Post discovered the stones on Long Island and had them laid in a pattern she had seen at the Alhambra palace in Grenada, Spain. “Urban organizes the spaces around the curved patio so that each gets its own special view and orientation reminiscent of the theatrical layout of the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill in Rome,” Stuart writes.
European design inspiration continued inside the main house. The living room’s gold leaf ceiling, 42 feet high in some places, was a copy of the “Thousand-Wing Ceiling” at the Accademia in Venice, with sunbursts instead of angels. Needlework panels from a Venetian palace adorned the walls, and antique Spanish lanterns were suspended from seven archways.
