With its multiple buildings and amenities, including an Art Barn and a Sculpture Garden, Buckhorn in Pound Ridge can be seen as a complex, a compound, certainly as an estate. But that”™s not how Sherry Mallin thinks of it.
“It”™s been our family home, loved by our children, our grandchildren and the community,” said the options trader, who owns the property with her husband, Joel, an attorney and venture capitalist.
She recalled between 600 and 1,000 people coming to pick apples in the orchard. (The site could accommodate the parking.)
“Up until Covid, many families would say they would mark the change of seasons by the apple-picking at Buckhorn.”
The 13.55-acre estate ”“ listed with Houlihan Lawrence ”“ is actually two properties, with lawns, gardens, a lake, a pool and woodland bordering The Henry Morgenthau Preserve. The front property consists of a 4,923-square-foot main house, with four bedrooms and five and a half bathrooms; the Lake House, which is connected to the main house by a porte-cochère; a caretaker”™s cottage, a pool house and a two-car garage with an apartment above.
The back property consists of the 9,162-square-foot Art Barn, built in 2001; a two-bedroom, two-bathroom guest house and a one-bedroom cottage, built in 1906. (All of the buildings, Mallin said, can be used as guest houses, as they are equipped with bathrooms and kitchens. Even the Art Barn, also home to a 3,000-bottle wine cellar, has a bathroom and is kitchen-ready.)
More on the Art Barn in a bit. But first the main house, which has a connection to local culinary and fashion history. Built in 1933, it was the farmhouse of the Emily Shaw family, Mallin said. From 1939 to ”™89, Shaw and son John owned the neighboring Emily Shaw”™s Inn ”“ once a private residence, built in 1833, that had multiple uses before becoming their restaurant, serving fine American cuisine to the strains of a pianist playing standards of the day. (The restaurant is now The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges.)
The Shaws, Mallin said, sold their farmhouse to a doctor, who in turn sold it to Jerry Silverman and Shannon Rogers ”“ founding partners of Jerry Silverman Inc., one of the most successful purveyors of women”™s ready-to-wear in New York in the second half of the 20th century ”“ who used the place for entertaining.
Enter Mallin”™s husband, Joel. He bought the house some 40, 45 years ago and did some renovations. Subsequently, he married Sherry, and they divided their time between their home in Manhattan and Buckhorn ”“ a place noted not only for its orchard and Art Barn but for the Buckhorn Sculpture Garden. The Mallins have some 1,500 Modern and contemporary works, including photographs, paintings and some 70 sculptures by the likes of Daniel Graham, Anish Kapoor, Sol LeWitt and Joel Shapiro. “We like things that make us sit and think,” she said.
Over the years, thousands have viewed the collection ”“ in keeping with the Mallins”™ sense of stewardship ”“ on a site that is both expansive and secluded.
“We really don”™t own it,” Sherry Mallin said. “We take care of it.”
She sees art as an aesthetic investment not a financial one: “You can buy a piece for $1 million and a piece for $100. It”™s all about quality. And quality doesn”™t have anything to do with money.”
Her advice to nascent collectors: “Buy what you love.”
The Mallins had thought of turning Buckhorn into an arts center, but, she added, “it is a complex process to leave it to the town and would have to be endowed sufficiently.” Instead, they are selling the two properties, which are listed at $3,495,000 and $2,995,000 for the front property and the back property respectively, and selling the art collection separately, with some pieces to be donated.
The couple, who want to enjoy family and friends while remaining self-sufficient, are instead headed to the Sterling Park Independent Living Community at The Osborn in Rye.
“We are both 88,” Mallin said, “and have been thinking about closing a chapter and opening a new one. Life is a series of chapters.”
For more, contact Jody Rosen at 914-234-9099, ext. 22321, 914-907-3300 or JRosen@HoulihanLawrence.com; or Mary H. Palmerton at 914-234-9099, ext. 22369, 914-843-4158 or mpalmerton@houlihanlawrence.com.
