A Sands Point, LI home in Great Gatsby territory that once asked for $18 million — and comes with a private beach and giant water slide — is slated for auction with a minimum reserve bid of $5.5 million.
The six-bedroom, 4,623-square-foot space at 27 Astor Lane boasts 200 feet of beachfront and a giant stainless-steel cork slide that doubles as a fire escape — from the third floor to the ground — all in the shores of the North Shore. Gold Coast.
Sands Point was the inspiration for F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fictional East Egg in The Great Gatsby.
Real estate expert Richard Maidman bought the property from the Archdiocese of Brooklyn in 1971. Built in 1913, the property was once a rather austere retreat for nuns. Maidman commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier, who designed the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, to reimagine and modernize the residence. It was Meier’s first home renovation project.
Meier, 90, retired from his firm in 2021, three years after five women came forward with sexual abuse allegations against him, including four of his former employees. (In a statement at the time, Meier said he was “deeply disturbed and embarrassed” by the women’s accounts. “Although our recollections may differ, I sincerely apologize to anyone who was offended by my behavior.”)
Maidman died in 2017. The estate is now held by a Maidman family trust. The auction, which will be held in November. 14, is led by Paramount Realty USA of Misha Haghani with brokers Serhant Rachel King and Chase Landow.
Known as Maidman House, the wooded compound sits on 3 acres overlooking Hempstead Harbour.
“My dad grew up there, but we used to come on weekends, and I used to like to slide down the slide and wave to my grandpa while he read the paper,” said Harry Maidman, his grandson. “We are selling because we don’t have enough. Our family is now spread all over the country.”
Most properties in the area are more traditional – but Meier made this one modern, gutting the house and transforming it with curved sections and a white exterior. Inside, the walls were all different colors – although they are now also muted in tone.
“My grandparents didn’t want to tear the house down, so Richard Meier closed it down and made it more modern. At first, the house had different colored walls to make it more livable for a family, rather than a nunnery, and he blasted the floors to create a three-height dining room and a double-height living room. He turned the nunnery into a modern gem,” said Maidman. “It was fun growing up here on the weekends. It’s a child’s dream, with boating in the summer and sledding in the winter. It was a very idyllic place to spend the weekend.”
Unusual details include that spiral silver slide that joins what was once — and might still be — a children’s playroom to the backyard, three floors below, and doubles as a fire escape.
Harry Maidman’s grandmother, Lynne Maidman (before she and his grandfather divorced) came up with the idea to create the slide as a fire escape after seeing something similar in Arizona, where she was traveling with her father, who had been colonel in the US Army during World War II.
The complex includes the main house, which features a living area with double ceilings and a gallery with a library and reading area. There is also an all-white chef’s kitchen. Sliding doors open to a deck overlooking the harbor.
Additionally, there is a two-family staff house, a poolside cabana, and a two-story boathouse/inn on the beach, once the nuns’ locker room where they would change into their bathing suits. In addition, there is a historic ice house, a swimming pool and a carriage house that has been converted into a seven-car garage.
The estate also features a tennis court and landscaped gardens that include hundred-year-old maple and oak trees. The property is adjacent to the 210-acre Village Club of Sands Point, a members-only golf and tennis club owned by the village and part of the Guggenheim Estate.
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Image Source : nypost.com