Devonshire, Estate of the Day
Today's home definitely earns the title, estate of the day. Devonshire in Bedford Corners, New York is a grand estate on over 101 acres of land. The Georgian style manor was built for New York banker J.Borden Harriman in 1901and was designed by L. Henry Morgan, John Galen Howard, and D. Everett Waid. Artnet shows that Architect and horticulturalist Guy Lowell-who built the Boston Museum of Fine Arts-designed the estate's formal gardens. The 21,000 square-foot mansion has an original grand staircase, gold leaf moldings, wood paneling, marble floors and a Tiffany glass domed ceiling. There are eight bedrooms, a formal dining room, solarium, a billiards room and a 10,000 bottle wine cellar.It has been beautifully restored (with the possible exception of the kitchen, which is nice but not exceptional).
The property includes extensive equestrian facilities as well as charming features such as a walled garden, gatehouse, guest house and caretaker's house. The garage is designed for the car collector with room for ten cars, a washing station and a hydraulic lift. This home is listed at $43 million.
UPDATE: This home is now listed at $30 million.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Spectacular Bid Oct 28th 2008 4:52PM
It is a bit of an oddity. Big indeed, but is it charming? Eh, not so much. Yes it's Gilded Age baronial with many aspects still in tact yet it gives off a highly sterile feel and seems as if the trimmings of a large estate have either been removed or lost. The staging furniture (or maybe the current owner's) really isn't in keeping the architecture and comes off as another element adding to the underwhelming feel.
The gardens today, for example, really are nothing more then ghosts of what was. There are the brick outlines of once sunken and carefully thought out garden walls and paths for plantings. Yet today it all really is nothing more then just a grass filled maze.
That sprawling contoured lawn likely was once filled with specimen trees or at least active pastures. Today from the one aerial shot it seems more like a golf course with the manor serving as the club house. That is never really a good thing as a house that feels like a resort instead of a home will not resonate with buyers.
The property has somewhat already languished on the market with no interest and with this slump I cannot think it will find many takers for quite some time. Other equestrian properties have been sold north of $25M but they had at least an indoor riding arena. This property appears to have more of the shed row stabling found with race horses. The Harriman family has long been associated with harness racing
As an aside the annual taxes - pre sale and likely to readjusted upwards with a fresh assessment - are just typical insane Westchester Co. at $242,977. Compare that to say Fauquier Co, Virginia where much larger (and often more impressive) country estates selling in the teens have tax bills of just $10k - $15k a year because of "in land use". [Read: some Angus or hay is actively raised on the property]