CORNWALL — After alternating on and off the market since 2014, tennis pro Ivan Lendl’s 445-acre estate in Cornwall and Goshen sold for $12 million Thursday, Jan. 25, to a group of Wyoming-based LLCs, setting a record for the highest residential sale to date in Litchfield County.
The deal shattered a previous record-high sale set in 2008 in Kent by half a million dollars.
The Lendl property, with its custom-built, four-level, 20-room Georgian Federal-style stone mansion, had been listed for the past two years with Elyse Harney Real Estate. At the time of the sale, the asking price was $14,995,000. Agents Elyse Harney Morris and Bill Melnick represented the seller.
Kiara Rusconi of William Raveis Real Estate in Glastonbury, who represented the purchaser in the transaction, said although her client requested anonymity, “What I can say is that it is evident that the property has been well loved by the Lendl family and its legacy will be preserved for years to come.”
Land records indicate that deeds to the property were purchased through six Limited Liability Companies (LLC) filed with the Wyoming Secretary of State on Jan. 18. They include: 400 Mile 1 LLC, 400 Mile 2 LLC, 400 Mile 3 LLC, 400 Mile 4 LLC, 400 Mile 5 LLC and 400 Mile Master LLC.
“I am still pinching myself,” said Morris, several days after the closing. “Very rarely do you find this much acreage in Litchfield County, although you could go over the border in New York and find it all day long. That’s what creates the privacy and the ability to say that you have that much acreage. That is a big deal.”
In addition to the land, at the heart of the estate looms an 18,000-square-foot, 10 bedroom, 12-bath, Georgian Federal-style Greek-sandstone mansion designed and custom-built in 1992 for Lendl and his wife, Samantha, by the American architect Allen Greenberg.
“The symmetry, the proportions, the elegance… and the views. It’s just the epitome of luxury living. This really is a once-in-a lifetime opportunity,” said Morris.
The imposing stone mansion, situated behind grand gates via a long, winding driveway, features a light-filled entryway with a 24-foot ceiling height and grand crystal chandelier. Throughout the four-story home’s first level, French doors lead to gardens and patios.
The wood-paneled library, spacious living room, formal dining room and family room all feature fireplaces and wide-plank oak floors. A trophy room/office and eat-in chef’s kitchen and butler’s kitchen are also located on the main level.
Upper levels feature a primary bedroom suite with two oversized walk-through closets, a sitting room and an oversized bathroom, accompanied by an office with a paladin window, a children’s library and three additional en suite bedrooms on the second floor; the third floor has five en suite bedrooms,
Additional amenities, fitting a professional athlete, include an indoor pool that adjoins two locker rooms, a sauna, a workout room and a full-sized gymnasium. The outdoor amenities include a heated gunite pool with cabana, pool house with a kitchenette and full bath, tennis court, sports court and a three-paddock barn with sand arena, six stalls, hayloft, tack and storage room.
Morris said the listing attracted a handful of offers in the past two years, “but with this one we found the right buyer who really appreciated the property itself and the vast privacy it affords.”
The estate, she said, encompasses 152 acres in Cornwall and 293 acres in Goshen.
Morris described the process between seller and buyer, and broker to broker, as seamless:
“I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful transition from one owner to the next. The Lendls couldn’t have been more gracious, and the buyer’s agents were incredibly nice to work with.”
Rusconi, too, had nothing but praise for the process, the sellers and their agent: “It was such a pleasure working together on such a monumental transaction for Litchfield County and for Connecticut as a whole.”
Morris noted that for the Lendl family, leaving behind not only their beloved home but the communities where they have resided full-time since 1992 was “bittersweet.
They loved the Litchfield County communities where they were able to live, work play and enjoy. It is a normalcy that is hard to find if you’re in the spotlight.”
From 1980 to 1992, the Czech-American Lendl spent 270 weeks atop the mountain as the best player in the world during a championship-laden 13-year span, according to the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF)
Lendl, 63, retired from professional tennis in 1994 and was inducted into the ITHF in 2001.
Morris, who is co-owner and broker of Elyse Harney Real Estate in Salisbury, noted that although “we’re super excited” to have brokered the largest sale in Litchfield County history, her family’s independently owned agency “remains committed to selling homes to the local community. Five hundred thousand to $2 million is really our bread and butter. I do not lose sight of that at all.”
Riley Klein contributed to this article.
Anne Day
The home’s grand staircase.
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John Carter
Carter arrived at his calling by a circuitous route. After graduating from Yale, he joined the Peace Corps, then returned to his hometown of Milton, Mass., where he founded and ran the Carter Tree Co. for seven years. After closing the business, he attended Virginia Theological Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity. During that time, he and his wife, Deborah, were involved in the hunger movement. Carter said every venture he undertook was made possible by Deborah, whom he described as his constant companion and indispensable partner in his pursuit of compassion and justice. Still, he questioned himself: “Who am I, and what should I be doing that I’m passionate about?”
John Carter and his wife DeborahPhoto by Deborah Carter
In the face of new challenges, volunteers joined the effort to revive the original program, VS1. The Rev. Heidi Truax, recently retired rector of Trinity Lime Rock, has been a strong supporter of Vecinos Seguros from its inception. Glenn Formica, an immigration attorney from New Haven, gave a presentation informing the community about the second Trump administration’s amended policies. Formica also generated written materials in English and Spanish, advising private citizens and employers how to prepare in the event of a visit from ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). William Tong, Connecticut’s attorney general, a proponent of many social justice issues, including the opioid crisis and fair pricing for generic drugs, has also provided support since the establishment of Vecinos Seguros.
The VS2 steering committee, which includes Carter, is led by Jill Drew, a local civic leader. Drew has worked with Judiciary Committee co-chairmen Gary Winfield and Steven Stafstrom in support of SB 91, a proposal by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont to limit ICE actions in “protected areas,” including schools, hospitals and religious buildings. She has also supported HB 5499, which would place limits on the use of automated license plate readers, addressing concerns that the Trust Act is being circumvented through technology deployed for other purposes. Other committee members include Amy Lake and Lee and Sophia DeBoer.
VS2 has launches a range of initiatives, including distributing “know your rights” flyers; creating an online resource with local legal and social services for immigrants; hosting in-person events to educate neighbors and train volunteers; organizing a rapid response team to verify reported immigration enforcement activity and support those affected; providing financial assistance for legal expenses, rent and utilities; and advising employers — from farms and restaurants to stores and private homes — on how to protect workers if immigration agents arrive.
As the annual report states: “We are committed to building on the powerful work of Rev. Carter, who, in the first seven years of Vecinos Seguros, assisted a significant number of individuals and families. It is our mission to continue this important work.”
Few descriptions capture the moment more clearly than Carter’s own words:
“The human cost of current ICE practices is appallingly high. Evidence of the brutality and cruelty of these practices is everywhere. Minneapolis is a recent and egregious example. ICE enforcement is doing much more than deporting individuals. It is also the systematic destruction of families. According to some reports, 90% of deportees are male. They are husbands, partners and fathers, often the primary contributors to family finances. There is heartbreak, trauma and stress experienced by the families left behind. The humanitarian response to the violence and chaos in Minneapolis is inspirational and instructive. Both citizens and immigrants came to the aid of residents living in fear and peril. It should be noted that people of color, whether their status was legal or undocumented, were also deeply shaken by what they witnessed in their communities.”
Carter also described how communities responded. That out of devastation, he said, came something else:
“A new word was born out of the compassionate response in Minneapolis: ‘neighboring.’ In caring for each other, they were ‘neighboring.’ The mission of Vecinos Seguros 2 is to ‘neighbor’ members of the immigrant community whose lives have been turned upside down by current immigration policies.”
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