'Sex And The City' Writer Buys A Home In Sag Harbor

For quite a few years, Bridgehampton has been the home of Sarah Jessica Parker, who starred in the “Sex and the City” television show and movies. This spring, the writer who created the Carrie Bradshaw character can be found right up the turnpike in Sag Harbor, because Candace Bushnell has closed on a house there.

Other than her charms and fame, how did Ms. Bushnell manage to acquire a house on Main Street for only $680,500 when many similar manses are going for millions? For one thing, it’s a relatively small home, just 1,300 square feet. And its spot right on the main drag a few doors down from a gas station might not be the most desirable location for some residents, especially summer ones.

But with Mr. Big-like business smarts, Ms. Bushnell may have gotten a steal. The former Whyte Family farmhouse, constructed around 1800, was replaced in 1991 by a much more modern three-bedroom, two-bath home. The third of an acre contains a larger green-grass backyard not often found in the village’s tightly-packed properties. The tricky part is the yard contains a very old, and fragile, barn which would look deliciously rustic on a postcard but will have to either be torn down or completely rebuilt. It remains to be seen what leeway the new owner will have with Sag Harbor government, which is in the midst of tightening its renovation regulations.

Still, Sag Harbor makes sense for Ms. Bushnell because of its long history of being a haven for writers, from Herman Melville and James Fenimore Cooper to John Steinbeck, Betty Friedan and E.L. Doctorow, to Alan Furst and Jon Robin Baitz.

Since she began writing a column for the New York Observer in 1994 that became “Sex and the City,” Ms. Bushnell has been pretty prolific. Among her best-sellers during the past two decades are “Lipstick Jungle,” “One Fifth Avenue,” “The Carrie Diaries” and “Summer and the City.” Her most recent novel is “Killing Monica,” published last year. Her next screen effort could be “One Fifth Avenue,” which is being developed by the Mark Gordon Company and ABC as a television series. And if she wants to learn more about the village’s literary pedigree, a short stroll will bring her to Canio’s Books.

She may also appreciate the overall historic character of the village and its multi-generation families, given that she comes from one herself. Ms. Bushnell can trace her Northeast roots back to 1639, when Francis Bushnell sailed from England to Connecticut. En route he and 23 other heads of families signed the Guilford Covenant, based on the Mayflower Compact, then they disembarked and began building houses. If Ms. Bushnell inherited any of those skills, they will come in handy if she tackles the dodgy barn on her new Sag Harbor property.