'Brook House,' Once Owned By 'Mack The Knife' Composer Kurt Weill, Hits Market For $2.295M

NEW CITY, NY — A rare chance to own a "storybook 19^th-century home" in Rockland County that once belonged to the well-known composer Kurt Weill and singer-actress Lotte Lenya, is here for $2.295 million.

According to the listing, by Richard Ellis of Ellis Sotheby's International Realty, Brook House is a five-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,600-s.f. estate on 5.5 private acres on South Mountain Road, built in 1880, "within the storied namesake artists community that served as a retreat and creative haven for celebrated cultural figures who shaped American art, theater, film and music."

Weill is perhaps best known for composing the music for "The Threepenny Opera," including the famous song, "Mack the Knife," made popular by Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Louie Armstrong and others.

The property also previously belonged to Rollo Peters, co-founder of the Theatre Guild and a major name in American stage production, according to Ellis.

He added that the estate has had only four owners in the last 110 years, adding to its rarity.

The current owners, who have had the property for the past 33 years, "undertook an extensive restoration, carefully preserving the estate's 19th-century architecture while elevating it for modern living." The restoration was completed in collaboration with prominent NYC interior designer Gail Jacobs, known for designing homes for musical figures, including Leonard Bernstein's apartment at The Dakota.

According to Ellis, Jacobs spent years curating antiques, furnishings and custom lighting from around the world to complement the estate's artistic legacy, including custom-selected Ann-Morris lighting and antique Holophane fixtures.

"Architecturally, the estate blends rustic grandeur with refined historic detail," Ellis described. Features include period hand-hewn beams, dramatic stone and boulder walls, wide plank pine and white oak flooring, soaring ceilings, French doors and four fireplaces to "create interiors rich with texture and atmosphere." He noted that mantels include both a 19th-century carved wood surround and a 19th-century Louis XV-style limestone mantelpiece.

The main home has around seven to eight rooms, including three bedrooms and two baths. A separate legal guest home, which led to the property's zoning as a two-family estate, has two bedrooms, one-and-a-half baths, a full kitchen, a living room with a fireplace, and a walk-out lower-level den.

The grounds include an oversized workshop garage, a brick potting shed, a garden shed, a chicken coop, and an artesian well.

In addition, the property has mature flowering gardens, stone walls, open rolling fields, woodland paths, and a rebuilt stone bridge that arches over a branch of the Hackensack River, flowing through the estate.

The South Mountain Road enclave is known for having residents who were some of the most influential creative figures of the 20th century, such as playwright Maxwell Anderson; artist, architect and potter Henry Varnum Poor; sculptor John Mowbray-Clark; painter Arthur B. Davies; actor Burgess Meredith; Paramount Pictures founder Adolph Zukor; filmmaker John Huston; and Mick Jagger, lead singer of The Rolling Stones, who lived there in the late 1970s.

Ellis said the home is a culturally significant part of the artistic history of the region and the broader story of New York's mid-century art scene.

"Brook House offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own a residence where architecture, landscape and cultural history converge in one of the Northeast's most quietly legendary artist communities," he said. "The result is a rare blend of historic authenticity, wonderful provenance, artistic legacy and refined country design."

The property borders the 91-acre Davenport Preserve and the West Branch Conservation Land Trust, allowing for privacy and protected natural surroundings. Nearby amenities include High Tor State Park, the Paramount Country Club, and a working farm at the southern end of South Mountain Road.

The property is zoned to the Clarkstown Central School District, with property taxes of $25,979 per year.