Flower, the home was designed by the NYC firm of Lamb & Rich with the grounds landscaped by Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr., the man who also designed J.C.Thompson Park, also in Watertown, NY. The original coach house is the current First Methodist Church on Mullin Street, donated by Emma's son after her death. Sadly, the beautiful home that was intended to provide so much joy saw a great deal of grie
f, such as the death of the older son, a scandalous murder, perhaps involving the family as well as the staff (which occurred, actually, in the coach house), and the ultimate breakup of the Taylor marriage in 1912, at which time, Emma found she could no longer live in the house. During WWII, the manse was used as a convalescent home for Canadian soldiers. Today, the outside still looks predominately the same, but the inside was divided up into five apartments. ADDENDUM: After Emma left the house, she moved temporarily to NYC, during which time she had a new residence built on Massey Street, about a block away from the manse. Emma had a beautiful garden out back where she also had built a large fountain...residents of Watertown used to go visit it...so much so, that Emma had to put a notice in the paper, setting hours when visitors could come. Apparantly, she found it disconcerting sitting in her dining room eating lunch while visitors tramped past her window on the way to her garden at all hours of the day!!! This new house was demolished after Emma's death, and a fire station now stands where the house used to be, and the ornate fountain was filled in with dirt.....the outside walls of which can be seen sticking out of the ground in the backyard. Coincidentally, Emma was, herself, a volunteer fireperson during her lifetime. Emma passed away in 1934 while visiting friends in Florida, at the age of 64. You can read her obituary here: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSmid=46517982&GRid=66115941&.
