An Original East Hampton Grande Dame with Period Charm Lists at $14.9 Million

This old lady may be showing her years a little, as would anyone born in 1884. But her bones are still good and she offers many fine features you can’t find in the young whippersnappers today. Plus, her provenance is unique and her situation impeccable: four acres on tony Apaquogue Road, close to the ocean and just down the lane from that nice Mr. Spielberg.

The house has been in the same family for a hundred years. Marilyn Clark, who along with Frank Newbold, both at Sotheby’s International Realty, is listing the house for $14.9 million, says of the current owners, “They are selling because family has grown, now live in different cities and don’t get to use as often as they would like.”

The house is definitely big at about 10,000 square feet, with 12 bedrooms, seven baths, and three fireplaces. Each spacious, airy room features high ceilings, and outside, there’s a big wraparound porch to catch the ocean breezes. It is also the only four-storied house in East Hampton Village, and were new owners to bulldoze and build new (please, noooooooo!), the new place would be allowed to be four stories as well. A few prospective buyers have enquired about moving the house to the center of the plot, which would also be possible. There are currently no swimming pool or tennis court, but there’s certainly plenty of room to add them.

This building bears the distinction of being the first boarding house built in East Hampton, and some of the rooms still have numbers on the doors. Abraham Candy (1801-1880) settled in the town about 1829 and was a teacher (and sometime principal) at the local school. He was also a farmer. In the mid-nineteenth century, as the extension of the Long Island Rail Road to East Hampton in 1867 made a summer visit practical, Candy began accepting summer boarders at his farm on Apaquogue Road.

Candy’s property was acquired after his death by E.A. LaForest in 1882, but the farmhouse burned down in the fall of that year. The LaForests rebuilt, and on the same site in 1884 opened The Apaquogue, a boarding house with 22 guest rooms.

The property was sold in 1912 to a Mrs. Cater of New York, who had plans to convert the building into a summer residence. Instead, during World War I, the house housed Belgian children evacuated from the European war zone. After the war, in 1919, the house was sold to life insurance mogul and tennis buff Julian S. Myrick, president of the ultra-exclusive Maidstone Club. His descendants still own it today.

The grand old dowager looks a little tired on the interiors, but, as Clark says, “The new owner could restore the house, move it on the property and expand, or build their own new 10,500 square foot house and make their own history.” Initially listed more than a year ago at $16.9 million, the house is now in contract to be sold for an unknown amount. Let’s hope the new owners appreciate the history of this lovely piece of the old Hamptons summer colony.