dc:identifier=httphdllocgovlocpnpggbain14632

Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Aldred (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• Wystan said:

  This appears to have been the scene, on November 1, 1913, of a big auction at the Long Island farm of the late New York Mayor William Jay Gaynor, who had died in September. Items at auction included Gaynor's horses and farm animals, and drew a crowd of 1,000. Wealthier than Croesus, John E. Aldred was a New York banker and power company entrepreneur, who later controlled Gillette razors, Gorham silverware, and the U. S. manufacture of Rolls Royces. He funded a lecture series on Engineering Practice at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, where he owned a utility company. The Aldred Building, a skyscraper in downtown Montreal, still bears his name. He owned a 40-room English Gothic mansion on the Long Island "Gold Coast" -- ligoldcoast.com/liprivate.html: "Ormston House, the John E. Aldred estate, was built in 1910. Now used as a monastery, this 40 room mansion is reminiscent of an English country estate. Situated atop a sloping hill, it commands a magnificent view of Long Island Sound. J. E. Aldred constructed this estate at the same time [as], and adjacent to, the former W. D. Guthrie estate, Meudon. Aldred and Guthrie were friends, who together purchased the town of Lattingtown, then demolished all of its homes and businesses to create their estates."