Greenwich’s Copper Beech Farm is officialy the most expensive single-family home for sale in the U.S. The 50-acre property, named for the large copper beech trees populating it was listed yesterday with a price tag of $190 million.
Although is listed as single-family home, this magnificent property is so much more than just the home itself. The main house – 13, 500-square foot Victorian mansion features 12-foot ceilings, multiple carved fireplaces and balconies, plus huge windows and glassed-in porches for taking in the panoramic view.
This 12-bedroom estate has 4,000 feet of waterfront property on Long Island Sound, as well as two offshore islands. There is also a carriage house with a clock tower, guest cottage, two swimming pools, two greenhouses, apple orchard, a wine cellar and a grass tennis court.
Although it was built in 1896, Copper Beech Farm has only known two owners. Harriet Lauder Greenway (whose father, George Lauder, joined Andrew Carnegie to create U.S. Steel) purchased the property in 1904 and lived there for 75 years. The current owner is timber magnate John Rudey, the CEO and President of Inland Fiber Group and Chairman of U.S. Timberlands Services Company. He is reportedly selling the house now that his children are grown.
According to the WSJ’s Alyssa Abkowitz: While in good condition, the interior needs upgrading; [Owner] Mr. Rudey, for example, had plans drawn up to design a kitchen off the dining room, as the main kitchen is in the basement, which was part of the staff quarters. There are old speaking tubes from pre-electricity days and sleeping porches, which were once used in warmer months before air conditioning was the norm.
David Ogilvy, the property’s listing agent, says waterfront property of this size last went on the open market in Greenwich in 1952.
