Hasta La Ideas

Speaking of buildings coming apart, as we were in that last post, the mansion that is thought to have been the inspiration for the central location in The Great Gatsby is in the middle of being demolished. As the AP reports, construction equipment arrived this weekend and began to raze the 24,000 sq. foot house known as “Land’s End,” located on Long Island Sound in Sands Point, NY. Though there’s no solid, concrete evidence that Gatsby author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and some claim it’s just local lore, it’s also easy to believe that the writer would have been aware of the place, as it, like many of the mansions that surrounded the area at one time, played host to “the likes of Winston Churchill, the Marx Brothers and Ethel Barrymore” during its heyday. Though the building had been purchased nearly a decade ago, the AP reports that upkeep had become too expensive for its owner who has decided to tear it down and build “five $10 million custom homes” in its place. For further reading and looking, here’s a good collection of links to photos and information from both its past and present. And to prove how far the poor building had fallen, here’s its appearance in a recent Forbes story about “creepy abandoned mansions.”

Update: Here’s video of the tear-down…

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