Sister Act

Whitecap on the North Fork. COURTESY TRACY MINUCCI

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Whitecap Cottage. COURTESY TRACY MINUCCI

The Main House at Whitecap. COURTESY TRACY MINUCCI

The pool at Whitecap. COURTESY TRACY MINUCCI

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”

Diligence and Fortitude greet visitors as the North Ferry pulls into Greenport. The fishing trawlers are a reminder that humans have the capacity to move ahead, no matter what.

Sisters Tracy Minucci and Allison Minucci-Nolan know this all too well. They own an Italianate-style Victorian, which they rent out to families or groups of friends, called Whitecap in New Suffolk.

About 20 minutes from Greenport, New Suffolk is only 0.6 square miles, with 250 residents. A little red schoolhouse built in 1907 remains the home of the smallest school district in the state.

In the 17th century, it was Booth’s Neck, and in the 18th century, it was Robins Island Neck and home to the Navy’s first submarine, USS Holland.

Taking Route 25, you pass St. Patrick’s Church, the Southold Historical Society and signs that point the way to the Custer Institute Observatory. There’s Greenport Brewery, with crowds gathered outdoors, and, of course, vineyard after vineyard, and old farmhouses with turquoise or lavender shutters.

An osprey nest sits atop a telephone pole, as New Suffolk Road veers off the Main Road. Salt Air Farm, on the left, specializes in growing and selling hydrangeas. Couples can get married there among the fields of flowers.

Between the vineyards and the farms, the North Fork has an abundance of wedding venues, which is where Whitecap comes in.

Built by a Brooklyn politician in 1883, the house has sheltered other single families, but the boarding concept has deep roots in the quintessential New England fishing town. Before it was Whitecap, it was White Cap Boarding House, and, before that, E.J. Fensch Accommodations for Tourists, Vacationists and Fishing Parties, when 50 to 60 fishermen would spend the night.

The house, with its spectacular wrap-around deck, on a quiet street, always intrigued the Minuccis. “It was the only house with a name,” said Tracy.

American flags mark parking spots in front of Whitecap, a nod to their father Nicholas, a Vietnam veteran. Their parents grew up in Brooklyn and eloped two weeks before he left to serve in the U.S. Navy.

Later, their dad worked on Wall Street, and their mother, Rachel, was a pediatric nurse. When the family moved to Garden City in 1976, Rachel left her job to raise her two daughters, and tended to her creative side.

“Mom couldn’t sit still,” said Tracy, sitting in the living room of Whitecap with her sister. “That’s pretty much how Allison and I are.”

“I can sit still,” Allison laughs.

Soon, the family added a summer home “just up the road,” in Cutchogue. “When there was nothing but potato fields,” said Tracy. “Dad first looked at the Hamptons, but he kept running into people he worked with on Wall Street. ‘I’m not doing this,’ he said.”

“He’s private and laid back,” Allison added.

Summers were idyllic for the sisters, sailing around Robins Island, swimming and windsurfing all day. “It’s a very special place for all of us,” Allison said.

Tracy followed in her father’s footsteps to Wall Street and spent 20 years as a hedge fund trader. Allison became a child development specialist and consultant, following more in their mother’s footsteps. Today, she homeschools her 14-year-old son, Liam.

As a side gig, the sisters and their mother started a recycled handbag company called T&A Vintage. “‘T’ for Tracy and ‘A’ for Allison,” Tracy clarified. “We joked: Our mom was ‘Vintage.’”

“She was a strong, powerful, brave, woman who took on huge renovation jobs, was a business owner, wife and mom,” said Allison. “Every day, she is so inspiring to us.”

The sisters learned that their mother had hid a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, to protect them from worry, for 30 years. It wasn’t until she broke her hip that cancer was found, and the true extent of her illness was revealed.

“We took care of her for nine months,” said Tracy. “Cancer completely destroyed her.”

“Sadly, Mom passed away in 2017,” said Allison. “We never thought she was going to die.”

At 69, she was two months short of her 50th wedding anniversary and two weeks short of her birthday. She never got to fully enjoy her dream home, a 10,000-square-foot oceanfront home on Jupiter Island, Florida, which she decorated in blues and whites and accented with hand-painted walls. “It looked like a French chateau,” said Tracy.

The family has since sold the home — because it was too much of a reminder.

“After Mom passed away in 2017, we came out here to grieve and get away from it all, and this house was on the market,” Allison said of Whitecap. “We needed a new direction.”

They looked at the six-bedroom, four-bath main house and the four-bedroom, two-bath carriage house six times before they closed the deal in January 2018.

“I never thought I’d like the hospitality business,” said Allison. “We had totally different careers. Finally, we said, ‘Let’s just do this.’”

Allison, who is on property all year round, said it’s her job to make guests feel welcomed, relaxed and happy. “I love it,” she said. “This house was a healing project for us, because it’s healing things for others.”

Allison’s husband, William Nolan, owns Northfork Property Care and, not surprisingly, takes care of the property — “from soups to nuts,” including the new saltwater pool, and the roses their mother loved so much.

“I’ve had to learn to wind down my personality. At my other job, I’d just hang up the phone on someone,” Tracy admitted. “Here, I have to smile and be New Suffolk nice, not New York City nice.”

With passion in place of a plan, they channeled their mother’s love of interior design and combed tag sales looking for pieces to fill the home.

“This house is in honor of her, and, honestly, I think that’s why it’s been so successful. She wanted us together,” said Allison. “We’re learning more about each other as sisters.”

A butterfly hangs above every interior doorway. “She loved butterflies,” said Allison. “I asked her to come to me as a butterfly on my birthday, and at 10 o’clock at night, a monarch butterfly flew into my window and then flew up to my sister’s window. Our father, who doesn’t believe in this stuff, was petting it.”

This will be Whitecap’s fifth season. Tracy is still part time in New York City, and her building’s superintendent mentioned that Quintessential, a bed-and-breakfast inn in East Marion, was for sale.

“I didn’t want to like it,” she said. In 15 minutes, the sisters had made an offer on another handsome, two-story Italianate with a flat roof topped with an octagonal cupola and rounded windows. The craftsmanship, such as the arched spandrels decorated with drop pendants on the front porch, is priceless.

“The grounds have a lovely energy,” said Allison. In 1873, William Leek, a fishing captain, owned the six-bedroom, eight-bath home.

“We have an appreciation for history and want to bring the house back to its original state,” said Tracy.

At the same time, their wish list includes some modernization, like a pool, car chargers and turning the blacksmith shop into a holistic spa.

They struggled with the name until Tracy remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother about the house on Jupiter Island. “I’ve always wanted to name the house ‘Serendipity.’”

When it came to headlining this story, Tracy also had a suggestion: Sister Act: “It was our mother’s favorite movie.”