John Mackay III House (Happy House)
2A Melby Lane, East Hills
Project Files
Built for John Mackay III, grandson of John Mackay, one of the discoverers of the Comstock silver mines in the 1870s. He was the son of Clarence Mackay, owner of the 648 acre Harbor Hill estate which made up much of East Hills from 1902 to the 1940s.
This beautiful building was constructed in 1929 on a 26 acre estate by prominent architect John Cross of the firm of Cross & Cross, designers of many Long Island estates and flagship Tiffany Building on Fifth Avenue and the RCA building on Lexington Avenue.
With Clarence Mackay’s death in 1938, Harbor Hill was left to his son John Mackay III. The estate gradually fell into despair due to neglect and vandals. The mansion was demolished in 1947. The property was sold to real estate developers in the late 1950s and 1960s .
Today, the only remains of this historic Harbor Hill estate are; the gate lodge, a water tower, the dairyman’s cottage, two pink marble copies of the classic Marly Horses Statues and John Mackay’s Stone House on Melby Lane.
Circa 1950
Aerial of the John Mackay III House with garage, cottage and kennel located off Glen Cove Road (1950)
The relationship between the John Mackay III House (right) and the location of the Harbor Hill mansion (left). Glen Cove Road can be seen as the diagonal road and Harbor Hill Road is on the bottom of the aerial. 1950
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