Grey Gardens (estate)

Grey Gardens is a 28-room house at 3 West End Road and Lily Pond Lane in the Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York, that is chronicled in the Grey Gardens 1975 documentary, 2008 Broadway play and 2009 television movie. The mansion has been the topic of numerous other books and documentaries.

Design and early ownership

In 1895 four acres for oceanfront land was bought by F. Stanhope Phillips and Margaret Bagg Phillips, daughter of John S. Bagg, who had acquired the Detroit Free Press in 1836. The Phillips 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 Thorpe (1862-1934) designed the house. Thorpe had designed several other houses in East Hampton. But the house did not get immediately built.

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 the house was built.

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 Dean (1889-1932) to design what would become the core of Grey Gardens. Ruth was married at the time to architect Aymar Embury II and their offices were in the same building.

Beale ownership

In 1924 Phelan Beale and Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale acquired the house. Phelan was a law partner of John Vernou Bouvier, Jr. and had married his daughter Edith. Bouvier had a house in East Hampton three miles north on Further Lane at Lasata in which his granddaughter Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was a frequent visitor.

The Beales divorced around 1934 and Edith was given an allowance of $150/month to keep the house and it fell into disrepair. However Edith refused to move. The ocean front land was sold off and the estate made much smaller.

In 1952 her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale moved in. As the house deteriorated the Beales accumulated numerous cats. Raccoons moved in.

In 1972 the Suffolk County, New York Health Commission issued an eviction order unless the house could be cleaned up. The news got international attention that the relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy were living in squalor.

Jackie and her husband Aristotle Onassis donated money to make the house habitable and bring it up to code.

In 1973 Jackie's sister Lee Radziwill suggested that the Albert and David Maysles do a documentary about Jacqueline's days in East Hampton. When Lee Radziwill pulled out the project, the Maysles asked the Beales to do the piece on them. The result was the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens.

Edith died in 1977 following a fall in the home.

Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn ownership

In 1979 Little Edie sold the home to Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn for $220,000. Little Edie told them "All it needs is a coat of paint!" Under the terms they were not to tear down the house.

Quinn recalled later that the house "was worse than the movie." The agent refused to even set foot in the house. She said they found the skulls of raccoons in the house as well as the waste from 52 feral cats.

“The smell of the house was beyond anything you can imagine,” she said.

Bradlee and Quinn restored the home. The home now hosts many parties and charity events yearly and has been featured in several architectural and home décor magazines.