A sprawling Northern New Jersey estate tied to one of New York’s more prominent socialites just hit the market.
The $2.95 million price tag gets you 40 Mountain Top Road, a 9,800-square-foot Bernardsville beauty that Brooke Astor — the late NYC philanthropy titan — called home during her hellish first marriage, according to NorthJersey.com.
The nine-bedroom, 10-bathroom pad oozes early 1900s excess, with towering columns, a two-story portico — and interiors tricked out with ornate woodwork, soaring ceilings and multiple fireplaces.
The mansion, nicknamed Denbrooke, was Astor’s digs when she was married to John Dryden Kuser, a Jersey political bigwig. His father funded High Point State Park and helped birth Fox Film, while his grandfather launched Prudential Insurance and served as a US senator.
Kuser, a Princeton grad, made his own mark pushing the eastern goldfinch as New Jersey’s state bird in 1935 — a win that had senators mocking with fake chirps, per The Ridgewood News.
Ashley Christus of Turpin Real Estate holds the listing.
“Denbrooke is a timeless gem,” Christus said. “Over the years, it has been the cherished backdrop for family weddings, graduation parties and intimate gatherings alike.”
Set on 6.6 acres, the home, in Somerset Hills, has been professionally landscaped to include a deer fence, mature specimen trees, expansive level lawns, a perennial garden and an oval swimming pool, the listing notes. Three finished levels house the bedrooms, seven full baths and three powder rooms.
But behind the mansion’s grand doors, Astor’s life was crumbling.
Married at 17, she later revealed in her memoir “Footprints” about a marriage riddled with booze, alleged affairs and abuse that left her crying herself to sleep.
Astor toughed it out long enough to oversee a glam overhaul by A-list architect Albert Musgrave Hyde, but by 1930, she was done — grabbing their son Anthony and filing for divorce in a split that exploded across headlines nationwide.
Kuser’s political career tanked after losing a reelection bid in 1935, and he faded into obscurity, dying in 1964.
Astor, however, bounced back, marrying Vincent Astor, inheriting a fortune, and becoming a philanthropy juggernaut, earning a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998 before passing away at 105 in 2007.