Linden

The Pattersons divided their time between here and their grand Regency-style townhouse in Manhattan, 15 East 65th Street. Here in Southampton, they laid out their own private golf course, entertained "frequently," and Rufus indulged his passion for growing orchids. The estate was kept in pristine condition by their estate manager, Stanley R. Candler. In about 1925, their son, Morehead, built "Ledgerwood" (also named for a family member) and summered there with his wife, Elsie, niece of the eccentric sculptor, Henry Clews Jr.

In about 1957, Mrs Patterson (then 85-years old) sold Lenoir to Lloyd Hilton Smith (1905-1999) and his wife, the oil heiress, Elizabeth Keith Wiess. "Lenoir" being such a personal name to its previous owners, the Smiths rechristened the estate "Linden" for the mature Linden trees that grow here. By 1970, Linden was said to contain about 35-rooms and aside fom the swimming pool and grass tennis court, it had its own miniature windmill.

The Smiths divided their time between here and Houston, Texas, from where their principal millions gushed. Lloyd H. Smith was as an independent oil and gas producer and Chairman of the Paraffine Oil Company. But their wealth was due in a greater part to his father-in-law: Harry Carothers Wiess, one of the four co-founders of the Humble Oil Company (if ever there was such a thing!) that was the largest producer of domestic oil in the United States from the 1940s to the 1960s. In 1972, it was purchased by Standard Oil and rebranded as Exxon, now Exxon-Mobil. Today Humble Oil holds the not-so humble title of being the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil.   

Lloyd H. Smith died here in 1999 and it was purchased three years later (2002) for $8.5-million by the co-founder of Espirit, Juergen Friedrich, and his wife, Anke Beck-Friedrich who transferred ownership into a holding company. In 2008, they placed the 18,000-square foot house and remaining 9-acres on the market for $60-million. It remained unsold but a rental agreement was signed for a reported $850,000 a month. It came back on the market for $49.5 million in 2011 and dropped to $45-million in 2013. Still unsold, the 12-bedroom, 12.5-bathroom house hit the market again in 2020 for $75-million.