Ormonde (Cazenovia, New York)

Ormonde (1885-88) is a Shingle Style mansion, built on the eastern shore of Cazenovia Lake in Cazenovia, New York. It was designed by architect Frank Furness for George R. Preston, a New Orleans banker who settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The 9-bedroom "summer cottage" was originally the centerpiece of a 300-acre (121.4 ha) estate, that was expanded to 400 acres (161.8 ha) in the early 20th century. The carriagehouse and other buildings have since been demolished, and the land subdivided, leaving the mansion and boathouse on 2.4 acres (1 ha).

The boathouse's design is unusual, a stone cube at lake's edge supporting a large, circular second-floor room, ringed by a 360-degree deck. It relates to Furness's Undine Barge Club (1882-83) on Philadelphia's Boathouse Row, and the architect's own summer cottage, Idlewild (c. 1888), in Media, Pennsylvania.

The property includes two contributing buildings and __ non-contributing buildings, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991:^[1]

Ormonde is "architecturally and historically important as an outstanding early example of the type of large mansions constructed chiefly as summer residences by wealthy clients in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries near the shores of Cazenovia Lake in central New York."^[2]

It followed Cedar Cove, designed by architect George Browne Post, the first "summer cottage" built on the lake. Others included Notleymere, designed by architect Robert W. Gibson; Scrooby, designed by architect Robert S. Stephenson; and Shore Acres, designed by architect Stanford White.

Ormonde is part of the Cazenovia Town Multiple Resource area.^[3]

References

• George E. Thomas, Jeffrey A. Cohen, & Michael J. Lewis, Frank Furness: The Complete Works (New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), pp. 242, 251, 295.