Lord of the Manor | 60 Minutes Archive

60 Minutes rewind the really satisfying fun stories are the stories that you find a non-f famous but wonderful character to just show the world what that ring you have these are blue white from Spanish pirate that burnt the second man of house down in 1728 these are absolutely blue white Robert David lion Garder was 88 years old when we met him and as Steve said in the story he was a man who was well named because he was constantly a roar all he did was yell at you they burnt the man house can you hear me now I was in politics so I can Bellow and he would yell at everyone because he was Lord of the manner English and he carried this title from a charter given to his family by I think it was King Charles I in the 1600s the second character was his Island and Gardner's Island which is this huge island is forbidden territory you can't visit except if you sign up for one of these tours that he gave here is the windmill everything was historical on the island see the horses on the left this where the Hanging Oak was and it fell down if the Hanging Tree was no longer there because it had fallen down 100 years ago that's no problem that's where the Hanging Tree was and you'll notice it over there and you better look he was hilarious if somebody came up to you and said you know we want to spend 13 minutes of national television on an 88-year-old rich guy who lives in the past great grandfather and doesn't get along with his relatives what do you think you'd be crazy to try it and we probably were but it worked and here's the full story as it aired on 60 Minutes when he's on his ancestral Island Robert David lion Garder is Lord of Allie surveys literally he is the 16th Lord of The Manor of Gardener's Island an hereditary title and Royal land grant that goes back 360 years to the reign of King Charles I of England but the island is not off the coast of England it's 100 miles east of New York City a mysterious magical place that few people ever get to see filled with history of pirate raids and Buri treasure it is also one of the most valuable pieces of undeveloped real estate in the country and the object of a bitter blood feud between two of the oldest families in America Gardner's Island sits between the North and South Forks of Long Island 7 m long and 3 m across it's the largest privately owned island in the country and it's its oldest Family Estate just an egret's flight from the fashionable Hamptons but a world away there are 1200 Acres of primeval Forest teeming with Wildlife a thousand more of meadow and wetlands and the Sea laps at 27 miles of Virgin Coastline this place changed much in the last 350 years no not much and and the silence is so wonderful marvelous the only thing to break that silence is Robert David lion Garder the first party in the dispute and the oldest surviving member of the Garder family which has managed to hold onto the island through 12 generations and three Wars the French and Indian the American Revolution and the War of 1812 but we've held it because we always fought on both sides you see so you hedged your bets well of course we had an officer in each Army do you see we couldn't lose and not very patri got it but we survive it he's 88 years old and as you will see more than just a little eccentric not someone you want to run into if you're short on time there is a story behind every artifact and once he begins talking he suffers no interruptions or lack of attention which that ring you have these are blue white from Spanish pirate that burnt the second man of house down in 1728 and these are absolutely blue white now these came from Spanish Pirates Spanish pirates that burnt I know it's hard to understand me they burnt the man house can you hear me now I was in politics so I can Bellow if you can't hear me it's my fault because of my English U accent it's not so much an English accent as the language of a 19th century Aristocrat one of The Last of a Dying Breed the first of his breed was lion Garder now at rest in the East Hampton Cemetery he was a milit engineer and adventurer who won the favor of King Charles I by building the first English fort in the state of Connecticut and Charles the was so happy that we had secured Connecticut for the British Empire that he gave us this gave us this island do you see how much do you think it's worth today 27 miles around the beach in the Hamptons goodness knows for Robert Gardner its real value is its past although he spends most of his time in Palm Beach every August he conducts tours for local historians artists and naturalists here is the windmill on the rear end of the windmill is the weather cup the dog candel are on the left he lives up to the family name lion he's a constant Roar there is the blacksmith shop on the right see the horses on the left is where the Hanging Oak was and it fell down went right across the road setting foot on the island is like passing through a Time Warp the carpentry shop and the quarters for indentured servants have been standing since 1639 the windmill with all its 18th century mechanisms was once used to Signal the mainland when pirates were about come down look down to the beach 350 ft straight down you see the beach no not there here you already know that Spanish Pirates invaded the island in 1728 see I was paying attention but the most famous pirate to ever visit here was Captain William kid Captain kid's treasure was buried in this hollow and recovered 1699 it seems Captain kid knew the gardeners from Trinity Church in New York back in the 1680s and decided their Island was a perfect place to hide some treasure and this treasure was brought in one mile Inland and kid told John Gardner if I come back for this treasure and it's not here I'll have your head or your sons you didn't fool around with Captain kid when the English caught and hang Captain kid four years later they found the treasure map and sent a party to Gardner's Island to dig it up it was only on the island for years people still come here looking for The Treasure of course it it's so silly when I have the receipt for it this is a beautiful room he's been a banker a real estate developer and investor but through it all he has had only one true calling as the custodian of all things Gardener this is my grandfather Gardener this is my father in his summer home on the mainland he's surrounded by ghosts and gossips about long dead relatives as if they were about to show up for a family reunion who's this he's my great-grandfather it's the living relatives he can't get along with specific spefically his niece Alexandra Gardner creel and her husband Robert golette the second party in the dispute who thanks to a condition of a Family Trust which actually owns the island not only share access to the island with Garder but stand to inherit it outright when he dies that's because Robert Gardner despite his fascination with family history has no heirs how would you describe the relationship right now between yourself and your niece and her husband don't see them for 20 years the two sides have argued over everything from which ancestors portraits will hang in the manor house to who will have access and when except for the occasional screaming match they communicate almost exclusively through lawyers this is a classic example of of rich people Behaving Badly one witness to a rare face-to-face confrontation was best-selling author Steven gains he wrote about Gardener's Island in his book Philistines at the Hedge row Gaines was on one of those Robert Gardner historic tours when all hell broke loose after the Lord of The Manor discovered the gettes were on the island I was aware of what was going on but the 24 other people with me had no idea um Robert Gardner ran into the house some confrontation took place inside then the glet family came out of the house like bees leaving a hive you know they just spread out all over the place and he went screeching after them it was like the Keystone Cops game says one source of mention is that Robert golette comes from a family that owns a big chunk of Manhattan and has been around almost as long as the gardeners since 1676 they do not give interviews they're just not secretive wasps they abore publicity they hate the idea that anybody would know who they are they are really very secretive about what they do I think they're probably one of the richest unknown families in America we're talking about old old money right the oldest money what is the source of the acrimony between the golets and the gardeners do you know I think that Robert Garder is just a very difficult man you know it's very hard to share anything with anybody even with 3500 Acres well not if Robert Gardner is the other partner twice the courts have tried to arbitrate a settlement and twice they failed the golets want Garder ban from the island and for a 10-year period he was banned for refusing to share in the Island's upkeep for his part Garder is tried to keep the gettes from inheriting the island to him they're Interlopers trying to usurp what rightfully belongs to a gardener with the intention he thinks of plundering it like Spanish Pirates why is it so important to you that the goulet's not take control of Gardener's Island simply because their attitude is to turn it into development they say they don't want to develop it oh that's what they say that's what they of course but the point is they do while the golets contend they don't want to develop the island they have also been unwilling to discuss any settlement that would protect it from development or restrict land usage in any way they say it would diminish its value a judge has concluded their intentions are unclear Joe atonito and Jean wiad are attorneys for Robert Gardner Bob Gardner wants to preserve it I mean we don't know what the goulet's want we can only speculate what they want the golets want to keep their options open that's the impression we get it's a polite way to put it yeah with multi-million dollar houses springing up like mushrooms all across the Hamptons there is no shortage of developers who look at the place where Hemingway hunted and James otan painted birds and see instead golf courses and marinas that would be the greatest baby boomer address in the Hamptons you know everything out here is about status and address and location location can you imagine being part of a private island that has its own Landing Strip you can bring your boat right up there I mean I think a lot of people would love to develop that place and it would be a shame too how much do you think it's worth in today's market well it's it's hard to say you know 3500 Acres easily worth $350 million we're talking about something that conceivably could be worth a billion dollars to a developer the story will continue after this just preserving Gardener island is no bargain the trust fund to maintain the island ran out of money years ago everything from food to fuel oil has to be shipped over from the mainland there are real estate taxes historic buildings and 20 mi of road to be maintained it now costs almost $2 million a year just to keep the island the way it was 350 years ago all of it paid for by the gettes who use the island as their weekend retreat Robert Gardner still refuses to contribute arguing that the trust fund is insolvent and that the island should be disposed of according to the will of his late Aunt Sarah it is to be sold the island but first to someone by the name and blood of Gardner in that shoe by far his most bizarre attempt to keep the gettes from inheriting the island occurred more than a decade ago when he tried to adopt an heir after some extensive genealogical re research he settled on a distant cousin G Gardner green Jr who at the time was a fully grown 48-year-old from Mississippi with an oil and gas exploration business everybody thought it was wonderful all my friends thought I should sign on site un scene and immediately invite them as as my guest to the island I had people signing up for boat skipper for gamekeeper for upstairs made downstairs made Butler I had a staff besides the fact that already had two living parents green quickly realized there was a downside to being adopted by a very rich very distant relative like a million dollar a year maintenance obligation on a property that produces no income and has no tax benefits then there was the prospect of becoming embroiled in some very expensive litigation with his other distant cousins the gettes and I certainly wasn't looking for any enemies uh particularly enemies that I had never met I think in robt regarding his heart there are two things that are going on here one is he's doing it just to torture the golets and then the other thing that's going on is he really cares about saving this island it's his passion it's his life it's all that's left to him now is there an element of greed in this story I don't really think this is about money believe it or not even though there's billions of dollars at stake here I don't really think this is about money I think this is about passion I think this is about history and I think this is about an old man who can't let go the courts move slowly so time and nature would seem to be on the side of the gettes what becomes then of Gardner's Island will the gettes or their children or their children's children have the same passion for it as Robert Gardner has he's a piece of American history and when he's gone there's nobody left to replace him there really isn't a 17th Lord of The Manor he's about the end of that line diversity the P What A diversity of land landcape

Channel: 60 Minutes

Views: 114,234

Keywords: 60 Minutes, CBS News, Robert Gardiner

Id: IjnPQCxUS_c

Length: 15min 38sec (938 seconds)

Published: Tue May 21 2024