Listing of the Day
A typical renovation of an upmarket home involves the installation of a spa and a media room that are mostly little used. Yet the owners of Glebe House, which stands close to the village green of Chiddingfold, Surrey, chose to do things differently. They added an orangery (the more elegant version of a conservatory), which overlooks a pool and boosts the already considerable glamour of the five-acre grounds.
Other outdoor highlights are a paddock, planted as an arboretum, rose garden, vegetable patch, tennis court and a croquet lawn that you reach by crossing a bridge over a stream. The aim was to create a series of “rooms” to delight at different times of the year.
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The high-ceiling rooms inside the 6,719 sq ft house also seem to have been laid out with this intention: you could throw grand parties, but also enjoy periods of solitude, sitting by the fire or admiring the grounds.
Listing of the Day
Location: Westport, Connecticut
Price: $20 million
New to the market, this timeless Colonial on Connecticut’s Gold Coast sits right above the scenic Long Island Sound on a private two-acre parcel.
“Beachside Avenue is one of the best addresses in Connecticut,” said Todd Gibbons of William Pitt/Julia B Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. “It has a big history with financial services people and celebrities.”
Current and former residents include Anne Hathaway, Don Imus, Harvey Weinstein, and Phil Donohue and Marlo Thomas, he said.
This 11,458-square-foot house is owned by Ronnie Heyman, president of the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. She and her late husband, former GAF Corporation Chairman Samuel Heyman, designed and built the home for their family in 2007, after purchasing and tearing down the house that was previously on the parcel, according to Sotheby’s. This house sits on the same foundation as the previous one.
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The Heymans are well known in the art world both as both donors and collectors, with works by Rothko, Pollock and others in their own private collection.
The brick-and-stone-sided house looks “timeless,” Mr. Gibbons said. “You walk into one of the bathrooms and it feels like it was designed yesterday,” not 12 years ago.
“True quality is really timeless,” he said, pointing out the “quality of the materials, the grandeur and the taste level” throughout the seven-bedroom home.
The house was designed by New York-based Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, and the builder was Paul Tallman of Tallman Building Company, according to Sotheby’s.
Design features include 12-foot ceilings, large public rooms, several sets of French doors that open to terraces and grounds, hardwood floors throughout, built-in window seats and bookcases, and graceful arched doorways.
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“The house really has two master suites, both of which have their own seaside terraces,” Mr. Gibbons said.
The eat-in kitchen, which abuts the family room, has a “coffered ceiling, custom cabinetry, a gray limestone floor and state-of-the-art appliances,” he said.
The house was designed to maximize the water views, Mr. Gibbons said. “The living room, family room and dining room are all along the water.”
The rooms that don’t have views of Long Island Sound have views of the “beautiful gardens and landscaping,” he said.
The house is quite close to the water, so you get even better views than you would today with current zoning laws, he explained. “You have 180-degree views because of the way the property sits out” on the waterfront beyond its neighbors.
The topography of Beachside Avenue “jumps up high really quickly,” Mr. Gibbons said, so flooding is not an issue for its residents.
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Stats
The 11,458-square-foot house has seven bedrooms, seven full bathrooms and three partial bathrooms. It sits on a 2.14-acre lot.
Amenities
One of the property’s best amenities is a seaside terrace that’s built right into the seawall, Mr. Gibbons said. “You can have cocktail parties right on top of Long Island Sound, with water lapping up against the terrace.”
There is also an 18-seat movie theater and a home gym.
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Neighborhood Notes
It’s a five- to 10-minute drive to downtown Westport, Mr. Gibbons said. “Shops, restaurants and the train are all minutes away.”
By express train, it’s about a 70-minute ride from Westport to Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal.
Agent: Todd Gibbons, William Pitt/Julia B Fee Sotheby’s International Realty
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