Because we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past, or possibly just to hawk some real estate, a developer building a Great Neck, N.Y. subdivision in the 1980s went ahead and named it "Gatsby Lane." ("It's a nice, affluent name," a broker once told the New York Times. "I think it was very smart.") So there isn't really any connection between F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic and the homes there—aside from the fact that he based the fictional community of West Egg on the area—which aren't historic Gold Coast estates, but embody the more recent tradition of newer homes trying to cash in on Great Gatsby fever. The Times once wrote that Gatsby Lane had "glimpses of spectacular water views between wedding-cake houses, and it wouldn't be hard to place Gatsby in one of the more ostentatious mansions." Is this six-bedroom Gatsby Lane estate, currently listed at $15.98M, ostentatious enough to count?
Built in 1957, the 12,000-square-foot abode missed the boat for Gatsbyesque shenanigans by a few decades, but that hasn't stopped it from getting decked out in what the listing ventures is an "Old World style," which could almost be accurate, if you squinted a bit: there's tons of gold trim on the inside, and hey, a few columns. The listing photos are eager to show off the "fabulous water views" on the statue-filled "fabulous entertaining grounds." For that kind of sum, you better be able to look out at night and catch sight of a thematically significant green light shining across Manhasset Bay.
· 9 Gatsby Lane [Zillow]
· Eyeing the Unreal Estate of Gatsby Esq. [NYT]
· Borne Back Ceaselessly Into Gatsby's Embrace [NYT]
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