By James Lomuscio
For 17 years, the Baron’s house has been empty, filled with only memories and myths, not to mention books stored for the Westport Library’s book sales.
Golden Shadows has been vacant for 17 years. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Located at 68 Compo Road South on the town-owned 23-acre Baron’s South property, the two-story, 1959 brick Colonial Revival mansion was the home of the late Austrian Baron Walter Langer Von Langendorff and his British wife Evelyn Diane, founders in the mid-1940s of Evyan Perfumes.
Evyan was the first American perfume company to rival French perfumeries with its White Shoulders, now produced by Elizabeth Arden, and Golden Shadows scents.
Now, two Westport preservationists want the town to designate the home dubbed Golden Shadows a Local Historic Landmark Property.
Town Clerk Patricia Strauss notified Eileen Lavigne Flug, moderator of the Representative Town Meeting (RTM), that lead petitioner Morley Boyd working with Wendy Crowther had garnered 52 signatures, more than the 20 required, to have the request put on a future RTM agenda.
“Though originally built as a private residence for the late Baron and Baroness Langer Von Langendorff, Golden Shadows could be repurposed for much needed office space, event space or some other municipal use,” Crowther wrote in a letter to Flug.
“The proposed landmark designation would not only help to conserve the building’s important historic features but would also permit the town to access valuable grant funding assistance for a needs assessment and plan of conservation.”
According to Boyd, the Historic District Commission in April unanimously voted to have the structure receive historic landmark status.
“Structurally the building is sound, but there is no active plan to use the property,” said Boyd.
“It was intended for humans to live in, and when humans don’t live in it, it becomes subject to effects of weather. That was the overarching concern by the people who signed it (the petition), although there no active plans to demolish it..
“And the taxpayers have been heating it for the past two decades, and it’s secure, but it just can’t violate the laws of gravity forever,” he added. “At some point, the building will require maintenance, whether it’s paint or other matters.”
More than just a house, the building with cast bronze doors “is really an interesting social story of two people.”
“The building is really an homage of the love that the baron had for his wife,” said Boyd.
The baron was the chemist who came up with the perfume formula, naming the company after a melding of his wife’s two names, the same name that her godfather George Bernard Shaw had coined, according to Crowther.
The baroness had a sharp business mind, Crowther said, a mind that served the company well, especially as French perfume was hard to come by during World War II.
The baron’s love for his wife soon became as storied as the perfume, and after she died, he had a mausoleum erected in Willowbrook Cemetery, visible from Main Street today.
“The mausoleum is a replica of her bedroom,” Boyd said.
For years it has also been rumored to have a hand crank phonograph on which the baron when he visited would play songs they liked.
“And I don’t know if its urban legend or true, but the rumor was that there was some kind of spritzer there to blow White Shoulders into the air,” said Crowther.
One thing I do know for sure, I would hate to see this torn down, like so many homes that were part of Westport’s history, all for the sake of McMansions. This would be such a wonderful historical museum and park for visitors vs any town USA …. shops and more shops.