Issue #26, September 22, 2006

RE Stories

Selling the Homes of Warner LeRoy, Andy Warhol and the Morpurgo s

By Dan Rattiner

A lot of people have been led to believe that the private estate of the late restaurateur Warner LeRoy was saved from development by East Hampton Town. Well, it wasn’t. This 46- acre property is being carved up into eight different lots, each of which will have a sort of “starter” house on it, some little 6,000 square foot bauble that, I suppose, if you don’t like, you can always tear down and build something else. Price is $5 million each and up.

The developer of the property didn’t use the word starter in a recent interview with the media. But he did say that these lots were meant for people who couldn’t afford Lily Pond Lane. On Lily Pond Lane, a parcel like this with a house on it would probably fetch $45 million. But these would only cost five.

“Our idea is that a number of young, affluent people want a substantial house out here before migrating to a MORE substantial house, like oceanfront or on a name street like Lily Pond Lane or Gin Lane. It’s like a first run for them,” is what he said.

The LeRoy property, in its heyday, which was only six years ago, took your breath away. You drove on a gravel driveway up a hill off Old Stone Highway in Amagansett to a modern, solid, stone, flat-roofed home with glass sliders all around perched in the center of the property on a rise. From this home, you could look out in all directions to see gardens and beautiful flowering trees and handsomely mown green lawns. At one end of the property, there was a babbling brook with an artificial waterfall made of boulders splashing water down into a pond filled with lily pads. It was one of the most peaceful places imaginable.

Warner himself was a flamboyant, dramatic character. He was the son of a prominent Hollywood director and when he grew up he moved east and became the owner of the Tavern on the Green restaurant in New York City. It was a bit rundown when he bought it. But he saw it as a diamond in the rough, and brought in horse carriages and footmen, twinkly Christmas lights on all the trees — which he kept on year around — and lots of fascinating landscaping and interior decoration. Tavern on the Green became the premiere restaurant in the city as far as numbers of dinners served every night. And it was a tourist destination right up there with the Empire State Building, the South Street Seaport and the Statue of Liberty.

Late in life, LeRoy tried to make the same transformation with his purchase of the Russian Tea Room. But he spent too much on his renovations there and for one reason or another, had to sell the place.

After his untimely death, his estate passed to his wife and children. His daughter, Jennifer, now runs Tavern on the Green. His wife, Kay, put the Amagansett house on the market. And now it’s being divided up.

For those who can’t afford Lily Pond this is the place to be. Feel free to stand around and grumble at your failure to achieve the ultimate success. Drive down to Lily Pond Lane. Some day, maybe. Some day.

Meanwhile, in Sag Harbor, another real estate saga continues. Two sisters, Helga and Anselm Morpugo, inherited a big clapboard boarding house behind the library on Union Street when their father died. They’ve lived in it off and on over the years. They’ve fought with one another off and on over the years. They’ve taken in boarders. They started an “Institute,” which seems to exist largely on a piece of paper. And they’ve let the place run down, some might say, near to ruin.

Last year, in a moment of truce between the sisters, they held an auction on the steps of the house in the hopes of selling it for $5 million. By this time, they had gathered up a considerable history of the place. It was originally built by a Captain Vail, a famous whaling captain who came back to Sag Harbor to retire.

It was pretty dramatic stuff, having an auction on the front steps of the home. Lots of people came. The auctioneer, a Sag Harbor attorney named Steve Grossman, said he had a sealed bid, which would serve as an opening bid, of $1.5 million. So could he have $2 million? There was a long silence. And that was it.

Afterwards, for one reason or another, the sealed $1.5 million bid fell through.

This year, the Morpurgos went in another direction. It would be sold on eBay.

It went on eBay on August 27 as a “dilapidated post-and-beam militia commander’s lodge.” They would not take less than $19 million. And for that amount, you wouldn’t get the land, although you’d get the ability to negotiate a long-term lease and maybe buy it later.

“Mint restoration of this magnificent Federalist-Italianate 2 1/2 story structure……is estimated by local artisans as still very possible…….It is a priceless Revolutionary War trophy.”

It also said that it had been built not by Captain Vail, but by a Captain John Hulbert, who was the “hero of Ticonderoga and crafter of the Hulbert flag eulogized by Francis Scott Keys (sic) in his ‘the Star Spangled Banner’……perhaps the house even contains the original Hulbert flag somewhere ensconsed inside the walls……”

Never mind that the Hulbert Flag has been on display for sixty years every day in the Riverhead Museum. Never mind that carbon dating says it was sewn around 1840. Never mind that earlier it had been said that the house had been built by a Captain Vail. And never mind that John Hulbert was the Captain of the Bridgehampton militia, not the Sag Harbor militia, and that he got to Ticonderoga too late to fight in the battle, but in time to be asked to take some prisoners down to New York City.

Forget all that.

Well, the eBay listing ran until September 2. And the world took a pass. No bids. But it was, one supposes, worth a try.

Also in the news is the ongoing attempt, now in its second year, to sell Eothen, the oceanfront estate of the late Andy Warhol in Montauk for $50 million. The house does have its charms. It is on an eight-acre windswept parcel of oceanfront dunes just two miles from the Lighthouse. There is 600 feet of oceanfront. The neighbors include singer Paul Simon, TV personality Dick Cavett and until recently, the fashion photographer Halston, who has since passed away. Renting the house or visiting it during Warhol’s time were Jackie Kennedy, Lee Radziwill and countless models and actresses. One year it was rented to the Rolling Stones, who rehearsed for a world tour on the property. More recently, Julian Schnabel, Jann Wenner, Ralph Lauren and Ian Schrager came to look at the property.

But the property also has its drawbacks. It was essentially used as a retreat for Warhol and his friends. It consists of six one-story buildings arranged around a central green that leads down to the rocky beach below. It is not a sand beach. The buildings are plain, though a living room has a beamed ceiling with the heads of fish and animals still mounted over the fireplaces. It was all built in 1930, by the wealthy founder of the Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Company, a man named Church, who came there with his family until Warhol and his partner Paul Morrissey bought it in 1971.

Nevertheless, the public relations people, marketing men and real estate agents are trying mightily to sell the property.

This past summer, Dan’s Papers received an invitation inviting us to the property to enjoy the Victoria’s Secret lingerie photo shoot that was taking place on the property. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres would be served. We sent some reporters down there, and they came back to say that there was a Victoria’s Secret shoot, but Victoria’s Secret had never been informed about any party. And they were pissed.

Who DID know about the party were some marketing types employed by a real estate firm who also had access to the property. They used the shoot as a hook to have an Open House, which they promoted as an “event.” Why involve Victoria’s Secret, anyway? They don’t need to know. For those who came, these marketing people were very gracious, served drinks and nibbles and gave tours of the property, except for the building that had sheets draped in front of it blocking it off so the very upset models and photographers could have privacy for their important photo shoot.

On another occasion, we received an “information sheet” about the Warhol property that contained the information that it had been built by the famous New York architect Stanford White, the builder of the turn of the twentieth century Madison Square Garden who got shot to death at dinner on the rooftop restaurant of that building by Henry J. Thaw, the husband of a woman Stanford White was having an affair with.

Stanford White built grand three-story Victorian gingerbread beach houses with wrap- around porches in Montauk. But he had also been dead for 30 years before the lowly bungalows were built for the Churches.

Well, there’s a lot of money flying around these parts these days. The latest news is that the Warhol property can be yours not for $50 million, but $40 million.