State agency recommended that Mackay House be preserved

Rose Weldon
The John Mackay III House at 2A Melby Lane in East Hills. (Photo courtesy of the Roslyn Landmark Society)

A newly accepted environmental impact statement for a project to demolish and subdivide property housing a 91-year-old historical building in East Hills includes a report from a state agency recommending that the structure, the John Mackey III House, be preserved.

In September 2019 correspondence to the property’s representatives, the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation stated: “… the John W. and Gwen R. Mackay (aka Happy House) at 2A Melby Lane is eligible for listing in the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The house is significant for its association with John William Mackay III and as a representative example of residential Tudor Revival Architecture designed by John Cross. Since the building is historic, we have reviewed the alternatives described in the submission. We note that demolition of a historic building is, by definition, an Adverse Impact. At this point, we request re-evaluation of alternatives that would retain the historic residential building. If we can agree that there are no prudent and feasible alternatives we would enter into a formal Letter of Resolution (LOR) which would document the alternatives considered and identify proper mitigation measures to be incorporated into the work.”

The applicants then say that while the state agency has determined that the property is eligible for the State and National Registers, the property is not currently listed, as listing can only proceed with the owners’ consent and there is no evidence of such. Demolition of the house is still listed in the statement as an adverse effect.

The Mackay estate at 2A Melby Lane sits on 2.23 acres and is owned by Steven and Wendy Shenfeld, who in 2017 sought to demolish the main house and split the property in half as part of a four-house subdivision.

The impact statement for the proposed project was initially prepared by Hauppauge-based VHB Engineering, Surveying, Landscape Architecture and Geology PC with Uniondale-based firm Forchelli Deegan Terrana, Huntington-based R&M Engineering and Oyster Bay-based Northcoast Civil Engineers and Land Surveyors, and was revised in September on the Planning Board’s behalf by Melville-based Nelson, Pope & Voorhis LLC, Nelson & Pope Engineering and Manhattan-based Wechsler & Cohen.

Made of stone and constructed in 1929, the house was originally built for John Mackay III, grandson of John Mackay, who was among the discoverers of the Comstock silver mines in the 1870s. His father was Clarence Mackay, owner of the 648-acre Harbor Hill estate, which made up much of East Hills from 1902 to the 1940s.

Harbor Hill was left to the youngest Mackay upon his father’s death in 1938, and the estate gradually fell into disrepair due to neglect and vandalism, according to the Roslyn Landmark Society. The property’s main mansion was demolished in 1947, and parts of the area were sold to real estate developers in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Now the only remains of the Harbor Hill estate are the gate lodge, a water tower, a dairyman’s cottage, two pink marble copies of the classic Marley Horses statues, and the  Melby Lane house.

The Village of East Hills ordered an environmental impact study on the project in 2017, and took control of the estate’s gatehouse in November of that year. Residents, environmentalists, and local historians subsequently voiced strong opposition to the property’s demolition at Planning Board hearings.

Those with comments regarding the project are requested to submit them for Planning Board consideration via email to nfuteran@villageofeasthills.org by Friday, Nov. 6. The board has not yet announced its next meeting date.

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