Glen Tonche is an estate atop Mount Tonche, near Shokan

Shokan, New York

Shokan is a hamlet located in the Town of Olive in Ulster County, within the Catskill Park. The population was 1,252 at the 2000 census.-History:...

, Ulster County, New York

Ulster County, New York

Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...

. The home was built in 1928 as the summer family compound of glass magnate Raymond Pitcairn

Raymond Pitcairn

Raymond Pitcairn , son of PPG Industries founder John Pitcairn, was a lawyer, a businessman, a collector of ancient and medieval art, and an amateur architect. He supervised the building of the Bryn Athyn Cathedral and his own castle-mansion of Glencairn.Pitcairn was also quite politically active...

, whose family founded PPG Industries

PPG Industries

PPG Industries is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, specialty materials, chemicals, glass and fiber glass. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2010 were $13.4 billion...

.

Design

Under Pitcairn ownership the 18740 square feet (1,741 m²) compound on 22 acres (9 ha) (the balance of Mount Tonche - over 1000 acres (4 km²) - under restrictive preservation) was largely made up of two main wings connected by a covered walkway.

The property as a whole reflects a blend of Tudor

Tudor style architecture

The Tudor architectural style is the final development of medieval architecture during the Tudor period and even beyond, for conservative college patrons...

 architecture with some Arts and Crafts

Arts and Crafts movement

Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...

 influences. The south wing was a pentagon

Pentagon

In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagram is an example of a self-intersecting pentagon.- Regular pentagons :In a regular pentagon, all sides are equal in length and...

 configuration housing the main kitchen, two servants' quarters, six guest bedrooms, six full baths, and a massive glass-enclosed mountaintop porch. The wing also featured a 29' × 36' dining hall capable of seating 100 or more guests. The north wing housed the library, 11 bedrooms, seven full baths and 2½ baths, three-room servant's quarters, as well as a great room with 30 feet (9.1 m)-tall floor-to-ceiling windows and 60 feet (18.3 m)-high vaulted ceilings.

Additionally there was a seven-room caretaker's cottage and a seven-stall garage.

Transfer from Pitcairn Ownership

The estate remained in the Pitcairn family until it was put on the market in 1995 for $3.9 million, then $2.9 million, then in late 1998 down to $1.95 million at which time it was sold to photographer Randall Wallace.

After substantial renovation, it served from 2001 to 2007 as the commercial base of Wallace's Allaire Studios, where artist such as David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

 recorded his 2002 album Heathen. Norah Jones

Norah Jones

Norah Jones is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress.In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies...

 and her breakthrough debut album Come Away with Me

Come Away with Me

Come Away with Me is the debut album of pianist and singer Norah Jones, released February 26, 2002 on Blue Note Records. Recording sessions for the album took place at New York City's Sorcerer Sound Studio and Shokan's Allaire Studios in 2001...

was recorded there in 2001 and Rush recorded their album Snakes & Arrows

Snakes & Arrows

Snakes & Arrows is the 18th full-length studio album by the Canadian rock band Rush. Co-produced by Nick Raskulinecz, it is Rush's first studio outing since 2004's Feedback, and their first complete studio album since Vapor Trails in 2002...

in five weeks there in late 2006.

Briefly Listed For Sale, Again

Today, somewhat reconfigured, the main house includes 19 bedrooms, and there are three separate apartments on the property. The estate was listed on the market in 2007/2008 with an asking price of $13 million. However the property was removed off the formal market in the 1st quarter of 2008.

The property formally returned on the market in June 2009 on 22 acres (89,030.9 m²) for a vastly reduced price of $8,850,000