Grey Gardens is a 14-room
house at 3 West End Road and Lily Pond Lane in the
Georgica Pond
Georgica Pond is a coastal lagoon on the west border of East Hampton Village and Wainscott, New York, and was the site of a Summer White House of Bill Clinton in 1998 and 1999.
The lagoon is separated by a sandbar and is managed by the East ...
neighborhood of
East Hampton, New York
The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a tot ...
. It was the residence of the Beale family from 1924 to 1979, including mother and daughter
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (October 5, 1895 – February 5, 1977) was an American socialite and singer known for her reclusive and eccentric lifestyle. Known as Big Edie, she was a sister of John Vernou Bouvier III and an aunt of Jacqueline ...
and
Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale from 1952 to 1977. The 1975 documentary ''
Grey Gardens
''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a ...
'' depicted the two living in squalor in the mansion; the highly regarded film spawned a
2006 Broadway musical, a
2009 television movie, and other adaptations.
The house dates from 1897, and was designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorp. Other owners included
Ben Bradlee
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor, then as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The New Y ...
and
Sally Quinn
Sally Sterling Quinn (born July 1, 1941) is an American author and journalist, who writes about religion for a blog at ''The Washington Post''.
Early life
Sally Quinn was born in Savannah, Georgia, to Lt. General William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" ...
, who lived in the house from 1979 to 2014, and extensively restored it after moving in. it is owned by fashion designer and entrepreneur
Liz Lange.
Design and early ownership
In 1895, of oceanfront land was bought by F. Stanhope Phillips and Margaret Bagg Phillips, daughter of John S. Bagg, who had acquired the ''
Detroit Free Press
The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...
'' in 1836. The Phillipses paid $2,500 () from the estate of a Mr. Candy. The couple announced their plans to build a $100,000 () house on the property. However, the purchase hit a snag when it was revealed that the property had been bequeathed to the U.S. government.
In 1897, Joseph Greenleaf Thorp (1862–1934) designed the house.
Thorpe had designed several other houses in East Hampton. However, the house was not immediately built. Stanhope Phillips died in 1901, leaving behind an estate valued at $250,000 (). His brother challenged Margaret for control of the estate, saying she had used undue influence on him and that she had cremated him so that an autopsy could not be performed to confirm this. The court sided with Margaret. After the ownership issues were settled, construction on the house started.
In 1913, Robert C. Hill, president of
Consolidation Coal Company, bought the house. Hill's wife Anna Gilman Hill (1875–1955) imported ornate concrete walls from Spain to enclose the garden and hired landscape designer Ruth Bramley to create what would become the core of Grey Gardens. Bramley was married at the time to architect
Aymar Embury II
Aymar Embury II (June 15, 1880 – November 15, 1966) was an American architect. He is best known for commissions from the City of New York from the 1930s through to the 1950s. In this period, Embury frequently worked with Robert Moses in t ...
and their offices were in the same building.
Beale ownership
In 1924,
Phelan Beale
Phelan Beale (May 23, 1881 – June 12, 1956) was an American attorney and sportsman in New York City who was married to Edith Ewing Bouvier, an aunt of Jacqueline Bouvier Onassis. Beale is probably best remembered as the absent father chronic ...
acquired the estate for his wife
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale
Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (October 5, 1895 – February 5, 1977) was an American socialite and singer known for her reclusive and eccentric lifestyle. Known as Big Edie, she was a sister of John Vernou Bouvier III and an aunt of Jacqueline ...
.
Phelan was a law partner of
John Vernou Bouvier Jr. and had married Bouvier's daughter, Edith. Bouvier owned an estate in East Hampton, located three miles north on Further Lane at
Lasata
Lasata is an estate in East Hampton, New York that was the childhood summer home of the then future First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis until she was about 12.
Description
The two-story, gray-stucco mansion (also known as t ...
where his granddaughter
Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Lee Kennedy Onassis ( ; July 28, 1929 – May 19, 1994) was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. A po ...
was a frequent visitor.
After an extended marital separation, Phelan Beale notified Edith of their divorce around 1946 by telegram from
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. Phelan provided Edith with an allowance of $300 () per month to maintain the property, herself and her daughter
Edith Bouvier Beale
Edith Bouvier Beale (November 7, 1917 – January 14, 2002), nicknamed Little Edie, was an American socialite, fashion model, and cabaret performer. She was a first cousin of Jacqueline Onassis and Lee Bouvier Radziwill. She is best known for ...
, who was commonly known as "Little" Edie. Phelan's financial support eventually ceased and the two Ediths lost contact with him. The house and garden fell into disrepair and were overtaken by nature due to the lack of funds. The two women continued to inhabit the house, where they kept a large number of feral cats and wild animals.
In 1972, the
Suffolk County, New York Health Commission issued a notice of eviction, stating the Beales would be unable to live in the house until it was cleaned and basic utilities restored. The news of the order and of the squalor in which the two women lived received international attention because "Big" and "Little" Edie were the aunt and first cousin, respectively, of the late Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of former US President
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...
, and widow of
Aristotle Onassis
Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and wa ...
.
Jacqueline and her sister,
Lee Radziwill
Caroline Lee Bouvier ( ), later Canfield, Radziwiłł (), and Ross (March 3, 1933 – February 15, 2019), usually known as Princess Lee Radziwill, was an American socialite, public-relations executive, and interior decorator. She was the y ...
, donated money to make the house habitable and return it to a standard which would allow for the rescission of the eviction order.
That same year Radziwill asked brothers
Albert and David Maysles
Albert Maysles (November 26, 1926 – March 5, 2015) and his brother David Maysles (January 10, 1931 – January 3, 1987; ) were an American documentary filmmaking team known for their work in the Direct Cinema style. Their best-known films i ...
to create a film, including interviews with the Edies, which would document the Bouvier family's visits to East Hampton during Lee's and Jacqueline's youth. The project was ultimately canceled and the Maysles turned their attention to the Beales, resulting in the 1975 documentary ''
Grey Gardens
''Grey Gardens'' is a 1975 American documentary film by Albert and David Maysles. The film depicts the everyday lives of two reclusive, upper-class women, a mother and daughter both named Edith Beale, who lived in poverty at Grey Gardens, a ...
''. After the release of the film, Edith and Little Edie continued to reside in the house. Edith died in 1977 and Little Edie remained until she sold the property.
The original 1972 footage featuring Radziwill visiting the Beales was released in 2017 as ''
That Summer''.
Post-Beale ownership
In 1979, Little Edie sold Grey Gardens to
Ben Bradlee
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee (, 1921 – , 2014) was an American journalist who served as managing editor, then as executive editor of ''The Washington Post'', from 1965 to 1991. He became a public figure when the ''Post'' joined ''The New Y ...
and
Sally Quinn
Sally Sterling Quinn (born July 1, 1941) is an American author and journalist, who writes about religion for a blog at ''The Washington Post''.
Early life
Sally Quinn was born in Savannah, Georgia, to Lt. General William Wilson "Buffalo Bill" ...
for $220,000 () with the stipulation that they were not to tear down the house.
Little Edie reportedly told the couple, "all it needs is a coat of paint!"
Quinn later recalled that the dilapidated house "was worse than the movie," and was filled with waste from 52
feral cat
A feral cat or a stray cat is an unowned domestic cat (''Felis catus'') that lives outdoors and avoids human contact: it does not allow itself to be handled or touched, and usually remains hidden from humans. Feral cats may breed over dozens ...
s.
In his 1995 memoir, Bradlee wrote "In all my life, including years reporting about slums from Washington to Casablanca, I have never seen a house in such dreadful condition: attics full of raccoons and their droppings, toilets stopped up, a kitchen stove that had fallen into the cellar, a living room with literally half a floor... ...Whole rooms had been abandoned when they filled up with garbage, as the Beales moved to the next room."
Bradlee and Quinn restored the home, which would be featured in several architectural and home décor magazines.
In February 2017, a widowed Quinn put the house up for sale with an asking price of $19,995,000. The Beale-owned furniture, along with household items owned by Quinn, were auctioned off in an
estate sale
An estate sale or estate liquidation is a sale or auction to dispose of a substantial portion of the materials owned by a person who is recently deceased or who must dispose of their personal property to facilitate a move.
Reasons for an estate ...
held from November 17–19, 2017. On December 20, 2017, the house sold for $15.5 million to American fashion designer
Liz Lange. Lange has since overseen a complete restoration of the home and its surrounding gardens by decorator Mark D. Sikes.
References
External links
* : documentary based on 1972 footage filmed at the estate
{{Grey Gardens
Beale family
Bouvier family residences
East Hampton (town), New York
Houses in Suffolk County, New York