Grey Gardens

Grey Gardens is a 14-room house at 3 West End Road and Lily Pond Lane in the Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. It was the residence of the Beale family from 1924 to 1979, including mother and daughter Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale from 1952 to 1977. The 1975 documentary Grey Gardens depicted the two living in squalor in the mansion; the highly regarded film spawned a 2006 Broadway musical, a 2009 television movie, and other adaptations. The house dates from 1897, and was designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorp. Other owners included Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, who lived in the house from 1979 to 2014, and extensively restored it after moving in. it is owned by fashion designer and entrepreneur Liz Lange. Design and early ownership In 1895, 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 Phillipses paid $2,500 from the estate of a Mr. Candy. The couple announced their plans to build a $100,000 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 Thorp (1862–1934) designed the house. Thorpe had designed several other houses in East Hampton. However, the house was not immediately built. Stanhope Phillips died in 1901, leaving behind an estate valued at $250,000. 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, construction on the house started.