Kings Point Estate Hits The Market For $39.5 Million

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Oct 14th 2010 at 4:05AM

A luxury mansion believed by some to have inspired Gatsby's 'West Egg' estate has gone on the market in Kings Point, New York. The 20-acre estate is situated at the tip of Kings Point on a private peninsula with more than 1,600 feet of waterfront property and panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline. One of the early owners of the home, John Alsop King Jr., is the namesake of Kings Point. He constructed the main residence in the early 1850s. Richard Church, heir to Church & Dwight Company, makers of the Arm & Hammer baking soda brand, purchased the estate in 1913 and threw lavish parties. It's not known if F. Scott Fitzgerald attended any of Church's parties.

The property includes the nine-bedroom main house, a marble swimming pool and a pool house that has been converted into a four-bedroom home with a wall of glass overlooking the water. There is an English garden, koi pond, vegetable garden, squash court and the Greenhouse and Courtyard residences. The Orchard House is a five-bedroom house built in 1970. Adjacent to the water is the Silo House and the Boat House and at the entrance of the long private driveway is the Cottage House. The property and its nine residential buildings are offered for sale at $39.5 million through Coldwell Banker.

Tags: estate, kings point, new york real estate

Filed under: Estates

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Spectacular Bid Oct 14th 2010 12:38PM

Per published reports the current owners, the Handler family, have tried to sell this property a few times since 1996. John Handler, 57, was found dead there in 2008. His wife, Jennifer Eley-Handler, principal pianist for the Long Island Philharmonic, died two years earlier in an accident. It's their children who are selling the property.

The architect of the manor (c 1854) was the great Alexander Jackson Davis once the architect to the who's who in the 19th century but who fell out of favor.

John Alsop King Jr. was married to Mary Colden Rhinelander of Manhattan who's family mansion is now the RL Polo flagship store. I was always of the belief that 'West Egg' was never based upon one but drawn from multiple estates on the North Shore - from Sands Point to Kings Point.