What an ending to 2016—President Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats from the United States and shutters a pair of extravagant Gatsby-esque Russian compounds—one in Glenn Cove, New York, on Long Island, and another just outside of Washington, D.C., in Centreville, Maryland. Formerly acknowledged as relaxing retreats for Russian diplomats, the two mansions have been rebranded (or unveiled) as “beachside spy nests sometimes used by Russian intelligence operatives to have long conversations on the sand to avoid being ensnared by American electronic surveillance,” reports The New York Times.
KILLENWORTH ESTATE
Most impressive is the Killenworth Mansion in Glenn Cove, New York. According to reports, the Russians purchased Killenworth in 1951, just as the Cold War was gearing up (the Soviet Union had detonated its first A-Bomb two years before in 1949). Killenworth was built by George Dupont Pratt in 1912. Pratt’s father was Standard Oil’s Charles Pratt, and aside from his roles with the Long Island Rail Road, George helped organize Boy Scouts of America early in the 20th century.
The Killenworth mansion is as impressive as any New York Vanderbilt digs—50 acres, nearly 50 rooms. The Soviet Union may have landed the jewel for a pittance of $75,000. By 1963, Nikita Khrushchev was kicking around the place, and in the early 1980s, citizens of Glenn Cove were alarmed by Soviets’ presence so close to the Island’s defense industry. According to a 1982 New York Times report, Glenn Cove City Council was upset that “’the Soviets are here spying and not paying taxes.’” Glenn Cove’s attempts to curb the Soviet intrusion was squashed by the Department of State.
PIONEER POINT ESTATE
Located on Pioneer Point in Centreville, Maryland, at the confluence of the Chester and Corsica Rivers, this spread has its own DuPont connection, but different, less environmentally friendly DuPonts. The estate formerly belonged to John Jakob Raskob, and Raskob apparently died there in Centreville. Raskob was close to Pierre Samuel du Pont and ended up serving as Vice President of the DuPont Corporation founded in the early 1800s that originally dealt in explosives and munitions before broadening its portfolio to many other industrial chemicals. Interesting to note, Raskob also built the Empire State Building.
Russia reportedly purchased The Raskob Estate in 1972 while the Cold War was still simmering in the wake of the war in Vietnam. Indeed, according to the The Washington Post, “At the time of its purchase, there was some resistance to the sale of the building to the Soviets, with the local newspaper reporting there were ‘fears of nuclear submarines surfacing in the Chester River to pick up American secrets and defectors,’” but very shortly “many locals had been won over, with the help of dinner parties and gifts of vodka and caviar.”
Perhaps the Russians have been using these estates for their own spying and cyber espionage, but I imagine they were doing so under the careful watch of our own intelligence apparatus.
Hope you have a wonderful 2017. Be safe. Good luck.
