The European-style Filston Mansion, originally built for a Colgate heir, has been hit the market for $7.5 million. Considered one of the region’s most historically significant historic estates, it has only changed hands twice before.
Located in Sharon, Connecticut, the estate blends the American Gilded Age with European design influences. While largely preserved in its original state, modern updates include buried electrical lines, a propane furnace, updated plumbing and a commercial generator.
How the Filston House came to be
Construction on the mansion began in 1903 for Romulus Riggs Colgate, grandson of Colgate Company’s founder, William Colgate, and his wife, Susan. Award-winning architect J. William Cromwell Jr. designed and built the property locally referred to as “the Colgate Mansion.” The house wasn’t completed until 1906 at a cost of $2 million, about $46 million in today’s dollars. According to agents Kathy Clair and Pat Lahoud of Sotheby’s International Reality, no room exceeds 23 feet in length, ensuring the house is as intimate as it is extravagant.
The mansion sits on 190 acres of land and has an interior of 12,000 square feet. It flaunts nine bedrooms, five full bathrooms and three half-baths.
The Colgates were active participants in the mansion’s design, creating a mix of Neo-Gothic, Palladian, Italian Renaissance and French Empire elements, creating an eclectic but harmonious European-inspired design.
Architectural specifics
Guests on the property are greeted with wrought iron gates embellished with the Colgate family crest, then pulled into the Great Reception Hall. This ballroom features caricatures of noblemen, clergy and English townspeople lining the walls above green marble-lined oak floors accented with gilded details. Down the hall are the dining room, living room, billiard room and study. At the end of the hall stands the original Butterfly staircase, remarkably preserved. The property contains horse facilities, a library, three fireplaces, a carriage house, original wide carriage trails, gardens, stables, staff quarters and an outdoor pool.
Susan Colgate oversaw much of the interior. According to Francis York, “she incorporated French Empire and Louis XIV and XV motifs into the reception rooms and private suites.” She ensured custom elements such as hand-carved fireplaces and Fontaine hardware. Marble for these pieces was quarried directly from the property.
Previous owners and current sellers
The Filston House has had three owners over its 119-year lifespan. After the Colgates died, ten years apart in 1926 and 1936, the estate was acquired by Edgar Ausnit, a Romanian who had recently fled Europe and worked as a steel magnate. He owned multiple companies that created products with polyethylene materials.
When Ausnit died in 1968, songwriter and producer Paul Leka – best known for the stadium anthem “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye)” owned the mansion and occasionally used it as a recording space.
The mansion sold for $6.1 million in 2014 to Pablo Cisilino and interior designer Silvina Leone. The agents assisting in selling the home are Kathryn Clair and Pat Lahoud of Washington Depot, Connecticut. Now back on the market at $7.5 million, the Filston Mansion offers buyers not just a home, but a rare piece of American architectural history.
