MILLBROOK — The famous Hitchcock estate was listed for sale on June 25 by Heather Croner Real Estate, Sotheby’s International.
The property was assembled beginning in 1889, by German-born acetylene gas mogul Charles F. Dieterich, a founder of Union Carbide, who named the complex Daheim, German for “home.”
The property includes over 2,000 acres of farmland, forest and lakes as well as the storied 1889 10 bedroom, 6 bathroom main house of 14,000 square feet and 10,000 square foot guest house designed by Addison Mizner of Palm Beach fame in 1912. Also on the grounds are a tennis court, inground pool, gatehouse, original barns, Victorian bowling alley, carriage house, 3 bedroom cottage, and two farmhouses.
The large rectangular property has frontage on four roads and is unencumbered by conservation easements. Currently the full market assessment according to Dutchess Parcel Access is $29 million. If sold for the asking price it will be the highest priced residential sale in the history of Dutchess County.
The estate, which has been owned by Peggy Hitchcock and her brothers for over 60 years, was described as “ground zero of psychedelic awakening” in the 1960’s when the owners, inheritors of the Mellon banking fortune, invited Timothy Leary of LSD fame to the property in 1963. Reportedly Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Aldous Huxley all stopped by to participate in the goings on. After raids by Dutchess County Assistant District Attorney Gordon Liddy, the Hitchcocks asked Leary and his followers to leave in 1968. The mansion later fell into disrepair but has recently been renovated.
Photo by Graham Corrigan
