A home in the city that retains the feel of a country estate
Home of the week
The Delafield Estate, tucked behind Riverdale Temple on West 246th Street, has a storied and sometimes controversial history. It was the country seat of one of Riverdale’s founding families who built a Hamptonesque summer mansion and beautiful gardens on the site in the nineteenth century and later developed Fieldston.
In 1965 Edward C. Delafield willed the property to Columbia University with hopes that the college president would live there. Instead, a celebrated chimpanzee, Nim Chimpsky, took up residence along with a group of graduate students who taught him to speak American sign language.
The college, perhaps thinking that was not the highest and best use for the property, sold it for development and by the mid-eighties work was begun on a group of attached and free-standing single family homes under the watchful eye of community groups who hoped to safeguard the rock outcroppings and lush vegetation of its Natural Area District site.
Though the builders’ grand plan for a condominium community was never realized, ten homes were built on a portion of the property. They now enjoy a verdant landscape of hillocks, ponds and trees.
680 W. 246th St. — a five thousand square foot, skylit five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bathroom single-family home — retains the feeling of a country house with broad lawns, overarching trees and sunny decks.
The large entry foyer leads to a sunken living room — with built-in storage and display units and a wood-burning fireplace — and a sunny formal dining room.
The eat-in kitchen features top of the line appliances, granite counter tops, tile flooring and white oak cabinetry. It adjoins a greenhouse sunroom.
On the second floor, the master suite includes an oversized bedroom, a dressing room and a bathroom with a whirlpool tub and separate shower. Two more bedrooms on the floor have their own baths.
The lower level houses multi-purpose rooms, an additional bedroom and bath and laundry facilities.
According to exclusive broker Susan Seidner Chasky for Halstead Properties, the asking price is $2,790,000 with taxes of $11,000 and homeowners association dues of $400. The dues cover common charges like snow removal and landscaping.
