Note Type
Historical NoteNote
Andrew J. Thomas (1875–1965) was a self-taught American architect known for designing low-cost apartment complexes that featured integrated gardens and green spaces. Thomas advocated for the inclusion of green spaces in New York City tenement buildings and designed U-shaped complexes surrounding interior gardens. He worked for the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Thomas was a regular visitor to Montauk as early as the 1890s. In 1927, he purchased land from the Montauk Beach Development Corporation and designed a massive estate overlooking Fort Pond Bay. The estate comprised a Spanish-style main house, greenhouses stocked with tropical plants, lavish gardens, barns, ponds, a horse riding track, and a watchtower.
By 1936, artist Elbert McGran Jackson (American, 1896–1962) purchased the estate from Thomas and began to make considerable alterations and repairs. E. M. Jackson was a commercial artist and illustrator, well known for his illustrations featured on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post. Jackson designed and silk-screened fabrics, draperies, screens, and wall coverings for high-end clients in New York City. He set up a silkscreen fabric printing factory in the greenhouses of the former Andrew J. Thomas estate. By the 1950s, the estate had fallen into disrepair.