Written By Bill Orzell
Photos Courtesy of the George S. Bolster Collection
[From the 2026 Home & Garden Magazine]
The Chauncy Olcott House in Saratoga Springs, called Inniscarra, inspired a twentieth century architect who later designed some of the most famous structures in the world. His name was Aymar Embury and he visited the Spa prior to US involvement in the First World War, and would write of Inniscarra, “it is perhaps the most famous small house in America. Exceedingly simple in mass and in detail, the proportions are so admirable. . .”
Mr. Embury’s engineering degree was earned at Princeton in 1900, and followed there with a master’s in 1901. He embarked on a career where the ambitious architect moved up with a number of New York firms, moonlighting as an architectural tutor at his Alma Mater, hanging his own shingle in 1907.
His specialty initially was country homes, which he made a study of, writing five books on this subject prior to 1917. His architectural prowess would lead him on a path beyond residences to churches, country clubs, libraries, banks, hospitals, hotels/apartment buildings, theaters, school/university buildings, parks and swimming pools. He also designed or collaborated on bridges and tunnels still in daily use in metropolitan New York.
The work that brought Mr. Embury to Saratoga Springs was the construction of a country house on North Broadway, on the former Hilton estate, immediately north of the city line in the Town of Greenfield. The new owner, a very successful business and sportsman, who resided across the street from Carnegie Hall in Manhattan, desired a Saratoga track season residence. The man making this investment was the socially prominent Edward Clarence Jones, who was known as the most indefatigable host in Palm Beach and the president of the Everglades Club.
Broadview Lodge Architect Aymar Embury II whose first name was matronymic, or derived from a female ancestor, left an unbelievable oeuvre of design. From American Architect and Architecture, February 1938.
Architect Embury reputably possessed an innate design eye, and along with his extraordinary artistic ability, would walk a property with a client while sketching his concept of what would be built. He met Mr. Jones on the North Broadway property in June of 1917 and presented the English/Norman style country house the client desired, with a broad view of the mountains to the east.
The structure envisioned would be 2.5 stories, half-timbered accents with a multi-gabled slate roof, surrounded by other cottages and outbuildings, and linked together through a series of gardens. The main house would be constructed in a modern manner of the time using hollow vitrified tile masonry, which accepted plaster on the inside and stucco on the outside as the wall surface texture of English precedents distinctly differed from that of most modern American work. The thicker walls would allow for many radius windows and portals.
Such walls are desirable in a seasonal home, which might be shuttered for periods during the frigid season, as vertical air space formed in the walls stopped moisture from passing through the construction while being both vermin and fireproof, despite being expensive to build. The architect would caution the owner that the durability of this type of structure is dependent upon the skill of the makers and the use throughout of good materials, with the chances of failure possibly occurring during construction.
Business maven and sportsman E. Clarence Jones. From Empire State Notables by Hartwell Stafford 1914.
Pioneering Landscape Architect Ruth Dean, who designed the gardens at Broadview Lodge. From House & Garden July 1923.
“It is best to play safe and sink the steps partially, if not wholly, inside the wall.”
The gallery at the top of the stairs has been enclosed yet originally functioned as a loggia, with one or more open sides, forming a part of the house that was open to the garden.
“Criticism of loose ends is to be made of a great many arbors and pergolas. An arbor should begin at some expected and natural place and end in the same way.”
“Garden houses, like walls, should conform to the style of architecture of the main house, for the garden and whatever pertains to it ought to be part of an homogeneous whole one should be able to pass easily from house to garden and from garden to house, feeling that each belongs to the other.”
“The use of a combination of materials, except in the case of stone which very often contains enough variety in itself to give an interesting surface, usually results in a better looking wall than one built of a single material.”
Ruth Dean’s parterre designs showed a modernist sensibility and featured simple yet functional spatial divisions, well-chosen garden details, and a harmonious relationship with architectural elements.
The planning of the Jones Estate occurred when the country declared war on the Central Powers of Europe. Aymar Embury was dispatched to France before work in Saratoga was completed, and served as a captain with the 40th Engineers of the United States Army during the conflict. Architect Embury, with his developed appreciation of aesthetics, was called upon to design the Distinguished Service Cross, which was established in 1918 to honor heroism of the highest degree, still our Nation's second highest military award.
E. Clarence Jones practiced his own brand of philanthropy; he assisted the families of soldiers of America’s Expeditionary Forces. He had developed an affinity for Greenfield residents, and as a gift hired Aymar Embury to design their Town Hall Building, which he built as a gift during the period immediately preceding the esteemed architect’s departure for the hostilities in Europe. This building still serves Greenfield.
All did not go smoothly with completing the Broadview Lodge Estate. Mr. Jones was dissatisfied and stopped making payments to the prime contractor. Noted builder William J. Case had passed away years earlier in 1915, and the firm managed by his heirs issued a lien against Broadview. E. Clarence Jones responded with a counterclaim charging that work was not according to specification and plans, and was “unskillful and unworkmanlike.” The legal issues were not settled until 1920.
Another Aymar Embury English/Norman country house designed contemporaneously, Loblolly Cottage in Southern Pines, North Carolina, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and shared many design features with Broadview.
The Broadview Estate was expanded in 1919 with the addition of Pine Tree Cottage to the north, and a new structure called Overlook Cottage to the south, built 90 degrees from North Broadway with a commanding view of the Jones Estate. However, E. Clarence Jones contracted with legendary Saratoga builder William S. Robertson for these structures while legal action against W.J. Case & Sons continued.
Russell Whitehead wrote in The Architectural Record October 1922 of Ruth Dean “She has avoided the usual controversy between the landscape architect and architect as to where the work of one begins and the other stops.” Ruth Dean and Aymar Embury were married in 1923, and had a daughter they named Judy. Sadly, Ruth Dean passed away in 1932 at the young age of 43, as her name in her chosen profession was just being recognized.
Aymar Embury would continue on as one of the nation’s leading architects, and his rebuilding of both the Jamaica and Aqueduct Racetracks in NYC, following the introduction of pari-mutuel racing by the Empire State in 1939, may have been another occasion where he called upon earlier visits to Saratoga Springs.
When E. Clarence Jones died unexpectedly in 1926 following an operation, Broadview Lodge transferred to his wife Marjorie, whom he had married in 1921. The estate changed hands several times before becoming part of Skidmore College, which operates the main building for overnight accommodations on their campus, known as the Surrey-Williamson Inn.
National figures Ruth Dean and Aymar Embury have added to the sum of the many talented designers and architects through the years, by which Saratoga Springs has been graced.
