A Plandome Manor house which was built about 1700 has recently been bought and there is concern that the purchaser may wish to demolish it and subdivide the two-and-a-half acres on which it stands, along with several outbuildings. The property is known as the Nicoll manor house and is situated at 1257 Plandome Road where it makes the left turn along the edge of Leeds Pond.

Declan Meagher, mayor of Plandome Manor, says that he has not heard directly that the new owner plans to demolish the buildings and that he will have to get a permit from the village to do so, so the house at present has "some protection." Historians such as George Williams and Joan Kent of Port Washington have urged Mayor Meagher to have his village enact a Historic Preservation Law but Mayor Meagher says that even if Plandome Manor did begin such a process it would take a long time to come to fruition and might not be accomplished in time to save the Nicoll's house.

According to research done by Dr. Williams, Matthias Nicoll received 200 acres of land on Cow Neck in 1674. He was Secretary of the Colony of New York, Queens County Judge and later Mayor of New York. He and his son acquired more than 1200 acres, called Little Cow Neck (Plandome/Manhasset).

Matthias Nicoll built his manor house (the property in question) and was buried there after his death in 1687. His daughter Margaret is an ancestress of General William Floyd, a Long Island signer of the Declaration of Independence.

In 1718 William Nicoll sold Plandome Manor, the Plandome Mill and his Cow Neck acreage to Joseph Latham, a Quaker who donated the land on which the Friends Meeting House in Manhasset now stands. Joseph and his son, William, operated the Plandome Mill. William's son, Dr. Samuel Latham, ministered to local residents during the American Revolution. William's daughter, Mary, married Robert Mitchill of Manhasset and their sons, Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill and Singleton Mitchill inherited the manor. Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill was a nationally known scientist and subsequently a United States Representative and then a United States Senator. He used the manor as his summer home. His brother lived there and operated the family plantation.

At the beginning of this century the Nicoll manor house and about 12 acres became the home of the Martin W. Littleton family. Littleton was a noted attorney who successfully defended Harry K. Thaw for the murder of Stanford White. His son was district attorney for Nassau County. According to Ruth C. Dunn, who wrote about Plandome Manor in Manhasset, the First 300 Years, Mrs. Littleton became very interested in religion and after several visits to the Holy Land had a library built on the property about 1930, a memorial to her son killed during World War I. The architecture was similar to that of old Palestine and was surrounded by a high concrete wall on which were painted scenes of Jerusalem.

After World War II, the Littleton property was divided and sold off in several plots. The renowned American watercolor artist Barse Miller remodeled the library in 1949 and made it his home. The manor house and outbuildings have had several owners, all of whom used the house as their private residences.

This year the property went into foreclosure, according to a local realtor, and was sold in the past few months for $1,250,000 to a man named Mr. Ioannou. Mrs. May Kappelli, who sold the property, declined to give any further information about Mr. Ioannou or about his plans for the property, other than to acknowledge that it is back on the market for $3,200,000.

Dr. Williams and Mrs. Kent are trying to get the manor house and surrounding outbuildings named to the State and National Registry of Historic Houses. They encourage others who agree that this should be done because of the historic importance of the property to North Hempstead. Anyone who wishes to support the application should write to: Mr. James Warren, Historic Preservation Program Analyst, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Historic Preservation Field Service Bureau, Peebles Island, PO Box 189, Waterford, NY 12188-0189.