Summit Meeting
With estate quality homes no longer restricted to the traditional estate areas, an interesting question arises. If they are quite simply being built all over the place, what does that mean for the value of homes in the old estate areas? Is there still a reason to pay top dollar for a top street?
Architecture: A very nice if unremarkable façade, secure in its place on a well established estate area lane. Comfortable, modest and unassuming, it nevertheless has a presence—one very nearly defined by the idea that it is not competing with the architectural equivalent of the kids, the upstarts, of the Hamptons.
Site: One acre on Toylesome Lane in Southampton Village, a fine old street that parallels Gin Lane geographically and in some ways socially.
The inside word: Yes, it is still rational to pay—in this case, $3.8 million—to be in a top neighborhood. On the negative side, there are some tradeoffs in luxury and style and amenities, but on the positive side, there is the almost immeasurable certainty that you are close to the summit.
Greek Drama
The early to mid-nineteenth century fashion for Greek Revival architecture coincided with the peak of the whaling industry. Sag Harbor, quite logically, has the greatest quantity of houses in this style, although there are a number scattered through the other towns and hamlets.
Architecture: Along with Estee Lauder’s house in Wainscott, this is one of the largest and best examples of Greek Revival in the Hamptons. Built around 1830, it’s a superb house, beautifully proportioned and well maintained.
Site: Four and a half acres on Shelter Island Sound, in North Haven, just outside Sag Harbor. We have not seen any other house of this period, in this style, with this size property, on the water—let alone on the market.
The inside word: This house has it all—style, location, pedigree. There is virtually nothing to complain about, except, as with most things in the Hamptons, the price. It’s a stunning property with an equally breathtaking price tag of $13 million. It will be interesting to see how the bids come in.
Good Gothic
Some houses have a storybook quality. They are more than their architecture and materials and location—more than the sum of their parts. They are somehow evocative, with layers of meaning, undercover agents with several identities to reveal. We enjoy reading a good house.
Architecture: There is a nice Gothic twist here. Almost a classic four or five bay New England façade, but someone was up to some mischief, toying with scale and shape. The bays don’t line up, the entrance gable is offset from the triangular roof window, and the perfectly symmetrical top dormers remind us how playful the rest of the front is. It’s a lovely composition of vernacular architecture.
Site: Rolling lawns, tennis, pool, a large barn and a guesthouse complement the main house on 2.2 acres in Westhampton Beach.
The inside word: The 1865 house is well restored and has all the contemporary comforts you would want. But it is the wonderful Gothic front elevation that intrigues and then lingers in the memory. It could have gone terribly wrong but it didn’t, and age has only enhanced it. Offered at $2.2 million.
Fine Forms
It’s not exactly a clash of civilizations, but there is certainly a divergence of opinion behind the hedgerows on lifestyles. On one side, we have the traditional Hamptons look, understated and casual; on the other, the forces of Palm Beach, a more formal, decorated and done up approach. Chacun a son gout.
Architecture: There is a theory that anything worth doing is worth overdoing—up to a point. This house skillfully tests that premise with an accumulation of shapes and sizes and details, from rooflines to windows to vaults.
Site: Southampton Village estate area, two well-landscaped acres. It’s the only place where this style makes sense.
The inside word: No beach balls on the tables here. The very decked out interior and the virtual anthology of exterior details will appeal to an older, conservative buyer at home with silks and swags and finials, and with $4.2 million to spend.