Nuits

Built in 1852, for Francis Cottenet (1795-1884) and his wife Frances Caroline Laight (1803-1870). It was built for a Frenchman and designed by a Frenchman, Detlef Lienau (1818-1887), who insisted that it be built with French Caen-stone in order to make it authentic. After Cottenet died, it was briefly home to Cyrus West Field (1819-1892), a co-founder of the Atlantic Telegraph Company that laid the first ocean-crossing telegraph cable. But, Field immediately ran into financial difficulties and after just one year sold up to a man with no financial concerns, the recently widowed John Jacob Astor III. He spent $100,000 improving the property but died only a few years later....