It’s been over a year since Dick Cavett listed Tick Hall, his estate on Long Island, for sale. The legendary television host—whose insightful talk show was a benchmark of late 1960’s and 1970’s media—initially priced his long-time home at $62 million.

But fourteen months on the market hasn’t turned up a buyer, and down goes the price to $48.5 million, which is near enough to a 20% cut to get more than a little attention. At $62 million, the property was saddled with a rather sanguine ask.

Although it is magnificent. It stretches to just under 20 acres, and is crowned with a home that can claim a life-span that began in the 1880’s. It began as one of the original ‘seven sisters’ of Montauk, a series of glorious shingle-style residences designed by Stanford White. That’s a heady dose of historicity, enough to cock an eyebrow of even the most blasé Long Island blueblood.

Mr. Cavett has owned the property since the 1960’s. The guests entertained here comprise a who’s who of cultural and political significance of the period. Original stained glass, original plank floors, and leaded windows are among the details; walls and ceilings are frequently clad in polished wood, the kitchen floor is herringbone pattern brick, and there are enough nooks and crannies in this house to accommodate a full complement of ghosts, and a few mysteries besides.

The acreage incorporates flagstone walkways, gardens, sloping lawns, a very convincing lagoon-style pool with poolhouse, a pond, beach access, and that particularly romantic landscaping unique to the more sylvan corners of Long Island that suggests idylls to be discovered, lost, and re-discovered.