The historic, five-building Lynrose compound in Roslyn Harbor at 26 Glenwood Road has been listed for $15.9 million.
The five-acre estate has a tennis court, an in-ground pool with a cabana, a putting green, a circular driveway, colorful landscaping and a gated entry.
“This unparalleled home is perfectly positioned between the Long Island Sound and the heart of The Village of Roslyn,” according to OneKey MLS. “[It has] close proximity to the best of the North Shore including luxe shopping, high-end eateries and world-renowned golf courses such as Engineers Country Club and North Shore Golf Club.”
There are 23 bathrooms and 22 bedrooms on the property. Cathedral ceilings, a family/den room, an eat-in kitchen, a formal dining room, an entrance foyer, guest quarters, a home office, a marble bathroom, a master bathroom, a pantry, a powder room and a walk-in closet are among the interior features.
Roslyn Harbor had been transforming its farmland into expensive estates long before the village was incorporated in 1931. That same year, William Lawrence Bottomley constructed Lynrose for Julie Fay Bradley Shipman.
She was the daughter of Edson Bradley, the president of Kentucky whiskey distiller W.A. Gaines and Company.
Shipman was the head of the home nursing division of the American Women’s Voluntary Service. She also founded New York City’s Clean City Committee, which sought to improve the city’s streets.
“After a visit to London, Mrs. Shipman reported that ‘the worst slum districts look even better than our Park Avenue.’ When the Sanitation Department ran a contest for a slogan, she complained,” read her obituary. “‘Filth in New York streets mounts higher and higher, while the Department of Sanitation amuses itself by painting slogans on refuse cans.’”
Her first husband, the Rev. Herbert Shipman, died a year prior. He was a suffragan bishop in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. He served as a chaplain for the United States Military Academy and during World War I.
In 1942, she married John Charles Fremont. He was the grandson of another John Charles Fremont, who was the first Republican presidential nominee in 1856.
In 1954, the property was divided up. The Melnikor, Gold, Lawrence and Littleford families would all move into different houses. This divvying would lead to an over five-year legal battle beginning in 1971.
The Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore paid $137,000 for one of the unoccupied mansions in October 1970. Their goal was to convert it into a synagogue, school and residence for its staff.
The surrounding families complained about the idea, who didn’t want a religious building in a private area.
“Our possessions are the sun, our light, our grass, the roads. They will reconstruct all this that we have made beautiful,” said Robert Gold in June 1971. “We will never let them do this.”
The State Court of Appeals would rule in the synagogue’s favor. The case almost went to the Supreme Court, but they ultimately declined to hear it.
Residents paid the congregation $30,000 in 1977 to sell the property and use the proceeds for housing. The group would move into the former Highland Elementary School in Roslyn Estates that same year.
The annual tax bill is $157,841 and it is in the North Shore School District.
