Thursday, January 13, 2011

'The Hameau'

'The Hameau', the Henry Upham Harris estate designed by Roger Bullard c. 1930 in Brookville, with landscaping by Louise Payson and Ellen Shipman. Harris was a partner at J.P. Morgan & Co., chairman of Harris Upham and Co., an investment banking firm, and a director at Chemical Bank. He was also a mayor of the Village of Brookville. The home is currently for sale $11,900,000, click HERE to see the listing on Daniel Gale / Sotheby's. Click HERE to see 'The Hameau' on google earth and HERE on bing.




Listing photos from Daniel Gale / Sotheby's.

10 comments:

The Down East Dilettante said...

The gardener's cottage looks as if Snow White is going to wander in at any moment.

Anonymous said...

The Harris family owns this one today, until it sells. They are an extremely nice family and are totally down to Earth, no pretense there.They will be/ are missed.The family firm went on to be called Smith, Barney, Harris and Upham.
Also, one of the handsomest families I have ever seen.

magnus said...

Anon 8:03- actually, the house was sold by the Harris family about 20 years ago to the Grace family (WR descendants, the patriarch of this branch of the family having lived at Yellowbanks, a Roosevelt house on Cove Neck). The Graces used this house as an office. I have been there a number of times. While I find the exterior quite attractive, the interior is very spare and strangely monastic. I too knew several members of the Harris family, and their charm and good nature is somewhat at odds with the cold sparsity of the interiors in which they were raised.

An Aesthete's Lament said...

"Cold sparsity" can be quite beautiful, if handled properly. It's a terrifically charming house; would love to see the interiors.

Anonymous said...

I love this house, but I agree with Magnus...the interiors are a bit sparce,but gives one a clean palette to work with. I hope to God a developer does not get their hands on this one and sub-divide the 33 acres.

Kellsboro Jack said...

Magnus is correct with the ownership. Henry U. Harris died in mid 1987 and property sold out of the family there after. Today Eden Tree Farm Partnership (Oliver Grace Jr.) owns the property.

It was listed for $12.9M early last year so its dropped a pinch. Eden Tree tried to market the property on their own and its been listed by a few different brokers. So there isn't a lack of trying to sell the stately Bullard-design.

To me it embodies what a stately gold coast mansion "should" look like. With enough land to ensure privacy and it in such top shape I'm shocked it hasn't been snapped up. Although the current $180k in annual taxes is quite a punishing blow.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Well, that explains the unusually moderate touch on the landscaping---no cheap fountains installed in the forecourt, no horrid little clipped domes of shrubs....as rare to see one of these places with the 'right' kind of landscaping as it is to see it without being chopped up or having one of those stupid machin conservatoies added.

Aesthete, should you read this, the interiors are available on the real estate listing.

zorfnog said...

Somebody get that antenna off the chimney;tell me it's not still up there!
I want this house

HalfPuddingHalfSauce said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Charles Somelofski said...

My uncle, Al Somelofski, lived in the gatehouse and was Mr Harris' caretaker/chauffeur. I visited there a lot when I was a kid. My other uncle, Frank "Barney" Somelofski was the caretaker at the Delano estate just up the road.