Rent Grey Gardens for a Mother-Daughter Getaway

Posted on 22. Feb, 2011 by Zillow in Historical, Travel

The infamous Grey Gardens, now restored to it's original luxury, will be available for rent this August.

Want to rent a Hamptons home for a couple weeks this summer? A mother-daughter getaway perhaps? If you want an escape with a storied past, then take a look at “Grey Gardens,” the East Hampton, Long Island home that became the focus of a documentary in 1975 (and later, an HBO biopic) due to its celebrity ties to Jackie Kennedy Onassis. The home with a fascinating history is up for rent for two weeks this summer for $135,000, according to Hamptons Curbed.

The 14-room, shingle-style home was built in 1897 and was one of the gracious, old summer mansions along the shore in East Hampton. But the real story isn’t the house, it’s the women who lived inside. Meet Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (“Big Edie”) and her daughter, Edith Bouvier Beale (“Little Edie,” photo) an eccentric mother and daughter — one being more eccentric than the other.

The History of Grey Gardens

Big Edie and her husband, Phelan, purchased Grey Gardens in the 1920′s, but their relationship soured and Phelan left her and Grey Gardens in 1934. In the meantime, Little Edie was pursuing romance and fame in Manhattan, but when that eluded her, she moved in with her mother.

Over the years, the Beale women could not physically or financially maintain the estate and the glorious grounds. Grey Gardens slipped into disrepair so severe that the Suffolk County Health Department cited them with building and health code violations. Reportedly, the home was in a miserable state of decline with raccoons coming and going, feral cats wandering about, and piles of junk throughout the house.

Eventually, when Big Edie died in 1977, Little Edie was forced to find a buyer. In 1979 former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his wife, journalist Sally Quinn bought Grey Gardens and the house was renovated in 2003 and restored to its former glory.

Grey Gardens: Exclusive Rental in East Hampton

The eight-bedroom manse sits on a two-acre lot about 300 feet from the beach and across from Steven Spielberg’s house, Williams said. A tennis court and gunite pool flank the house, along with the property’s famous gardens, the current layout of which Quinn designed,” said listing agent Bill Williams said.

: The infamous Grey Gardens, now restored to it's original luxury, will be available for rent this August.

Quinn and Bradlee have rented the house in the past, Williams said, but it’s not usually available for such a large chunk of August, he said.

Bill Williams of Sotheby’s International Realty is the exclusive listing agent for the 6,000-square-foot house at 3 West End Road in East Hampton. It’s available for the last two weeks in August, including Labor Day, for a total of $135,000, Williams said.