Comments by "" (@hewitc) on "This House" channel.

  1. "The modern day equivalent of $30M." Except today in Palm Beach $30M will not get a home anywhere close to this. A 27 acre beachfront mansion in Palm Beach is unheard of. I believe the largest estate today is Ken Griffin's yet unbuilt oceanfront home on 7 acres. The land alone cost him about $100M.
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  2. I am copying my statement from above. So many misconceptions about this property. Some of them from broker friends of Trump who will say anything he wants. You seem to be unaware of the fact that Trump struck a deal with the National Trust for Historic Preservation that permanently altered the saleability of the property. In exchange for tax benefits to Trump, the deed to the property was permanently changed so that it could only be used as a private/public recreational facility or "club" and never a private residence. Trump's family was not permitted to live there until he struck a deal with the Town where he swore he was only residing in the apartment of the live-in groundskeeper. His "residence" is an apartment. The entrance is next to the public rest rooms for the restaurant. The preoperty is commercially zone so the value is based on revenue of the restaurant. The other real residences on Billionaires' Row are own by real Billionaires with no such permanent restriction. Trump can't sell this property as a private mansion, only as a restaurant with tennis courts. So what's it worth. If you were a Billionaire what would you pay for a huge property with outrageously high upkeep, but you had to live in an apartment as a groundskeeper and strangers can swin in your pool and eat in the restaurant next to your bedroom? $18M may be too high.
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  3. Building- yes. PH is subdivided into several apartments. Port cochere is gone.
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  4. When she died the estate tried to give it to the state and federal governments for public use. Neither wanted it because it is too expensive to maintain. It languished on the market. No one wanted it. Trump bought it for cheap (relatively) thinking he could live there but he couldn't afford that either . Then he tried to subdivide the property and sell lots but it that was prohibited by the Town. So created the "club" to bring in revenue to maintain the property and he got the National Trust to landmark it, giving him big tax deductions. But that necessitated permanently restricting the use of the property to "private club". That's why it can't be sold today as a private residence and greatly reduces the value of the property. That can't be undone, so he made a bad decision just to get the tax breaks. It's a commercial property, basically a restaurant and event space that the County values at $18M, based on revenue. If it could be sold as a residence it would be worth over $100M. But it can't.
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  5.  @marcyking461  If you read about the Great Depression in the US in the 1930, some books describe how wealthy people with servants cut the servant's pay to make ends meet. Those "ends" included subsciptions to the Metropolitan Opera and similar. Club dues were always paid. The servants, predominantly Irish immigrants, mostly young women, were treated worse than the household dog. Money can make people think they are somehow a superior species from the rest of humanity.
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  6. 21 bedrooms in 17,500 sf? They must have been smallish bedrooms with shared baths. Great room is fantastic. I could never demolish that room!
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  7. At the time they couldn't give it away. It was offered (for free) to the US government as a Winter White House (rejected) and to the State of Florida as a park (rejected). It was a real estate white elephant when Trump bought it. He thought he out smarted everyone because he was going to subdivide the property and build new homes. He didn't do any homework and learned that the Town of Palm Beach would not permit subdivision of the Landmarked property. So he was stuck with the Elephant and couldn't afford the upkeep, just like everyone else to whom it was offered. That's when he converted it to a commercial property and struck a deal with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. That deal gave him tax benefits but altered the deed irrevocably so that the property could never be used as a private residence. That's why it is worth so little today. No real Billionaire, like a Ken Griffin, can buy it and make it a family home or compound. It has to operate as a restaurant/recreational facility forever. This is my comment from above: You seem to be unaware of the fact that Trump struck a deal with the National Trust for Historic Preservation that permanently altered the saleability of the property. In exchange for tax benefits to Trump, the deed to the property was permanently changed so that it could only be used as a private/public recreational facility or "club" and never a private residence. Trump's family was not permitted to live there until he struck a deal with the Town where he swore he was only residing in the apartment of the live-in groundskeeper. His "residence" is an apartment. The entrance is next to the public rest rooms for the restaurant. The preoperty is commercially zone so the value is based on revenue of the restaurant. The other real residences on Billionaires' Row are own by real Billionaires with no such permanent restriction. Trump can't sell this property as a private mansion, only as a restaurant with tennis courts. So what's it worth. If you were a Billionaire what would you pay for a huge property with outrageously high upkeep, but you had to live in an apartment as a groundskeeper and strangers can swin in your pool and eat in the restaurant next to your bedroom? $18M may be too high. All of this information comes from public records as reported in the Palm Beach Daily News.
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  8. Today's billionaires don't build like this. Or if they do it's on a much smaller scale. Noticing the elaborate plasterwork in this house I was reminded that much of it was applied by hand. A long tedious process. Today you buy pre-made molding, altough there are still artisans who do "real plaster" work, if you have the time and money. It takes weeks to dry.
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  9. This used to be the Joseph Hirshhorn house and before that the Sinclair-Robinson house. Hirshhorn had an incredible sculpture garden. He donated the scuptures (Rodins and Henry Moores) and endowed the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C.
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  10.  @equine2020  He was, and by many is, considered to be the most vulgar man in America and a complete phony. Marjorie was a businesswoman who expanded her father's bsuiness into General Foods, the Jell-O company. She was shrewd and highly intelligent and had great taste. To the family, Donald was the opposite. Plus he intended to tear down most of it for a McMansion subdivision.
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  11. Uncle works hard and makes a fortune. Nephew achieves nothing on his own but acts like a big shot with uncle's dough. Leave your money to a good charity.
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  12.  @michelletodd4893  You mean the absence of income tax, right? Servants worked for pittances before the New Deal of the 1930's.
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  13. I have been there. One of many architectural gems from when Murray Hill was the place to be for New York's elite. The Robb house at 23 Park and the Lanier house at 123 E. 35th are excellent examples.
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  14.  @BlaineShire  They couldn't give it away for free. Trump was the only bidder because he had no idea what he was doing. He thought he could break it up in a subdivision. A quick call to the Town would have told him that was impossible. So he go stuck with the hot potato.
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  15.  MaGuffintop  I don't know where this modern aversion to dining rooms came from. I see all these modern flip/flop restorations on HGTV. The kitchen is in the living room. Having been poor and lived in studio apartments where everyting is in one room to save space, I don't see how that can be anyone's "dream home". I think the "open concept" is just real estate broker euphemisn for " too small to have separate rooms. Which is Ok if you're poor but I see multi-million dollar homes now where the kitchen is part of the "great room". Of course, no one cooks there so it's just a show off area with ultra expensive appliances that no one will use. If you can afford it, put the kitchen away where it belongs. And eat in the dining room, at leat occasionally. And put a napkin on your lap.
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  16. And Jello
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  17. Many are still there but they are not private homes.
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  18. Ann could have picked up the telephone and called the local police. They would have responded immediately to these wealthy taxpayers. Instead she "picked up a shotgun"??
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  19. It was demolished. There is a new home on the property.
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  20. Like all the waterfront mansions in Miami Florida that will be underwater because of rising water levels. People refuse to consider the future even if it's just around the corner.
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  21. Sounds like he like his yacht the best!
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  22. Morgan and others built cottages on Jekyll Island, Georgia. There is a book published about the private club which is now a public park. May be some interesting house stories there.
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  23. The Post pictures are beautiful. Back then it was a private residence. Today it is a commercial property. Hundreds of paying customers eat at the restaurants, swim in the pool and work out in the gym. It is a for-profit resort and not a “club” like the other equity-member, not for profit clubs on Palm Beach. It is just like the “club” at the Breakers Hotel. Trump was not allowed to live in this commercially zoned property. After the Much lobbying the Town bent the rules. Trump can live in the apartment only because he is an “employee” of the company. Calling this beautiful property a home is like calling the NYC department store Bergdorf Goodman a “home” because Mr Goodman had a secret apartment on the top floor of the store. Goodman’s was actually larger than Trump’s modest quarters. Not where you would expect a ‘Billionaire’ to live. No other real Palm Beach Billionaire lives like that, with strangers eating in the dining room and swimming in the pool. Would you if you really had Billions. Mrs Post was wealthier and she was not just an heiress. She was a successful businesswoman who greatly expanded her father’s business.
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  24. And contributed nothing
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  25.  @IntriguedLioness  Crazy all caps and multiple exclamations make it difficult to take someone seriously. Especially if the have no use for progressive politics. In other words they have great use for Regressive politics. Why regress at anything?
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  26. The estate went from ocean to lake across the width of the island. Other estates did this too. The roads were different then
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  27.  @bluewren2  Everyday people didn't have the money. They never will. These homes were built for the 1% of that era. Until the New Deal there was no limit to wages. The servants who worked in these mansions, usually young Irish women 'right off the boat' were lucky to get $1-2 dollars/week.
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  28. Unlike today, the grand mansions of the very rich had small bathrooms and closets. Today even the middle class want closets that would astound someone like Thorne. People bathed but rarely showered. It looks like Thorne's mansion did not have an elevator? Lots of stair climbing to keep you in shape.
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  29. He used that in other homes he has flipped
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  30. By the terms of the deed and the agreement with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the property must be used in perpetuum as a club or recreational facility and may never be used a a private residence. That's why the assessed value is so low. It's a permanent commercial property. A Billionaire cannot purchase it and convert it into a private home.
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  31. The Sea Cloud is still in use for tours. It sails in Europe and the Caribbean.
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  32. "Stress" is worrying if you can pay the rent at the end of the month. Ingall's "stress" was whether he could sufficiently impress others in his rich social set.
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  33. French doors to let in the breeze on hot summer nights. The days before air conditioning.
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  34. broken up into many apartments that were sold as coops (condos)
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  35. The local government will foreclose if there is a significant arrearage in property taxes. If the owners pay their taxes the local government has no reason to take them over merely because the owners don't live in them full time. Huge homes usually pay huge taxes that support the community. If the taxpayer isn't occupying the home he probably isn't using as many services, which helps the full time residents. So it's not necessarily a bad thing.
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  36. As long as the rich person didn't get rich by making other people poor, like from cheating or stealing from them.
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  37. Now people spend fortunes for glass walled "modern" homes with "open-concept" so that all the rooms are in one big barn-like area. They spend big money on show kitchens that are never used. These older mansions had large but basic kitchens. Only the servants ever went in there, so no need to showcase them to the neighbors.
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  38. But no one wants to pay to keep them. Fuels, electricity, groundskeepers, taxes, new roof, etc. Cities and towns don't have the money.
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  39. 56 hour week means no school. Or anything else.
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  40. Everything was more manually intensive then. Apart from all of the household cleaning of such a big house, imagine all the landscape raking by hand. No leaf blowers.
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  41. The Breakers is a museum with guided tours
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  42. Before the Tuxedo men wore Dinner Dress, like a Tuxedo but with long tails in the back. The Tuxedo was a shorter version and not considered proper dinner dress by many people for years after its introduction. I think Downton Abbey had an episode where Sir Robert wore the new "Tuxedo" but old guard Violet didn't approve.
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  43. They had steam shovels for excavation. Otherwise, hammer, saw, etc.
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  44. The McKays were devote Catholics
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  45. These homes were abandoned by the owners. There was no governmental or charitable organization willing to pay for them or the ongoing expense to maintain them. Without someone stepping up they would be foreclosed for nonpayment of taxes or condemned as unsafe. Their demise was not the fault of Campagna. He built 960 Fifth, designed by Warren & Wetmore and Rosario Candela, on the land occupied by Clark's Folly. It is a first class cooperative apartment building that contains or contained many ultra-luxurious and interesting apartments. [from Wikipedia] "The building was started in 1927 and completed in 1928. Apartments average 14 to 17 rooms, with 8 maids' rooms, and is one of the few in New York with its own in-house restaurant (the Georgian Suite--still there). The original apartments were priced from $130,000 to $325,000 and more than 75 percent of the apartments were sold before the frame of the building was enclosed. The largest initial stockholder in the building was Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite who reportedly paid $450,000 for his 20-room apartment, which was considered the most expensive cooperative sale ever paid at the time." Dr. Satterwhite's living room was 30 by 58 with a double ceiling height. Search for a picture. Unfortuantely it is no longer intact.
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  46. Large numbers of laborers, dirt cheap. They had steam powered earth movers, some still call them steamshovels.
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  47. No "Home theater room" but a "smoking room" and art gallery
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  48. Vanderbilt's (the one with the gate now in Central Park) is now Bergdorf Goodman, a high end clothing store.
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  49. As if that's all it takes.
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  50. No amount of legal fees could have paid for this. What was the true source of his wealth?
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