Grey Gardens (estate)

Grey Gardens
Grey Gardens in January of 2009
General information
Architectural style	Shingle style
Location	East Hampton, New York
Completed	1897
Owner	Sally Quinn
Governing body	Private
Design and construction
Architect	Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe

Grey Gardens is a 14-room house at West End Road and Lily Pond Lane in the Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. The lives of its residents were chronicled in the Grey Gardens 1975 documentary, 2006 Broadway musical, 2009 television movie, and numerous other books and documentaries.

In 1895, 4 acres (16,000 m²) of oceanfront land was bought by F. Stanhope Phillips and Margaret Bagg Phillips, daughter of John S. Bagg, who had acquired the Detroit Free Press in 1836. The Phillips paid $2,500 (equivalent to $72,000 in 2016) from the estate of a Mr. Candy. The couple announced their plans to build a $100,000 (equivalent to $2,879,000 in 2016) house on the property. However, the purchase hit a snag when it was revealed that the property had been bequeathed to the U.S. government.

In 1897, Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe (1862–1934) designed the house. Thorpe had designed several other houses in East Hampton. But the house did not get immediately built.

Phillips died in 1901, leaving behind an estate valued at $250,000 (equivalent to $7,197,000 in 2016). His brother challenged Margaret for control of the estate, saying she had used undue influence on him and that she had cremated him so that an autopsy could not be performed to confirm this. The court sided with Margaret.

After the ownership issues were settled, the house was built.

In 1913, Robert C. Hill, president of Consolidation Coal Company, bought the house. Hill's wife Anna Gilman Hill (1875–1955) imported ornate concrete walls from Spain to enclose the garden and hired landscape designer Ruth Bramley to create what would become the core of Grey Gardens. Ruth was married at the time to architect Aymar Embury II and their offices were in the same building.

In 1924, Phelan Beale and Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale acquired the house. Phelan was a law partner of John Vernou Bouvier, Jr. and had married Bouvier's daughter, Edith. Bouvier had a house in East Hampton three miles north on Further Lane at Lasata where his granddaughter Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis was a frequent visitor.