Sisters Of Mercy Water Mill Retreat House Sold For $7.2 Million

The sale of Mercy Villa in Water Mill, a Sisters of Mercy retreat house, officially closed this summer for $7.2 million.

The long, two-story house sits on 4 acres fronting Mecox Bay. It was built in 1999 after the Sisters of Mercy, an international Roman Catholic community, subdivided the formerly 8-acre property in 1997. The proceeds from selling the other part of the subdivision funded the new retreat house.

In a letter to the editor in August, Sister Mary Harvey wrote that after 75 years of spending summers at the property, the Sisters of Mercy had to leave “because of structural problems in the building.”

Sister Mary wrote that it had been the site of the Mecox Inn from the end of the 19th century and into the start of the 20th century, when the inn’s owner donated the inn and property to the Diocese of Brooklyn. That was around 1906.

“When the Sisters of Mercy vacation house in Center Moriches went out to sea during the 1938 hurricane, the diocese permitted the Sisters of Mercy to use the Mecox Inn house,” Sister Mary wrote.

While that original house, which was formerly the Mecox Inn, served the Sisters of Mercy well for many decades, it became worn down and was never winterized. As it was deteriorating beyond repair, the Sisters of Mercy asked the Diocese of Brooklyn to sell it to them. The Diocese obliged, for a price of $1.

The new retreat house built in 1999 had year-round residents and was also used by the 700 Sisters of Mercy who belong to the Sisters of Mercy Mid-Atlantic Community for one-week vacations or religious retreats.

The new owner of 325 Rose Hill Road is a limited liability company, HWHL 325 LLC, according to The Real Estate Report Inc.