Annual Meeting 2017

The Order of Colonial Lords of The Manor in America held its Annual Meeting, Reception, and Dinner on Thursday, June 2, 2017 at The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York’s headquarters at 215 East 71st Street, New York City.

In addition to researching seventeenth-century colonial manors, The Order of Colonial Lords of The Manor in America also supports historic preservation.

The 2017 Guest Speaker was architectural historian Michael W. Rayhill, who gave a presentation entitled the “Colonnade Row; Birth of the Gilded Age”, on the forgotten history of a remarkable set of neo-classical town houses located at present-day Lafayette Street in New York City where several founding families of the Gilded Age resided. Rayhill detailed how they all came to be neighbours on Colonnade Row and eventually intertwined through marriages.

Mr. Rayhill’s slides illustrated this unique period of New York City’s architectural history by showing what the streetscape and surrounding neighbourhood looked like at the time, and poignantly identified many magnificent buildings that, sadly, have since been demolished.

After Mr. Rayhill’s fascinating lecture, Mr. Lawrence Pistell, President of the Order, inducted two new members: Mrs. William M. Evarts (formerly Helen R. Coleman) a descendent of Dr. Luke Barber of Warburton Manor, once located on the shore of Piscataway Bay, Maryland, and Mr. Charles Felix, a descendant of Frederick Philipse, of the Manor of Philipseborough, which was once located in parts of Westchester and Bronx in New York.

Following the induction, the members and their guests attended a lively punch reception hosted by The National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York in their beautiful reception room and outdoor terrace at East 71st Street, followed by a candlelight dinner at the same address. Among the guests were Laura Carpenter Myers, Director of the Van Cortlandt House Museum; Mr. John Krawcunuk, Executive Diretor of Historic House Trust; and Mr. William P. Johns, former Director of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

The dinner, which included toasts, stories, and merriment, ended at 9:30 p.m.