Grey Gardens Gets Another Update

The summer house mansion known as Grey Gardens has been through many lives. The East Hampton, New York, house was constructed between 1897 and 1901. Since then it has passed through the hands of many well known people. Most famously the home and its occupants were recorded in the Maysles Brothers 1975 film Grey Gardens, which documented the steep decline of the property. The house has been through two major restorations now, the most recent one unveiled in 2024.

The Beale Years

Edith Ewing Beale, known as Big Edie, was left the house when her husband separated from her in 1931. But, there wasn’t much money to go with it despite her husband’s successes as a lawyer. Houses like these were weekend and summer getaways for the wealthy of New York and the Beales were certainly that. Big Edie was suddenly left with a lot fewer resources than she had ever had before because there weren’t funds to cover the upkeep of the house. Servants, cleaners, landscaping, and even basic repairs were now off the table and the home eventually fell into squalor.

Little Edie, her daughter, moved into the home with her mother permanently in 1952 after a 5-year modeling stint in the city. The pair remained in the home until Big Edie’s death in 1977. During this time the house was the subject of the documentary and was also famous a few years before that when the county had threatened to evict the duo and tear down the house. It was Big Edie’s nieces, Jackie Kennedy and Princess Lee Radizwill, who chipped in to get some basic cleaning and repairs done to the home in 1972. But, even with the help there was little to be done to save the home while they lived there.

Together the Edies regularly fed dozens of cats and many raccoons that came in through a hole in the ceiling of the attic. The animals were fed in various rooms, without proper food bowls, and their messes were not cleaned up. This led to an overwhelming stench and a sense of decay that permeated the entire house even beyond the previous disrepair the home suffered.

The First Restoration

The property was purchased by journalist Sally Quinn and her publisher husband Ben Bradlee in 1979. With a personal tour from Little Edie, which the real estate agent refused to attend due to the smell, Quinn was sold on the house. Quinn recalled later that Little Edie had told her, with a little twirl, that “All it needs is a coat of paint.”

In fact it needed quite a bit more than that. The glass was broken from the diamond storybook windows and the floral curtains were in shreds. Holes in the ceilings and damage to the woodwork were only some of the many issues that needed attention. Quinn and Bradlee were told that it would be cheaper to tear it down, but they had no intention of doing that. The sale was stipulated on the house not being up for demolition.

Much of the original furniture for the glamorous house was stored in the attic while the Edies lived there and Quinn had the pieces restored and the fabric matched as closely to the originals as possible. 1920s lamps, lots of white wicker, and some comfy sofas were just the sort of things you might expect to see in a summer house of this style and the Beales had held onto this part of the home’s past life. Along with these items Quinn also tried to make repairs to the property that were in keeping with home’s former glory. Quinn sold some of these pieces at an estate sale she held in 2017, then sold the house later that same year.

The Second Restoration

The house was purchased in 2017 by fashion designer and businesswoman Liz Lange. Grey Gardens has since undergone some major works. The entire house was lifted and a basement put in, increasing the number of rooms substantially while maintaining the exterior footprint of the building. The iconic foyer, known to many from the documentary as the site of Little Edie’s dance, kept it’s banister and layout.

The house previously contained multiple kitchens, one for the family to use and one for the servants to use. However, Lange opened these up into one, large kitchen with extra room from a bump-out on the back wall to add even more open space. The most recent round of renovations shows just how differently we use our homes today as compared to over a century ago.

While Lange kept the original footprint of the home and enhanced the gardens back to their former glory, her interior spaces are a departure from the way the Beales and Quinn decorated the home. Lange’s fondness for blues, greens, leopard patterns, and modern art is on prominent display in this newly-decorated, one-of-a-kind home.

You can see the stunning 2024 renovations in the video tour below!