A majestic Gold Coast mansion in Manhasset, New York, run as a retreat house by Jesuit priests for the last half-century is on the market for $49 million, the Roman Catholic order said last week.
The 87-room medieval-style mansion, considered one of the grandest on Long Island, will close in June as a retreat house. The priests said they've had inquiries from people who want to turn St. Ignatius Retreat House into a private residence, condominiums, and a health facility - or bulldoze it to build houses.
"We would like someone to utilize the mansion and preserve it and the grounds to the greatest extent possible," said Rev. Vincent Cooke, who is overseeing the sale for the Jesuits' New York province.
But "it's possible it could be knocked down. It's not landmarked."
The retreat centre's closing - along with another one the Jesuits operate on Staten Island - was announced in June as part of a consolidation in the New York metropolitan area that will leave open one of the order's retreat houses in Morristown, New Jersey.
The Tudor-Elizabethan house, straight out of The Great Gatsby era, was completed in 1920 by industrialist Nicholas Brady and his wife, Genevieve Brady.
Genevieve Brady donated the mansion in 1937 to the Jesuits, who by 1963 turned it into a retreat house that attracted people from as far away as China and Australia.
The Jesuits said they are closing the two retreat houses because of rising costs and declining demand.
The Jesuits are known as the intellectuals of the Roman Catholic Church.
