A 5.5-acre historic country estate in New City, New York, once home to famous German composer Kurt Weill and actress Lotte Lenya, is now for sale for $1.995 million. Known as Brook House, the property at 116 South Mountain Road was bought by its current owners in 1993 for $490,000. Over the last 33 years, the owners have worked on a major restoration to update the 1880 home while keeping its rich creative history intact. Listed by property brokerage Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty, the estate first went on the market earlier this year for $2.295 million before the price was lowered by $300,000 in September.
A historic refuge for world-renowned creators
According to real estate records published on Realtor.com and Zillow, Brook House has had only four owners in the last 110 years. It was inside this stone house that Kurt Weill and his wife, singer and actress Lotte Lenya, lived for more than three decades. While living there, Weill wrote famous theater songs, including “Mack the Knife” and “Alabama Song” from The Threepenny Opera. Before Weill and Lenya, the home belonged to Rollo Peters, a well known American stage actor, director, and co-founder of the Theatre Guild. The estate sits within the historic South Mountain Road area, an artists’ community in Rockland County once home to notable cultural figures such as playwright Maxwell Anderson, sculptor John Mowbray-Clark, and painter Arthur B. Davies. Listing agent Richard Ellis of Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty spoke about the home’s appeal in property marketing materials. “Brook House offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own a residence where architecture, landscape and cultural history converge in one of the Northeast’s most quietly legendary artist communities,” Ellis said. “The result is a rare blend of historic authenticity, wonderful provenance, artistic legacy and refined country design.”
Architectural details and comprehensive restoration
The main colonial-style home spans about 4,600 square feet and blends traditional 19th-century craftsmanship with modern structural updates. Inside, the home has old hand-cut wooden beams, exposed stone walls, and four wood-burning fireplaces with period mantels, including one from the 19th century and a Louis XV-style French limestone design. The living room has tall ceilings, wide white oak floors, tray ceilings, and French doors that open out to the grounds. To finish the interior restoration, the current owners worked with New York-based interior designer Gail Jacobs. Jacobs, known for her work on high-profile historic homes including Leonard Bernstein’s former apartment at The Dakota in Manhattan, helped find period-appropriate fixtures such as antique Holophane-style lighting and Ann-Morris decorative pieces. In total, the estate has five bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms across the main house and other buildings on the property.
Private grounds and legal two-family zoning
The property is officially zoned as a legal two-family home, with a separate guest house that has its own living room fireplace, full kitchen, two bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, and a walk-out lower-level den. Other structures on the 5.5-acre property include an oversized garage now used as a workshop, an old brick potting shed, a large garden shed, and a chicken coop. A private well continually supplies water to the grounds. The natural landscape is designed like a private arboretum, with flowering gardens, rolling fields, and original dry-stone walls. The West Branch of the Hackensack River runs directly through the property, crossed by a rebuilt stone arch bridge. To help protect the land around it, Lotte Lenya once donated eight acres of neighboring land to the West Branch Conservation Land Trust. Today, Brook House borders the 91-acre Davenport Preserve, keeping the estate surrounded by protected woodland. Tax records listed on Realtor.com show the estimated annual property tax for the estate is $25,979.