Historic Lloyd Harbor home restored by two generations now on market
The Campbell family has put their lovingly restored Fort Hill estate on the market for $10.8 million, including a separate 14-car garage, formal sunken English gardens, more than 10 acres of land and vast, enviable vistas of the waters of Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor and Long Island Sound. Credit: Newsday / Audrey C. Tiernan
As 1999 ball-dropped into 2000, Greg and Kimberly Campbell hosted a millennium costume ball in the ballroom of their Lloyd Harbor mansion.
Guests were invited to attend as a favorite historical character. Kimberly was pregnant with the couple's fifth child, so the Campbells dressed as the biblical Mary and Joseph. Greg's mom came as Mozart.
Summoning history was appropriate for the venue -- the Fort Hill property is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was the site of a British fort during the Revolutionary War, and the original Fort Hill House was constructed in 1879. More than 100 years later, in 1990, the Campbell family acquired the then-unoccupied property and embarked on what Greg calls "a true labor of love" to restore it.
Now, after nearly 24 years, after parties and births and children heading to college, the Campbells are ready to move on. They've dropped the asking price to $10.8 million for the 30-plus-room, more than 25,000-square-foot home, listed with Maria Babaev of Douglas Elliman Real Estate, that includes a separate 14-car garage, formal sunken English gardens, more than 10 acres of land and vast, enviable vistas of the waters of Oyster Bay, Cold Spring Harbor and Long Island Sound.
"We've stewarded it for 23, 24 years," says Greg Campbell, 50. "It's time to give someone else a turn."
The site has a rich history: It was called Fort Franklin during the Revolutionary War, and a bloody battle occurred in 1781. Colonial and French troops couldn't approach by water, so they attacked by land. The British turned cannons on them. "It was a slaughter," Campbell says.
The property later became a Jesuit retreat. In 1879, it was purchased by Anne Coleman Alden, whose family came over on the Mayflower. She had a Stick and Shingle-style house designed by Charles McKim of McKim, Mead & Bigelow -- the firm that hired Stanford White and later became McKim, Mead & White.
Members of the Alden family sold the home in 1900 to William John Matheson, a wealthy chemist and businessman. He built a brick-and-limestone Tudor manor house over the existing structure and expanded the footprint and added an indoor squash court. Matheson's daughter, Ann Matheson Wood, known as Nan, inherited the house.
MODERN TIMES
When Wood died years later, her will turned the property over to a foundation tasked with giving the place to a nonprofit. That proved difficult. The Fort Hill Foundation tried to give the property to the Aspen Music Festival and School and to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. For a number of reasons, including the repairs or modifications the home would need, neither nonprofit could take it on, says Bob MacKay, former director of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities.
Greg's father, George, knew of the property because he'd been cross-country skiing there with friends. "We approached the foundation with the possibility of private ownership," Campbell says. "Back in the late '80s and early '90s, we were in the bridge-painting business, and an offshoot was historical restoration. We thought we would like to take on a project."
George and Valerie Campbell sold their homes in Garden City and the Hamptons, and Greg and Kimberly sold their house in Bayside. They all moved into Fort Hill House together. "This place was a disaster," Campbell says. "The house had not been kept up for almost 20 years when we came into the picture."
A roof meant to last 50 years was 100 years old. Sections had collapsed, causing water damage. Floors sagged; plaster was falling from walls. The Campbell family spent three years fixing up the inside of the home, two years constructing the garage building, and two more revamping the outdoor gardens. The deed includes restrictions on how changes can be addressed, MacKay says. "They did a wonderful job in meeting the needs of the house and gardens," he says.
Campbell wouldn't quantify how much his family spent on repairs, renovations and restoration. "Let's go with 'a lot,' " he says. He has tried to sell the estate over the past few years at a higher price; the current listing went on the market in July.
"It's one of the largest vintage waterfront estates currently on the market," says Paul Mateyunas, a local historian and real estate agent with Daniel Gale Sotheby's in Locust Valley. "It makes a great family compound."
CANNON AND CRYSTAL
Now, driving though the brick gateway and up to the mansion, visitors are met with an enormous weeping beech tree and three black cannons. A courtyard features a semicircular seat that incorporates cannonballs excavated on the property and the headstone of a British Army lieutenant named Samuel Wight who died in the Revolutionary War.
Inside the main house, the family spends a lot of time in the library. "It's a very warm and comfortable room," Greg Campbell says. A portrait of the late George Campbell is a focal point.
Perhaps the most breathtaking room in the main house is the dining room, with a table for 14. Windows across the far wall offer a cruise-ship-like view of the water. Fresco murals depict sailing ships. Dual chandeliers hang above the table.
But Campbell's favorite spot is the porch, with its numerous archways. "When you sit on the porch, you see nine different paintings," he says, referring to the views.
And then there's the ballroom in the East Wing, with its floor-to-ceiling limestone fireplace guarded by two bronze and brass Foo Dogs and its restored solid-rosewood, hand-carved Steinway concert grand piano. TV's "Royal Pains" has filmed in the ballroom, as well as the porch and gardens.
At the beginning of the restoration, people would ask the family, "How can you undertake this? It's so overwhelming," Campbell says. But his dad approached the project this way: "Can we do one room? Then, we will do one room and then go on to the next. We will work our way through the house until we're done."
Beth Whitehouse writes about families, parenting and great things to do with the kids on Long Island. She’s been a Newsday editor and shared a 1997 Newsday staff Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800.
