Iconic Grey Gardens Hamptons home hits market for $19M
The home has been the subject of a documentary and inspired an HBO film.
— -- An East Hampton home once owned by relatives of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis that was the subject of a documentary and inspired a film and musical has hit the market for $19.995 million.
The home known as Grey Gardens was listed Thursday on behalf of Sally Quinn, the Washington, D.C.-based journalist, socialite and widow of Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee.
Quinn and Bradlee, who passed away in 2014 at the age of 93, purchased the roughly 6,000-square-foot home in 1979 from “Little Edie” Beale, a cousin of Onassis.
Beale and her mother, “Big Edie” Bouvier Beale, famously lived together in the home on West End Road. Together they watched as the once-grand home deteriorated to the point that the mother and daughter were threatened with eviction for code violations, according to “Grey Gardens,” a 1970s documentary made about their lives.
The story of the mother-and-daughter duo and their rambling home later inspired a 2006 Broadway musical and an HBO movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange, who won an Emmy in 2009 for her role.
Quinn and Bradlee purchased the three-story home for $220,000, Quinn, who could not be reached for comment, told The Wall Street Journal.
The couple then spent around $600,000 to restore the 1897-built home, the newspaper reports.
“She made a promise to 'Little Edie' Beale that they wouldn’t tear it down,” Michael Schultz, the home’s listing agent, told ABC News.
The seven-bedroom, six-bathroom home is located on one of the most exclusive streets in the Hamptons with fashion designer Calvin Klein as a neighbor, according to Schultz, an agent with The Corcoran Group.
The home's structure and architectural details make it unlike most homes for sale now in the Hamptons.
“There is no big, finished basement or movie theater,” Schultz said. “This is a charming house that retains many of the architectural details from when it was first built, like beautiful wood ceilings and walls and an old Dutch door and old marble sinks.”
Quinn and Bradlee’s restoration included scraping the walls down to the original paint color in order to match it and meeting with the designer of the home’s original garden, known as Little Grey Garden By the Sea.
“It’s a magical place, and we had a magical life there, but that part of my life is over now,” Quinn told the Journal of her decision to sell the home after Bradlee’s death. “I want to move on.”
The property, which features ocean views, also includes a stucco cottage, heated pool and tennis court, in addition to the main home.
A prospective buyer for the home is scheduled to fly to the Hamptons this weekend for a tour, according to Schultz.