Hazelhurst Mansion
Hazelhurst Mansion (The Athenaeum)
Theodore Specht
A German-American merchant, Specht had come to the U.S. from Germany at the age of 8, via a 30-day sea voyage under sail. He went to public schools in New York City. He was an enterprising lad, and when the Civil War began, he passed through the Union lines to sell equipment and “military regalia” to Confederate armies.
Theodore came to Skaneateles in 1888 when his New York firm, Arnstaedt & Co., bought the Glenside Woolen Mills. Arnstaedt & Co. imported specialty cloths, e.g., fancy goods, trimmings, hat materials, plush, casket cloth, velveteens and cloakings from Germany, and the addition of a stateside woolen mill was a logical acquisition.
In 1901, the Specht family gave up their New York residence and moved to Skaneateles. Theodore purchased more land to add to the original Loney property; his estate totaled more than 20 acres and ran all the way down to the lake. The family included Theodore’s wife, Clara, and two children, Clara Louise and Harry Mortimer
A Summer Get-Away
William Loney
William Loney was a dry-goods merchant in Baltimore. By his first wife, Ruth Ann, he had three children: William, Mary and Ruth. His wife died when the children were very young, and William raised them with help from other family members. In 1863, he visited Skaneateles and met Alice Louise Allen.
William and Louisa were married in 1864, and William bought a small farm on Genesee Street and had a summer home built for his growing family.
Between 1866 and 1878, William and Alice had four children, Alice, Allen, Henry, and Frederick Roosevelt Loney.
William’s eldest daughter, Mary, married Frederick Roosevelt. In 1879, they bought land near William’s house and had a summer home designed by New York architect William Rutherford Mead.
Their house, named “Roseleigh,” was finished in 1881, with interiors by Stanford White, who had just joined Mead’s firm.
Fred and Mary Loney Roosevelt’s home was later enlarged to become Stella Maris, which closed in 2014 and was demolished in 2018. n 1890, with their children grown, William and Alice moved to a smaller house they had built on the corner of Leitch and Genesee streets, which they called “Minton.” William Loney sold his original home to the Jeremiah Curtis family trust for $10,000. The Curtis family was very wealthy, having made their money from a single patent medicine.