"Dunnellen Hall"

 residence, Tudor (architecture)

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"Dunnellen Hall", the 28 room 22,000 sq ft Jacobean manor house set on 40 acres, located at 521 Round Hill Road, Greenwich, CT. Estate includes a carriage house, walk-in-vault, dance floor, koi pond, and sits on a high point with views of L.I. Sound. Often referred to as the Topping House, the mansion was designed by William B. Tubby in 1918, at what was then the staggering sum of $1,000,000, for steel and banking tycoon Daniel Grey Reid as a wedding gift for his daughter, Rhea, when she married Henry Topping. It was sold by the Toppings in 1950 to Loring Washburn who later declared bankruptcy.

In 1963 Dunnellen Hall became the property of a finance and factoring concern. It remained empty for 3 years, until it was bought by a partnership that sold it to Gregg Sherwood Dodge Moran, a one-time showgirl and former wife to an heir to the Dodge automobile fortune. She only owned the estate for 2 years, then sold it for $1,000,000 to financier Jack R. Dick, who in 1971 was indicted by a New York grand jury that he had stolen $840,000 by using phony documents to obtain a loan. He died in 1974 before the case went to trial.

Dunellen Hall next passed to an Indian-born owner of oil supertankers named Ravi Tikkoo for $3,000,000 including the furnishings. His wife disliked the estate and he sold it with furnishings to Harry and Leona Helmsley in 1983 for $11,000,000. They added 2 pools, 1 outdoor and 1 indoor. The estate was sold from their trust in 2010 for $35 million.

Harry B. Helmsley (1909-1997), real estate mogul who built a company that became one of the biggest property holders in the United States. Part of his company's portfolio at one time included managing the Empire State Building. Mr. Helmsley died of pneumonia and left his empire ( estimated at $5.5 billion) to his wife Leona. Leona M. Helmsley (1920-2007)was a billionaire New York City hotel operator and real estate investor, she passed away at Dunellen Hall of heart failure. Her first husband was attorney Leo Panzirer. From 1953 until 1960, she was married to garment industry executive Joseph Lubin, and married Helmsley in 1972.