Topline
A sprawling New York castle featured in the music video for Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space,” as the iconic Xanadu estate in “Citizen Kane” and as the wedding venue for Kevin Jonas, Anthony Weiner and Megyn Kelly will head to auction next month after undergoing a $40 million restoration.
Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York.
Brett Matthews Photography, Elliott Kaufman Photography, Phillip Ennia, Stefen Turner, and Camelot
Key Facts
Built on Long Island as the second-largest private residence ever constructed in America, Oheka Castle spans approximately 112,895 square feet across 23 acres at the highest point on Long Island.
The 127-room French Renaissance château has an expansive grand staircase, massive ballroom with 24-foot ceilings, library, 34 guest suites and a terrace room addition built for large-scale entertaining.
The grounds were originally designed by the Olmsted Brothers, sons of Central Park designer Frederick Law Olmsted, and the property boasts nine reflecting pools, three fountains, arbor archways and European statues.
The property will go up for auction via Concierge and Adam Modlin of The Modlin Group on Oct. 27 and the lot, which has no designated starting bid, includes an adjacent 5.13-acre plot of land that has already been approved by the local Town of Huntington to be developed into 95 luxury condominiums.
Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York.
Brett Matthews Photography, Elliott Kaufman Photography, Phillip Ennia, Stefen Turner, and Camelot
Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York.
Elliott Kaufman Photography
Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York.
Brett Matthews Photography
OHEKA CASTLE’S EXTENSIVE SCREEN TIME
Photos and matte miniature shots of Oheka Castle were used to depict Xanadu in the 1941 classic film “Citizen Kane.” Thirty years later it was used in the Sean Connery crime thriller “The Anderson Tapes.” It made several big-screen appearances in the early 2000s, including in Nicole Kidman’s “The Others,” Jack Black’s “Envy” and “What Happens In Vegas” with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. It appeared in the TV shows “Succession” and “Royal Pains,” as well as music videos from Swift, Liam Payne and Jennifer Lopez.
WHO WAS MARRIED AT OHEKA CASTLE?
Former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner married Huma Abedin, a top aide to Hillary Clinton, in a ceremony officiated by former President Bill Clinton. Kevin Jonas, a member of The Jonas Brothers boy band, married Danielle Deleasa in a 2009 winter wonderland ceremony covered extensively by People magazine. *NSYNC star Joey Fatone married Kelly Baldwin in 2004 with his bandmates—including Justin Timberlake—in attendance as groomsmen. Grammy-nominated R&B singer Brian McKnight married Leilani Malia Mendoza there in 2017. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly was married on the estate’s grounds in 2008 and former New England Patriot Curtis Martin tied the knot there two years later.
BIG NUMBER
$150,000. That’s about how much the average 200-person wedding at Oheka Castle cost this year.
Key background
Oheka Castle was built between 1914 and 1919 on 443 acres by investment banker Otto Hermann Kahn. After two years of earth-moving to construct a man-made hill upon which to build, the mansion was erected at a cost of about $11 million ($263 million today). It was sold in 1939 to the Welfare Fund of the Sanitation Workers of New York and used as a vacation/retirement retreat for New York City sanitation workers and their families. The property was partitioned in the 1940s and most of it sold to become the neighboring Cold Spring Country Club. The castle was used as a radio operator training school during World War II and as a boarding school, the Eastern Military Academy, from 1948 to 1979. After sitting vacant (and being vandalized) for five years, Long Island real estate developer Gary Melius purchased the castle in 1984 for $1.5 million and initiated a multi-decade, $40 million restoration project. It was sold to Japanese businessman Hideki Yokoi in the 80s before Melius repurchased the property in the mid-2000s, and it has been run as a luxury hotel, wedding location and film location ever since. Melius defaulted on a substantial loan more than a decade ago and last year filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to delay the foreclosure sale of Oheka Castle. Now, the sale is taking place under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction process.
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