The Hill (Donnell house)

The Hill stands on Eatons Neck in the Town of Huntington, on the North Shore of Suffolk County. Harry Ellingwood Donnell (1867 to 1959), a New York City architect who had studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, designed it for his wife, Ruth Robinson Donnell. According to Wikipedia, which cites a January 1903 report in The Long Islander, the land, about 200 acres, was a gift from her father, George H. Robinson, and the Randall and Miller Company of Freeport built the house between June 1902 and January 1903.

The house is a large Tudor Revival design. The National Register documentation for the Huntington Multiple Resource Area pairs it with the Delamater-Robinson House as distinguished examples of the large homes built along the North Shore in the early 20th century. It notes that both were built in 1902 by Donnell, describes their half-timbering, many gables and dormers, varied windows, tall chimneys and numerous porches, and states that both kept a high degree of architectural integrity and their spacious, landscaped lots. The National Park Service lists Donnell and Randall and Miller as its architects and builders. Wikipedia gives the house 33 rooms, with lawns that ran east to Duck Island Harbor and south to Northport Bay.

In 1927 the estate was divided into lots of three and four acres, and the Eaton Harbors Corporation was formed to own and maintain the private roads and bathing beaches; Donnell served as its president until 1950. About 80 acres northwest of the house became a golf course. The house stayed in the family until 1964, when Nicholas Donnell Ward sold it with four acres to the Lang family. Later owners, as listed by Wikipedia, were the Treuting and McBrien families from 1977, Robert Gerlach from 1987 and the Carr family from 1997. The Carrs obtained the original plans and restored the house. A 2003 photograph by Edward Carr, then the owner, describes it as the Carr Bed and Breakfast.

The Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 26, 1985, as part of the Huntington Town Multiple Resource Area. Its current use was not confirmed. It is a private house and is not open to the public.