Georgica’s Kilkare Listed For $55 Million

When Michael Kennedy passed away in January of last year, the headline of his obituary in the New York Times described him as a “Lawyer for Underdogs and Pariahs.” This occupation must have been more rewarding than most people might think as his estate in Wainscott has just gone on the market for $55 million. Representing it for Sotheby’s International Realty are Frank Newbold and Beate Moore, and for Compass is the Petrie team.

According to a new story in The Times, the “cottage,” known as Kilkare, was built in 1877, has 330 feet of beachfront, rests just 50 feet from the Atlantic, and the property is 2.8 acres—hence, the hefty price tag. The estate is within the 100-acre Georgica Association which provides, among other amenities, four communal tennis courts. The three-story house has 7 bedrooms and 7.5 baths and a porch on three sides, and crowns a dune between the ocean and Georgica Pond. Kilkare is “a Victorian name meant to evoke a fictional Irish town, the sort of place where you could kill all your cares,” The Times quotes Eleanora Kennedy, who with her husband purchased the house in 1975, which is now 5,000 square feet.

Michael Kennedy’s resume includes many high-profile cases and clients. Among the latter were the mobster John Gotti Sr., Black Panther activist Huey Newtown, and LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Another famous client was Jean Harris, who had been convicted and imprisoned for the killing of the “Scarsdale Diet” creator, Dr. Herman Tarnower. And pre-Melania, now-President Donald Trump was married to Ivana Trump, who Mr. Kennedy represented in their divorce case. Before the marriage went south, the Trumps were frequent summer guests of the Kennedys.

Kilkare—which appeared in the 2004 movie “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and in 2007’s “The Nanny Diaries”—was constructed by shipbuilders for Camilla and Walter Edwards Sr., a descendant of Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century Congregationalist Protestant theologian. According to The Times, “With 85 windows and screened double doors front and back, the house is cooled by ocean breezes. Original tracery patterns made of thin strips of molding decorate the ceilings, with lattice in the living room and a chevron pattern in the dining room, which has a bow window. Wide treads on the staircase accommodated Victorian gowns. There are nine fireplaces, including those in the foyer, dining room and living room.” Somehow, the estate survived the Hurricane of 1938, which doomed many oceanfront structures.

When not in courtrooms defending clients—who also included the farm activist Cesar Chavez and the Weather Underground leader Bernadette Dohrn—Mr. Kennedy and his wife entertained at Kilkare. In addition to the Trumps, regular visitors included Candice Bergen, Billy Joel, Peter Matthiessen, Kurt Vonnegut and Robert Dash, all of whom had homes on the South Fork at one time or another.