Author and journalist Richard Preston had plenty of space to write his bestselling books, like “The Hot Zone” and “The Wild Trees,” at this 76-plus-acre New Jersey estate, which is now on the market for $3.5 million.
Built in 2001, Freestone Farm, in Hopewell, NJ, was designed by Seattle-based architect James Cutler of Cutler Anderson Architects, famed for co-designing Xanadu 2.0.
That’s the massive, 66,000-square-foot, high-tech, “earth-sheltered” property overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Wash., where then-married Bill and Melinda Gates raised their children and entertained world leaders.
Freestone Farm is Cutler’s only work in New Jersey, according to the listing broker Joan Loraine Otis of Callaway Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty.
The stone, wood and glass main house is built on the ruins of a bank barn, according to the listing.
It comes with four bedrooms, four bathrooms and two powder rooms. The first floor features high ceilings, a fieldstone fireplace and a chef’s kitchen. The second floor has the bedrooms, which were defined by the stone bays that were left from the former barn.
There are stunning views from every room, bluestone terraces and an outdoor fireplace — all on 41 acres.
The sale also includes an adjacent 35-acre lot with a 4-acre reserve area that can be developed. The property features private walking trails, some through old forests.
There’s also a public walking trail through the western end of the property. A solar field provides “much” of the electricity and an energy-efficient heat pump system cools and heats the house.
The property also features the original farmhouse, linked to the main house by a bluestone walkway.
There’s also a barn, garage, smokehouse and a stream with a swimming hole. Local legend boasts that George Washington’s soldiers swam here to cool off during the Revolutionary War.
Preston bought the property, all 76 acres plus the farmhouse, for $700,000 in 1998.
