SHARON — For more than a century, the Buckley family’s sprawling estate, known as “Great Elm,” has stood at the heart of Sharon life, a gathering place for neighbors, world leaders and artists alike. Now, the circa 1812 Georgian Colonial with its rare glass atrium is on the market for $3,999,000, drawing both serious buyers and viral attention on Zillow Gone Wild.
The sale, led by Cameron Smith, grandson of family patriarch and oil spectator William F. Buckley, Sr., and nephew to conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr., marks the end of the family’s stewardship of one of northwest Connecticut’s most storied homes.
“It’s such a unique property,” said listing agent Pels Matthews, broker/owner of William Raveis Lifestyles Realty in Washington Depot. “There is nothing like it in Litchfield County. It reminds me of New Orleans, Charleston or Savannah.”
The listing has already reached a national and international audience thanks to Zillow Gone Wild, a popular online feed that highlights unusual and distinctive homes.
Great Elm’s soaring glass atrium and Buckley legacy has attracted thousands of comments and shares, with readers marveling at both its historic pedigree and its dramatic architectural centerpiece.
The Zillow feed notes: “The only thing better than a house with an atrium is a house with an atrium with bedrooms that all have access to it so everyone can ‘retire to their quarters’ at the end of the night and guess what? This Sharon home has just that. Are we moving to Sharon now?? Hello??? Will Sharon be there??”
“That has taken it to a whole different level,” Matthews said of the viral Zillow exposure.“I’ve got people calling me from Europe, and all over the country.”
Matthews noted that the estate is not just dramatic but is also incredibly livable. “The home can easily support multi-generational living or be shared by two families if desired, with the common atrium.”
The viral attention reflects how the estate, once known primarily within Litchfield County and political circles, now resonates with a wider public fascinated by unique homes with deep stories to tell.
Buckley family’s summer retreat
Built in 1812, purchased by William F. Buckley Sr. in 1923 and expanded in 1929, the house became the Buckley family’s summer retreat. It later shaped the early life of Buckley Jr., who founded the National Review and emerged as a leading conservative voice. To accommodate the growing Buckley family, the home was converted to five condominiums in the 1980s, three of which were occupied by Buckley siblings until their death.
Buckley Sr. died in 1958, Patricia Buckley in 2007, Buckley Jr. in 2008 and James Buckley in 2023.
According to the listing by Willaim Raveis Lifestyles Realty, the home encompasses the majority of the original mansion and was renovated in 2013.
The house, on 8.072 acres, offers eight bedrooms, seven full and two half baths, period pine paneling, historic wallpaper, Art Deco details, multiple fireplaces and private terraces surrounded by specimen trees.
The atrium is the highlight and heart of the home, having hosted many elegant dinners and weddings over the decades. The mature plants can be included in the sale.
The home sits within a larger association that maintains shared amenities including a 70-foot heated pool and tennis and paddle/pickleball courts.
The estate is being sold by Smith, as his family’s presence in Sharon has gradually passed into history, he told Mansion Global in May 2024, when the house originally hit the market for $5.5 million under another brokerage.
“Our generation, except for me, is no longer in Sharon,” Smith said at the time. “The home no longer provides the congregating place it used to. It’s no longer needed for it.”
William Raveis Lifestyles Realty
Where world leaders, neighbors congregated
Though a national figure, William F. Buckley Jr. was deeply tied to local life. He supported the Hotchkiss Library, appeared at the Sharon Green fair, hosted organ recitals and opened Great Elm for musical evenings and fundraisers.
His wife, Patricia, was celebrated as one of New York’s great hostesses, famed for her flittering parties that drew leaders in politics, the arts and business. At Great Elm, she carried that same spirit north, entertaining both Manhattan guests and Sharon neighbors under the soaring glass atrium.
Over the years the estate welcomed figures such as Ronald Reagan, Henry Kissinger, Margaret Thatcher, Tom Wolfe and Malcolm Muggeridge, as well as musicians and artists including harpsichordist Albert Fuller and pianist Samuel Barber, who performed in the house and nearby venues.
The mix of statesmen, writers, performers and townspeople gave Great Elm a unique social rhythm, where international debates might follow a neighborhood concert.
Together the Buckleys gave the estate a dual role, a setting for cosmopolitan society and a lively hub of small-town life, until Paricia’s death in 2007 and William’s in 2008.
Gretchen Hachmeister, executive director of the Hotchkiss Library of Sharon, said the Buckleys’ generosity to the library extends to the grandchildren of William F. Buckley, Sr.
“Several of them, organized by Cameron Smith, made generous gifts to our recent capital campaign and named our new conference room in William F. Buckley, Jr.’s, memory,” she explained. “His son, Christopher, recently gifted us a complete set of his humorous political novels, which have joined the collection of works of both Williams, Christopher and Priscilla.”
Hachmeister noted that several years before she joined Hotchkiss, the library held a fundraiser called “A Bevy of Buckleys” and supporters dined under a tent at Great Elm. She also recalled that “Senator James Buckley was a frequent library patron.”
The Sharon Statement
Matthews noted that Great Elm is more than just a piece of real estate. “It is part of the local fabric of Sharon along with national political history.”
A document known as the Sharon Statement was adopted on Sept. 11, 1960 by a group of 100 young conservatives who convened at the Buckley home for the purpose of creating Young Americans for Freedom, which has been widely regarded by historians as one of the most important declarations in the history of American conservatism.
“The Sharon Statement,” said Matthews, “is an important credo in the conservative movement, and there is a large stone with a plaque on the property with the full statement.”
For Sharon, the listing closes one chapter of local history and opens another. For buyers, said Matthews, it offers a chance to own one of the region’s most distinctive homes, anchored by its glass atrium and its place in American and cultural life.
Whoever buys Great Elm, said Matthews, “will be inheriting that legacy.”
