Amityville Horror House, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
May 25th 2010 at 1:01PM

The listing for today's home refers to it as "legendary" but that's understating it a bit. Say the word Amityville and what's the next word that comes to mind-- horror. Today's home is the one behind the famous legend. The five-bedroom home in Amityville, New York is a Dutch Colonial set sideways on a canal. Newsday reports that the home was the site where Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered six family members in their sleep in 1974. Later in 1977, the bestselling Jay Anson book "The Amityville Horror: A True Story" told the story of 28 terror-filled days that later owners George and Kathleen Lutz spent in the home. The legend spawned a bunch of movies starting with The Amityville Horror in 1979 starring James Brolin and Margot Kidder and most recently a 2005 version with Ryan Reynolds in the lead role.

James Cromarty bought the house in 1977 after the bank foreclosed on it and lived there ten years without incident. He and his wife sold the house in 1987 to Peter and Jeanne O'Neill and they sold the house in 1997 for $310,000 to the current owner. The home has a beautiful solarium and charming open rooms. Nothing spooky here at all. There is a garage with a boathouse that leads directly into the canal. This home is listed at $1.15 million with Laura Zambretto of Daniel Gale Sotheby's Realty.

Gallery: Amityville, New York