| Great Architects of New York: Henry J. Hardenbergh | |
| Loch Ada Address 590 Proctor Road Glen Spey, N.Y. 12737 Location One mile west from the center of Glen Spey, N.Y. Built 1879 Demolished 1996 — About the same time that Hardenbergh was working with Edward S. Clark of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, designing Kingfisher Tower, rowhouses the Dakota Apartments and other buildings, he was also working for another Singer executive on an all-but-forgotten project upstate. In Glen Spey, a hamlet in the Town of Lumberland, Sullivan County, N.Y., he designed a mansion known as Loch Ada, or Allsworth, for William Ross Proctor, the Singer Company's treasurer. Loch Ada was unoccupied after about the 1920s, according to Lumberland Town Historian, Frank V. Schwarz, and it burned down in 1996. However, there may be additional works by Hardenbergh that still stand in Glen Spey. Loch Ada's gatehouse still stands as a private residence. And there were four additional mansions (and associated outbuildings) built in Glen Spey during the eighteen nineties and nineteen aughts for children of George Ross Mackenzie, who was president of the Singer Company from 1882-1889. These four mansions are:
As a caveat, there is no documentation linking Hardenbergh to any of the buildings in Glen Spey except the Loch Ada mansion. Evidence that he may have designed them is circumstantial, and four-fold. First, they were built during the period of Hardenbergh's peak activity. Second, they were built in a town where Hardenbergh had been active. Third, they were commissioned by relatives of an executive at the Singer Sewing Machine Company, George Ross Mackenzie. (Mackenzie's predecessor as president, Edward S. Clark, built the Dakota, Kingfisher Tower, the Van Corlear, the Ontiora, the Wyoming, and two sets of rowhouses on West 73rd Street. Mackenzie's colleague, treasurer William Ross Proctor, built Loch Ada.) Fourth, the buildings appear to be of a quality and style in line with Hardenbergh's known works. Many thanks to Frank V. Schwarz, Lumberland Town Historian, for a thorough tour of Glen Spey. |
![]() The rear of the Loch Ada mansion before it burned in 1996. (Photo courtesy of Frank V. Schwarz, Lumberland Town Historian.)
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