This Pelham Manor home has been vacant since 1969

Selah Masten had a great eye.

In the 1920s, Masten, one of the founders of Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, was a championship trap shooter. And apparently, a good golfer, too.

News clippings of the day report him winning trophies as a member of the New York Athletic Club; a program announcing the 1923 opening of Winged Foot, which was created as a golf course for the members of the club, list Masten as the chairman of the building committee.

In 1921, Masten, who owned a New York City construction company bearing his name, built a stately field stone colonial on a large lot on Ely Avenue in Pelham Manor, just off Boston Post Road.

At various times, the neighbors included P.I. Prentice, publisher of Time magazine, and Philip Grove, whose Grove Group construction conglomerate built Eero Saarinen's TWA terminal at JFK.

The walls were more than 2 feet thick with deep window sills and high ceilings. Masten installed an early sprinkler system that drew water from an artesian well. "There are no other homes, that I know of, in Pelham, that have a sprinkler system on an artesian well," says Holly Mellstrom, the listing broker with William Pitt Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International Realty. The home is currently on the market for $1,599,000.

In its heyday, the large property also had its own gas pump. Masten's chauffeur  — who was the president of the Pelham Driver's Association, reports Mellstrom —  was able to gas up the family vehicle without having to leave the driveway.

"He had the most expert craftsmen from all over the world working there for weeks on the stonework and the roof," says Masten's  grandson, Kenneth Graves. "All of it is hand-cut field stone."

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What's most intriguing about this home is not the gas pump, nor its gorgeous inlaid mahogany floors or the unique Adirondack room.

What's most intriguing is that it has remained, virtually untouched, since well before Masten passed away at age 86 in 1969.

The twin beds in the master bedroom have luxurious silk bedspreads bearing his insignia: S-B-M; same thing for the blue towels hanging in the huge master bath. In the closet are an array of bathrobes with S-B-M sewn on the breast pockets.

Tucked into the sitting room off the master is an actual tanning bed. "The family liked to maintain their tans when they returned here from Palm Beach," says Mellstrom.

When he visited his grandfather as a boy of 7, Kenneth Graves remembers waking up early in the house and having breakfast in a bright dining area off the formal dining room. Today, the table remains, a tea set arranged neatly on a nearby sideboard.

"He would read the paper and then we would head off to Winged Foot," he says.

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Graves' mother, Lucille, was Selah Masten's only child.

Graves said he loved staying at the big house and was fascinated by all its workings, which included a sophisticated bell system for the household servants. "I would sit in a chair in the upstairs bedroom and just stare at the crown molding," he says. "It literally disappeared into the ceiling; it was so well made you can't tell where one ends and the other begins."

The home is full of details like that — no two crown moldings are exactly alike in any room of the house.

Kenneth Graves' father, Lester Graves Jr., was the son of a former Pelham mayor. The Graves family lived near the Mastens, on James Street. "But they never met until they were in college," says Kenneth Graves of his parents. Lester and Lucille were married for 70 years; she died in 2013; Lester followed in 2015.

After they married, the Graves family relocated, but returned to Pelham Manor each summer to spend three weeks visiting Selah, who himself was only in residence for three to four months a year. The rest of the time he spent in Pinehurst, North Carolina, before heading south to his winter home at the Breakers in Palm Beach, Graves says.

Graves didn't offer an explanation for why this house remained a time capsule, with bills and correspondence dating to the 1950s in a glass-fronted credenza in the upstairs sitting room, nor the vanity table still covered with perfume bottles and brushes in the junior master bedroom. Town and Country magazines from the early 1970s lay on a table as if they were just put down.

It was an obvious labor of love for someone to ensure that this home was cared for, its expansive lawns mowed and the hedges trimmed; lights and heat on, the mahogany parquet floors shined, waiting for the family to reappear.

In the living room, a grand piano has pride of place, a faded, framed black-and-white photo on top. In the adjacent Adirondack room, logs are stacked next to a massive fireplace. Cozy armchairs face a 1950s television console, a relic from the time when The "Camel News Caravan" with John Cameron Swayze was on the air.

After 96 years, the family has finally decided to part with 680 Ely Ave.; the first time someone other than a Masten will own it.

"I feel that the house needs to be brought back to life," says Graves.

This home has been meticulously maintained, if not updated, and the expertise and craftsmanship with which it was originally built is obvious.

There is not a crack in the plaster and the elegant brocade wallpaper in the entry foyer and staircase looks as if a designer recently placed it there. The intricate checked tile floors in the bathrooms are back in style. A lovely screened porch facing Ely Avenue is just waiting for a summer breeze.

Two second-floor bedroom suites at either end of the house are massive, with closets and bathrooms of immense proportions. A third bedroom has an ensuite, as well. Two additional bedrooms and a bath make up the third floor. Here too was evidence of lives well-lived: Selah Masten's trapshooting gear, a wedding gown, and a vintage bowling ball in a leather carrying case shared space with maid's uniforms hanging neatly in a closet.

The family recently restored the slate roof — tile by tile — and has updated the major systems. While admittedly ripe for some major upgrades, mainly the bathrooms and kitchen, what is an absolute rarity is to find a house of this vintage and caliber that has every original detail intact, from porcelain doorknobs in the bathrooms to the intricate, custom radiator covers in every room.

The utilitarian kitchen is a marvel from an era when only servants manned the huge, vintage stove. Clad from floor to ceiling in white subway tile, there is ample room to create a modern kitchen by combining it with a breakfast nook and an adjacent butler's pantry. Right off the kitchen is a bright mudroom/laundry combo with an old-fashioned screen door leading to the backyard.

The home is on just under a half-acre. A long driveway leads to a three-car garage with a small apartment above that once served as the chauffeur's quarters. Today, Mellstrom says it could be the perfect home office.

Selah Masten lived here, part-time until his death at 86, with help from a caretaker named Frank, who it turned out, was also 86, says Masten's grandson. The long-ago gas pump is gone, but the vestiges of Selah's life are evident everywhere you look.

Although it's slightly haunting contemplating the people who once lived here, it doesn't feel lonely. Or neglected.

"The house has a very peaceful feeling," says Mellstrom.

Graves agrees.  "The house needs someone who understands what it can be again after 96 years. And I hope someone will enjoy it as much as my family has; it is a unique and warm home."

Details

680 Ely Ave., Pelham Manor; 13 rooms, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms

Price: $1,599,000

Taxes: $43,979 (2016)

Schools: Pelham

Contact: Holly Mellstrom, Julia B. Fee Sotheby's International,  914-224-3867;  Holly.mellstrom@juliabfee.com