A family with strong ties to Gulf Stream has purchased the Lemon Hill estate and plans to revive elements of the original 1939 design by Marion Sims Wyeth. Photo provided
By Steve Plunkett
The new owners of Lemon Hill plan to restore the 2.6-acre estate to its late 1930s grandeur.
Austin and Janie Musselman of Louisville, Kentucky, paid $16.5 million for the property at 1200 N. Ocean Blvd. in August, setting a town sales record for non-oceanfront property.
The previous owner, Stephen Benjamin, bought the mansion for $7.1 million in 2018 and started construction of a yacht basin on the west edge of the parcel by enlarging a canal leading to the Intracoastal Waterway.
“My family has been coming here since the ’30s. My grandparents came down a long time ago and we still have a lot of cousins and families in the area. Many of you know them,” Austin Musselman told Gulf Stream town commissioners at their April 14 meeting.
Society architect Marion Sims Wyeth designed the Florida Georgian-style home in 1939. His other projects included the Norton Museum of Art, Mar-a-Lago and other mansions in Palm Beach.
“The owners are very passionate about preservation and are excited to revive the architecture and design elements originally imagined by Marion Sims Wyeth,” said Boynton Beach-based contractor Jacob Lepera.
The Musselmans will expand the existing two-story east wing north by 10 feet. An existing single-story wing will expand east by 10 feet. Additional improvements include a larger sun porch and a reconfigured and expanded addition containing a family room, kitchen space and outdoor covered terrace space.
“Those areas are primarily 1950s additions that were added to the home that were not quite up to the character of the original Wyeth design. And we’re proposing to remove those,” said architect Domenick Treschitta of the Atlanta firm Historical Concepts.
The project team, Lepera said, met “solely” with Lisa Morgan, Mayor Scott Morgan’s wife, “and have made a commitment to jointly design and execute a supplemental plan for the property line buffering.”
The Morgans live immediately to the east.
Plans for a pickleball court were shelved after neighbors at an earlier meeting of the Architectural Review and Planning Board voiced concerns about noise.
The proposal, which needed a site plan review by the commission, was approved 3-0, with Vice Mayor Tom Stanley and Commissioner Thom Smith recusing themselves.
Smith lives immediately to the south of Lemon Hill and his landlocked property gained access to the canal when the yacht basin was dug. Stanley’s law firm represented the applicant during and after the sale.
Commissioner Joan Orthwein called the Lemon Hill proposal “an incredible project” and Commissioner Paul Lyons was equally enthusiastic.
“It’s a lovely house; it’s an iconic building. It’s one of the most unique locations, the way it sits up,” Lyons said. “So, I think it’s wonderful you’re restoring and retaining this iconic building and not tearing it down, because we have a lot of teardowns and rebuilds, so thank you.”
Austin Musselman is a family member of the Brown-Forman distillery empire and is the managing member of White Oak Investments LLC, a private holding company and a family office that manages its business and investment interests in Kentucky, Indiana, Florida and Wyoming.
He and his wife also own and manage Ashbourne Farms, a 2,250-acre third-generation working farm in La Grange, Kentucky, that has been completely restored as a luxury event and outdoor sporting destination.
In addition, he has been an active volunteer of several nonprofit organizations, including chair of the Kentucky chapter of the Nature Conservancy, vice chair of the Bluegrass Land Conservancy and on the President’s Council of American Farmland Trust.
In other business, town commissioners reelected Morgan as mayor and Stanley as vice mayor.
Former Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones was sworn in as chief of the Gulf Stream police force.
“Welcome to the town of Gulf Stream, chief, and let it be noted that transitions were very smooth,” Morgan said of the retirement of Ed Allen, Jones’ predecessor, on Jan. 31, and the service as interim chief provided by Capt. John Haseley.
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