After turning $5,000 in seed money into a billion-dollar empire, buying a Gilded Age estate named Stronghold seemed the right move for fashion mogul Marc Eckō. The wunderkind, a former graffiti artist and pharmacy school dropout, purchased the Bernardsville, N.J., castle in 2005.
The 20,000-square-foot stone manse and tower looked as formidable as the company its new owner founded in 1993: the streetwear brand Eckō Unltd. The property, built in 1886 for a member of the Astor family and once owned by John F. Dryden, a founder of the Prudential Insurance Co., now was in the hands of a 33-year-old steeped in hip-hop, graffiti, and skateboard culture.
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