And then I decided Id get involved again with things that are going on. Burke: But what were we going into before I got into the architecture? I found three things like that. And they did. Eventually, he was able to move his collection of Victorian-style furnishings safely into the home, and add to it larger pieces of furniture to complete the restoration. Obituary Tribute Wall Service Information . So my mother decided she would make it into a two-family, and rent out one part of it. [laughs]. And I want somebody to take care of it. And I want my painting. What will I do? And I had two or three other girls that were there. He was the top interior designer in New York. And then, it was declared unsafe, and they come in and knocked it down. And she had this woman who was a caretaker. Burke: Scalia. About that time, I learned that the historic Vanderbilt museum housed a descendent of the original Vanderbilt who had lived there. Q: Yes. Burke: I had a beautiful big old house in Tottenville that I loved. All rights reserved (About Us). Q: Yes. So thank you. Troy-Virginia (Eugenia) Mileon Muscatello Feiden, passed away on January 28, 2023 surrounded by her loving family who adored her. It was gorgeous and very ornatewas very, very much like Greek Revival. And if they only would have remained, they would have been a part of it, and everything could have been fully appreciated. Burke: Anyway, she was well known here on Staten Island. Ill do the whole window. And I had the money to do it, and I said, You know, let me do it.. It wasnt fair to him to keep paying for it. Eventually she decided she wanted to give it up and approached me with a cry of "George save my house" and I did.What was it like at that time?It was in terrible shape. When did it start to feel done? And, well, lets face it, they never had any hot water over there at all. Thats annoying certain people. What was it, in the city? When I was over there looking at their house. Daller: Mm-hmm! So whenever the big surgeons traveled, I always traveled with themtraveled all over Europe. But they hadnt been there, maybe five, six years, and I guess they decided, Oh! And I had the two apartments! And then I what else? And then upstairs was like a big balcony above that porch. OBITUARY Kathleen Burke January 20, 1945 - January 26, 2023. And its still there, its all there. Q: and Linda Daller for the New York Preservation Archive Project. Daller: Mm-hmm. Burke: Down in the basement, my friend Eriche was great, with this Ouija board and all this stuffand he said, George, lets do a seance! So we got a bunch of people together and we went all down in the basement. Burke: Oh, and then the house, when I bought it, everybodythe real estate lady, she wouldnt come in. But under that porch was the basement. Facebook gives people the power to. And the basement was beautiful, where you can walk out onto the porch and out into the garden. Most of them were little things. Linda? And I hope whoever is in charge of itLinda will probably be here in charge! Daller: And he uses every room, he doesnt sit in one room. Q: Okay, all of that. Jack Johnson and George Burke bought the inn in February 1973. Wantagh, Seaford . A lot of the windows were broken out of it. George Washington Burke, 86, of Panama City, FL passed away peacefully on Tuesday, October 4, 2022. She came and did a lot for the draperies and everything here. I bet. Daller: Because you might remember, he was away for so many years. What were the things that you did when you were young? I went to grammar school and high school here. And I had a little house in Tottenville so I decided, well, Ill move into this big housein hereand Ill get rid of all the property that I have in Tottenville. Veterans; Directions; Sign in In Memory of George Simon 1944 - 2021 Obituary. He brought a crowd with him and it was just to tell him thank you for everything that hes done. And my neighbor across the street, who had lived there forever, she comes over again with a couple of little plants for me. First thing I started with was the basement because it had four-foot of water in it. Save my house. And I thought, Oh, shit. I was down on the beach one day, I forgot what were doing. Daller: He did the sofa upstairs as well. I have no idea what it would be like to live in some other place. George: Oh, I knew the Seguines for years. Things like that? So by the time he came back, all this had changed. Thats not good. The same thing thats going on with statues. The only thing that will save this house as a bulldozer! [laughs] But anyway, I saved it. Ill tell you the good stuff! [laughs] And that was it. And they would give me all kinds of beautiful little carved objects and things that would be carved out of the whales teeth or. Well, the paintings and the small stuff like thatthat like that mirror and those paintings and all that stuffthat was all the little stuff. So I paid it off and bought it in cash, with the cash. That was a bigits still there. But alls I know, they closed in New York and they moved out there. Well, by this time, I had a lot of money. So its a shame. And after he died the family still lived like we had my fathers money involved. What the woman who was caretaking her, what she had to do was constantly keep lilacs next to the bed. George Horace Burke. So I go downstairs. Daller: I mean, that big wrap-around porch that went all the way around the house. So thats where I got most of the stuff thats here in the house today. Burke: I used to, but I didnt I didnt keep it on everything. I went to boot camp, I loved it. I was maybe nineteen, twentysomething like that. Mon-Fri, 7am-6pm MDT . Burke: I was thinking about getting a big home, having a home, and what I would want in itthe paintings, what kind of furniture, carpets, everything. Burke: Oh, I loved her. And the kitchen was outside. Daller: Its life estate that he has. But again, I dont know that Staten Island appreciates anything, because we had a Borough President at one time that we asked him a question about something and his answer to my uncle was, Well, why would you want to put a new suit on an old man?. Because I wanted the man that built the house, and this is the man that saved the house. Of course, she loved the smell of lilacs. Daller: We really cant give you any details on that. I bought the house and Bess and Marge came over. The son and his wife took over Scalamandr. I grew up loving it and always having it, and my mother was great with it. Theres too much business going on here. So were talking about this and talking about this. If you are going to stay, you better do this this and this, whatever the hell it was. Tell us about when you were born? And he was studying art and he painted my portrait that shell show you, thats upstairs. And Diane said, Oh, Marian has it.. But how many people really have a sense of history anymore? Burke: Its right on the Boulevard and it goes down to the beach. Daller: But it feels like home. But unfortunately, it all fell in. I woke up with a sweat. Burke: I think that waswhod ya call-it got me involved with that. I found a beautiful place in Tottenville and I opened it and called it the Tidewater Inn. And we were sitting in the kitchen in the basement and he was going on the Ouija board and I said, What does it say, what does it say? And Eric is sitting there and hes talking, and hes sounding like a lady, and hes saying, Youre in my house, and I dont want you. Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow. On a goddamn pillared mattress sleeping? (nee Rutecki) Laudeman. Burke: But I forgot what the other two things where. The beloved husband of Rosanna (Ialuna) Burke, he was the devoted father of Matthew I. Burke, Jason L. Burke, and Georgina P. Burke, all of Hull. Ill give you a job. The mansion, oh god. So I gave it to them. Q: And you said that you restored the garden there too? I moved in, I cleaned it all up. Was her name Mackey? And from the garden, you could come back in under the porch and down into the kitchen in the basement. You can retire. And people were selling anything out of their house to support themselves and live. So they. And that painting of me, thats upstairs in my bedroomdid you ever see it? I mean, as a kid going down here crabbing, down on the beach, we used to look back at the house all the time. And then one of my brothers had just gotten out of the military. The columns werent square wooden ones, like these, they were beautiful fluted ones with all the Corinthian leaves on the tops of them and all that stuff. Im only a salesman in a department store. I said, and its going to take a lot of money to put that house back together. She said, Well, Im going to help you all I can. And I said, But why would I fix a house I didnt own? And she said, Well, why dont we talk about that. She said, If youre interested in buying it, I will make the arrangements that you can own it. Daller: Stating that it is part of it part of Historic House. Now you can look up Brooklyn obits and track down your bloodline in New York in a matter of seconds. Utica. And have something on a loop in here, which weve been trying to do, where itll be an audio and a video of him discussing the house, because nobody knows it any better than he does. And I invested in a couple of things. Everybody came in to a coldwater flat in the Bronx and walked in amazed because theyve never seen anything like that. He was 63. And so people saidthey took all the horses and they moved to New Jersey. And whats going on up the street here now? And you can put it together and fix it. So coming back to it was a change. Well work it out, one way or another. And so the two of us started and we madecalled it the Old Bermuda Inn because John loved Bermuda and he was putting a lot of money in it. Daller: So can you imagine a three room apartment filled to the brim with antiques? And you can ask[gesturing to Daller], Daller: Everybody got something. Also survived by many in-laws, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews. The developers came in with bulldozersbulldozed that mansion, bulldozed the stables. And I said, Well, the smell is still there. And I said to her, Whatever happened to the old girl? And she said, Well, years ago, when she died, she said, she was laid out in the front parlor in the coffin, and it was nothing but lilacs. But they did a lot for me. So this house tells a particular story, a long history, but it cant tell the history of the other houses because they were so different. And we had our barracks, of course, and having your barracks, the only thing you had was a big trunk where you kept all your clothes in. And I always used to say, Wonder who lives there! and so forth and so on. He said he believes that whoever was in that other house, really didnt want people there. Oh, thats right. I'll never tire of the house. Stole all that carved stuff, stole all that stuff, that whole box of stuff. I worked for Saks Fifth Avenue in several departments assisting in design decoration. Burke: So I dont know if that was a ghost. But it looked like an attic with the roof like that and everything. I open the door to the parlor. Funeral arrangement under the care of Mc Namara Sparrell Funeral Services . I mean, we had clocks, baby-Ben clocks, hanging in apartments. So they built it like an attic and it was called an attic but it was a whole complete story. Its all stay in here. And, of course, being in the military and traveling with them, the government shipped all my stuff that I bought and picked upshipped it all back to America for me. I can get that. Because you could get it through theand once I got involved, I did really, really well. And that makes more sense to people when they see something. Its a plus for the borough too. And thats where we are today. Daller: Well, yes. missing clemson student; rib cage name tattoos for females. But those things, I couldnt. Burke: Oh, God, I stood on the edge here and I watched what was going on over there. George Burke is one of these dedicated keepers: He minds the Seguine Mansion, which he bought in 1981. Architectural style and interior style? But she used to wear three, four dresses and she smelled like an old goat! And places on Staten Island are being destroyed every minute of the dayyou find another house is goingand its happening in all the boroughs! In New York City, there are 19 such sites which are overseen by live-in caretakers who serve as watchman, gardeners, guides and security guards, in exchange for free lodging. At GenealogyBank, we have made family research easy by digitizing more than 330 years' worth of Brooklyn obituaries in our national newspaper database. Q: So its confidential becauseoh, okay. But anyway, I had come back to America. And because of that, and especially the interior design thing, I went around, did little jobs, and did things, and because I learned so much by going to that to school there, that when I got back here, I got nice little jobs here and there. So while I used to work then with them, and then I decided, this is not for me. And it did all the dental workany kind of dental work and everything was manufactured there. He cant do this anymore. And Luis Caizares painted that. She said shell keep the doors locked and call Linda if anybody wants to get in and take anything out. You want to have someone living in it, you cant have an empty house. Those stables? IN THE CARE OF. So Walter was re-stationed to Fort Lauderdale in Florida. And she kept, George, please, go save my house. Its Meissen. Okay. When I bought the house, the real estate people, they wouldnt go in. I had all the plasters done. And here was the street. Burke: Right across the creek. Burke: Yes. your email below for our complimentary daily grief messages. These are those Persian carpets. The whole family kind ofand the ladies got too old, and they decided they were going to move and go live inI think Georgia or Virginia, I forgot. And then I went through floor and room after room, and took almost five years to put the house in good shape, the way you could see it. Burke: Oh, well, look what I did. Im sorry that, during all that construction, I wasnt taking photographs, of step by step. Everybody smelled like that. But things that, well, were thatyou needed carpenters that knew, that were good carpenters. I bet I left the cellar door open under the stairwell, from the basement, and I bet thats the soap Ive got in the washing machine that smells like that. Youd have to see the house to see what Im talking about. The roof was shot because the old guy that was caretaker here, he used to walk around on the roof and watch all the boats in the harbor. She said, George, when she died, she was laid out in the coffin, right in that room, in front of those two windows. haysi funeral home obituaries; florida man february 10, 2002; advent international layoffs; . We all got coupons. And I lived there for quite a few years. And he asked me would I be interested in working for him out here on Staten Island. Anyway, I said, Oh boy, did I have a scary dream. I told her my dream. [laughs] But, itll be here. Or next to the chair where she was sitting. She was great, I loved her. It was a mess of a mess. Troy. I mean, its just normal living in a normal house. White Party: Guests relax on the porch of George Burke's (sitting second from left) White Party at the Seguine Mansion in Prince's Bay. And that was a couple people from Tottenville, caused all that. I need to get someone in to do a good cleaning on the house, someone to take care of maintaining it. In lieu of flowers, donations to honor George may be made to Tunnels to Towers Foundation, 2361 Hylan Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10306. And there were two windows, like this. And the people that lived there, they got a little too old to stay there. Yes. Dont look at me. So I would go to the flea markets and things. And a lot of it got given away, got lost. Burke: The only thing is, the house will be closed. Happy Birthday to George Burke! I want it now. I could never get it. Daller: No, I dont. And then when they decided thatthey owned a beautiful house on one of the Keys in Florida. Well, Bess, and my brothers wife, Evelyn, never got along. Q: And, do you keep records on, on those kinds of things? He introduced me all the time tobecause look at look at what he was. I mean, its physically impossible. But I had all that money! And finally their husbands were getting pissed at them, because they were never home, they were always here. It feels like home, because thats what its been. Daller: No. Daller: It was like, we cant even find him anymore. And if you were wearing them and you went and got in your car and turned the heater on, you smelled like piss. You couldnt see the grounds through the trees and it was just covered and everything. The woodwork, the moldings, the parquet floors. It doesnt happen on the North Shore because were very condensed and its a dense population. And that was only one of them. It has to stay exactly as an old plantation house. Now theyre worth a couple hundred-dollars apiece. Daller: You werent here. Im joining the Air Force. So I went out and I joined the United States Air Force of course. Dont remember what happened to it, right? Mrs. Mackey. Of course, I went to school here. Eric. And Im looking at looking at it and I said, You know, thats the last house. It was similar, only bigger and more ornate. There were some gorgeous mansions. Daller: If they cant ride, why should they be here? That whole salon set there was a Victorian salon setand the couch is a camelback. So I had people come in and wanted to buy the Tidewater Inn. I mean, these little gold chairs, are Victorianthats a Victorian chaireverything is really Victorian. He was always at the stables there. George Burke. Take a walk. I said, No, no, Im gonna save this house. He said, Oh! Thats what I was. Burke: Chris will stay living here. So when he left the apartment and came to Staten Island, things started to move back into different sisters again until he was ready to relocate it again. Thats what I wanted. William C. "Bumper" Laudeman, Jr., 73, of Surfside Beach, South Carolina, formerly of Minersville, died peacefully at home on Friday, April 14, 2023. And, then I gotwhod I get from the city? Though he thought it had no chance, he called and learned that Parks had long been thinking about trying to obtain the mansion. He was 87. Q: Well, Im pretty much at the end of my questions. And I didnt realize it because I was always working. Burke: Yes. I want to go back and ask for some more details about your childhood. And then, on the side of the house in the back, there was a little piece built out. So theres no more Scalamandr, I dont think, is there? Q: And so, what sort of vision do you have for, you know, the next the next forty years, for how the grounds are maintained and how. Oh shit, Im going to have to rebuild the wall. So I started pulling the bricks out, and wrapped up where one of the bricks was, was an oil cloth rag all wrapped up. Restored the building, looked around, come down, bought this house from Mrs. Seguine, and then moved out of the bar and restaurantbecause I had a room upstairs in it. And I renovated the bar, I renovated the other side, my two sisters came to work for me, running the kitchen and the dining room. He enjoyed hockey, football, and the beach, but most important to him was family and friends. Either you buy me out, or I buy you out. Lots of photos, costs, everything. She had to move them to New Jersey. And my sister, Bess, she was married to Walter, her husband, who was in the Navy. So there wasnt a lot of time spent here. The story about the coat that you had from Alaska? And if they were there and I could see them, and I could ship them free because the government had to ship it for me, and I had my sisters, who would store them for meI had had a great opportunity to pick up all this stuff that was beautiful, get it for nothing, and the government ship it back for me, and my sisters would keep it until I got a place to put it. Then I decided, well, Im going to get myself a nice apartment. From last time I saw it, it looked like it needed a bulldozer! She said, No, no, no. She said, you can save it. And she said, George, you have so much with design and such, I want you to take over the wallpaper department and the fabric department. I did fantastic for the store. 2023 McNamara-Sparrell Funeral Home. I loved being there and everything. Because he lived right here, lived right here on Staten Island. Daller: He enjoys the whole house. They are Chinese Chippendale. Burke: Greek revival. Theyd come out and Id say, Look, I can get you this. Put a candle right in the middle of that floor and go take a walk. [laughs] He called it the one-candle house. And then finally I had a man come in and talking to me about how hes bought a place on Staten Island that hes opening up a place like Saks only not as nice. Thats whats in this whole house, all the things you see. Tell us about your time in England.I went there at 19 and returned 12 years later. Most of the furniture thats hereI never furnished the house until I owned it. Well, what are we talking about? When I bought it, I didnt know what was that ones house. And he owned the funeral home. Oh, God, it was gorgeous. And I never got along with her that much because everything I wanted to do, she said, No, no, no, I dont like that. The Seguine Mansion, also known as The Seguine-Burke Mansion, is located on Lemon Creek near the southern shore of Staten Island. You got to get out. So we moved to Florida. They didnt even have soap. I dont know what the hell Ill do if you do that. And I dont like this. And shed go to her father and her father and say, You know, George, shes my daughter, and this and thatand I said, Yes, well, John, let me tell you something. Q: So about this house, I wanted to ask about the Friends of the Seguine Mansion. But I dreamt it and I knew every single thing about it. Right. Sign up for NYPAP mailings and our Newsletter to stay up-to-date. And as I said, for a thing of whiskey or a bottle of wine, theyd give you anything, because none of them have had it for years and years. Knew every single thing about it do a good cleaning on the side of the Keys in.. It down hanging in apartments it, it looked like an attic it! It the one-candle house to New Jersey school and high school here real!, when I bought the house, when I bought the house on 28! Designer in New York and they come in and wanted to ask about the friends the. Because they were always here single thing about it kept, George, please go... 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