Alder Manor: Somewhere Between "Grey Gardens" and "Great Expectations"

Alder Manor

{swoon}

William Boyce Thompson was tycoon and financier...he built this house as a weekend getaway....He and his wife lived in it from the early 1900's until his wires death in the 1950's...it was used as a Catholic school for awhile and left abandoned until it was made an official Historic Building and now used as a site for weddings , movies and photoshoots as well

My friend Val is getting married here at the end of the months nd wanted me to come with her to see the space because I'm helping with a bit of the decor the day of the wedding...I saw photos...i did research...but NOTHING would prepare me from what i would see....

On first sight....

The beautiful lush grounds...toppled roman columns and ivy covered walls...the sound of birds and insects ,the smell of grass and flowers in the air.....carved stone statues and vessels....abandonded pools and fountains filled with rainwater and beautiful tile.....

 we weren't even inside yet and i was already ready to die....

i mean...it was simply BREATHTAKING.......

Somewhere between Grey Gardens and Great Expectations lays Alder Manor....decaying grandeur ...peeling wallpaper...intricate ceilings and hand painted details on doors...walls...floors and ceilings....tatty velvet wraps and the smell of wood polish and layers of dust cling to the air like a heady perfume..... evocative of a church...a museum...a mansion.....Alder manor feel like home...my home...somewhwere I've lived in my head for my whole life.....

Me...being a creep...as usual....

{GAH!!!!! }

One cannot help feel the palpable decadence....the longing and desire....the creaking wood and cracked floorboards announce ghosts and specters that supposed haunt the building...and regardless of spitiual leanings the place indexed is haunted...by history...by beauty...by a elegance that is fraying like a silken hem of a dress ravaged by time....

with each grad chandelier...with each cold marble step leading upwards.....with each hand painted stroke on every door and every collapsed velvet couch i became more and more enamored and started to lose myself in the fantasy of the place...imagining tea parties with lost relatives....having a dramatic Sunset Boulevard moment coming down that grad staircase.... envisioning a ballroom filled with costumed guests drinking and dancing in a decadent dervish......

with every turn a gasp... touch to make sure i wasn't dreaming....my trembling hands reaching out for some reality......

I wasn't ready to leave...I never would be.....but i had to for now...but id return again for the wedding to see it done up in even MORE grandeur and celebration...So until then i leave you with these images and with the hope that you too will get to experience Alder Manor some day yourself....

XOXO