Pratt Family Mansion Turned Naval Engineering College - Webb Institute

Sep 22

The Pratt family’s enduring legacy in the Glen Cove area during the Gilded Age was mansions built in the Dosoris Park area. All but one was saved from destruction while the others have been adapted to re-use. George DuPont Pratt Sr. had Killenworth built, and is now owned by the Russian delegation to the United Nations. Welwyn, now a preserve and Holocaust Museum, was home of Harold Pratt. John Pratt’s mansion is now the Mansion at Glen Cove, an event venue and hotel. Poplar Hill, now a rehabilitation facility was built by Frederic Pratt. A last but not least Herbert Lee Pratt’s Braes which is the subject of this post. All of these estates were built on a combined 1100 acres with miles of waterfront on the Long Island Sound. The estates had a centralized administrative complex called the Pratt Oval that took care of the grounds maintenance, building repairs and supplies.

In 1902, Herbert Pratt hired James Brite to build the first house to occupy the site. Ten years later the house was torn down and the current building was constructed. Herbert and his wife, Florence Balsdon Gibb Pratt occupied the 40,000 square foot mansion until Herbert’s death in 1945. It was purchased to become the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture which opened in 1947, and the mansion is now called Stevenson Taylor Hall.

Here is what caught my eye, I hope you enjoy!