed in the 1920s for attorney and Union Carbide executive Jesse J. Ricks.¹²³⁴⁵ The mansion, designed in the English Tudor-style by Frederick A. Godley, featured 42 rooms – including a music room/ballroom.¹³⁴⁶⁷

In the 1960s, following the deaths of Jesse Ricks and his wife, their children would sell off the remaining land.¹³⁴⁸ Originally, the developers of the Chanticlare at Flower Hill subdivision, Edwin and Walter Ketay, wanted to save the mansion, and made attempts to do so.¹³⁴⁹ A number of the homes built on as part of the development were designed by architect Stanley H. Klein.¹⁹

One of the plans for its preservation was for C.W. Post University (now LIU Post) to purchase it and use the space as a music school, an accounting school, and/or administrative offices, amongst other proposed uses by the school.¹³⁴¹⁰ However, in 1967, C.W. Post ultimately chose not to buy the property.³⁴¹⁰¹¹

The Ketays soon after tried getting the Nassau County Cultural Society to occupy the home – although the plan was largely opposed by residents.³⁴¹²

With all preservation efforts failing, preserving the building proved to be too costly, and the estate was ultimately demolished in the late 1960s and replaced with an additional 4 homes as part of an amended plat map and plan for the Chanticlare at Flower Hill subdivision made by Edwin and Walter Ketay.³⁴¹⁰¹¹

In 1968, the pipe organ formerly located in Chanticlare's music room was donated by John Ricks and Jane Ricks-King, the children of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Ricks, to Hofstra University in honor of their late parents.³⁴¹³

The three-bank Aeolian electro-pneumatic pipe organ, valued at $115,000 in 1968, was installed in the Adams Playhouse at Hofstra, along with a memorial plaque.¹⁴ In order to house the components of the instrument, Hofstra had to add two chambers onto the Adams Playhouse, totaling 430 square feet (40 m²).¹⁴

The donation of the organ meant that students at Hofstra studying the organ could practice on-campus as opposed to having to travel off-campus to the nearby Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation.¹³¹⁴

The estate's guest house, located off Stonytown Road, still stands.³⁴⁵ Like the main mansion, it was also designed by Godley.³⁴⁵