Dobbs Ferry home was love at first sight
Jim Jennett’s decision to buy 106 Magnolia Drive in Dobbs Ferry took only five minutes.
That’s a remarkably short time considering that he and his wife, Jacque, had already spent months scouring Westchester in their quest to leave their Manhattan co-op.
“I knew this house was the right one after having seen just three rooms,” he says, remembering back to 1976, when the first of their two children was just a year old.
What caught his eye in the 5,100-square-foot, five-bedroom house built in 1863: the living room’s marble fireplace, the dining room’s stained-glass windows, and the main entrance hall’s paneling, stair railings and intricate carvings fashioned out of wood that the owner from 1927 to 1939 had salvaged from a Fifth Avenue mansion owned by entrepreneur Frederick Lewisohn.
“Those three rooms hooked me on the whole place,” he says. “I thought, 'If the rest of the house is like these those rooms, then this is the right house.'”
Jacque loved the stately brick residence too, but her main requirement was different from Jim’s: It had to pass what she calls “the night test.”
Jim’s 40-year career as a producer and director with ABC Sports — he won nine Emmy Awards — forced him to spend a lot of time on the road. That left Jacque needing a house in which she felt relaxed at all hours of the day.
“I visited here at night to make sure it felt cozy despite its large size,” she recalls. The house also had to be creak-free and have nearby neighbors. “I was comfortable from the start; some of the houses we looked at didn’t pass the test.”
And there was one characteristic of the house, on nearly a half acre, that piqued both their interests: its long and storied history, which they started documenting shortly after moving in.
“We wanted to investigate why the neighbors called it the Flower Mansion,” explains Jim. “It turned out to have belonged to the brother of New York state’s 30th governor, Roswell P. Flower (1892-1894). Then, just out of curiosity, we wanted to find out who else had lived here. One detail led to another.”
The Jennetts unearthed the house’s 14 previous owners, who included renowned American journalist and book author Hutchins Hapgood; Cyrus Field Judson, a grandson of business magnate Cyrus W. Field; R.M. Olyphant, a successful New York City merchant; Col. Elliott F. Shepard (who named the manse Southlawn) and his wife, who was a granddaughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.
In 1992, Southlawn was added to the Westchester County Inventory of Historic Places.
The list of notables who likely visited the home’s various owners was a veritable “Who’s Who in America” of its era.
“I think about all the dinner guests who must have been famous,” muses Jim. “Hutchins Hapgood alone had a bevy of prominent friends: Clarence Darrow, Eugene O’Neill, Georgia O’Keefe, Margaret Sanger, Theodore Drieser and Ernest Hemingway. They must have had some rousing discussions in the dining room.”
Despite the house’s age and many owners, its interior was in good shape when the Jennetts moved in. They removed a floor-to-ceiling mirror a previous owner had plastered over one of the four fireplaces, added a screen-in porch, refurbished the lead in the stained-glass windows, stripped the tarnish from the four fireplaces’ mantles and marble, and gutted the kitchen, the three full bathrooms and the two half baths.
Southlawn’s bygone look was preserved by the Jennetts’ choice of furnishings. “Most of it isn’t new,” says Jacque. “Mainly only the kitchen and dining room chairs, and the dining room table.” The older pieces were family antiques and items they restored after having bought them from junk shops and eBay. Jacque, who had a small interior designer business, chose the paint colors and wallpaper patterns.
But now, after 40 years in the house, Jim, a native of Kansas City, and Jacque, from New Jersey, are considering moving back to Manhattan.
“Part of me would like to stay here forever, but it’s a big home for only two people,” says Jim. “It’s for a family with kids.”
“We’re sad about leaving,” adds Jacque, “but life marches on.”
Because many area houses as old and grand as Southlawn have succumbed to fire or a wrecking ball, Jim calls Southlawn “a survivor. I really embrace that our tender loving care has helped it live on.”
LIKE THIS HOUSE?
Price: $2,350,000
Annual Taxes: $30,732
School District: Dobbs Ferry
MLS #: 4614030
Listing Agent: William Ford-Sussman with Coldwell Banker, Dobbs Ferry, 914-420-6161, bill.ford-sussman@cbmoves.com.
