Land of Clover

Land of Clover is a sixty-acre estate on a hillside above the west shore of Stony Brook Harbor in Nissequogue, New York. Built between 1912 and 1918 for Lathrop Brown, a realtor and congressman, it centers on a two-story brick Georgian Revival house with slate roof, ten chimneys and curving hyphens linking side wings. Brown's brother, Archibald Brown of Peabody, Wilson and Brown, designed the house, loosely patterned on Westover, a Virginia plantation house, along with six support buildings: a horseshoe-shaped stable, superintendent's cottage, ice house and garage, two barns and a water tower. The estate was listed as a distinctive, well-preserved example of the harborside country seats built by wealthy families in the early twentieth century, and for the quality of its design. Converted to a private school around 1953, it has kept its exterior, interiors and landscape largely unaltered, though several newer school buildings stand on the grounds.