Estate (land)

Estate (land)

An estate comprises the houses and outbuildings and supporting farmland and woods that surround the gardens and grounds of a very large property, such as a country house or mansion. It is the modern term for a manor, but lacks the latter's now abolished jurisdictional authority. It is an "estate" because the profits from its produce and rents are sufficient to support the household in the house at its center, formerly known as the manor house. Thus "the estate" may refer to all other cottages and villages in the same ownership as the mansion itself, covering more than one former manor. An example of such great estates are Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, England, and Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire built to replace the former manor house of Woodstock.

"Estate", with its "stately home" connotations, has been a natural candidate for inflationary usage during the 20th century. An estate properly so-called should comprise several farms, and is not well used to describe a single farm.

United States

In the United States: Long Island, Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, and other affluent East Coast enclaves; the San Francisco Bay Area, early Beverly Hills, California, Montecito, California and other affluent West Coast enclaves; all had strong traditions of large agricultural, grazing, and productive estates modeled on those in Europe. However, after the Great Depression and World War II, by the late 1940s and early 1950s many were demolished and subdivided, in some cases resulting in suburban villages named for the former owners, as in Baxter Estates, New York.

Today large houses on at least several acres are often referred to as "estates", in a contemporary updating of the word's usage. In some real estate ventures however, the term's application is stretched, as in Jamaica Estates, Queens and others.

Traditional American estates include:

In American English, the above connotation is the primary meaning of the word "estate" (when it is not prefaced by the word "real"). That is why the British English terms "trading estates" and "industrial estates" sound like oxymorons to Americans, as few wealthy persons would deliberately choose to live next to factories.

See also


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Land value tax — Land value taxation (LVT) (or site value taxation) is an ad valorem tax where only the value of land itself is taxed. This ignores buildings, improvements, and personal property. Because of this, LVT is different from other property taxes which… …   Wikipedia

  • Land reform — Land reforms (also agrarian reform, though that can have a broader meaning) is an often controversial alteration in the societal arrangements whereby government administers possession and use of land. Land reform may consist of a government… …   Wikipedia

  • Land rights — are those property rights that pertain to real estate land.Because land is a limited resource and property rights include the right to exclude others, land rights are a form of monopoly. Those without land rights must enter into land use… …   Wikipedia

  • Land grant — A land grant is a gift of real estate land or privileges made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially as rewards for military service. Grants of land are also awarded to individuals and companies… …   Wikipedia

  • estate — n 1. property, real property, real estate, land, piece of property; place, residence, abode, home. 2. assets, holdings, resources, wealth, fortune, worth; possessions, properties, personal property, personal assets, belongings, effects, chattels …   A Note on the Style of the synonym finder

  • estate — es·tate /i stāt/ n [Anglo French estat, literally, state, condition, from Old French, from Latin status, from stare to stand] 1: the interest of a particular degree, nature, quality, or extent that one has in land or other property compare fee;… …   Law dictionary

  • Land-Tenure in the Christian Era — • The way in which land has been held or owned during the nineteen hundred years which have seen in Europe the rise and establishment of the Church is a matter for historical inquiry. Strictly speaking, the way in which such ownership or tenure… …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • estate — es‧tate [ɪˈsteɪt] noun [countable] 1. PROPERTY a large piece of land in the country, usually with one large house on it and one owner: • The estate consists of the main villa, several outbuildings and barns, a swimming pool, a farm house and an… …   Financial and business terms

  • land — n 1: an area of the earth usu. inclusive of improvements, bodies of water, and natural or man made objects and extending indefinitely upward and downward compare air right 2: an estate, interest, or right in land land means both surface and… …   Law dictionary

  • Estate map — Estate maps were maps commissioned by individual landowners or institutions showing their property, typically including fields and buildings. In England and Wales, they began to be produced in large numbers during the 16th century [PDA Harvey,… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”