Stately Survivor

Posted on March 24, 2015 by mayfairblog
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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty is hit by history – if not a canon ball – at one of Charleston’s finest houses now on the market with Handsome Properties.

If only windows could talk. What would the windows of The Nathaniel Ingram House in Charleston, South Carolina, tell you? For a start they would tell of 12th April 1861 when, at 4.30 am, the first shot of the American Civil war was fired from just along the street. The engagement was a bit of a one-sided affair. It only lasted 34 hours and ended in a rather gentlemanly fashion. Later in that war the house would sustain a cannon ball hit to the upper floor during the bombardment of 1864. Scarred but standing it then survived the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886. Fortunately since then things have been relatively peaceful thereabouts.

Today 2 Water Street stands as a witness to Charleston’s rich history. But this is no museum piece. It is a home of the moment in the grand style. Standing on East Bay Street and with its main door on Water Street – once a waterway rather than a road – the house occupies three floors on a fine corner position. The main bedroom has been named as one of the most romantic in America.

Built between 1810 and 1818 by a local merchant, Nathaniel Ingram, generations of prominent Charleston families have enjoyed living in the house – including the present owners.

I always think that houses buy people rather than the other way round. And I am certain that prospective buyers will only have to stand in the magnificent entrance hall and look through the stately drawing room with its elegant tall windows looking out to Fort Sumpter over Charleston harbour to know instantly if they will become the latest in a long line of fortunate custodian owners.

The house is not just grand. It does something very special to its occupants. It makes them feel grand. What better payback for accepting the stewardship of this very important Charleston home?

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Inch Perfect

Posted on March 11, 2015 by mayfairblog
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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty enjoys the detail of an extremely fine home in Charleston, South Carolina that is now on the market with Handsome Properties.

The Federal period in the USA spans the years between 1780 and 1820. In the UK this was the time when the style of the Adam brothers, Robert and John, was very much in vogue. This period of classical revival also became extremely popular in the US and features in many homes built during this era.

I can’t think of a much better example that 60 Montague Street, Charleston, South Carolina. Inch by period and painstaking inch every aspect of the house has been restored to its original condition – with a number of unobtrusive modern laborsaving additions such as a lift.

Built around 1800, the house was about 60 years old when the first shot of the American Civil War was fired from the battery alongside Charleston Harbor less than a mile away.

Just look at the images of this house on the web page – especially of the plasterwork and fireplaces. This is Adam style at the top of its game. I am sure Robert Adam would have admired the current owner who has poured his considerable experience and expertise into this project. In doing so he has given back to Charleston one of its finest homes in tip top condition.

This house joins many others in this lovely city that have been renovated under the watchful eye of the Preservation Society of Charleston and makes up the largest such group of preserved houses in the USA.

Complete with coach house, tack house, classical pool house, landscaped formal gardens and a kitchen house – by statute kitchens in Georgian Charleston were housed in separate buildings to limit fires – this finely restored property is the real deal.

But I am not finished yet. To top it all Confederate general, Robert E Lee, convalesced here for a while following the civil war that ended in 1865 and even addressed a crowd of supporters from the front porch – ensuring the house’s place in American history.

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To The Lighthouse

Posted on February 27, 2015 by mayfairblog
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In his Brief Encounter series of short blogs on fabulous homes Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty based in London takes special a look at houses that delight, excite and inspire.

87 Plum Daffy Lane
Chatham, MA USA

In the autumn and winter months Chatham in Cape Cod can wear a grey, cloudy, cloak. A chill wind off the Atlantic can ruffle the waters of Stage Harbour and bend the reeds that fringe the Oyster River. It is a haunting look that appeals greatly to those who really love Cape Cod in this mood. Then, most of the visitors are of the feathered variety – vacationing from the Arctic. But in spring and summer the vacationers here mostly wear shorts and delight in long days of water sport, entertaining and being entertained. It is a time when Cape Cod echoes to the sound of laughter, smells of barbecue and wears blue.

No 87 Plum Daffy Lane occupies a front row seat to this ever-changing Cape Cod world. From it’s lawns, terraces, balconies and windows the river stretches out towards the Stage Harbour lighthouse, Nantucket Sound, Monomoy Island and the dunes of the Atlantic. It is a magnificent and commanding view.

This is a prized spot for lovers of the Cape. And this house readily accepts the changes in mood. In the winter months it is a cosy, fire-warmed retreat and a perfect base for wrapped-up walks. In the summer months it transforms into the perfect waterfront home with 300ft of private waterfront with sandy beach.

Virginia Woolf, who wrote To The Lighthouse in 1926, would no doubt have enjoyed the introspective nature of this place in winter – and the view to the light. What season will you love best or will you, like most who come to live here, simply enjoy each day as it comes?

Broker: Robert Paul Properties

Agent: Christine Altneu

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Brief Encounter

Posted on February 13, 2015 by mayfairblog
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In his Brief Encounter series of short blogs on fabulous homes Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty takes special a look at houses that delight, excite and inspire.

1877 Rising Glen Rd,
Sunset Strip, California

If you like contemporary homes with a bit of show biz thrown in you are going to love this one. High up in one of the prized West Hollywood Hills’ canyons that rise, finger-like, above Sunset Strip and Beverly Hills, this glorious retreat has real Hollywood pedigree. The home was once owned by actor/director Ryan Philippe after his split with Reece Witherspoon.

At night LA spreads out below like a cloth of a trillion lights. It is the quintessential Tinsel Town view. By day, bathed in razor-sharp Californian sunshine, the house unveils its very own fine pedigree – brilliant design making the best of magnificent position. It makes the heart sing. Which of course is what great architecture should do.

Hollywood ‘A’ listers please note: the house is roughly equidistant from Universal Studios and Rodeo Drive – making it perfect for a healthy work/play balance.

Oh, and if you like the fabulous Minotti furniture – and who wouldn’t? – this is also available through a bit of further negotiation.

Broker: Hilton & Hyland

Agents: Jonathan Nash and Stephen Resnick

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Great American

Posted on January 22, 2015 by mayfairblog
720,415

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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty visits a remarkable New York home being marketed – through leading brokers, Houlihan Lawrence  – by top producing agents, Angela Kessel and Hilary Evans.

The Bedford/Katonah Estate in Westchester County, New York – less than an hour from Manhattan – is no ordinary estate. Its secluded houses, laid out in lush wooded and gently sloping countryside, are reached only by dirt roads – here this is a sign of exclusivity rather than deprivation. One thinks that the residents of this delightful retreat could, no doubt, afford to pave the roads with gold if they had a mind to. But they don’t. They like it just the way it is.

And here amongst all this is Mount Holly. It would be indiscreet to mention the name of a previous owner – a massive figure in the entertainment business – because discretion in luxury real estate is everything.

Originally built in 1928, Mount Holly is a part stone, part shingle hung home that owes a great deal to the Arts and Crafts movement. It sits in 47.5 well thought out acres of woodland and pasture, including a very serious equestrian yard and gardens that give this inspired home its final flourish.

Loves: I loved the conservatory – giant. I loved the master bedroom where Dunhill meets Ralph Lauren in an exquisite blend of cherry wood panelling and bevelled mirrors – ravishing. I loved the media room – a home theatre where the only thing missing was a torch brandeshing usher or usherette  selling choc-ices and popcorn off a tray in the intermission (although I am sure that could be arranged). I loved the 80 ft pool and I loved the charming little stone building that caught the eye on a far slope – a writer’s hut with a cosy fireplace in which to write that next great American novel.

Mount Holly is an exceptional home created over the years by some exceptional people with enormous taste, talent and means. It is a creative space that gives plenty of room for imaginations to soar. I get the impression that if you give to Mount Holly it will repay you with considerable interest.

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Cape Cod Magic

Posted on November 24, 2014 by mayfairblog

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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty looks at some vernacular history of Cape Cod and a special home – now being sold through local specialists, Robert Paul Properties – that marks the development of a much-loved and almost three-hundred year old style in the twenty first century.

Cape Cod has an architectural style all of its own. But it became so popular that now examples can be seen all over New England and beyond. Cape Cod was the jumping off point for the Pilgrim Fathers. The style of the Pilgrims’ first houses became the Cape Cod cottage style. As such it is as old as America. Great design needs little change over time and little has changed with the look of these houses over the years apart from the size, an extra floor or two and the addition here and there of a gambrel – or mansard – roof.

In many ways the Cape Cod cottage was America’s first modular home – it grew with its family occupants. As the family enlarged and expanded another bit was added to the house. America borrowed many architectural styles from other places around the world. But the Cape Cod cottage has become as American as apple pie.

Many of these cottages have now been extended and adapted to suit modern needs. But the success and popularity of the vernacular style does not wane and new homes following the design tradition are constantly commissioned by owners keen to experience and identify with the Cape Cod lifestyle.

And so we come to 19 Magnolia Ave, West Hyannisport, Massachusetts. This house demonstrates perfectly how little the style has strayed from its roots but how far it has come as a modern home.

A house that works like this is usually a collaboration of commissioning owner, architect, builder, interior designer and even subsequent owners. Here the architectural firm, Archi-Tech Associates in Cotuit, worked with equally local builders, Kendall and Welch from Osterville. Together they built a wonderfully comfortable and classic shingle-style beach house in the Cape Cod tradition that works on a number of all-important levels.

Situated on 1.3 acres and within a short stroll of the private beach, the house has been given a light and airy feel with 9ft ceilings and well-placed French doors and transom windows to make the most of the fine ocean views and garden.

Living in Cape Cod is a unique and special experience. The look of the architecture and landscape, the feel of sand on bare feet and the smell of the fresh Atlantic salt air all combine to create something magical. Experience the magic. Visit 19 Magnolia Ave.

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As Good as Old

Posted on September 24, 2014 by mayfairblog
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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty takes a look at a house in New Jersey with its design roots firmly set in the early 20th century but as fresh looking today as it would have been then. Turpin Realtors are handling the sale.

Well here is a breath of fresh air – a wonderful example of the International Style. Just imagine what a stir this architecture caused when it was fresh and new at the beginning of the 20th century. But the really wonderful thing about the look is that it is still as fresh and new today.

Was it really Frank Lloyd Wright who, in a reaction to the excesses of the Victorian and Edwardian eras and exploiting new materials, inspired the Germans and the Bauhaus? Whatever the answer the legacy of this sea-change in architecture was a clean, spare and crisp form that certainly followed function.

The Germans feared that the American public wouldn’t fully embrace this new style and that Modernist architects working in the USA would be wasted. Tell that to Richard Neutra who designed the Lovell House in Los Angeles which was built in 1928 – now on the US National Register of Historic Places.

By the 1920s and 30s Modernism had developed into the International Style – identified by rectilinear forms; light, taut plain surfaces stripped of ornamentation and decoration, open interior spaces, and a weightless quality often created through cantilever construction.

29 Lindsley Rd, Harding Township, New Jersey was built in 1958. The look hasn’t moved on much from those pioneering years – it doesn’t have to. If it isn’t broken don’t mend it. But materials have improved over time.

Americans did embrace this style and great examples can be seen all over the US. But you would have to go a long way to see – or live in – one much better than this amazing house only 32 miles from New York City.

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Moving Mountains

Posted on September 2, 2014 by mayfairblog
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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty discovers an American national treasure – an estate of great beauty created by a gifted owner of great cultural, social and financial stature. Situated in Upperville, Virginia – about 50 miles from Washington DC – the sale of this outstanding estate is being handled by the equally outstanding brokers, Washington Fine Properties.

It is difficult to impress financially in the USA – even if your name is Gates or Buffett. There are other names that cast a long shadow and seem almost impossible to emulate – names like Vanderbilt, Astor, Carnegie, Rockefeller and Mellon.

Heir to the Mellon banking dynasty, Paul Mellon – along with his sister and two cousins – were all included in the top eight wealthiest Americans by Forbes in 1957. Their wealth, in today’s money, was believed to be just shy of $6 billion.

It was this life of wealth and privilege that Rachel Lowe Lambert – Bunny, as her mother nicknamed her – joined when she married Paul Mellon in 1948. But she was already used to some wealth. Her father was president of Gillette, and her grandfather invented Listerine.

Paul and Bunny Mellon became huge benefactors. Together they collected and donated more than a thousand important works of art to the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. They also bred racehorses and remain the only individuals ever to have owned winners of the Kentucky Derby (Sea Hero in 1993), The Derby, and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (both won by Mill Reef in 1971).

But Bunny Mellon’s real passion was gardening. Although she had no formal training she would among other highlights – go on to redesign the Rose and East Gardens at the White House, help to revive Louis XIV’s kitchen garden at Versailles, build a celebrated collection of rare books, manuscripts, works of art and artefacts relating to gardening and botany, and become a leading authority on American horticulture.

As well as owning homes in Antigua, Nantucket, Cape Cod, Paris and New York, her main residence was Oak Spring Farm in Virginia. This remarkable 2,000-acre estate is one of the most important farms in America. Over many decades Bunny Mellon sculpted the farm into the closest American version she could of the English Cotswolds. Getting to and from the Cotswolds would have taken too long. But with a private mile-long airstrip on the Oak Spring estate and a private jet her Cotswolds in Virginia were far more accessible.

The main house, designed in neo-Georgian style in 1941 by William Adams Delano of Delano and Aldrich, became known as the Brick House. It would contain some of the Mellons’ astonishing art collection – now estimated to be worth about $1 billion.

Away from the house are the extensive equestrian stables and barns, sublime gardens, greenhouses, guesthouses, tenant houses and a pool house designed by noted architect I M Pei.

Bunny Mellon, who died in April, 2014 at the age of 103, was an intensely private woman and Oak Spring was her private treasure. With her wealth she moved mountains – and the Cotswold Hills. She leaves the opportunity to purchase an iconic and nationally important estate. She also leaves a long shadow.

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The Dock of the Bay

Posted on September 1, 2014 by mayfairblog
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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty admires a very fine house in a commanding position on Lake Boca Raton in Florida. It is on the market with Boca Raton specialists, Premier Estate Properties.

Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding’s classic R & B number, was written on a houseboat at Sausalito, the lovely arty village just over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. I knew the number decades before I knew Sausalito and always wondered what it all meant. But now I can’t help thinking if Redding had been in Boca Raton, Florida instead, and sitting overlooking Lake Boca Raton at 700 Lake Drive, he might have had some of the same inspiration. It is hard not to think of this splendid waterside estate as being the dock of the bay. The house and garden dominate the lake, which provides an attractive watery thoroughfare to the ocean and to the extensive Intracoastal waterway.

This house is for owners who are serious about real estate, serious about water and serious about Boca Raton. If many of the neighbouring super-homes in the area can be likened to Ferraris this home would be a Bugatti.

The 2.5-acre estate enjoys a corner position that overlooks the lake with about 450 ft of deepwater frontage and great views. Over the water is the exclusive Boca Raton Resort & Club. You’ll want to be a member. More importantly, they will, no doubt, want you to be a member. It’s not just anybody who gets to live at 700 Lake Drive.

This classic Palm Beach-inspired main house is in the tropical Georgian style. The luxury 17,000 sq ft residence offers seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two-storey high living room, family room, panelled library, banquet-sized dining room, bar and gourmet kitchen. The floors are served with an elevator.

Away from the main house are beautifully landscaped grounds and lush tropical gardens with tall hedges and palm trees. For entertainment there is a pavilion and formal terraced pool and spa and additional catering kitchen. For yachting there is multi-yacht dockage with finger dock and boat slip. For motoring there are two garages to accommodate five cars and a formal brick-laid motor court. For help there is a staff apartment/carriage house and for guests there is a guesthouse. Security is well taken care of. The estate is walled and gated for maximum seclusion and safety.

Close to beautiful beaches, fine shops, restaurants, and the Boca Raton Executive Airport, 700 Lake Drive is not just sittin’ on the dock of the bay. It’s sittin’ pretty.

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Vision

Posted on August 27, 2014 by mayfairblog
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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty tells the story of a remarkable house and garden with a history dating back almost two thousand years into Early Medieval England and the very beginnings of Christianity in Britain. The subject of a Channel 4 Time Team archaeological dig and its covering TV episode several years ago this property is being given star marketing treatment by MIR member, Durrants, who are relative newcomers in comparison, having only been in business since 1853 when Queen Victoria was on the throne.

It took faith and vision for Anglo Saxons in the 7th century to build a church on a raised piece of ground beside the River Blythe in Suffolk, England. It took vision and not a little spiritual self-interest on the part of Henry I, who in 1120 granted the same land to the Augustinians who built a large priory there in the Norman style of the day.

Then Henry VIII in a famous and religiously divisive fit of pique destroyed the lot between 1536 and 1541. But that was far from the end of this story. A new and secular life for this land lay ahead. About a century later a charming house in the Elizabethan style was built in these grounds – alongside a private chapel constructed on earlier 14th century foundations. By then the property lay aside a sleepy lane leading to the magnificent 15th century Blytheburgh parish church – so big that it became known as the Cathedral of the Marshes. And so the new house remained largely unaltered for the next four hundred years when its next chapter began.

Just before the start of the First World War, and seeing more potential in the property, the Victorian artist John Seymour Lucas had the original Elizabethan house doubled in size in the Arts and Crafts mode. It was a very inspired, comfortable and successful marriage of styles. A garden in the manner of Gertrude Jekyll was planned but it was another hundred years before this was largely fulfilled.

No house stays current. It must evolve to remain relevant and useful. So about ten years ago the current owners bought the property and set about bringing this historic layer cake of a building delicately and sensitively into the 21st century. The result is simply remarkable. It is living archeology. But this is no museum or National Trust showpiece, although it certainly could be. Instead it is a house for today that has its roots and echoes deep in the past. It is a house with style for occupants with style. It is a house with presence for occupants with presence.

Now it is time for the house to change ownership again and a new custodian will take over the stewardship of this important but almost hidden piece of English history. Once upon a time this area was one of the most populated and important political, religious and commercial areas of Britain. Not any more. Now it has become a restful, relaxing sort of place where time ticks by slowly and neighbours take the trouble to talk and care.

The new buyer will need vision to take this remarkable house forward. He or she will also have to want to join in a tight-knit community – for this house has an important place in that community. In return the house will give back a hundredfold – just as it has done for four hundred years and the grounds have done for a great deal longer than that.

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