"Great Gatsby" House Demolished

A piece of literary history is no more. The iconic New York mansion that some say inspired "The Great Gatsby" is being razed to make way for a subdivision.



Razing of the mansion known as Land's End began last weekend. The 13-acre property facing the Long Island Sound will be replaced by five $10 million houses. The local newspaper reports that Winston Churchill, the Marx Brothers and Ethel Barrymore attended parties there in the 1920s and 1930s.

The house - which featured marble, parquet floors, Palladian windows and hand-painted wallpaper - had fallen into disrepair. The developer who bought it several years ago said he could no longer keep up with repairs.

Local lore says F. Scott Fitzgerald would watch the grand parties at Land's End from a property across the water - and that may have inspired "The Great Gatsby."

CBS Sunday Morning recently ran a piece about the mansion and filmed its demolition. Check out the video here.