You think today's Hamptons estates are lavish? You haven't seen anything yet. Take Bayberry Land, for example. 314 acres of monumental gardens. A main house with 11 bedrooms, 11 baths, 11 chimneys, and a large ballroom. Of course there was also the main garage, gatehouse, caretaker's cottage, hunting lodge, stables, secondary two-car garage with pump house, and tennis court. It was assessed as the most valuable property in Southampton in 1918.
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Lost Mansions of the Hamptons

Bayberry Land
Bayberry Land was built in 1918 for Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sabin. The estate was huge: 314 acres, with the main house, the main garage, gatehouse, caretaker’s cottage, hunting lodge stables, secondary two-car garage with pump house, gardens and tennis court. Now it's the Sebonac Golf Club.
Villa Maria
Nope, not that one. This house was designed by architect Edward P. Mellon (yes, of the banking family) for himself c. 1919. The property runs from the ocean to the bay, with a bayside boathouse and dock, both demolished. The house itself was demolished in 1954, and rebuilt about 40 years later.
Chestertown House
Henry Francis du Pont and his wife, Ruth Wales du Pont, wanted “an American house,” with architectural elements largely from Chestertown, Maryland. After his 1969 death, the house was purchased by Andy Warhol’s protégée Baby Jane Holzer, who promptly defaulted on the mortgage. Then Barry Trupin, infamous financier, rebuilt the house into a place known as Dragon’s Head. After Trupin went to jail, Calvin Klein bought the property, razed the now-monstrosity house, and built a minimalist glass box in its place.
Villa Mille Fiore
Villa Mille Fiore was built 1910 for attorney Albert Barnes Boardman by architects Hill & Stout. It was a 24-room four-story house based on the Villa de Medici in Rome. Six bedroom suites overlooked an Italian Renaissance garden. It cost $250,000 to build, and was sold at auction in 1938 for $16,000. The main house was torn down in the 1960s, but 8 acres of the estate are still left and are currently for sale.
Wooldon Manor
The original Wooldon Manor was enormous. (What's there now, still called Wooldon Manor, was the original pool house.) Demolished in 1941. the original house was built in 1900 for Dr. Peter Wyckoff. Dr. Wyckoff sold the house in 1928 to Jessie Woolworth Donahue, the daughter of F.W. Woolworth, the founder of Woolworth's. Jessie renovated and expanded the estate, building the pool house in 1930. Wooldon Manor was once called the most opulent home in the Hamptons. The last owner of the whole estate was Edmund Lynch of Merrill Lynch. After his death, the mansion was pulled down, the estate subdivided, and the outbuildings turned into residences.
Black Point
Black Point was the 60-acre estate of Col. H.H. Rogers, heir to a banking and Standard Oil fortune, and he was the father of midcentury fashion icon Millicent Rogers. The house was designed by Walker and Gillette, built in 1914, and the grounds were designed by the Olmsted brothers.
Andelmans
Andelmans was designed for Joseph Fahys by Montrose W. Morris c. 1889. Fahys was founder and president of Joseph Fahys & Co., founder of the New York Jewelers' Board of Trade and the first president of the Watchcase Manufacturers' Association. (Yep, that’s right, owner of the Watchcase Factory.) The house was eventually demolished. Later Tommy Mottola of Sony Music lived in the carriage house.
Kyalami
Kyalami, which means "home" in Zulu, was built in 1902 for actor John Drew, uncle of the Barrymores. (And yes, the theater at Guild Hall is named after him.) Kyalami, which had 12 bedrooms, was demolished in the 1940s.
The Dunes
The largest house in East Hampton, with 30 rooms and 80 acres, the Dunes was built by Frank B. Wiborg, who enlisted architect Grosvenor Atterbury. Much of the house was damaged in the 1938 hurricane, and it was finally torn down by Gerald and Sara Murphy (daughter of Wiborg) when the Murphys couldn’t rent or sell it. The servants’ quarters and garage was known as the Pink House when the Murphys’ daughter painted the stucco exterior pink, but was itself demolished in 2010.
Rice House
The Dr. Clarence C. Rice house was designed by Grosvenor Atterbury c. 1899. Rice, an ear, nose and throat specialist, was the house doctor for the Metropolitan and Hammerstein Opera Houses and treated Lillian Russell and Enrico Carsuo. The house burned down in 1912. Later the carriage house was owned by Evan Frankel and called Brigadoon, after he invested in the Broadway play.
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