A few days ago, as I was playing around with Google Earth, I discovered an interesting artifact amid the golf courses of the Hempstead Plain. Just off the LIE, and just north of Deepdale and North Hills, surrounded by a housing development that was built during the mid-90s, I found this:
Zooming in, notice the oval pool within the cul-de-sac:
This is all that remains of canonical garden designer Russell Page's first US project, Kiluna Farms. Kiluna Farms was the name of the North Hills/Manhasset estate of the late William and Babe Paley, founder of CBS and socialite extraordinare, respectively.
When Mr. Paley died in 1990, the estate was sold to developers, who as a concession to town officials agreed to preserve part of Page's original design:
The above slide from the Smithsonian is a view of a small part of the original garden and the only portion of the garden that was salvaged when the estate was sold.
So then I got to thinking ...
Say in fifty years, because of some lapse in succession planning, one of the historic courses discussed on this site -- The Old Course, Pine Valley, Hoylake, NGLA, Royal County Down, Merion, Royal Melbourne, Cypress Point -- succumbed to development.
To gain approval for their plan, site developers agree to build a new course at another site chosen by the membership, preserve a single hole of the existing course -- to be chosen by golf historians, members, and gca's -- or shall provide replacement costs to members for the course.
Which option would you choose and why?