Exclusive | An 1800s residence on 144 gorgeous acres in the Hudson Valley lists for $2.47M — for the first time in decades
In 1986, when John MacMurray was 10, his parents bought a crumbling 19th-century farmhouse in New Lebanon, New York, near the border of Massachusetts, that few others would have considered.
“We didn’t even want to get out of the car because it was such a dump,” MacMurray recalled to The Post. “But my dad fell in love with it. And I understand why. It’s remote, situated on a beautiful piece of land.”
Nearly 40 years later, the Mossford Estate — as the family came to call it — has been listed for $2.47 million with Anthony D’Argenzio of Houlihan Lawrence.
The property spans 144 acres in the Hudson Valley and includes a 3,686-square-foot main house, an antique barn, a pond, a tennis court and broad meadows framed by forests.
The house, dating to around 1800, had been left untouched for decades when the MacMurrays purchased it — formerly used as a boarding house.
“My parents put a lot of love and a lot of money into it over the years,” MacMurray said.
Working with Hudson Valley architect Jeremiah Rusconi, they lifted the foundation and restored original elements, from wide-plank floorboards to hand-painted doors.
“There is hardware that would have been from that time, and glass brought in from Germany with just the right sort of wavy texture to it that you can’t find in the United States,” he said.
Their approach was uncompromising.
“They pulled out all the stops and probably spent several times more renovating it than what they actually bought the house for,” MacMurray said.
“But they did it in a fashion that was really nice, so that if you go in today, it’s hard to believe it was done that many years ago, because the construction quality is really incredible.”
The restoration emphasized not just authenticity but warmth. The centerpiece of the main level is a soaring den, once part of a barn, whose beams recall an Adirondack lodge.
In the kitchen wing, a breakfast nook and adjoining fireplace became the family’s hub.
“It was a place where we would congregate for all of our big meals with family Christmases, Easter and all that kind of stuff,” MacMurray said.
Upstairs, the primary suite includes a fireplace, while three additional bedrooms are connected by a hallway with a reading nook.
Furnishings were sourced over decades from Hudson Valley antique shops, often with painstaking effort. MacMurray recalled his parents reassembling an original dining set chair by chair, tracking pieces through multiple dealers.
MacMurray said he would consider selling some of the furniture in the house to the future owner if they wished, including a vintage antique car his dad had bought in the final years of his life.
For MacMurray and his brother, the estate offered a childhood far removed from their Manhattan apartment.
“We had lots of land for hunting and fishing and hiking, snowshoeing, hockey, things like that,” he said.
Summers meant swimming in the pond, winters skating across its frozen surface.
“It’s really a nice rural escape. We ran around driving tractors and shooting guns and fishing, which was my dad’s vision for the place.”
In later years, the estate became his father’s primary residence.
“It’s held up extremely well. It was maintained extraordinarily well by my dad over the years, but unfortunately he passed away two years ago,” MacMurray said.
With his brother now in Florida and his own family based on Long Island, he added, “We don’t really have the time to get up there and to use the place the way that we would want to. And we’re really looking for somebody who can come and appreciate the historical elements and all the care that we sort of put into renovating and restoring the house.”
Selling, he acknowledged, will be bittersweet.
“It’ll be tough as it always is. But my dad is gone. It’s not the same. And so even if we kept it and held on to it, those times are gone and it’s time for someone else to enjoy it and love it,” he said. “But I think at this point we’re ready to move on.”
