Daily Archives: January 30, 2015

Gilded Age Palace of H.V. Poor Seeks a Modern Robber Baron | Waccabuc Real Estate

unnamed.jpg

At the peak the Gilded Age, steel tycoons and other professional exploiters only built their mansions in the Hamptons or Newport if they couldn’t get a property in Tuxedo Park, New York. Founded in the 1880s by a tobacco millionaire and “sportsman” who won a whole lotta acres in a poker game, the area became home to such notable Americans as Adele Colgate (heir to the Colgate/Palmolive fortune), William Waldorf Astor, and JP Morgan. It was also home to a finance dude with the totally ironic name of Henry Poor, otherwise known as the guy who begot half of the famous Standard & Poor stock index.

“Poor’s Palace,” which is also known as “Woodland,” was designed by eminent era architect Henry T. Randall, who gave the place a grand limestone entrance, a smoking room for the gents, drawing and dining rooms with deep relief ceilings, hand-painted insets for the grand dames, ample terraces, and wood paneled hallways. All 17,265-square-feet of that is still there, if a little worse for wear. What’s more, it’s all on the market with 4.8 surrounding acres for $9.999M.

 

read more…

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2015/01/28/buy-henry-poors-grand-1899-palace-in-upstate-ny-for-10m.php

Frank ‘Lefty’ Rosenthal’s Far-Out Vegas Home Lists for $777K | South Salem Real Estate

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Price: $777,000
The former Las Vegas home of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, the late casino exec, mob associate, and FBI informant whose exploits inspired Martin Scorsese’s Casino, is back on the market for a lucky-sounding $777K. Though some things have changed since Lefty’s day, it’s about as groovy a 70s time capsule as you’re likely to find adjacent to the Las Vegas Country Club.

According to listing agent Brian Burns, Lefty spent around $500K having the three-bedroom reconstructed back in the mid-70s, after it was gutted by fire. The interior was done by designer Stephen Chase, who at the time was working for Arthur Elrod out in Palm Springs.

There have been four owners since Lefty (the current ones bought it in 2011 for $615K), all of which have been intent on “keeping the historic integrity of the home intact,” says Burns. Most of the floors have been redone over the years, though, and a second-floor picture window was added in back. The current owners redid the kitchen with a new backsplash and Caesarstone countertops, and outfitted the dwelling with a Savant smart home system.

The pieces of wall art in the living and dining rooms, which were commissioned by Stephen Chase when he was designing the interior, are including in the sale, as are the semicircular couch and lamp in the living room, the bedrooms sets, and a bunch of Lefty memorabilia. Also included, according to a 2011 article in the Las Vegas Review Journal: “bulletproof doors and picture windows, a hidden gun compartment,” and a “suspected” bullet mark chipped from one of the windowpanes.

 

read more…

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2015/01/29/frank-lefty-rosenthal-vegas-home-for-sale.php

Exploring New York City’s Irresistibly Eerie Abandoned Places | Cross River Real Estate

Abandoned%20NYC_Will%20Ellis_Curbed-7.jpg[Harlem’s P.S. 186 in 2012. It has been abandoned for nearly four decades, but there areplans to turn it into affordable housing. All photos by Will Ellis.]

Photographer Will Ellis made a name for himself capturing New York’s amazing decrepit spaces on his blog Abandoned NYC, and now his work is the subject of a new book, out this week. The book features 16 derelict locations (mostly) within city limits, including brand new photos of five locations never released online (hello, sunken Coney Island submarine). Ellis’s love of abandoned buildings is as deeply tied to a curiosity for the ghoulish as it is to an intense connection with the history behind New York City’s many stories. His blog covers NYC abandonments more extensively and prosaically than nearly any other print or online source, and his photos capture the beauty of what many shrug off as eyesores and urban blight. Ellis talked with Curbed contributor Hannah Frishberg about the book and shared 18 photos of a few of his favorite sites.

How did you get into urban exploration?

It wasn’t something that I set out to do at all, I was just out one day with my camera in Red Hook, just kind of looking around, looking for inspiration, and I came across this huge warehouse, 160 Imlay Street [ed. note: This building is now being converted into condos]. I’ve always been drawn to creepy stuff: ghosts, monsters, stuff like that. Halloween was my favorite holiday growing up. So that’s kind of what drew me to it, initially. I was also reading a lot of these old gothic fiction and horror stories at the time, H.P. Lovecraft and stuff like that. A lot of those stories are about creating that sense of atmosphere, and more often than not they’re set in these decrepit estates. So I was able to find those places I was drawn to in these books, but to find them in real life, in my own backyard. I still don’t think of myself as a daredevil. I never used to break the law much, I played by the rules. I’m scared of heights. But I saw you could just walk into the building, and I went for it that day. From that point on, I was hooked. That sensation of discovery, the thrill and adrenaline of it. Especially in the first two months I was doing this. For several months I was going out every chance I got. I’ve slowed down a bit since then.

 

read more…

 

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2015/01/29/exploring_new_york_citys_irresistibly_eerie_abandoned_places.php