A $16 Million Westchester Lake House With Golf Greens, Illegal Beach
The 10-acre estate, an hour's drive from NYC, has had just three owners in 90 years.
June 8, 2016 — 7:30 AM EDT
Mark Mosello, an outdoor lighting designer whose business, Design Lighting by Markshas lit the estates of financiers like Sanford Weill and Jamie Dimon, is selling a mansion of his own. The six bedroom, eight-bath house is on offer for $15,985,000.
The original house was built in 1928, and significantly enlarged by the present owner.
The property sits on over 10 acres.
Mosello has lived in the house for more than 25 years. "My broker found this unbelievable piece of property, this was in 1990 when the housing market was as bad as it was in 2008," he said during an interview. Offered at $1 million, "I couldn't afford it, but I couldn't afford not to buy it,"and after paying a $240,000 downpayment, moved in.
At the time, the house was just about 2,200 square feet, Mosello said. Built in 1928 for a descendent of Enoch Mead, who owned the entirety of Lake Waccabuc and the surrounding area, the house has had a total of three owners; the Mead family sold it in 1940 to a composer who lived there for 50 years, said Mosello.
The home's interior.
The property also has a one-bedroom guesthouse, a 100 foot-long dock, and a boat house.
There are a total of six bedrooms.
"Originally, the boathouse was across the lake, and one winter they pushed it across the ice," said Mosello. "That's how it came to be part of my house."
Eventually, Mosello found that the house was too small to raise his five children, and in 2001 built a 6,000-square-foot addition to the main house, adding five bedrooms and three full baths. In total, the house now spans just under 10,000 square feet.
The house looks out onto conserved land.
The house looks out onto conserved land.
Mosello is also finishing up a recent interior renovation, where he's transformed five rooms in the original house into three larger spaces.
"And out of the master bath we have a set of staircases that lead to a 40-foot-long dressing room," Mosello said, noting that the dressing room has its own terrace and "the most unbelievable view."
One of the home's eight bathrooms.
That view looks out over the property, which has two golf greens, a driving range, and 10 tee boxes for 10 different golf shots, Mosello said. There's also an infinity pool and a heated spa that can be used year round. The property has 300 feet of direct waterfront, along which Mosello installed about 60 feet of beach, for which he paid a "huge" fine. ("I'm not good at following rules," he said during a phone call.)
The house, which is about an hour's drive from Manhattan, is far away from the road—even the gate is set 100 feet back "so that it's understated," Mosello said, adding that he leveled the driveway and spent "about a zillion dollars to do it."
"When you start talking about the house you realize how unique it is," Mosello said. "But I don't notice because I've lived there all my life."
One of the home's eight bathrooms.
181 Mead Street in Waccabuc, NY is listed by Elise Knutsson of Douglas Elliman and Dylan Hoffman of Compass.