A graduate of the Pratt Institute, LaMont became a designer and head draftsman the famous designer, Gustav Stickley, at the Craftsman Workshop. Stickley’s company designed and built craftsman-style houses as well as the furnishings for those homes. Many of LaMont’s designs can be seen in The Craftsman, a Stickley publication.
LaMont left the Stickley company to become an assistant professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College where he taught design, interior decoration, and color theory. During the Depression, he decided to return to his place of birth in Stamford, New York. There he taught school and began to paint in earnest. The bulk of his paintings are countryside landscapes.
Mary Warner lived in a gothic-style mansion that had been known as Mountain Terrace, Lowen’s Castle, and Skene Manor. Dr. Theodore Sachs, her husband, was a tall man who had tired of bumping his head. This home filled the bill, and the couple purchased it in 1917.
Dr. Sachs was a clock expert, jeweler, and optometrist. The local Presbyterian church gave Dr. Sachs a clock that had been in the church tower. He installed it in his home. The clock had two 100-lb. weights that extended from the clock in the tower to the basement. He added a railroad bell to act as the chimes. Mary’s two oldest daughters were assigned the task of winding the clock once a week.
During World War II, the lead in the clock was removed for the war effort. The clock since that time ceased to operate. The house is open for tours and has a gift shop and tea room.
