Former Church In Sag Harbor Finds A Buyer

Rumors abound as to who is the new owner of the former church on Union and Madison streets in Sag Harbor that in recent years has gone on a real estate journey of biblical proportions. What is now a residence at 48 Madison is reported by BehindTheHedges.com to be under contract. While the name of the buyer and the sale price have not been revealed, the most recent ask for the property was $9 million.

The original Sag Harbor Methodist Church was on High Street, with construction completed in 1835. It was not until 29 years later that this church building was built on Madison Street. There it was an active community center, once housing the Clover Patch Nursery School, as well as a religious center. When the building was sold in 2008 for $2,800,000, it was to Dennis Suskind, a former Wall Street executive who was a member of the Southampton Town Board. His plans for a 13,000-square-foot residence with 7 bedrooms never crystallized and the structure stayed empty.

Four years later it was sold again, to the designer Elizabeth Dow, whose plans for the building included a business for textiles and mixed media. That, too, never came to fruition. In 2013, the property was unloaded once again, this time to the art collector and gallery owner Sloan Schaffer, who plunked $4 million down. After a complete overhaul and expansion during the ensuing two years, the former house of worship was put for sale again, this time for the ungodly price of $23.5 million. That number dropped to the last level reported, $9 million.

Now the guessing game includes not only the new owner—perhaps someone in the arts—but what the resurrected church building with its 6 bedrooms and 9.5 baths will become. With the famed Il Capuccino restaurant only a few steps away, the new owner will not have to survive on loaves and fishes while he contemplates the new mission.