Socialite Michelle-Marie Heinemann said she spent two decades creating an elaborate estate in Dutchess County, N.Y. Now she’s looking to sell her creation for $30 million.
In Wappingers Falls, Ms. Heinemann purchased a 6,000-square-foot house for $440,000 in 1998 and expanded it to more than 32,000 square feet. Now it includes nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, five half-bathrooms, two libraries, a basketball court, a three-story solarium and an art gallery. “It’s been like a little baby in a cradle,” she said. “It’s been loved, adored and respected and, as a result, it’s grown.”
The home is decorated in extravagant French-inspired furnishings. The dining room is clad in French powder-blue oak paneling, with a cloud mural by the family portrait artist on the ceiling. The velvet chairs have lavender tassels and bullion, and the walls are adorned with portraits of her young children. “Color and texture move me. That’s how I decorate,” she said.
The solarium features 35-feet-tall bulletproof glass walls and one of the roughly seven pianos in the home. The furniture isn’t included in the sale. Ms. Heinemann, who is also an artist, displays her giant flower-tree sculptures in the garden and plans to donate them when the house sells, she said.
The staff lives in three so-called “tiny houses” on the roughly 25-acre property. The homes, which range in size from 550 to 675 square feet, were commissioned by Ms. Heinemann after she came across the “tiny home” phenomenon on a trip to Switzerland. The homes must be decorated in a minimalist fashion, since they are so small. “I had to exercise a lot of restraint,” she said.
Ms. Heinemann is the founder of a lifestyle brand called Old Fashioned Mom, which she said aims to apply old-fashioned values of traditional motherhood while remaining “au courant” in a modern world. The New York-based company produces a magazine and a video series, and plans to open coffee shops in New York City and London’s Mayfair neighborhood, Ms. Heinemann said.
Ms. Heinemann said she is selling because she wants to spend more time in New York and London. “We have loved this house, but life is about growing and evolving,” she said.
New York City-based socialite, philanthropist, artist and Old Fashioned Mom CEO Michelle-Marie Heinemann has listed her 32,000-square-foot estate on 25-plus acres located at 1111 Route 376 in Wappingers Falls (Dutchess County), New York for $30M.
The colonial mansion includes nine bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, five half-baths, a solarium, two libraries, eight wood-burning fireplaces, two kitchens, a wine cellar, an ice rink, a home theatre, multiple verandas, and an art gallery. There is an 8,000 square foot veranda with panoramic views of the sculpture gardens. Also on the property is a 3-car garage above which sits an artist’s studio. The mansion displays an eclectic mix of antiques, keepsakes and cherished artwork (Ms. Heinemann is also an accomplished artist). The manicured property includes seven formal gardens, two swimming pools (indoor and outdoor) with pool cabana, a tennis court, a basketball court, three playgrounds and an English conservatory.
This magnificent estate offers year-round zen living while conveniently located to all major shopping. Unlike any residence ever seen in the History of Real Estate, this one-of-a-kind masterpiece is awaiting for that one client seeking grand and extraordinary! Prepare to fall in love!
For more information, please contact Douglas Elliman’s Anthony Debellis (914-618-1737).
Written By: Danor Aliz
Dear Moms and Dads, Here is an update on what’s trending in luxury real estate. Villa La Fiorentina, located in the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula in the south of France is just divine. It has a 30,000 sq meter park over looking the French riviera and two swimming pools. According to Alexandra Lloyd Properties, “La Fiorentina was built in 1917 by the countess Therese de Beauchamp on a vast piece of land which occupies the extreme end of the Saint Hospice point of the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat peninsula.
The daughter of the Count Giorigi Vitali who had 40 years earlier modified the Villa Fiorentina in Cannes, the Countess Beauchamp addressed the architects Aaron and Gaston Messiah who designed a large rectangular building surrounded by two large belvedere turrets.
The exterior of the building which forms the grand reception rooms, is made up of a large loggia of arcades with views stretching to Italy.
Having an authoritative and voluble character, Therese de Beauchamp does not take a long time to get angry with the workers, who are soon to be thanked and replaced by Ferdinand Bac, of whom work she greatly admired at the villa Croisset in Grasse.
The writer/architect-landscape gardener imagined however, that to better distinguish the entrance, a kind of monumental pillar enclosure with the latin inscription “Fata regunt orbem” which translates to “destiny rules the world”, finally completes the gardens with several themes.
By the end of 1919, Bac visits the property to supervise the work and noted in his journal that the plants and the grass had grown so much that “the villa seemed to be placed on an emerald plate”. Soon tired of her new domain with the families coat of arms placed upon the gates, and baptized in the memory of her father, the countess Beauchamp goes onto buy the Leopolda in Villefranche sur Mer and lives there at the beginning of the 1920s.
She then sells the property to Sir Edmund Davis, a diamond magnet and a large art collector, who constructed a large part of the littoral path which surrounds Cap Ferrat.
During this period, the famous Italian writer, Gabriele d’Annunzio stays in the property, just a short time before he is proclaimed lord and prince of Monte-Nevoso. In 1939, La Fiorentina was purchased by Lady Kenmere, who was sometimes viciously referred to as “Lady Kilmore” with reference to her three ex husbands who had passed away. It was the son of her last husband Roderick Cameron, who was passionate about landscaping and gardens, the man who opened the Golden Riviera, who took upon the task to rearrange the domain with the help of the architect Henri Delmotte who had works a few years earlier at the Villa Mauresque of Somerset Maugham.
During the years of renovation, Rory and his mother lived in the Clos de Fiorentina, which is an old bastide which was part of the domain. In order to modernize the style of the building, the gold flaked ceilings, the sculpted stone chimneys were simply removed for more of a stripped decor. Unfortunately, the declaration of the Second World War stopped the renovation works and due to the strategic position of the property, it was occupied by the Germans who made several degradations during this time. When the conflict was over, the works began again and several large modifications were made to the original building. The temple marking the entrance was removed along with the two belvedere turrets. The arcades loggia of the facade and the immense reception room disappeared for two new floors, metamorphosing the building of a palladien style mansion which immensely resembled the Rotunda de Vinence Villa in Italy. Finally the gardens were redesigned by the landscape gardener Russel Page.
ca. 1967, St.-Jean Cap Ferrat, France — Actors Richard Burton (wearing white turtleneck and slacks) and Elizabeth Taylor (wearing caftan from Givenchy boutique), seated and lounging and playing gin while on vacation at La Fiorentina, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. — Image by © CondÈ Nast Archive/CORBIS
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Villa Fiorentina
At La Fiorentina, Rory Cameron organized large parties and received many celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Somerset Maugham who loved to play bridge with the hostess. Even though the park has been reduced to 30 000 m², the Villa Fiorentina with its two swimming pools, remains one of the largest properties on Saint Jean Cap Ferrat.”
Our sources at Forbes claim that the owners of Villa La Fiorentina are “quietly ” seeking a buyer with $525 million. It was previously owned by the Americans Mary Wells Lawrence, one of the most powerful & influential advertising executives of the 20th century, and her husband Harding Lawrence, the head of Braniff International.
If you buy this property you must invite me to the house warming. Do we have a deal?
Always Yours,
Michael Chadwick
Luxury Real Estate Correspondent for Old Fashioned Mom Magazine.
