17 Rooms, Waterview, Basketball Court… $13.8 Million

By Peter Sloggatt
psloggatt@longislandergroup.com

Former NBA All-Star Wally Szczerbiak has put his Cold Spring Harbor mansion on the market for $13.8 million.

Szczerbiak, whose more than 10-year pro basketball career started when the Minnesota Timberwolves, the organization that picked him as its first-round draft choice in 2000, purchased the cool crib for $5.3 million in 2013. The Lawrence Hill Road mansion is literally around the corner from the home where he first sharpened his skills shooting hoops in the driveway with his father.

Szczerbiak, his wife Shannon and their five children moved into the spread in 2016 after an extensive, multi-million dollar restoration and renovation, said listing agent Marilyn Szczerbiak, of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty, who is also his mother.

The stately brick Georgian Colonial mansion has eight bedrooms and 14 bathrooms over four floors and totals 22,000 square feet of living space. First built around 1910 for Effingham Lawrence, for whom Lawrence Hill Road is named, it was later purchased by J. P. Morgan, son of the robber baron financier, as a wedding gift for his daughter Jane and her husband George Nichols. Jane Nichols, a philanthropist with an affinity for environmental causes turned over 93 acres of the estate to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for research purposes and preservation. Uplands Farm, as it is now known, was the site where Barbara McClintock raised corn for research that earned her a Nobel Prize in 1983. Earlier, evidence gathered by Nichols on the effects of DDT that had been sprayed on the farm was used in a lawsuit that ended with the pesticide’s ban in the 1970s.

Nichols was evidently a patriot, too. During World War II, when resources were scarce, she disassembled one wing of her mansion and donated the copper, wood and other scrap to the government to assist the war effort.

 “When Wally and Shannon bought it in 2013, one of the wings was missing,” Marilyn Szczerbiak said. “Shannon found the original plans and they it had it recreated.” Architect A.T. Gray replicated the wing, down to matching original brick, as part of the multi-million dollar renovation project for the Szczerbiaks.

With five kids, the Szczerbiaks fill the renovated home, which stands on the 5 remaining acres of the original spread. Impeccably decorated, the home’s 17 rooms include a huge eat-in kitchen, formal dining room, dramatic master bedroom with views of Cold Spring Harbor, conservatory and library. There are fireplaces throughout. While the ballroom that was once part of the missing wing is gone, there’s a killer media room, bar and game room, and in-ground saltwater pool, among the modern amenities.

Oh, and there’s a regulation size basketball court.

Just on the market since June, the estate is being marketed internationally through Daniel Gale’s affiliation with Sotheby’s International Realty, Marilyn Szczerbiak said. Among the rarified group that can afford the $13.8-million price tag, the $133,000 annual property tax bill will not likely raise an eyebrow. As to the price, it’s firm, Szczerbiak, said.

“Wally’s happy there and he put a lot into it. Unless he gets the price he’s asking, he’s happy to stay there.”

For a virtual tour of the property, check the listings on Danielgale.com.