No. 15 – Exploring the Augustus Floyd Estate through the eyes of  Emily Gardiner

Every so often as luck would have it, I get the chance to purchase something extremely rare and unique. In this case, your public library has obtained a copy of  Family Recollections of Emily Delafield Floyd Gardiner – Concluded in 1993, by Emily Delafield Floyd Gardiner. Emily was the granddaughter of Augustus Floyd. Augustus was the great grandson of William Floyd and had a large mansion and farm on the neck of land that is bordered by Lons Creek and Home Creek. For further reference, this piece of real estate has Osprey Point on the Forge River, enjoyed by the public as a town park for fishing and Summer fun.

Emily Delafield Floyd Gardiner (1905 – 1994) was the daughter of Dr. Rolfe Floyd and as such spent time as a child growing up in the Mastic Estate and farm of her grandfather Augustus. Her small book reads like that of a manuscript, although published and released in 1972. She describes much of her life and gives detailed descriptions down to the numerous rooms and grounds of the Augustus Floyd family homestead in Mastic.

Emily was married to Arthur Zimmerman Gardiner, a United States Economic Counselor. Photographs of her with her husband have been made available to the public via the Truman Library Photographs Collection. Below I’ve included a photograph of Emily and Arthur standing in a field that is unidentified in the description.

Emily also includes several photographs within the book of which I am posting here. We now have images to share of Augustus Floyd and family members. Included in the text are sections titled, “The house at Mastic” , “The outbuildings and farm buildings” and “The varied delights of visiting Mastic”. We will be making the whole text available to the public online in digital format. The farm itself consisted of approximately 1200 acres and included some land North of the farm as well. The estate house, built in 1881 with a large addition added around 1900,  had 20 rooms and also included many outbuildings.

For those of you who were wondering exactly where the house was located, I am providing a digital overlay from a 1930s aerial image. Augustus Floyd (1845 – 1927), son of John Gelston Floyd, obtained considerable wealth due to lucrative stock market trading and retired at his estate while managing the property as a farm. After his wife’s death, April 1, 1933,  the estate house and property was sold in May 1942 to attorney John B. Dawson. The estate house unfortunately caught fire on March 29, 1943 and according to Emily, sold yet again to another developer.