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C H R O N O F H O R S E . C O M FA L L 2 014 103 After completing his horizon-expanding trip in 1903, Maclay couldn't fathom returning to the confining marble halls of the family bank and was instead determined to spend his days in wide-open spaces, enjoying his horses and dogs. He soon purchased a 973-acre farm in posh, horsey Millbrook, N.Y. He named this summer home Killearn and set to work buying what he called "horses in the rough" for very little money. He then re-trained these hackney horses and showed them. ose were heady days in the pastoral New York countryside, and Maclay—and horses—were at the center of it all. "ere is no more stirring spectacle, aside from the economic principle involved, than a rousing contest between well-matched horses which are trained to the minute," he told the Times in November of 1916. "We had such a race in our point-to-point steeplechase at Millbrook last Saturday. Such men as Ambrose Clark, Bryce Wing, Harry Smith, and Skiddy von Stade took part. e course was over natural country that is as beautiful as anything in Leicestershire, and there was a thrill for the thou- sands who watched it every foot of the four and a half miles." When he wasn't occupied with a social or equestrian event, Maclay focused on creating an appropriate landscape for Kil- learn, collecting books on gardening and planting. e house, a circa-1832 center hall colonial in Dutchess County, has six bedrooms and six baths (Maclay commissioned significant additions and a magnificent walled and sunken gar- dens after his purchase) and was built by the well-known New England architect Tristram Coffin. e dignified white structure has nine fireplaces, a gauge by which value and wealth was once calculated. e interior architectural elements for which Coffin is celebrated include leaded fan lights and plaster rosettes. And of course, the now 68-acre compound includes stables and also a caretaker cottage and Italianate grotto. Modern reno- vations such as an elevator, pool and security system have been added to the 13,600-sq. ft. mansion, which is currently listed for sale at $11.5 million. Maclay was just getting started in the 1910s, though; his real estate purchases also involved adding to the family's hold- ings of more than 70 years in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. In December of 1916 he made headlines by buying a three-story house at 124 Washington Pl., adjacent to two other houses he owned at 126 and 128, once the home of his physician grandfa- ther, Dr. Robert H. Maclay. A small structure in the back once served as the doctor's stables. "Mr. Maclay is one of those citizens, unfortunately grow- ing less in number, whose family associations are closely linked with Greenwich Village and who, to his credit, has not forgotten that fact," the Times reported at the time. Becoming A Southern Gentleman In May of 1919, Maclay married Louise Fleis- chmann, a member of the Fleischmann clan of yeast and margarine fame and a graduate of the elite Pennsyl- vania Main Line Bryn Mawr College for women. e couple's small family wedding was held at the home of Louise's mother, Mrs. Maximilian (Sarah) Fleischmann, at 32 East 64th Street, and breakfast followed, the Times recorded. In 1923, the new couple made its first visit to the peaceful patrician winter enclave known as the Red Hills, which stretch from Tallahassee, Fla., north to omasville, Ga. Today an eponymous international horse trial and CIC are held there every March. Mrs. Maclay's brother, Udo Fleischmann, welcomed the cou- ple to his Welaunee Plantation, situated near the winter estates of other well-to-do sporting gentlemen like Harry Payne Whitney and John Hay Whitney. e area was considered to be a haven for quail hunting. e antebellum southern plantation-style homes were tended by many servants, some of whom drove the mule wagons for the quail hunters. In fact, when the Maclays decided to purchase their own 307-acre plantation there (which, of course, they named Kil- learn), sharecropper families still lived on the property and paid their rent in crops. Servants were abundant and attentive, and Mr. Maclay's notes reveal they were "well read with a sense of humor and involved with people." e landscape of the Maclays' Florida home transformed when plants bloomed during the winter. With an extensive hor- ticultural library in place, Mr. Maclay dug right in. e camel- lia served as one of his favorites, along with rhododendron, sago palms, wisteria, cherry trees, redbuds, oriental magnolias, dog- woods and azaleas. He even lectured the local garden club on the history and care of the azalea. A brick-paved drive shaded with a canopy of trees dripping in Spanish moss leads to the main house. ere are several garden "rooms" in the Maclays' walled garden, and the old stables still stand behind the house. Many family pieces and memorabilia of the history of "the Maclay" are on display in the mansion today. Some of Mr. Maclay's books even remain on the shelves. "He was an authority and collector of books on sports of which he assembled a remarkable library," Louise Maclay wrote Maclay was determined to spend his days in wide- open spaces, enjoying his horses and dogs.

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