The Lauder Greenway Estate is a private property with a

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

mansion in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

. For a time, it was the most expensive home in the history of the United States. Built for industrialist John Hamilton Gourlie in 1896, it was purchased by the Lauder Greenway Family in 1905 and would stay in that family's hands for a majority of its existence. It is the largest surviving

Gilded Age In United States history, the Gilded Age was an era extending roughly from 1877 to 1900, which was sandwiched between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was a time of rapid economic growth, especially in the Northern and Weste ...

mansion in Connecticut.

History

The property was purchased by Dr. James C. Greenway and his wife Harriet Lauder Greenway, the daughter of multi-billionaire (in today's currency) George Lauder and niece of

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

, one of the wealthiest Americans ever, in 1905. At the time of purchase, the estate included and included fruit-bearing orchards, a chicken and pig farm, as well as the house, to which the family added two wings in the early 1910s. In the coming years, the stone-and-shingle mansion, built in the French Renaissance fashion, would crown an estate that grew to more than at one time. Then the family began donating large parcels of land for various causes. In 1918, for example, James and Harriet gifted one of the islands to the town of Greenwich; the property, located about two miles south of Greenwich Harbor, now serves as the popular Island Beach. The couple donated the first ferry providing transportation to the beach for town residents two years later. By 1920, the estate housed several generations of the Lauder Greenway family including George Lauder, Dr. and Mrs. Greenway, and their sons

G. Lauder Greenway G. Lauder Greenway (June 10, 1904 – June 22, 1981) was a prolific patron of the arts in the 20th century, especially the opera where he was the longtime chairman of the Metropolitan Opera Association. He was also the director of the New York Phi ...

James Greenway James Cowan Greenway (April 7, 1903 – June 10, 1989) was an American ornithologist. An eccentric, shy, and often reclusive man, his survey of extinct and vanishing birds provided the base for much subsequent work on bird conservation. Early ...

, and

Gilbert Greenway Gilbert may refer to: People and fictional characters *Gilbert (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Gilbert (surname), including a list of people Places Australia * Gilbert River (Queensland) * Gilbert River (South A ...

, and their daughter Ann who would later marry John Griswold of the

Griswold Family The Griswold family () is an American political family from Connecticut and New York of English descent. The family's fortune originates from the 19th Century industrial and merchant pursuits. Family origins The Griswold family originates fr ...

. After the death of Mrs. Greenway's brother George Lauder Jr. and the sale of his Greenwich estate "Tignabruick" (since demolished), the estate was the gathering place for the wider family. This estate remained in their hands until the death of G. Lauder Greenway, who had died childless, after which the estate was sold privately.

Description

Main house

The main house spans across four floors. It has 12 bedrooms scattered among the top two floors, seven full baths, and two powder rooms. A dark cherry wood-paneled library with curving corners and glass-fronted bookcases typical of the Victorian era sits off of a three-story wood-paneled entry. The dining room has oak columns, a fireplace, and an ornate plaster tracery ceiling. There is also a garden room, with walls of windows looking out on the water and a solarium with stone-tiled floors and a fountain adorning the back wall. A wine cellar, a third-floor staff wing, and a three-story. The current main kitchen is tucked down a hallway, accessible by discreetly hidden doors in the wood-paneled entry foyer and sits at the end of the house. Its dumb waiter allows access to the home's original kitchen, located in the basement among the additional staff quarters. Fireplaces adorn nearly every entertaining space and many of the bedrooms open onto sleeping porches once used during summer months before the advent of

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

. In the entry space, an antique open-air elevator that one might expect to find in a throwback Parisian hotel chugs slowly between floors at the push of a button.

Outbuildings

The grounds begin with a driveway accessed through a three-bedroom gatehouse then a forest. Within the main compound, there is a stone carriage house with a clock tower, a six-car garage, and multiple greenhouses. A 16-sided pool faces the Long Island Sound, accompanied by an adjoining spa and a nearby Victorian tea pagoda turned pool house, plus a grass tennis court. The antique squash court has been converted into an unknown space.

Gardens and waterfront

A cast-iron gate swings open onto sunken gardens meticulously manicured, tropical plants like palm trees grace the terraced lawns abut a full, private, century-old apple orchard. The estate has roughly one mile of water frontage and a private island off the coast. The banks of the property are perched above a sandy beach, also private to the estate, accessible by wooden stairs. The backyard sits 40 feet above mean tide, meaning it remains a safe distance from the sea.

Today

The entire estate was sold in 2015 to an unnamed buyer for $120,000,000.

References

{{coord, 41.0189, -73.6018, display=title Lauder Greenway Family Buildings and structures in Greenwich, Connecticut Gilded Age mansions Renaissance Revival architecture in Connecticut