Plant shunned the high society of Newport and chose instead the wide views of Long Island Sound available at Avery Point.

[3] The house included a two-story fireplace surrounded by a clothes-drying conveyor belt, a then-rare elevator, and other architectural curiosities like doors leading into exterior walls.

Bothered by its smell, Plant bought the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Company on nearby Pine Island and replaced it with an orchard where his grandchildren played.

The lavish grounds were bulldozed into the water to make room for barracks for a training center; the house became offices and executive quarters.

By the 1980s the house needed millions of dollars of renovations which UConn could not afford; there was discussion of a private developer turning it into a conference center, or of the town taking over the property.