Former Carriage House
Of Estate Owned by USGA

What: Eight-bedroom, five-bathroom main house in approximately 5,000 square feet on 14 acres

Where: Bernards Township, N.J.

Amenities: Detached garage with apartment, terrace, office, small apple orchard

Asking Price: $2.8 million

Opening Bid*: $2.5 million

Listing Agents: Pamela Goss, Turpin Real Estate, 908-234-9100

Due Diligence: Cyrus Vance, secretary of state under President Carter and, earlier, a negotiator in the Vietnam War peace talks, owned this house for almost half a century. Architect John Russell Pope, whose best-known works include the Jefferson Memorial and the west building of Washington's National Gallery of Art, designed the building in 1919 as the carriage house and stables on the nearly 300-acre estate of stockbroker Thomas Harris Frothingham. Furniture maker John Sloane bought the estate in 1926 and around 1950 converted the carriage house into a residence for his daughter, Grace, and her husband, Mr. Vance. The United States Golf Association bought much of the estate in the 1970s and converted the main mansion into a golf museum (it's closed for renovations); the association bought the carriage house in 2000, before Mr. Vance's death in 2002. The 13-room house has six bedrooms on the second floor, and a large living room on the first floor with French doors leading out to the terrace. Listing agent Pamela Goss said plans for the house have been lost, but gave the 5,000 estimate for square footage. The stables -- two long, single-story wings attached to the carriage house -- now hold bedrooms and a private office, but retain their wide, arched doors. Pamela Martin, USGA senior director of finance, said the organization has decided it doesn't need the building, which mostly has been vacant since the Vances moved out.

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