Flora Whiting - Notebook Vol. 2018-2
One of the many well-known people who have called Briarcliff Manor home is Flora Ettlinger Whiting. Flora was a pioneer in collecting American antique furniture and decorative arts. Much like Henry DuPont at his “Winterthur” estate in Delaware, Flora Whiting at the “Ashridge” estate in Briarcliff Manor filled it with the prized specimens of this aesthetic of American design.
Flora was born in 1878, the daughter of printing magnate, Louis E. Ettlinger, the director of Cromwell Publishing Company which published Collier’s Weekly and Woman’s Home Companion, and later as Cromwell-Collier published such authors as Martha G. Gellhorn, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Flora began collecting antiques with her father’s encouragement at the age of nine and continued for 84 years. Her first purchase was a set of New England Queen Anne and Chippendale candle stands.(1) She began collecting American lusterware and china, and moved on to hooked rugs, silver, furniture, lighting devices, fireplace equipment, pewter, paintings and quilts.(2) She had an eye for antiques with aesthetic appeal. Her friend, Joseph T. Butler, curator of Hudson Valley Restoration, now Historic Hudson Valley, said “She would always spot the best thing in the shop instantly.”(3)
Always on the lookout for a bargain, she preferred to find items for her collection in the Hudson Valley rather than the galleries and shops in Manhattan. Again, according to Joseph Butler, “ nothing pleased her more than going into Ossining, to Mitch Grossman’s on Spring Street, to see if she could find a bargain”(4) Although she considered herself an accumulator and not a collector, she counted collectors like Henry DuPont, John D. Rockefeller and Mabel Brady Gavin as friends. Flora was also a founding member of the Friends of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art which houses much of her collection today. She helped organize the 1929 Girl Scouts Loan Exhibition along with the wives of Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson. This exhibition is regarded as the first serious exhibition of American antiques and the “opening shot in the race to collect American antiques”5.
William Taft, Calvin Coolidge and Woodrow Wilson. This exhibition is regarded as the first serious exhibition of American antiques and the “opening shot in the race to collect American antiques”(5).
Flora married Giles Whiting, an architect and President of the Persian Rug Manufacturing Company on May 18th, 1899. In 1910 Giles and Flora Whiting purchased a mansion named Ashridge on Scarborough Road in Briarcliff Manor as a suitable place to house her growing collection of antiques. The house had been built in 1825 by George Swords on the Albany Post Road, now Route 9, near the present site of the pool and tennis courts at Sleepy Hollow Country Club. In 1862 it was disassembled and moved to its present location by its second owner C. C. North, who also enlarged it and named it Ashridge. The Whitings also purchased a nearby house to serve as a guest house which they named “The Cottage”. Today this house, no longer part of the estate, is called “Hoover Cottage” because it was used by President Herbert Hoover every Labor Day weekend for many years.
Flora’s collection or “accumulation” of American antiques continued to grow filling Ashridge, The Cottage, and the Whiting’s apartment on Park Ave. According to Joseph Vech Noble, former director of the Museum of the City of New York, “All three homes were crammed with things, especially the attics and basements.”(6) Pieces from her collection appeared in magazines, books and in exhibits at Ophir Hall and the Museum of City of New York.
Flora died in 1971. Her collection which was valued at $20 - $25 million was auctioned at Parke-Bernet Galleries in over the period of two weeks. The majority of the proceeds from the sale went to The Girls Clubs of America of which Flora was a founder. Among the major purchasers, were the Museum of the City of New York, The Metropolitan of Art, Hudson Valley Restorations (Historic Hudson Valley), and the Yale University Art Gallery. Her home in Briarcliff, Ashridge, continues to be a private residence as does the guest house, Hoover Cottage.
The intent of the Briarcliff Notebook is to provide an introduction and brief description of the people, places and events in the history of our village. For more information on Flora Whiting, her collection and Ashridge, you can check the archives of the Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough Historical Society, the local history section of the Briarcliff Library and the sources listed below.
CREDITS
Flora Whiting photo: The Whiting Foundation https://www.whiting.org/foundation/history
Ashridge photo: BMSHS http://briarcliffhistory.org/index.html
1. Frederick M. Winship, “Collecting Antiques—A 20th Century Phenomena,” The Dispatch, 29 April, 1972. 20 September, 2015, page 21.
2. Cheever, Mary. The Changing Landscape: a history of Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough. West Kennebunk, Maine: Phoenix Publishing, 1990
3. Rita Reif, “The Bids Told Story Of a Lifetime Knack For Buying Antiques,” New York Times, 2 May, 1972, page 1.
4. Diane Hofkins, “Manor of Speaking,” The Citizen Register, 25 January, 1978, page 1.
5. Rita Reif, “The Bids Told Story Of a Lifetime Knack For Buying Antiques,” New York Times, 2 May, 1972, page 2.
6. Rita Reif, “The Bids Told Story Of a Lifetime Knack For Buying Antiques,” New York Times, 2 May, 1972, page 2.
Bibliography:
“Aymar Embury II.” Lehman College Art Gallery: Architecture, 20 September, 2015. www.lehman.edu/vpadvance/artgallery/arch/bio/embury.html
Comstock, Helen. “Furniture in the collection of Mrs. Giles Whiting.” Antiques 69.3 (March, 1956): pages 228-232.
“Ettlinger’s Estate Is Set At $5,210,880: Bulk of $4,791,060 New Goes To Two Daughters--$50,000 Left to Research Body.” New York Times, 28 April, 1928. 23 September, 2015. http://www.timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/04/28/91507195.html?pageNumber=31
“Giles Whiting, Head of Persian Rug Firm: Member of Several Clubs Dies at Age of 63—Ex-Official of Architectural League.” New York Times, 28 April, 1937. 23 September, 2015. http://www.timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/04/28/94363708.html?pageNumber=23
Gross, Michael. 740 Park: The Story of the World’s Richest Apartment Building. New York: Broadway Books, 2005.
“Marriage Announcement 1—No Title.” New York Times, 19 May 1899. 20 September, 2015. http://www.timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/05/19/102574992.html?pageNumber=7
Winchester, Alice and the Staff of Antiques Magazine, ed. Living With Antiques: A treasury of private homes in America. New York: E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc., 1963. From Internet Archive, 7 December, 2015. http://www.archive.org/stream/livingwithantiqu00unse_djvu.txt