The Old Saybrook, Connecticut estate which provided a summertime respite for Katharine Hepburn and her family has finally sold. The home had been on and off the market for about six years.
The house was purchased in 2004 for $6 million. The then-owner proceeded to renovate the home extensively, bringing a clean, bright, modern aesthetic to the classic New England blueblood retreat. The house had initially been offered at the rather sanguine asking price of $28 million in 2011, eventually dropping to $11.8 million prior to the sale at $11.5 million.
Hepburn’s father purchased the home in the Fenwick neighborhood in 1913, only to see it washed away by a hurricane in 1938. The house which currently stands on the property dates to 1939.
The renovation has left the home an idealized version of a coastal estate house. The prevalence of blazing white, blanched hardwood, and recessed lighting give it a fashionable 21st-century appearance that never outshines the home’s historic roots.
The layout of the house is classically rambling, as any shingle-style should be, and retains the romantic quirks and surprises which graced the original. A variety of ornamental windows, ceiling angles, clerestories, window seats, fireplaces, and nooks and crannies give the home that insouciance particular to an East Coast estate house.
The home’s amenities include a renovated, cottage-style kitchen with high-end everything, a sauna, and a new guest house that, at 4,200 square feet, brings the total interior living space to 12,600 square feet. The main house contains six bedrooms and 7.5 baths.
The property extends to about 1.5 acres, with blue stone patios, 220 feet of beach frontage, a dock jutting into Long Island Sound, expansive lawns and gardens, and a small pond.
Hepburn’s sixty-year film and theater career included roles in over seventy-five feature films and play productions. She took home four Best Actress Academy Awards, and received twelve nominations, for her work.
