The Springs area of northern East Hampton, N.Y., is hallowed ground for art lovers. It was in Springs, in 1945, that Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner paid $5,000 for their house on Springs Fireplace Road. For the down payment, they borrowed $2,000 from their patron Peggy Guggenheim. (Please note: the house for sale here is not the Pollock Krasner House, which is a very well-regarded museum. Pollock and Krasner, at no time, owned this house.)
Pollock died on Springs Fireplace Road in 1956, driving drunk after a party and hitting a tree. Krasner continued working and painting in their house and studio till her death in 1984. They’re both buried in nearby Green River Cemetery, which has inspired many others to be buried near them, many of whom have little or no connection to East Hampton. When poet Frank O’Hara was buried in the cemetery in 1966, Krasner cracked, ”He’s not even a summer rental.” (Courtney Sale Ross, widow of Time-Warner’s Steve Ross, made waves in the 1990s when she purchased almost all the remaining cemetery plots for sale.)
Other notables who lived in Springs over the years include Willem de Kooning, John Ferren, Robert Caro, and Kurt Vonnegut. Today Ross Bleckner and Cindy Sherman call Springs home. (Springs Fireplace Road gets its name from fireplaces at its end that signaled the residents of nearby Gardiners Island that supplies were ready to be picked up.)
Besides the artistic and literary connections, Springs is charming for being, as yet, a still laid-back and rural hamlet, with farm stands, horses grazing in fields, and the landmark Springs General Store, where back in the day, Jackson would trade paintings for groceries. (Note to proprietor, 1950s: hang on to those paintings.)
There are 2.4 acres of land, which includes a pool, a very cute bijou pool house, and an outdoor shower. Partially renovated with contemporary interventions that add a modern-day sensibility, the house is complete with many inviting porches and screened rooms to make the most of the summer views. True, the kitchen needs updating, but that’s no big deal. Given the paucity of photos of the bathrooms, of which there are four, it’s likely they need updating as well. There are also four bedrooms.
Given all these attractive features, and ready to be polished like a diamond by the next owner, it’s unsurprising that the property went into contract in less than a week.