Thursday, December 5, 2019

"Inisfada" - North Hills, New York (Pt. 1)


"Inisfada" was designed c. 1916 in the Tudor Revival/Jacobean style by John T. Windrim on 300 acres of land as a summer home (from May through October) for Nicholas Frederick Brady. Brady had served as chairman of the New York Edison Co., and a director at Anaconda Copper Mining Co., Westinghouse Electric, National City Bank, Union Carbide and Carbon, et al. After his father, Anthony Brady, stepped down from the New York Gas, Electric Light, Heat, & Power Company, Nicholas became vice president of the Edison Electric Illumination Company and president of the New York Edison Company. He later became president of the New York Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. He was also a member of the Lido Golf Club and the Oakland Golf Club of Bayside. At only 34 years old, he was one of the youngest men in America to be in charge of a major corporation. If that was not enough, Brady married Geniveve Garvan in August, 1906. Ten years later they decided to build a country estate and called upon John Torrey Windrim to design a country home that could emulate--if not rival--those in Europe as a 10th anniversary gift to Geniveve.