Photo: Xavi Torrent/Getty Images
The Connecticut estate that Richard Gere bought from Paul Simon, then sold to developers, has been returned to dust. The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom Georgian-style mansion, which was designed by architect Harold Reeve Sleeper, was demolished along with a 2,400-square-foot guest cottage to make way for nine new lots. This is likely sad news for Simon’s daughter, Lulu Simon, who grew up in that house and hates Richard Gere. (“I hope my dead pets buried in that backyard haunt you until you descend into a slow and unrelenting madness,” she wrote in July.)
The reasons for that hatred: Gere bought the house from Simon for $10.8 million in 2022. At the time, he and his wife, Alejandra Silva, reportedly wanted to turn the estate into a working farm with mushrooms, honey, and possibly goats. (To the trepidation of their neighbors. “How bad is goat manure?” a member of the local planning commission asked in a meeting. “There’s no odor with goats,” Gere explained. “It’s very small pellets, like a rabbit.”) But before they could realize their future potential for keeping goats, Gere and Silva announced that they were moving to Spain to be closer to Silva’s family. They sold their house to developers last October for $10.75 million in an off-market deal. (“I love Spain and I think your lifestyle is fabulous,” Gere told Vanity Fair Spain in April 2024.)
The listing photo for this 1930s Georgian-style estate shows off the lush pool.
Photo: Smart MLS Inc/Realtor.com
The cerused-oak library featured in this listing photo was salvaged by Hudson Valley House Parts.
Photo: Smart MLS Inc/Realtor.com
Take a last look at the grand sunroom shown in this listing photo, because it longer exists.
Photo: Smart MLS Inc/Realtor.com
This was a betrayal, apparently, of Lulu Simon. On Instagram earlier this summer, she claimed that Gere “promised he would take care of the land as a condition of his purchase.” And now the house is gone. But its mid-century bay windows and limestone mantels went up for sale, per Reggie Young, the founder of the architectural salvage shop Hudson Valley House Parts, who says he was able to work with the developers to save pieces from the estate, including colonial window sashes and a Greek-revival doorway. (You can still buy the oak library.)
Now, instead of goats, the neighbors might have to deal with the sounds of constructing nine houses.