Possible 'Great Gatsby' Mansion to Be Razed to Build Houses for Rich People

Sigh. A mansion on Sands Point, above Long Island Sound, that "some F. Scott Fitzgerald scholars believe served as inspiration for portions of The Great Gatsby" is going to be torn down to allow for the building of a five-lot subdivision full of $10 million homes. While it's not known for certain that the mansion, called Lands End, was actually the inspiration for Gatsby's home, it's still sad when a 1902 semi-historical building that may or may not have been designed by Stanford White gets torn down, especially for a subdivision.

Of course, the current owners don't see it that way. Via the New York Post,

"To be honest with you there isn't anything really special about it," said David Brodsky, who along with his father bought the property for $17.5 million in 2004 from Virginia Payson, the late wife of former Mets owner Charles Payson.

"We did a lot of research on its history and there is really no evidence that Fitzgerald was even ever there," he said.

Newsday reports otherwise:

In the 1920s and '30s, Winston Churchill, the Marx Brothers and Ethel Barrymore attended parties there. Fitzgerald was perched on the back deck, drinking in the view. Rooms featured marble, parquet and wide wood-planked floors, Palladian windows and hand-painted wallpaper.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Bulldozer due for mansion linked to Great Gatsby [NYP]