Great Gatsby mansion to be demolished

In its hey-day during the 1920s and 1930s, the 13-acre estate at Long Island Sound, New York, was the venue for glittering parties attended by the likes of Winston Churchill, the Marx brothers, Ethel Barrymore, Dorothy Parker, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and, of course, the late American author himself.

Today, however, the once-grand, 25-room colonial revival mansion, called Lands End, is a ruin.

Developers will soon demolish the mansion and divide the property into lots for five modern mansions, to be sold close to $10 million each.

The current owners of the mansion, father and son Bert and David Brodsky, had the property on the market at $US30m in late 2009 after paying $US17.5m for it in 2005.

The dilapidated home’s floor boards and fittings have been scavenged and the boarded up and broken windows, peeling paint and missing front door seem to be a testament to wilful neglect. The Brodskys have said it costs almost $5000 per day to maintain the property.

Forbes.com reported that, in 2001, the residence went on the market for a “startling $US50 million”. The asking price was later halved, but the estate was eventually auctioned.

At that time Forbes also notes that “the place is not in impeccable shape, but with time and money, it could be beautifully restored”.

By 2005, when the house was most recently sold, it was in a state of complete disrepair.

The mansion was built in 1902 and came to be owned by the editor of the New York World, Herbert Bayard Swope. It was Swope’s parties that Fitzgerald was said to have attended.

It is widely accepted that Fitzgerald was inspired by time spent at the estate to write The Great Gatsby.

Other home owners during the area’s grand old days had celebrated names, such as Woolworth, Hearst, Guggenheim, Tiffany Vanderbilt, Morgan and Astor. Many of their homes have been lost to developers, too.

The waterfront estate has its own private beach and looks out over Long Island Sound to the Connecticut and Westchester shoreline.

A sales brochure from the 1970s heart-breakingly notes that the property was “beautifully maintained” and had been “recently updated and refreshed in a most meticulous renovation”.

Those extensive 1970s renovations saw the addition of a 75-foot pool and pool house at the water’s edge.

A roof-top “sun terrace” sat above the pool house which was a 36-foot octagon and completely enclosed by glass. It contained a kitchen, two saunas as well as dressing rooms.

The main rooms of the grand home lead off a grand double-story centre entrance hall and included; a living room, library, study, drawing room, and morning room, all of grand proportions with elegant parquetry floors, as well as “exquisite moulding and marble fireplaces”.

The hand-painted wallpaper in the dining room was from China and depicted tropical birds and trees. There was a marble fireplace as well as a large bay window that looked out over the manicured lawns.

The master suite was apparently “done with great elegance” and overlooked the water. It included a wood-panelled study with a fireplace, as well as his and hers dressing rooms and marble and gold bathrooms.

There were a further seven bedrooms, “each with connecting marble and gold baths” on the second floor and an additional two bedrooms with baths on the third floor.

The grounds also held a tennis court, “tennis house” and “over an acre in vegetable gardens and an orchard”, “ample servants quarters”, a separate cottage and two apartments in the mansion’s detached seven-car garage.

The advertised price for all this in the 1970s was $US2.5m.

Recent photos of the house in ruins can be found at
http://www.jenrossphoto.com/#Portfolio/Spaces/East%20Egg/1

With Sacha Molitorisz and Ben McKelvey

Lands End

Built: 1902

Designed: Stanford White

Original name Keewaydin

Previous owners include;
Herbert Bayard Swope 1930s and 1940s
Charles Shipman Payson – early 1980s

1970s: Property advertised for $US2.5 million

Early 1980s: owned by Charles Shipman Payson and wife Virginia.

2001: The widowed Virginia Payson listed the property for $US50 million. The price later halved, estate eventually auctioned.

2005: David his father Bert Brodsky purchased Lands End for $US17.5 million.

2006: Property advertised for $US30 million. Unsold.

2009: Property advertised for $US30 million. Unsold.

2011: House demolition and land subdivision approved by local authorities. 5 lots will be offered at $US10 million each.