This stunning and unusual listing is one of the few trophy properties to sell in the post-crash era over its listing price. It is also one of the few non- waterfront houses ever to sell in East Hampton for over $20 million.
The house was built in the 1890s, when the railroad’s arrival in East Hampton transformed what had been farm fields just west of the East Hampton village center into the area’s first summer colony, which we now call “Georgica” after the nearby pond. The house was designed by noted architect William B. Tuthill, the creator of many important buildings, including Carnegie Hall.
The layout, design and intended use of this house is much grander than most of its more humble contemporaries. Like many other large homes of its era, this house has numerous (14) bedrooms, baths and fireplaces on three full floors. It has a truly stunning entry hall with parquet floors, wood paneling and a fireplace, with living spaces on either side. An exquisite staircase leads up to the bedrooms.
This is a house that memorializes the very real class distinctions of its era, with the kitchen in the rear of the house, intended for use only by servants and connected via a servant staircase to a wing of small bedrooms for the help. In the main part of the house, the upstairs has lovely, but not oversized, bedrooms—as the house was designed when bedrooms were merely for sleeping, dressing and perhaps for sitting, rather than separate living spaces.
There has been some work on the house but not a renovation; instead, it was restored. Very few allowances were made for modern living arrangements when this house was rebuilt over the last few years. The kitchen has been enlarged for family use and there is a lovely pool area, but unlike many older homes, where all the interior spaces are reconfigured while leaving the exterior largely intact, this house truly feels as if one had just entered into one of East Hampton’s finest new homes in 1891.
The choice to restore, rather than renovate, this house was a gamble on the owner’s part. And it must have been an enormous challenge to source the endless custom details required. But it seems to have paid off handsomely, with an above-the-asking-price sale in approximately 30 days and the likely record for a non-waterfront sale in the Hamptons this year, and perhaps for some time to come.
on May 7, 2012