Grey Gardens estate for sale, asking price a pinch under $20M

The East Hampton Grey Gardens estate is officially for sale by owner Sally Quinn, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The home was made famous by the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, produced and filmed by brothers Albert and David Maysles. The film is considered to be one of the greatest documentaries of all time. This is the first time that the house has been up for sale since Quinn and her late husband Ben Bradlee bought the home from Edith Bouvier Beale in 1979.

The Beale family took ownership of the estate in 1924, living there in total for over 50 years. As relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (more commonly known as Big Edie and Little Edie, respectively) were subject to negative attention for the state of their home.

Via Corcoran

The task of restoration would have been daunting—the home fell to dilapidated conditions as the Beale women felt they were unable to maintain the huge estate. After their living conditions were exposed to the public by the media, East Hampton Town threatened to evict the Beales if they could not bring the property back to livable conditions and comply with building codes.

The house, according to Quinn, was infested with raccoons and over 50 feral cats when she took over the property. During the filming of Grey Gardens, the crew even had to wear flea collars.

Little Edie had left most of the belongings in the house when she sold it to the couple for $220,000. The couple put about $600,000 into renovating the house, promising Little Edie that they would restore the home and maintain design integrity. The house was previously available to rent for $175,000 back in 2015.

Designed in 1897 by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe, the 6,000-square-foot home sits on almost 2 acres of land, and is equipped with 7 bedrooms, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and apparently a lot of ghosts. It is located at 3 West End Road in East Hampton, near Georgica beach. Asking price is $19,995,000.

• Grey Gardens Goes on the Market for Nearly $20 Million [WSJ]
• 3 West End Road [Corcoran]
• Grey Gardens [IMDb]
• The Documentary [Grey Gardens Online]
• How Ben Bradlee and His Wife Restored Grey Gardens [Curbed]
• 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Grey Gardens [IFC]
• The real Grey Gardens house is on the market for $20M [LLNYC]
• Rent the Hamptons’ infamous Grey Gardens for $175K [New York Post]
• Haunted Hamptons [Curbed Hamptons]