Architectural Description

The main house at 295 Breezy Way was constructed in 1893 as a Center Hall Colonial–style mansion, purpose-built for members of the Lawrence family. The house encompassed approximately 10,000 square feet and was sited prominently on landscaped grounds designed to emphasize privacy, symmetry, and views toward the surrounding waterways.

Architectural features associated with the house included:

a formal center-hall plan,

high ceilings and large-scale reception rooms,

multiple fireplaces (reported as at least five),

formal dining and living rooms,

later additions including an elevator, sauna, wet bar, and extensive walk-in closets.

The house reflected the mature phase of Gilded Age suburban estate design on Long Island’s South Shore, blending colonial revival aesthetics with modern conveniences added over time.

History

The house was built expressly for the Lawrence family and remained in family hands for over a century. It functioned as a generational residence, passing through successive descendants as other Lawrence estates in the village were subdivided or sold.

By the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, the house was no longer occupied as the principal residence of the family, though it remained under Lawrence ownership.

The property also contains a smaller secondary house at 285 Breezy Way. There the last Lawrence family member associated with the estate, Alice Lawrence, resided. She was a direct descendant of the Lawrence family that developed Back Lawrence and gave the Village of Lawrence its name upon incorporation in 1897. She appears to have been the final Lawrence family custodian of the Breezy Way estate.