A New York farmhouse once owned by Adolph Zukor — a Jewish immigrant who, at age 16 in 1891, left Hungary for the Lower East Side to become a founding mogul and architect of Hollywood — is on the market for $1.97 million.
Zukor, who produced films like 1913’s “The Count of Monte Cristo,” was a co-founder of Paramount Pictures and its longtime president. But he’s best known for creating the “vertically integrated” system, in which all powerful studios owned the talent (actors, writers, producers) — as well as the distribution network and theaters that exhibited the films.
Zukor also once owned more than 300 acres in Rockland County, New York, including this farmhouse that was built in the 1930s and expanded in 1944, said listing broker Richard Ellis of Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty.
Known as Mountain View Farmhouse, the six-bedroom, 4½-bathroom home is located at 374 South Mountain Road in New City, NY, and sits on 6.7 acres.
Zukor once invited guests such as Mick Jagger to attend screenings on the larger estate.
Other guests at screenings included sculptor John Frederick Mowbray-Clarke, architect/painter Henry Varnum Poor — and composer Kurt Weill and his wife, the Tony Award-winning actress/singer Lotte Lenya.
The sellers bought the home for $944,000 in 2017. It then underwent an $800,000 renovation in 2019. The current owner, who declined to be named, called it a “peaceful country escape with the most amazing beech trees, magnolia, ducks, herons and egrets visiting the pond, just 30 minutes from Manhattan.”
At 4,740 square feet, the residence opens to a great room with glass walls. An open chef’s kitchen leads to a large slate patio that runs along the back of the house.
The main bedroom suite is on the first floor with an adjacent den; additional bedrooms are on the second level. There’s also a guest suite above the garage.
Design details include hand-hewn beams, interior sandstone and brick walls, leaded glass windows, panel doors, 12-foot ceilings and two fireplaces. Outside, there’s a pond, a tennis court, a basketball court and grass lawns with magnolias, dogwood, weeping beech trees and more.
The home is also close to High Tor State Park, a 691-acre area with hiking trails and views of the New York City skyline.
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