Q: Yes. And all the time when all the lilacs would come in the spring, and the whole place would smell of lilacs, its gorgeous, still is. If they brought flowers, it had to be lilacs. So I said, Oh. So that was thatI got that little story. Q: Can you tell me about moving the collections here, out of storage and out of your sisters houses into this house? I bought the house and Bess and Marge came over. And that way, it wouldnt burn the houses down. So while I used to work then with them, and then I decided, this is not for me. I have no idea what it would be like to live in some other place. And where to get the good buys, and all that kind of thing. George Burke. So thats my uncles hope for it as well. They were all womens stuff. Burke: I went and I was stationed in England, and I loved being in England. And right outside the window right here, is a great big round, thing thats all brickgreat big round thing, big as this room, covered-overand thats where all the water from the drain pipe from the roof would go in there and fill it, and it was called a cistern, and that was connected to the kitchen downstairs. Come here, Marge. I said, What? They said, Sell this goddamn place. So a lot of the things that you acquired to furnish the house were in poor condition, and then you have them reupholstered and restored. So as long as I own it, I own it, theyll pay for it. I mean, as a kid going down here crabbing, down on the beach, we used to look back at the house all the time. And they said he had the box, and took it with them. I, being the youngest, of course, seeing everybody growing up. She came and did a lot for the draperies and everything here. Daller: No, I dont. In a house that you dont even own? I come down the stairs and I opened the door. Daller: Plus the fact, it cost a fortune to take away the manure. And I went in and I noticed my big box was gone. And that painting of me, thats upstairs in my bedroomdid you ever see it? And their mansion, the White people that owned SS White, the White family, owned right across the creek, there, where the Captains Quarters [private development] are. Put through the years, people recognized it and everything. Family and friends must say goodbye to their beloved George Burke of Hull, Massachusetts, who passed away at the age of 63, on October 2, 2021. And, of course, being in the military and traveling with them, the government shipped all my stuff that I bought and picked upshipped it all back to America for me. Q: Can you give me an example of one of the things that you worked on together in the house? Or is there a way for things to be changed? And we had our barracks, of course, and having your barracks, the only thing you had was a big trunk where you kept all your clothes in. Stole all that carved stuff, stole all that stuff, that whole box of stuff. And now the people that I sold it to, the Pistillis [James and Kathleen Pistilli], they had the whole thing researched and now its got landmark things on it and everything. Lets move out, youre being kicked out anyway, the house is sold. And is there a way where, according to how you would like the house to be maintainedwould everything stay in its place? Burke: Yes. I dont want you in this house. And it was the most amazing party. So I went around to all the nursesof course, I was in the medical departmentand I asked all the nurses, What are you doing with your stamps? Daller: See, now you learned about kitchens. And my fatherwe were quite wealthy, growing up. Burke: Well, a good example is the one right here at the end of the street. Ill help renovate it, fix it up and such. And thats what we did. If it wasnt for Mrs. Mackey across the street telling me about the funeral, I would have never known. Burke: What its been like for you to live here. Soon, nobody had room in their house to store anymore of my stuff. Devoted father of Matthew I. Burke, Jason L. Burke, and Georgina. But those things, I couldnt. And she was laying with her arms, like that. It was so overgrown. I dont know if it ever took off. Its going to hell. He said, What in the hell youre buying this old piece of shit for? He said, Is it insured? I said, Yes, I took big insurance on it. He said, Good. It was a sweet sixteen Ill never forget. Its empty. So I come home dead tired. Oh, God. So I still had to get up every day and go to work. And I dont like this. And shed go to her father and her father and say, You know, George, shes my daughter, and this and thatand I said, Yes, well, John, let me tell you something. Q: Okay. She lived up on Lighthouse Hill. Up until a year ago, he was still cutting the lawn! I know everything, what to do. Daller: He enjoys the whole house. Burke: So I did that [sold the Tidewater Inn]. But unfortunately, it all fell in. Burke: Yes. Daller: It was like, we cant even find him anymore. But alls I know, they closed in New York and they moved out there. Now theyre worth a couple hundred-dollars apiece. This was all field, all the way up, and she used to turn the horses loose on all the fields out there. So whenever the big surgeons traveled, I always traveled with themtraveled all over Europe. I said, No, no, no. Well, do you know what your preferences are? And, then I gotwhod I get from the city? So I said, whew! Burke: One was a necklace with a heart on it. And I did, I got in St. George wasnt it? And she couldntthey couldnt keep up with it anymore. Q: The Friends of the Seguine Mansionthe friends group. Otherwise, Id never be able to have half the stuff thats in here because it would have cost me a private fortune to have it shipped. Q: and Linda Daller for the New York Preservation Archive Project. And I was a medic. And in the summer, he sits outside, enjoys the outdoors, enjoys the lawn, the grounds. So we lived there, and it was a big courtyard and there were four buildings and the center courtyard was all grass. They tore down those two nice little cottages that were there. So I paid it off and bought it in cash, with the cash. After Burke returned to Staten Island, he purchased and restored two houses and an old restaurant and bar before he was contacted by Bess Seguine in 1981, who had inherited the then-deteriorated Seguine Mansion. Burke: Down in the basement, my friend Eriche was great, with this Ouija board and all this stuffand he said, George, lets do a seance! So we got a bunch of people together and we went all down in the basement. But that was the cistern for doing all the laundry and everything in the basement. I said to him, Are you kidding? If you want to come in a business with me, John, lets make into a beautiful restaurant. So he said, Okay, Ive never owned a restaurant, but Id be willing to try it, George. So I said, Well, John, youre gonna have to put a lot of money in it because you have all the money, as being who you are. Staten Island was very early on, and then Florida, and then off to Europe. And that was a couple people from Tottenville, caused all that. Burke: Oh, well, when I was inI guess I was in England. So I found this big beautiful, French, mansard roof, big Victorian house in Tottenville. Unfortunately. Thank you so much. And so people saidthey took all the horses and they moved to New Jersey. And one day. And the porch went all like this, around the house. And, you know, who has that!? No, it wasnt that. Anyway, I said, Oh boy, did I have a scary dream. I told her my dream. And also about the history of Staten Island, or the style that the house is decorated in, the Victorian style, your collection. Linda? Burke: Well, I knew how to do it. Well, the paintings and the small stuff like thatthat like that mirror and those paintings and all that stuffthat was all the little stuff. Is there anything, you think? Mrs. Mackey. Burke: She has it. George, now in his eighties, donated the house in exchange for a life tenancy, which has made living here a lot easier. Well, I was born on Staten Island. Burke: Its never finished! And my brother Bill and my brother Ed decided to go into an automobile repair shop. Were not going to stay and put up with these two people. Where were you stationed and what was it like? That woman, she lived in riding clothes! Im going to retire, Im going to go down to that big old house, restore it, fix it all up, move in it, and enjoy it. Im giving nothing away. And from the garden, you could come back in under the porch and down into the kitchen in the basement. I did go around and take pictures of what was left of some of them. Burke: Oh, what I want to do isover that fireplace, I want to take that painting downand bring my painting and put it over that fireplace. So I stayed there, worked for him for years. Mon-Fri, 7am-6pm MDT . Some kind of jewelry. Q: Yes, absolutely. So because it was done like the French did, I never had to pay tax, or only tax on a two-story house, instead of a three-story. And she wanted to start running things and taking things over. And with the money that I made from there, I put it right back in the building. Theyre very few. That works! Thankfully, no ones come here and said, Oh, you might have had slaves. I mean, Im sure if somebody came and decided to look back, theyd say, Oh, no, theres a reason for a house like that. People have ideals that are very strange. Would you? Its unreal! You can retire. And I looked back, you could hardly see the house. And they copied that from France, because thats what it was, it was the French mansard. I said, Oh shit, look at this. And I pulled that out and unwrapped it, and what the hell was in it? [laughs]. He was in the Air Force. Devoted father of Matthew I. Burke, Jason L. Burke, and Georgina P. Burke, all of Hull. And then I shipped it all back home. They cant do anything. That was Mrs., what was her name? And he owned the funeral home. And I saved quite a bit of money. It was gorgeous and very ornatewas very, very much like Greek Revival. But how many people really have a sense of history anymore? Do you remember that? Q: Yes. Lives in Rochester, New York. Burke: Okay. I traveled all over the world, traveled to Alaska, all over, with the military. He did the White House and everything. Is that what you want? You want to have someone living in it, you cant have an empty house. He also discusses the donation of the Seguine Mansion to the Historic House Trust, and his vision for the ongoing maintenance of the home and property. We just mentioned him. And he kept up with him, up until the time Mario passed away. Oh, that was the ghost in Tottenville. Burke: So then I gave it to the Historic House Trust of New York. Nobody wants to do that. And I loved it. She had to move them to New Jersey. Its a plus for the borough too. Daller: Yes, well, thats what we just said, yes. Theres one here, theres one there, and theres one in the other room. In fact, my mother worked there. I didnt know they were lilacs, but I could smell something pretty. February 15, 2023 (81 years old) View obituary. Burke: Yes, but just think of that gorgeous, bigthe mansion that this was their farmhouse, up the street here, that was gorgeous. And after he died the family still lived like we had my fathers money involved. Daller: The stables. So tell me about when you went to Europe. I loved Alaska. But when they were building houses, if you had a third story, your taxes went out of sight! Burke: And all the others like it, well, I can remember, on the other side of the pond over there, going alongthe mansions that were over there. And that was only one of them. But the picture in the locket was all crumbled up. Kathleen graduated from St. Peter's Girls High School in 1962. And thats where I had all this wonderful carved stuff from the Eskimos that they gave me. And they said, Well, we cant handle it, George. Do you drink? No, we dont drink. So I would collect all the stamps. Q: So what was it like when you had the house finished and furnished? You want to take down every statue thats been there for a thousand years because, No, that statue shouldnt be there. Lots of photos, costs, everything. And I had more bargains from Mrs. Murphy. Q: So this is going to part of an online archive. So I figured, hmm! So I went down in Rossville and I bought a beautiful, big old, rundown place and restored it completely. Q: And so, what sort of vision do you have for, you know, the next the next forty years, for how the grounds are maintained and how. And over the years, it became just prohibitive to try and do. And I dream that I heard some noise. I could make another funeral parlor out of that. And I said, No, lets not make a funeral parlor. And I went from room to room and it took me a couple of years, didnt it? And she said, George, you have so much with design and such, I want you to take over the wallpaper department and the fabric department. I did fantastic for the store. I had a bulldozer two weeks, riding back-and-forth, and back-and-forth, and back-and-forth across the front of the house because you couldnt see the house from the water. Thats what I wanted. So everything just kept going off and someone would have all of this, someone would have all of that. His family was like aristocratic. Daller: Well, they hope to. Burke: Yes. They couldnt handle it, the clientele that came in. Q: You mentioned that the South Shore has changed in the last few years. You couldnt see the grounds through the trees and it was just covered and everything. Email or phone: Password: . In this interview, Burke talks about working with designer Mario Buatta, along with the House of Scalamadr, to select furniture and fabrics to decorate the home in the Victorian style. I think there were hundreds of people that worked there. I went over there, and it was standing up sleeping! What the hell do you think it was? Yes, by the time I got to do all that I had no money left. Burke: Yes, and I had a beautiful apartment for years in St. George. Thats how I got to know Adriana Scalamandr and the Scalamandrs. She married her husband Thomas Burke on April 24, 1965, and had five children. And the fact that somebody could save a house like this, and want to show it to people, and let people hear about the history behind it? But this is too much for you, George. But I still have a lot of it. Daller: Well he formed that, thats the board. And all those Eskimos just loved me. Everybody came in to a coldwater flat in the Bronx and walked in amazed because theyve never seen anything like that. Burke: Yes. This old? Burke: Hawaii. Most recent obituaries in New York. As a young adult, he joined the U.S. Air Force and served in the medical department, spending time in locations across Europe and Alaska. And then I said, well, now Im going to buy a home. Yes, Mrs. Mackey. Daller: But when you got it, it really was in need of repair. I cant go and say, You know, fifty years ago that was mine, and I never gave it to you. So what I did, I decided, well, Id go inand we had where you could buy all your liquor and such in the post exchange. We are a big family. Still kept it. Lookit, I saved the police station and the two buildings next to the police station. Served in NYPD for 25 years, ran many mararthons George Arthur Croake, 78, of Manasquan, NJ (previously Flatbush, Brooklyn & New Dorp, Staten Island) passed away peacefully . By the time I got to the to where they were discharging them and such, he had just been discharged and left on an airplane. Q: And so all these items went upwalked up the stairs and were, carried back down the stairs. Would you just sell me two acres there? You just named them. In my early twenties? Burke: What were the things I did when what? Daller: But he has albums upstairs, photos. Get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers in memory of a loved one in New York. Everybody smelled like that. Half the railings were gone off the porch, and the column was falling over, and, oh, Jesus. I mean, I had a beautiful condo in Florida. Because the other way, my uncle was digging into whatever a little bit of savings he had, in order to pay. Its, all the numbers are accounted for. And then he got married and moved in with his wife. The story about the coat that you had from Alaska? And right there in front of the windows was a coffin with all the flowers around it and everything. Create an obituary. Burke: Well, when it came to really heavy construction, like this whole wall being rebuilt and things, I had to hire carpenters and I had to hire plasters to plaster the ceiling. And that was the Air Force. The Seguine nestled in the back of his mind, Burke joined the Air Force and moved to London when he was 19. Would you like to elaborate on that? But the old lady that lived there was very, very sick. Burke: Well, I wanted a beautiful Victorian look. The walkway going to the beach, its still there, where the house was. Its still there. 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The fact that the Seguine familythis was the farmhouse, their mansion was in Rossvilleand thats long gone. And Ill invest in a couple of other things that will give me a nice little income, and I wont have to worry about it. Why cant they just appreciate something for what it is? They were all six floor walkups and, thats where you lived! Im sure some will. Im gonna save this house. And it never had a kitchen. Interviewee: George Burke Location: Staten Island, NY Interviewer: Sarah Dziedzic Date: November 9, 2021 . But anyway, she said, Im not going in the house. I put the post on it up under the floor where the newer posts in the staircase was upstairs, and then, when I took the jack away, it sat on the post. Daller: No. So my sister Bess said, Well, come on, lets go to Florida. Most of them were like china and vases, such like that. I bet. I bought another restaurant, didnt I? So as long as you have people, youre going to have change, and people are going to say, That doesnt work! They moved in there, and they lived there. And I was so damn busy, I never got to go home. And I gave that, I thinkI dont know if I gave it to Bess. That is the only thing that worries methat the house will be stripped. She stated, George, I want you to save my house, and agreed to sell the house for a feasible sum in exchange for his promise to restore it. And I said, well, Im going to retire. I could. And Im looking at looking at it and I said, You know, thats the last house. He cant do this anymore. They really dont know what history is all about. Daller: No, that still has to be discussed. Its still there in Port Richmond. Right across the creek. Daller: I think weve touched on everything, really. And it was very much built like this house. And I had to laugh. Yes, but it was weird. Bar and restaurant adds family and flavor to Weymouth Landing scene, Why New England Wildlife Center is treating a bald eagle for poisoning, Healey's proposed tax aid plan benefits families, seniors, homeowners, Mass. And there was nobody but my mother and I now, living in our house. Daller: As a matter of fact, we had an event years ago. That was her name. That was a shame. Take a walk. I said, No, no, Im gonna save this house. He said, Oh! And places on Staten Island are being destroyed every minute of the dayyou find another house is goingand its happening in all the boroughs! Because Mrs. Seguine was holding the. You know, everybody grew up together. Burke - 1 - 2 and grew up 90% of my time on Staten Island until I became old enough and I joined the military. But anyway, she said, No, Im not going in. Just landmarked. The ceilings had fallen down because a lot of the drain pipes had leaked. Burke: So I dont know if that was a ghost. And it became quite the place to be. Daller: Well, yes. And he come from a very, very wealthy family in Madrid. He was the top interior designer in New York. Q: Yes. And while I was up there, I was sent up to work with Father Tom. It was under your bunk. But you used tell me. Burke: Yes, there was a little man in New Jersey. Theyll take care of it and be able to show tours. Because, now, they cant tear it down. Id bring her bottles of whiskey and shed say, Listen, George, Im going to an estate for saleeverything in it is going! Burke: Yes. In fact, her husband was a big-wig. But he did a lot of the work for you. George Memon's passing on Tuesday, October 4, 2022 has been publicly announced by Martin Hughes Funeral Home in Staten Island, NY. By Carol Ann Benanti | benanti@siadvance.com STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- It's designated one of Staten Island's signature society events of the year, a. A couple of years ago, I painted them this color, didnt I? Q: Today is November 9, 2021. The income from the Seguine Equestrian Center, which stables some twenty horses a stone's throw from the mansion, helps. And he was studying art and he painted my portrait that shell show you, thats upstairs. And if I couldnt take care of them, Id call down to the base and theyd send a helicopter and theyd pick them up and take them down to the hospital, because we had to take care of them, because Alaska was ours, and all the Eskimos was our responsibility. Daller: Mm-hmm! And she used to drink all the whiskey like crazy. So, Id do that. Youre working too hard. I bought those in Germany. And Ed was very good at taking dents and things out of cars and he could spray paint. But, Q: Let me ask you some more about the items that you collected when you were. Q: And how did you decide, I guess, how to rebuild? It was a mess. And when they werent in the house, they would go and buy them at the stores, and there was always lilacs in the house. 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