Phipps Family History: Autumnal Nuptials

Spring isn’t the only time couples are wed. In the Phipps family, several weddings took place in October and November: John (Jay) S. Phipps, who built Westbury House and its gardens, married Margarita (Dita) Grace on November 4, 1903. Jay’s younger sister, Helen, married Bradley Martin, Jr. on November 2, 1904, in Scotland.

Due to its joining of two prominent families of American society, dozens of newspapers in the United Kingdom reported on the event. Almost three decades later, Jay's youngest brother, Howard, owner of the nearby Erchless estate, married Helen Dyer Price on October 22, 1931.  

And on Thursday, October 2, 1930, Peggie, the only daughter of Jay and Dita, married J. Gordon Douglas, Jr. at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation, in Garden City. 

The following day the New York Times (right) reported about the ceremony of the couple who announced their engagement just a few weeks earlier in August. The ceremony and reception at Westbury House were more “intimate” due to the death of Peggie’s grandfather, Henry, the patriarch of the Phipps family, on September 22nd. Like most society weddings, the Times account listed the names of the wedding party, described the bride’s and bridesmaids’ dresses and floral pieces, and reported on the planned honeymoon. Other newspapers that reported on the wedding included the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Newport Mercury (Rhode Island)—hometown newspaper of the groom, and The Pittsburgh Press, The Palm Beach Post, and the (London) Daily News.  

Included in Peggie’s memoirs, Halcyon Days, is a photograph of the bride posed on the main staircase of Westbury House. Old Westbury Gardens is fortunate that the Phipps family archives contained in its collections is a motion picture film of several scenes of this special day including the wedding day breakfast of Peggie and her friends, and “behind the scenes” of Peggie posing for her photograph on the staircase of Westbury House, as well as a photograph of her surrounded by her bridesmaids. (See video below.)  

~Paul Hunchak, Director of Public Programs and Visitor Services