connecticut

Featured Cigar Lounge: The Owl Shop in New Haven, Connecticut

Filed under: Cigars

Not far from Yale, you'll find a cigar oasis that is comparable to any major city lounge in the country. The Owl Shop offers a complete experience, with a full bar to complement the cigars housed in the large humidors that line the walls. So, plop into one of the large, soft leather chairs, sip a cabernet and light up the stick of your choice. This is the one place in New Haven where lovers of the leaf can pass a few hours blissfully unaware of what the outside world holds.

Owl is long and fairly narrow, though there is plenty of room to walk up and down the store; it isn't cramped. You can sit at the bar or in the lounge chairs set back near the wall, where the waitresses will take your cigar and drink orders. Large flat-screen televisions are usually tuned to the sporting event of the day, which can be a draw for many cigar smokers, though I'm generally not interested (just a quirk, I guess). At the back of the store, which widens, there is a large table where a crowd can gather, along with other seating. Back here, you can dodge the television gauntlet and converse or just relax.

Gallery: The Owl Shop in New Haven

Tags: cigar, cigar lounge, cigar shop, CigarLounge, cigars, CigarShop, connecticut, new haven, NewHaven, yale, yale university, YaleUniversity

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Oldfield Farm, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

There's still plenty of money in Greenwich, Connecticut. Today's estate, at nearly $40 million isn't even the top listing in the market (that honor still belongs to Dunellen Hall at $60 million). Oldfield Farm looks nearly modest by comparison but the equestrian estate reflects the kind of horsey set luxury the town is known for. The home has a pool, tennis court, stables and groom's quarters. The estate spread over 20 pastoral manicured acres which border land trust land. The curving driveway snakes through acres of green pastures ending in front of the winged horse fountain at the front of the home. The 20,000+/- sq ft Palladian-style villa brings together modern conveniences with just a touch of fustiness shown in traditional choices in wallpaper and curtains. This home is listed at $39.5 million.

Gallery: Oldfield Farm

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Tags: connecticut, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, greenwich, oldfield farm, OldfieldFarm

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Dominick Dunne In Connecticut, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

The home of the late great writer Dominick Dunne reminds me a bit of another writer's home also in Connecticut, the home of William Styron (still on the market for $1.895 million). Like Styron's home, Dunne's abode has a bookish and dated appeal that befits an author of a certain age and reputation. Dunne's three-bedroom home has likely been the home of many lively dinner parties. It is located on a peninsula with views of Whalebone Cove and the 5.6 acre lot also includes a two-car garage with guest quarters and a gazebo. From the well-worn front door to faded rugs on the floor and the stacks of books on every coffee table, the whole home has a gently threadbare gentility. The bordello-red dining room and the emerald green master bedroom could use a bit of a refresh but Dunne's small book-packed study with covers of books framed on the wall is particularly delightful. I can only hope that all of his books and belongings find a good home. This property is listed at $2.1 million.

UDPATE: This home is now listed at $1.495 million.

[via Cityfile]

Gallery: Dominick Dunne in Connecticut

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Tags: celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, connecticut, dominick dunne, DominickDunne, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, writers homes, WritersHomes

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Winchester Lake House, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

This home on Winchester Lake in Connecticut makes me more peaceful just looking at the pictures. The home sits just 50 feet from the water in a tranquil natural sanctuary. The new home is full of open spaces, plenty of windows, beamed ceilings and accents made of stones gathered on the property. This four-bedroom retreat sits at the end of a private road is approximately two hours from either Manhattan or Boston. The 120 acres include a pool, tennis court, pool house, utility shed and a boat launch for easy access to the lake. This home is listed at $8.5 million.

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Gallery: Winchester Lake House

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Tags: connecticut, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, winchester lake, WinchesterLake

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Unique Tax Changes for the Rich in Connecticut

by Laura Malesich (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Add Connecticut to the list of states with major budget issues -- a club with a growing membership lately. Instead of just taxing the rich to help make ends meet, Governor M. Jodi Rell has decided to split hairs and tax the living rich while providing tax breaks to the rich who have passed on. Her budget plan includes a proposal to increase the personal income tax rate from 5% to 6.5% for those earning $500,000 or more per year and for joint filers earning $1 million or more. On the flip-side this plan would eliminate the inheritance tax which is rather appealing to those with ample funds to pass onto their heirs. This applies to estates worth $2 million or more. The Legislature will be bickering over the details -- what is your take on it?

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Tags: connecticut, governor jodi rell, GovernorJodiRell, jodi rell, JodiRell, tax, taxes, taxing the rich, TaxingTheRich

Douglas S. Cramer In Connecticut, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

TV producer and executive Douglas S. Cramer is the owner of this 130-acre estate in Roxbury, Connecticut.This classic estate includes a four-bedroom Colonial main house which has four bedrooms, a wine cellar and a gym. Cramer, who was a producer on Dynasty also made a whole host of TV movies based on Danielle Steel novels. The Wall Street Journal's Private Properties reports that Cramer and his partner, writer Hugh Bush are looking to buy a smaller home and spend more time in Florida. The property has a guest house, art barn, party barn, pool, stone waterfall, pond and walking trails.

In the WSJ article Cramer calls himself "an addictive collector of houses and art" and that is in evidence in this home which has plenty of wall space. The property too was collected, Cramer started 12 years ago with 50 acres and added to his estate over time to create an expansive retreat. It's an great country estate with lots of room for entertaining and a kitchen that lends itself to informal gatherings. This home is listed at $9.3 million.

Gallery: Douglas S Cramer In Connecticut

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50 Cent's Big Price Cut In Farmington

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

It's been a big weekend for some of real estate's slow sellers. On Saturday we saw Nic Cage put his Bel-Air mansion on the market at a new lower price and now rapper 50 Cent is trying yet again to unload the pile of property in Farmington, Connecticut which he bought from Mike Tyson's ex-wife. Tyson's mansion has been nothing but a headache for Fiddy. He bought the home for $4.1 million (Tyson's ex originally wanted $25 million) and spent $6 million renovating it. He has been trying to sell the home since 2007 when he wanted $18.5 million for the property.

Earlier this year he settled a lawsuit against an engineering firm that he hired to inspect the 52-room home before he bought it. claiming they underestimated the value of the repairs needed. At that point the mansion, which was then listed at $14.5 million, was pulled off the market. But it's back up with a new listing agent and a new price of $10.9 million. The listing pics are similar to the ones we saw when we first had it as an estate of the day in 2007. Even with the new price he's going to have trouble getting rid of this home if only because not many buyers in the area will be looking for a home with a grotto and a nightclub.

[via NY Post]

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Tags: 50 cent, 50Cent, celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, connecticut, farmington, fiddy, fiddy cent, FiddyCent, mike tyson, MikeTyson

Joan Rivers In Connecticut, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Last month Joan Rivers put her New York City penthouse on the market for $25 million as part of her decision to move to California to be closer to her daughter, Melissa. It turns out that her Connecticut country house is also on the market. The Real Estalker led us to the listing for Rivers' home in New Milford, Connecticut.

Her four-bedroom country home is a bit more relaxed than her Manhattan abode although it still has touches that make it uniquely Joan Rivers such as the obligatory leopard print rug in one of rooms. The Real Estalker unearthed an article about the home in Architectural Digest from February 2003 in which Rivers, with her characteristically sharp tongue, said the home had looked like a Denny's before she got to it. She bought the property for $1,438,400 in 2000. After taking ownership, she had the home pulled down to the foundation and then created the current home salvaging only the stone fireplace in the living room and a few stone columns from the original home.

Rivers favors an elegant style fussied up with all sorts of expensive antiques. The many tchotchkes are all high quality, there are just too many of them. For example, it's hard to imagine why an oil painting has been stuck above the stove in the kitchen or why blue-and-white ceramics teeter on a heavy beam above a bed in one of the guest rooms. The master bedroom is a girly pink fantasy complete with a canopy bed facing what appears to be an illustration of Joan and Melissa Rivers hanging over the fireplace. And the less said about the statuary in the master bath, the better. The over-75-acre property includes a swimming pool and pool house, detached barn/garage and a private pond. This home is listed at $6.5 million through Klemm real estate.

Gallery: Joan Rivers In Connecticut

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Tags: celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, connecticut, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, joan rviers, JoanRviers, new milford, NewMilford

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Rock Hall, a New B&B in Connecticut's Litchfield County

by Alison Wellner (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels

Rock Hall, a four-room B&B in Colebrook, CT, is now open for its first summer season, and it's a great New England getaway for fans of Florida, architecture, or just an unusual story.

Rock Hall was built in 1912 by Addison Mizner, the architect whose Mediterranean Revival style was behind the development of Boca Raton as a resort community. Mizner built this 10,000 square foot home some six years before he went to Florida -- where he'd eventually go bankrupt and die.

But before all that, in Connecticut's Litchfield Hills, Mizner received this commission for Jerome Alexandre, a bond trader. Alexandre was heir to the Alexandre Steam Ship Lines fortune, a company which once sailed between New York and Mexico -- perhaps explaining Alexandre's taste for Spanish-style architecture?

Anyway, fast forward to present times, Rock Hall was bought as a country home by another bond trader, Michael Somers, managing director of Dillon Read and Company (most recently a part of UBS) and his wife Stella, a designer. Let's just say that investment banking isn't what it once was, and so late last winter, Michael became an innkeeper. The Somers transformed their country manor into a B&B and have repaired to an apartment on the top floor of the home. (Their former master suite, now Chamber #2, would be the room to reserve.) Stella is a delightful hostess, and Michael has channeled his energies into his long-time hobby, cooking -- he makes a mean house-cured gravlax.

Tags: architecture, bedandbreakfast, boca raton, BocaRaton, connecticut, florida, investmentbanking

Mel Gibson Chops The Price On His Greenwich Home Again

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Mel can't sell. The soon-to-be-divorced star can't seem to shake Old Mill Farm, his Greenwich, Connecticut home. Gibson first put the home on the market in the summer of 2007 for $39.5 million. He dropped the price to $35 million last September. But with a divorce in the works and an eighth child on the way with his new girlfriend, he's got bills to pay and a home to get rid of and so now he's pared the price down to under $30 million. Old Mill Farm can be yours for $29.75 million.

Old Mill Farm is a design by architect Charles Lewis Bowman built in 1926 for his horse lover client, G.L. Ohrstrom. The home is one of the last great manor homes in Greenwich and is significant not just for the architecture but for the fact that it has 77 acres of land. The home itself is an Elizabethan-inspired Tudor mansion of 15,800 square feet and the property has 15 bedrooms and 18 bathrooms total. The jaw-dropping room of the place is the great hall which has a 40-foot cathedral ceiling with a stone minstrel's gallery, walk-in fireplace and leaded glass ceilings. The grounds, which were done by landscape designer James Doyle, include formal gardens and a maze. There is also a terrace pool, tennis court, greenhouse, stable, staff houses, log cabin and a pond on the property.

You'd think that this new low price might lead to a sale but in Greenwich, as the NY Times reports, nothing is certain anymore. Greenwich has been home to some of the biggest price drops in the history of residential real estate including the top spot in our recent list of big price cuts, Leona Helmsley's Dunnellen Hall which has dropped in price by $50 million since it first hit the market. One person who seems to have sold in the area is Regis Philbin. His Greenwich home listing has disappeared.

Gallery: Mel Gibson's Old Mill Farm

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Tags: connecticut, dunnellen hall, DunnellenHall, greenwich, mel gibson, MelGibson, regis philbin, RegisPhilbin

50 Cent Gives Up On Trying To Sell Tyson's House, Hopes For Lawsuit Win Instead

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

Rapper 50 Cent is figuring out that Mike Tyson's Farmington, Connecticut mansion wasn't such a great purchase after all. The performer, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, recently testified in Hartford Superior Court as part of his lawsuit against BVH Integrated Services, an engineering firm that he hired to inspect the 52-room home before he bought it. The company was supposed to find out how much it would cost to repair the home.

Tyson's ex wife originally wanted $25 million but 50 Cent bought it for $4.1 million. The company's estimated that 50 Cent would have to spend around $500,000 in repairs but he ended up spending $6 million on repairs and renovations about half of which went to things which 50 Cent's lawyers say should have been included in the original estimate. BVH attorney Michael Byrne said that 50 Cent's lavish upgrades made the difference and that the estimators are not responsible for the difference.

The house may be huge but it isn't high quality according to witness testimony. A contractor hired by BVH to conduct the 2003 inspection testified that it was not a "mansion-quality" house. 50 Cent put the mansion up for sale in 2007 for $18.5 million and dropped the price down to $14.5 million but he said this week that the house is no longer for sale.

UPDATE: 50 Cent has settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed amount.

Gallery: 50 Cent In Farmington

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Tags: 50 cent, 50Cent, connecticut, estate, farmington, mike tyson, MikeTyson

Great Gastby Rolls-Royce up for Auction

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Auctions

The 1928 Rolls-Royce (above) driven by Robert Redford in the big screen version of The Great Gatsby is being auctioned off by Bonhams during the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance in Connecticut on June 7. The 40/50hp Phantom I Ascot Dual Cowl Sport Phaeton with coachwork by Brewster is estimated at $150,000 - $200,000. Owned by Massachusetts collector Ted Leonard, who lent it for the 1974 film, the car is largely original with minimal restoration. It was however painted a buttery yellow and its leather upholstery died green to match the description in F. Scott Fitzgerald's original text: "It was a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of wind-shields that mirrored a dozen suns."

Tags: Bonhams, Connecticut, F. Scott Fitzgerald, F.ScottFitzgerald, Greenwich, Robert Redford, RobertRedford, Rolls-Royce, The Great Gatsby, TheGreatGatsby

Connecticut ArtPass Offers Discount Museum Deal

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

This is my idea of a small splurge, the Connecticut Art Trail offers an Art Pass that gives visitors the chance to experience 15 museums just $25. The pass has a $75 value and is available for any two-week period. You can order the Artpass online, select travel dites and print vouchers directly from the site. The pass includes the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, two galleries at Yale and a variety of other great museums scattered throughout the state.

[via Art Daily]

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Tags: art, art trail, ArtTrail, connecticut, museums, smallsplurge, smallsplurges

Stonington, Connecticut, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Luxist reader David K. led us to today's home in the seaside village of Stonington Borough, Connecticut. He reports that this home was used in the 1980s movie "Mystic Pizza" and was on the market for $9 million a couple of years back. It's back up for sale and for a reduced price. The waterfront property is on 1.2 acres and adjoins a three acre parcel of waterfront conservation land for added privacy. The land includes two gazebos, a deepwater dock and landscaped gardens. The home itself has a classic wraparound porch with water views. The home was built in 1886 and remodeled in 1926 into a 7,500-square-foot residences which includes 10 fireplaces. Rooms include a paneled library, a living room with two fireplaces and built-in cabinetry, a sunroom, and in the newer wing of the house added in 1995, a gourmet kitchen and a great room. The second floor is home to a master bedroom suite with a private deck, office area and his and hers baths. There are four additional bedrooms on this floor. The pictures on this one aren't great but they offer at least a glimpse of this classic New England beauty. This home is now listed at $7.8 million.

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Gallery: Stonington, Connecticut

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Millstreams, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Millstreams in Farmington, Connecticut has quite a history. The brick mansion is built on Indian Neck, the ancient home of the Tunxis Indians. The home was built in 1917 for playwright Winchell Smith. The seven-bedroom Colonial home is done up in a fussy, ornate style that includes ceiling murals, heavy draperies and red walls. The four-acre property is beautifully landscaped and includes a boathouse, carriage house, gazebo, pool and pool house. This home is listed at $4.995 million.

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[Thanks, Bruce!]

Gallery: Millstreams