Former Rockefeller Estate Fetches $24M

Rockefeller family descendants have sold a 210-acre Philadelphia-area estate for $24 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The property, known as Kirkwood Farm, was originally listed by the scions of the oil magnate William Rockefeller for $30 million, Compass agent Lavinia Smerconish, who had the listing, told the outlet.

The estate, which has been used most recently as a hunting club, dates back to the late 18th century and has five farmhouses that are between 1,750 and 2,900 square feet. The residences, which are located in Willistown on Providence Road, had been rented out, the Journal reported.

Kim Whetzel and Ellen Haas of Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty represented the unidentified buyer, who does not plan to develop the property, they said.

In December, a group of William Rockefeller’s descendants listed a 54-acre parcel of forestland in Greenwich, Connecticut, for $21.5 million, according to the Journal. The acreage at 181 Glenville Road in the wealthy Connecticut enclave is the last large holding from the former Rockefeller family estate.

The offering is the latest piece to be made available from the Rockefeller real estate portfolio, which stretched approximately 500 acres at the turn of the previous century. As descendants have since moved away, the clan worked to sell much of the land, reaping more than $100 million in sales since the mid-1960s alone.

Other historic properties owned by famous tycoons have changed hands this year.

In January, for example, Law and Associates bought the sprawling, 89-acre Vanderbilt Berkshires Estate, formerly Elm Court, located in both Stockbridge and Lenox, Massachusetts, from Amstar/Travaasa Experiential Resorts in a direct deal for $8 million.

Company Principal Linda Law and her business partner, Dr. Rick Peiser, professor of real estate development at the Harvard University School of Design, didn’t announce at the time formal plans on what they’re planning to do with the estate, though the resort is one possibility.

The estate, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, originally listed for $12.5 million in 2020, before Amstar took it off the market at the end of 2021.

Built in 1886, the 55,000-square-foot, 106-room mansion — which lays claim to the largest shingled residence in the U.S. — has 46 bedrooms and 27 bathrooms, according to Boston.com. The grounds are approved for up to 112 guestrooms, a 15,000-square-foot spa and a 60-seat restaurant.

— Ted Glanzer