For the first time in nearly 40 years, Grey Gardens, the house that belonged to relatives of Jackie Kennedy and inspired a documentary, an HBO movie, and a Broadway musical, is on the market.
The asking price for the 1897 home, which was purchased by Kennedy Onassis’s aunt and cousin, Edith Bouvier Beale and Edith Beale, in the 1920s, is $19.995 million. The listing for the seven-bedroom property at 3 West End Road in East Hampton calls this “a rare opportunity to own an iconic property in one of the most coveted locations in the Hamptons.”
That’s not realtor speak—it’s the truth. After the release of the 1975 documentary that showed the eccentric Bouvier Beales, who were known as Big Edie and Little Edie, living in squalor with the house showing signs of collapsing around them. HBO produced an Emmy-award winning movie about the story in 2009, and the Broadway musical followed.
Big Edie died in 1977, and Little Edie sold the house in 1979 to former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn. Michael Schultz, who has the listing, told the paper that the Washington power couple were close friends of John and Jackie Kennedy’s. They restored the house and spent most Augusts there until Bradlee’s death in 2014.
“It just wasn’t the same without him,” Quinn, 75, told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s a magical place and we had a magical life there, but that part of my life is over now. I want to move on.”
The 1.7-acre parcel is about 100 yards from of Georgica Beach, and some of the rooms have views of the Atlantic Ocean. The three-story, shingle-style main house includes seven bedroom, six-and-a-half bathrooms, and the property also includes a Har-Tru tennis court, expansive gardens, and a heated gunite pool.
It was recently offered as a yearly rental (with August excluded) for $175,000.
Quinn told the Journal the she plans to include many of her Grey Gardens memories in an upcoming memoir, Finding Magic, and that while she hopes whoever buys the house will keep it intact, that won’t be a condition of the sale.
“Whatever happens happens,” she said. “Whoever buys it, it’s their house.”
