Fife Symington, former governor of Arizona and grandchild of Childs and Frances Frick who lived at the Gold Coast property in Roslyn Harbor that is now Nassau County Museum of Art, toured a group of family and colleagues through his grandparent’s mansion and estate, recalling for them many of his childhood memories of holidays and other visits at his grandparents’ home.
As he toured the building, Symington was particularly interested to see the mansion’s intricate moldings, ceiling décor and distinctive paneling peeking out above and aside the walls that had transformed the Frick’s dining and living areas and bedrooms into museum gallery spaces.
Jean Henning, the museum’s senior educator and archivist, showed Symington many details of the mansion’s conversion to gallery spaces and how some of the Frick children and grandchildren’s favorite hiding places had become museum storage areas.
The Frick family lived at Clayton until Childs Frick’s death in 1965. Nassau County bought the property in 1969 for use as a museum operated by the county’s Office of Cultural Development.
In 1989, Nassau County Museum of Art became a private not-for-profit institution under the governance of a board of trustees responsible for its operation and finance.
Nassau County Museum of Art is located at One Museum Drive, Roslyn Harbor. For information, visit nassaumuseum.org or call (516) 484-9337.
