Circular House
25 Elm Drive, East Hills
Project Files
In September 1957, model homes were constructed to promote the new Country Estates housing development in East Hills. The development was built by Seidenwurm and Schwartz on the former Harbor Hill estate of Clarence Mackay.
One model was "radically different" from the traditional ranch homes on Long Island. The "Circular House", designed by architect Michael Radoslovich, combined a circular living room and a rectangular four- bedroom wing. As he explained his design in 1958, "we centered the kitchen between the main areas so the wife can have cocktails, play with the kids and cook practically at the same time." Radoslovich would become a well-known architect of schools.
Howard Kroplick, president of the Roslyn Landmark Society, remembers the Elm Drive model when he toured it with his family in 1958. Kroplick recalls:" I told my father and mother that I really wanted them to buy the flying saucer house."
The house was priced at $45,000 in 1958, the equivalent of $410,000 today.
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Nassau County tax records note the 1957 house was the "Influential Circle" model.
December 1957, Popular Science
The Circular House was featured in the January 19, 158 issue of The New York Times. See the pdf in the above project files..
Newsday, September 24, 1957
The Three Circular Houses of Country Estates in East Hills
Elm Drive
Heather Lane
Peach Drive
4 Comments
very very cool. Thanks for posting
Hi Melinda, I lived at 225 Salem Rd, four streets away from Magnolia. Our house was the third Strathmore house and we bought it in 1947 for $17,500. I spend many days playing on the old Mackay Estate before it became Country Estates. Our house backed onto Harbor Hill Rd., so we got to watch the huge cats building the sump on Harbor Hill Rd. When it was finished, we would sled or toboggan down that monster and at the bottom, we'd be propelled up the hill opposite the huge hill. Quite a rush.
Melinda Meadow Berman
I grew up on Magnolia Lane at the bottom of the hill from Country Estates. As the development was being built, my parents would take us for a ride through the new neighborhood of "really big" houses. We would watch the progress of this awesome expensive neighborhood of giant houses. I said to my parents during one of those drives, " One day I'm going to marry someone rich and move to one of the round houses."
Barbara Silverman Berke
Thanx for sharing. My mother loved & enjoyed decorating our ultra modern house. We moved into house at 25 Elm Dr. In 1962. I was 11 yrs old. About 10 yrs.after my father passed, my mother sold her beloved home in 1985.💕