A Centreville estate called Shadowbrook has set a record for Delaware property sales. (Courtesy of Steve Crifasi, Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate)
A Centreville estate with a 10-bedroom house, five rental properties and two barns on 152 acres has just been sold for $18 million.
That’s a record for Delaware, according to Steve Crifasi, the listing agent with Christopher S. Patterson, both of Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate.
“It’s drop-dead beautiful,” he told DelawareLive.
“What makes the property so unique is that it is very private, and you can’t see it from the road,” he told Realtor.com when it listed last year. “It’s very relaxing and peaceful when you are there.”
It was sold by the six children of Edna Bennett Pierce, who died in 2022, and C. Eugene Bennett. It attracted “numerous” developers, Crifasi said, because development on it is unrestricted.
It also drew interest from three families who made offers “at or near” the listing price, and “the family wanted to deal with families first,” he said.
The deal had been in the works for a little while before it was closed.
The buyer: one of the siblings, whom Crifasi declined to name.
She plans to move back into the house, upgrade it and put it into a conservation easement. “She wants to maintain it the way it is, and she has a lot of ideas,” he said.
The house includes a replica of the Montmorenci staircase at Winterthur. (Courtesy of Steve Crifasi, Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate)
The full-page ad in Delaware Today describes Shadowbrook as a “circa 1939 Georgian stone home with exquisite museum-quality millwork and moldings, including a replica of the Montmorenci staircase seen at the nearby Winterthur Museum.
“The approximately 12,000-square-foot of living space offers 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, 11 fireplaces and breathtaking views at every turn. With fields and valleys that bridge the Delaware-Pennsylvania line, this property includes a six+-acre stream-fed pond, five rental properties and two barns with 20+ horse stalls.”
The main level. (Courtesy of Steve Crifasi, Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate)
The upper level. (Courtesy of Steve Crifasi, Patterson-Schwartz Real Estate)
A history of the property
Hal Haskell Sr., then assistant director of the DuPont Co., bought the land as a wedding gift for his daughter. Haskell’s son, Hal Jr., was a Congressman and Wilmington mayor.
The Bennetts bought the house in 1978 from Gerret Copeland, a member of the du Pont family known for his philanthropy, particularly in the arts.
C. Eugene Bennett was a co-founder of F & M Scientific Corp. After his death, Edna Bennett Pierce married Augustus “Bud” Duer Pierce Jr., co-founder of Financial House in Centreville.
Her obituary offered this insight on her joy in nature: “Edna loved nature and the beauty of the landscape around her – and cultivated that love within us. Throughout much of her life she enjoyed and involved us in gardening, growing a wide variety of vegetables, and creating magnificent flower beds surrounding our home. She supported us in nurturing our ever-changing menagerie of pets and wildlife. She encouraged us to enjoy the great outdoors and led by example: swimming (many summers, a mile a day) and hiking through the fields, woods, and creek. She reveled in spotting great blue herons and egrets on the pond – and recently, most majestic of all, the nesting bald eagles in one of the tulip poplars.”
The previous record for a residential property in Delaware was a $12 million waterfront home in Rehoboth Beach, according to Realtor.com. The three-floor home, built in 1930 on two lots, has seven bedrooms, an elevator and a pool.
