44° and Partly cloudy
Image
Niederhurst in the Palisades enclave of Snedens Landing has been sold for $26.1 million. Photo by Josh McHugh
A historic Victorian Gothic mansion in the exclusive Palisades neighborhood of Snedens Landing has been sold for $26.1 million, the highest price ever for a single-family home in Rockland County, according to Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty.
The 13-acre Niederhurst estate on Ludlow Lane was also the second-highest sale this year in Nassau, Suffolk, Orange, Putnam, Columbia, Ulster and Sullivan counties. A 214-acre equestrian property in Bedford represented by another Sotheby’s office is the only higher sale, at $30,675,000.
Niederhurst, represented by Richard Ellis, listing agent and broker/owner of Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty, was listed in May for $28.5 million. Christie's International Real Estate Group was the selling broker. The purchaser was not named, although documents on file with the Rockland County Clerk list the buyer as River View Property Holdings LLC.
The home, built in 1874, overlooks the Hudson River and features eight bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, two half baths and six fireplaces. The home’s Victorian Gothic exterior is a combination of gable and hip roofs, six-panel shutters and multicolor bricks.
The seller was Manhattan-based interior designer Sara Story, who acquired the estate in 2011 and launched a multimillion-dollar renovation to restore the 8,000-plus-square-foot mansion. The project included a restoration of the home’s brick exterior and addition of a sauna, cellar, lounge and limestone-paved, and in-ground pool surrounded by tiered garden beds.
Highlights include original plaster medallions, brickwork and moldings infused with the addition of hand-troweled Venetian plaster walls, oak millwork and wide-plank, light oak flooring. Materials include Italian marble in the master bath and Calcutta marble in the gallery floor.
“We are proud to have brought this historic Gilded Age masterpiece to the market and excited to
see it set a record for highest sale in Rockland County and one of the highest in the region,” said
Ellis. “This sale is a testament to the public’s continued interest in moving to the great country
estates in the Hudson River Valley as well as the public’s interest in the Hudson River itself.”
Interior photo of Niederhurst by Ian NelsonThe home was constructed by Winthrop Gilman Jr., a New York City banker and architect who built Palisades’ first one-room schoolhouse, now a community center, and the Palisades Presbyterian Church in 1863, according to Sotheby’s. Gilman also served as a historian for Snedens Landing, chronicling accounts of many of the area’s early residents.
The estate’s grounds feature imported copper beech trees from England planted by Gilman in the 1870s. The estate’s Fern Lodge, built in 1866, has 5,700 square feet of additional residential space in combination with its converted stables and barn, including eight bedrooms and four bathrooms.
The estate comprises three contiguous lots: Niederhurst on 6.29 acres at 23 Ludlow Lane; Fern Lodge on 1.86 acres at 31 Ludlow Lane; and a 4.5-acre vacant lot at 35 Ludlow Lane, which can be accessed directly from the other lots.
Photo by Ian NelsonSnedens Landing has been home to past and present celebrities and artists, including Laurence Olivier, John Steinbeck, Katharine Hepburn, Al Pacino, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray and Diane Sawyer.
Doorway photo by Josh McHughRobert Brum is a freelance journalist who writes about the Hudson Valley. Contact him and read his work at robertbrum.com.
