If you’re dying for a piece of classic Montauk Seven Sisters architecture and can’t swing the $62 million Dick Cavett is asking for neighboring Tick Hall, the Andrews House might suit you. It’s been listed by Rylan Jacka and Mark Webb with Sotheby’s for $16.25 million. It had been listed for sale a couple years ago asking $2.25 million more.
What are the Seven Sisters? In 1879, a real estate developer called Arthur Benson bought virtually all of Montauk. He decided to turn the best area of it into a private hunting and fishing enclave for his friends. Benson hired Frederick Law Olmsted to design the landscaping and a young architectural firm, McKim, Mead & White, whose most famous member today is of course Stanford White, to design the houses. Seven houses (including this one and Tick Hall) were built for Benson and six friends, along with a central clubhouse, where food was prepared and laundry done. The area is now a historic district.
Today, the Montauk Association houses are considered important examples of the Shingle Style, a distinctive American architecture. This house was originally owned by William L. Andrews, founder of the Grolier Club in Manhattan. It was virtually rebuilt by Francis Fleetwood in 1992, with a kitchen wing added (original kitchens were tiny because the owners generally ate at the clubhouse). Back then, Roberta Gosman Donovan owned the house; she sold it in December 2012 for $7 million.
That’s one reason we’re skeptical about the asking price: the house, while impressive at 3800 square feet, contains only four bedrooms and 2.5 baths. There’s no pool, but it’s probably OK to add one on the 2.3 acres of oceanview but not oceanfront land.
For more, click here. 153 Deforest Road, Montauk
