New York Estate Named After the Man Who Actually Inspired the Name Mount Rushmore Recently Hit the Open Market With a $14 Million Asking Price

New York Estate Named After the Man Who Actually Inspired the Name Mount Rushmore Recently Hit the Open Market With a $14 Million Asking Price

The House Named for the Man the Mountain Was Named After

Most people know Mount Rushmore. Almost nobody knows Charles E. Rushmore, the New York lawyer the mountain is actually named for, or the 39-acre estate in Highland Mills, New York, that still carries his name. That property, known today as the Rushmore Estate, recently came onto the market for $14 million through a listing Zillow Gone Wild shared on June 15.

Century-Old Rushmore Mansion, Known for Elegance, Reborn as Wedding Venue/Bed & Breakfast - Rushmore Estate

A Lawyer, a Prospector, and a Joke That Stuck

Rushmore traveled to South Dakota’s Black Hills in 1885 to examine mining claim titles for a client, and while there, he reportedly asked a local prospector named William Challis what the nearby granite peak was called. Challis had no ready answer, so, according to Wikipedia’s entry on Rushmore, he jokingly declared the mountain would now be called Rushmore. The name stuck for decades before the U.S. Board of Geographic Names made it official in June 1930. Rushmore later donated $5,000 toward Gutzon Borglum’s carving project, a contribution confirmed by Daily Voice’s reporting. He died in 1931, without ever seeing the monument completed.

The Estate He Built for His Wife

Rushmore commissioned the Highland Mills property in 1908 as a retreat for his wife, Jeanette, and originally named it Carmore, a blend of her maiden name and the family surname, per the Zillow Gone Wild listing. The Spanish Colonial-style main house has been expanded into a 15,252-square-foot property with 16 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms and ten fireplaces. The 39.1-acre grounds include a private lake with a swimming beach and waterfalls, a 60-foot infinity pool, tennis and basketball courts, and wooded trails connecting to the Shawangunk Mountains.

A Second Life as an Event Venue

Long before this listing, the estate found a second identity as a wedding and event venue, a use reflected in its own active listing on The Knot’s marketplace. A buyer paying $14 million isn’t necessarily buying a quiet weekend house; they may be buying an operating business with more than a century of history built into the brand.

Willow and Hearth