The inspiration for Daisy Buchanan's home in "The Great Gatsby" will be nothing but a memory soon.
From a piece in Newsday...
Now, the front door is off its hinges, wood floors have been torn up for salvage, windows are missing and the two-story Doric columns are unsteady.
Sands Point Village in January approved plans to raze the house and divide the site into lots for five custom homes starting at $10 million each.
Lands End is the latest Gold Coast estate to fall. With each demolition, the North Shore loses more of its gilded past, when sea breezes and social events attracted the rich and famous. Historians say hundreds of the mansions have been lost in the past 50 years as owners faced increasing taxes and high maintenance costs.
"The cost to renovate these things is just so overwhelming that people aren't interested in it," said Clifford Fetner, president of Jaco Builders in Hauppauge and Lands End project construction manager. "The value of the property is the land."
1 comment:
This is really sad! I'm sure that there are organizations (literary, historical, etc.) who would be more than happy to help raise the money to renovate this piece of history!
For my part, I had no idea that such a mansion existed, and now I wish I had known about it before it was to be demolished.
All the same, The Great Gatsby is going on my summer reading list. I read it for school back when I was sixteen, and at twenty, I think its time to pick it up again.
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