Fine Lines
Old barns converted to residences speak of the romantic, unusual and spacious. Unfortunately, many of them turn out to be awkward, dark, and difficult to divide into discrete spaces. It makes you realize that they may be better suited to housing animals and farm supplies than families and furniture. New construction in barn styles solves the problems of comfort and light, but raises the question of integrity. Is it illusion, a house with a theme imposed on it? That was in our mind when we examined a barn-style residence built in 1997 and newly on the market for sale.
Insider Real Estate Rating
Architecture: This house walks a fine architectural line in making reference to barns and agricultural buildings, but not going too far. It is, happily, a real house with interesting elements—and not a phony barn.
Site: Highland Terrace is an older Bridgehampton street in what was, and to some extent still is, a farming area. The street has a nice mix of local and weekend residents—the current owners are the Count and Countess DeLesseps.
Condition: The idea of living in a barn is so attractive—it’s the reality that gets in the way. When does a sagging wall cease to be charming? Being new, this house is comfortable and in excellent shape.
The inside word: This is a commodious and attractive place with terrific views out over the fields, some of which are protected from development. The price of $5,500,000 seems ambitious, but there is a lot of vigor—and cash—in the current real estate market—and probably more than one city dweller with dreams of living in a barn.
Applewild Farm
Potato fields not many years ago, the areas along Mitchell Lane and Scuttle Hole Road and surrounding Long Pond, now signify Bridgehampton horse country. If it was ever a secret of the equestrian cognoscenti, it’s not anymore. Five Tails, a private horse farm was recently bought by Kelly Klein and Stormy Good (it’s now called Wild Ocean). That focused the attention of the press and real estate wonks on the area—but zoning protects the large open spaces from development in the future.
Insider Real Estate Rating
Architecture: The 3,500 square foot farmhouse at Applewild is simple and straightforward. It’s pleasant enough, but the real excitement here is in the site and equestrian features.
Site: Fifteen meticulously groomed acres, with thirteen-zone irrigation, three paddocks, plus house and extra building lot. The outdoor riding ring is constructed of an all-weather, quick-draining composite for maximum use, and the rolled grass flatting/jump field is smoother than nature is willing to provide.
Equestrian facilities: The fifteen-stall horse barn includes wash stall, cedar paneled tack room, bath, hayloft and brick aisle floors—all well built and neat as a pin. The 78’ x 150’ indoor riding arena provides a clear, broad space for winter and night riding.
The inside word: Applewild, unlike the private farms, is zoned as a full-service commercial facility. At a price of $4,950,000, you’re not going to pay the mortgage by boarding horses, but the zoning gives you wide choices in use, and enhances value. This is a horse farm for horse lovers—functional, not decorative, intended to be used, not just admired.
Andros Hill
William Merritt Chase is celebrated for his paintings of Peconic Bay and the Atlantic Ocean as viewed from Shinnecock Hills (where in the 1890’s he started Art Village, the first outdoor art school in America). Those same views, with some twentieth century accretions on the landscape, can still be had from the 32-acre historic estate, “Andros Hill”.
Though it seems whimsical now, the improvements of 1906 were a serious attempt to create a bit of Scotland here in the Hamptons. The design, by Grosvenor Atterbury, architect of The Parrish Art Museum and The American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum, was a stylized version of a Scottish manor house, with outbuildings to match. Then, in what must have been a great leap of faith, the owner spent a million 1906 dollars to create a Scottish landscape. Remarkably, it all worked. The house and cottages and stables are handsome and elegant, and the rolling hills, especially on 12 manicured acres, can give one the vague feeling of wanting to put on a kilt. For the highly imaginative among us, it might come close to a weekend at Balmoral.
H Estate Insider Real Estate Rating
Architecture: A solid success. The proportions and detailing of the house are exquisite. Nearly 100 years old, it radiates a grand dame status.
Grounds: Hilly natural woodland combined with mature landscaped park, enriched by the enviable combination of money and time.
Condition: Spotty. The original woodwork and fireplaces and tiles are unbeatable. An overlay of 1950’s kitsch, such as a master bath with space-agey aquamarine fixtures is unfortunate.
Location: Is it Southampton with a few rough edges? Or is it upscale environs of Hampton Bays? Shinnecock Hills blends the grand with the gaudy, the refined with the rough. It’s good, but less than prime.
The inside word: Don’t expect to hear folks singing Auld Lang Syne after grouse hunting here. Who would want a 32-acre estate outside the estate area? Maybe some rich eccentric or privacy freak. But that market is too limited. The highest and best use for this property is slice and dice into 6 or 8 fabulous oceanview lots, with Scottish manor remaining on a few acres. At an asking price of $10,000,000 for “Andros Hill” that might even make you some money.
Listings 1
Solid Comfort
Brick is a component that is not entirely at home on eastern Long Island. Perhaps it is because the raw materials were not found here, and, since colonial times, we have grown deeply accustomed to wood exteriors. The few brick houses of recent construction appear to be thick, unfriendly and impermeable intruders on our gentle landscape. But the opposite seems true of our occasional older brick structures. With maturity, they have taken on the qualities of unusual, but stable, resolute and dignified matriarchs. One of the most interesting has just come on the market.
Insider Real Estate Rating
Architecture: In a society of changing fashions—and, let’s face it, architecture in the Hamptons is subject to trends and fads—there is something comfortably enduring and unwavering about a very traditional English-style brick dwelling from 1913.
Site: South Main Street in Southampton is appropriate for this stately house with conservatory. Ideally, you’d like to see it on more than an acre, but lawns enclosed by gated brick walls add lots of charm.
Condition: All the expressive details—such as diamond paned and lead-mullioned windows, oak mantles, and wood paneling—are in terrific shape.
The inside word: No tricks, no artifice here—just the immutable comforts of a finely built, attentively detailed home. And beyond the tangible components is something extraordinary—a mood, a sense of well being, a quiet, intimate pleasure. More than all the expensive brand-name amenities stuffed into some houses, this might be the greatest luxury we can buy. It’s a high-priced luxury, however, at $6,750,000.