Plandome Manor house of Daily Racing Form founder on market

A Plandome Manor home on the market for $3.999 million originally belonged to the founder of horseracing’s Daily Racing Form.

The Mediterranean-style house was built in 1902, eight years after its owner, Frank H. Burnell, founded the DRF.  Initially a daily newspaper that published past performances and news of racehorses to assist those placing bets, the Daily Racing Form now also offers digital content and subscriptions and will be used by some for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes.    

The 1.58-acre property was part of Burnell’s larger estate, and the house was one of the two original manor houses in Plandome Manor, says listing agent Patricia Gahan Moroney of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. The house, with an interior that Gahan Moroney describes as “more of an Arts and Crafts home,” has five bedrooms and 4 1/2 bathrooms. It features a living room with one of the house’s five fireplaces, a formal dining room, an eat-in kitchen with a dining area and adjacent butler’s pantry, a mudroom, drawing room, sunroom and fern room with a sunken mosaic pool built into the floor to provide humidity.  

“In the 1920s, ferns were the rage,” Gahan Moroney says.  “For the ferns in the sunroom, you would add moisture by filling the pool up with water.”

The master bedroom on the upper level includes two bathrooms, a sitting room and sunroom. The house also features a third-floor room. The property, with taxes of $47,781, includes a detached two-car garage and offers private beach and mooring rights.

The owners purchased the house in 2000 and renovated it to “replicate what the house would have looked like when it was first built,” Gahan Moroney says.

“Although it’s built in the 1920s, it has a lot of the features that people are looking for in new construction,” she says. “But new construction doesn’t have the history.”