Good news for friends of The Mount, Edith Wharton's Lenox, Massachusetts, house today. Bloomberg reports that the property, which was facing foreclosure, has been saved at least temporarily. The 97-year-old estate raised $800,000 before the foreclosure deadline. Susan Wissler, senior executive officer of Edith Wharton Restoration Inc. says that the situation is still very critical. There is still an outstanding balance of around $5.5 million in bank loans (a $1.3 million mortgage and an additional credit line of $3.2 million). The Wharton preservation group had missed a $30,000 payment to Berkshire Bank in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in February. Edith Wharton Restoration started a campaign to raise $3 million The $800,000 was raised from 1,300 donors including former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner and his wife, Jane who gave $25,000. The Mount will be open for the season beginning May 9 but a new foreclosure date of May 31 still looms.
Most people see bottle service with VIP treatment at a hot club in a big city a special treat and a perk of being able to afford spendy bottles of booze. But one Boston official disagrees and is cracking down on the clubs that offer bottle service to their clients. His argument? That the price of the bottle causes patrons to feel they have to down the whole thing before the night is over which, consequently, steps on the toes of the "happy hour" law of a two-drink max per patron. Club owners and VIP's agree that it is an important part of high-end establishments. Personally, I've only seen people partake in bottle service -- and typically there are more than enough people at the table to help decrease individuals portions.
For the next couple of weeks we will be checking out some homes in the most expensive zip codes in the United States, up today, 02114. This zip code is in the Beacon Hill area of Boston, Massachusetts has a median price of $2,070,000 and an appreciation rate of 271% since 1990. In this part of Boston, you are paying for history, convenience and also for the picturesque beauty of the area.
Today's selection is a townhouse located near Charles Street, Beacon Hill's main drag which is backed with antique stores, small cozy restaurants and small gourmet grocery stores. This four-bedroom home has a bottom floor with a sitting room, kitchen, and a classic shuttered bay windo. The second floor includes a southern-orientated music room with s its own wood burning fireplace. The second floor also features the formal living room with moldings and hardwood floors. The master suite is on the third floor and has a marble vanity, his and her sinks, and a dual shower as well as a separate office/dressing room with built in shelving. The au-pair suite is on the lower level and has a living/kitchen area that could be converted to a media room. This home is listed at $4.25 million.
Gallery: Most Expensive Zip Codes, 02114, Beacon Hill, Boston, MA
I'm taking another look at this one because when I first wrote about it last May there were no inside pictures for the listing. Searles Castle in Great Barrington, Massachusetts has 40 rooms and seven turrets. The home, which has most recently served as a private school is now up for sale for $15 million. The castle, which is on 61 acres, has a fascinating history, it is one of two in the New England region (the other is in New Hampshire) that bear the name of Edward Searles. Mary Hopkins, the widow of railroad tycoon Mark Hopkins commissioned the castle which was built in 1888. She hired interior decorator Edward Searles for the project, and they married a year before it was finished (she was 22 years older than he). After she died he stayed in the castle for a time and then after his death it has been a private private school, conference center among other businesses and was most recently the John Dewey Academy. The castle has 36 fireplaces, a dungeon, and more than 50 rooms for a total of around 60,000 square feet. The finishes here are amazing imported marble, accentuated fireplaces, carved wood ceilings, a Louis XIV drawing room with details in gold and original painted ceiling, music room with 42-ft dome ceiling, a slate roof, hipped and conical roofs accentuated by finials, chimneys, gablets and turrets. It's been sitting on the market since last May for $15 million.
This home is so stereotypically Martha's Vineyard you can practically smell the salt water. The new shingled home is in the Cow Bay area of Edgartown the main town on the small island off the coast of Cape Cod. You don't get ocean views with this one but you get water views of Sengekontacket Pond. The home also has access to private association beaches of Cow Bay on the eastern shore of Martha's Vineyard. The five-bedroom home is either very staged or decorated by someone with a keen love of the preppy. Check out the living room complete with model sailboat and the quilt with the nautical flags. There are also two master suites with private bathrooms. The home is on a little over two acres and has a heated inground pool. Pools surrounded by grass don't exactly light my fire but this is probably just a place to rinse off since you've got the ocean so nearby. It is listed at $6.5 million.
This one in Cohasset, Massachusetts is an interesting example of what happens when an older house meets a new owner with a taste for the modern. This home sits on a promontory called Cary's Point, which overlooks Sandy Cove. The current owners bought the home around 2003 for about $4.75 million and gave it a total renovation and expansion. Believe it or not, this home was built in 1903-04 but has been completely renovated with new floors, new windows, new heating, audio, video and lighting systems and more. The details here are pretty fantastic; the kitchen counter for example appears to be composed of agate slices. The windows are all custom made with curving metal accents. There is not just a heated three-car detached garage but also a two-car garage with a turntable floor so the owner never has to back out of the garage again. The reflecting pool has a huge sculpture. The current owners have a taste for modern design and so the home is currently a showcase for all sorts of contemporary furniture and an expansive art collection. The property has a dining patio and gazebo with perfect views of the water. The property has access to two private beaches and two moorings. The owner is even offering his 46-foot Sunseeker powerboat along with the estate. The estate is listed at $19.5 million with Dean and Hamilton.
The suburban town on Winchester, Massachusetts is home to a variety of older grand homes. This home, with an English country manor look, was built in the 1930s. It has six bedrooms and sits on two acres that include formal gardens. You're going to need your Murphy's Oil soap for this one because there is beautiful woodwork everywhere. Large leaded glass windows keep it from being too gloomy. While the merits of a room covered in toile continue to elude me, the bedrooms do exude a posh coziness. And if ever there was a home that made good and ample use of Oriental rugs, this is it. it is listed at $4.6 million.
One of the most unique inns in Provincetown, Massachusetts (a town known for, among other things, really eclectic bed and breakfasts) is on the market. Land's End Inn occupies a coveted spot on Commercial Street on Gulf Hill. The inn has views of the harbor and was originally built in 1904 as a private residence. It has 17 guest bedrooms and 18 bathrooms. Each of the rooms has its own unique theme such as the library room, the English garden room and the Moroccan tower room. Tthe whole place is touched with a charming eccentricity.. The home also has three different kitchens.There is also a manager's apartment and the listing includes an adjacent lot at 20A Commercial St. of approximately 8060 square feet. More pictures can be seen at the inn's website. It is listed at $5,250,000.
Homes like this in Boston don't come on the market too often. This stately brick townhouse is located on Beacon Street opposite the Public Garden. The home was built in 1846 for former Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Crowninshield and must have been the height of fashion and luxury at the time. The home went through a major renovation in 1990. The renovation seems to have included the large kitchen that has French doors opening out onto the garden. Other features include a library, a billiard room with a wet bar, a dining room with a dumb waiter and a caterer's kitchen. The top floor includes a large modern gym that includes a hot tub and steam shower. There is also a roof deck with great Back Bay skyline views.The listing says that there is outdoor parking on a private street. This might mean some major parking hassles in the winter, but what you are paying for here are all the vintage details, the curlicued plaster medallions on the ceiling, nine Tiffany-designed stained glass windows and some of the most gorgeous woodwork I have ever seen. The staircase alone is worthy of poetry and those tufted velvet built-in seats next to the huge fireplace are so evocative of the time period this house was built in that they seem to be part of an oil painting.. There are five bedrooms total and ten fireplaces. There are some strange quirks, too, such as a rather coffin-like bathtub. But with an old beauty of a house like this, you have to embrace the quirks. It is listed at $6.9 million.
This one makes me homesick because I used to live in the area and can attest to its charm. Belmont, an elegant and cozy suburb of Cambridge, Massachusetts is home to many beautiful homes built during the 1920s. This one in the prime Belmont Hill area just about three miles from Harvard Square. The nice thing about this five-bedroom home is that it even though it doesn't come with a whole lot of its own land it is located around 85 acres of habitat land. The home has a formal dining room, a new kitchen that includes stainless steel appliances and an indoor grill, gleaming hardwood floors, fireplaces and a master wing with cathedral ceilings, a porch and a marble bath with a sky-lit shower. There is also a two-level au pair apartment. It is listed at $2.55 million. The Zillow zestimate has it at $2,044, 013 which seems pretty close to what it might sell for.
Ah Beacon Hill, arguably Boston's most charming neighborhood, a hilly little enclave of brick townhouses and cobblestone streets. Today's home is a five-story townhome with a long history (it was constructed in 1827). It is located on the sunny side of Chestnut Street (trust me, in the winter months this is vitally important). It was renovated in 2000. Because it is an older Beacon Hill townhome it's narrow but the ceilings are high and it does have an elevator. The three-bedroom home has a guest suite, a study with a terrace that gives you a rooftop view over the surrounding homes and your own brick courtyard. It is listed at $5.4 million.
Two of the biggest trends in housing developments right now are buildings with eco-friendly features and residences for the over 55 crowd. Put them both together and you've got Highland Meadows a new luxury development in Weston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe reports that the development will have the high-end features such as Sub-Zero refrigerators and Wolf stoves and options for basement saunas and wine rooms. The development also has a network of pipes and tanks that store rainwater to irrigate the property's landscaping. During a dry season it can be supplemented from on-site wells. Waste water from sinks, bathtubs and toilets are routed into an on-site treatment site and then into a leaching field. The 69 condo units will be priced between $1.6 million and $2 million with seven units earmarked for affordable housing.
Condominiums attached to retail space are becoming more and more popular. I recently wrote about a California development within a mall and I just came across an article in the MetroWest Daily News about a New England high-rise condominium which is attached to a mall. Nouvelle at Natick is a 215-unit development that is attached to the former Natick Mall, now renamed the Natick Collection. The mall now includes Neiman Marcus , Louis Vuitton , Tiffany, BCBG , and will also include Burberry , Juicy Couture , Michael Kors , and the first Nordstrom in Massachusetts. It will also be home to upscale eateries including Boston's dessert-centric Finale.
There are one, two and three-bedroom units including penthouses. Amenities include a 1.2-acre rooftop garden, Parc Nouvelle, which is the largest of its kind in New Englanf, Club Nouvelle, a private club with a dining area and a library and the Bosse Fitness Center. Prices start at $425,000 and go up to $1.6 million for a penthouse.
This home was built in the 1970s and looks it but the fact that it is a little weatherbeathen is part of its charm in my opinion/ The home is in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts tucked into the side of Lenox Mountain on nine acres. The home has a contemporary style and has expansive views westward. The home's floor-to-ceiling windows offer plenty of light. It has three bedrooms and at under 2,500 square feet it is modest by estate of the day standards but the land does include a pool, pool house and an office/studio .It is listed at $1.8 million. After the jump, step one, gut the kitchen.
Today's estate of the day is a double feature courtesy of the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties column which clued me in to the saga of the battling Donovan family. The family's bitter battles over money and property have aired a whole lifetime of dirty laundry. Donovan Sr., a high tech entrepreneur and former MIT professor was shot in 2005 and suspected his son of arranging the crime. In May of 2006 he was indicted of filing a false police report and is suspected of staging the crime himself.
The Donovans naturally want to spend a lot less time together and so they are separating financial interests and putting these two lovely properties on the market. Both in quaint Manchester-by-the-Sea, 20 miles north of Boston. The first is on Smith's Point on approximately 3.5 acres and has a three bedroom residence with views of the Atlantic Ocean and also has a 13 story WWII submarine tower that could be used for living quarters and has views toward Boston. The property also has a tennis court, Gunite swimming pond, an attached 2-car garage, and a separate garage used for storing maintenance equipment. It is listed at $6 million. After the jump, pictures of the first house and a look at the second. Take a look around and let me know which Donovan manse is your fave.
Good news for friends of The Mount, Edith Wharton's Lenox, Massachusetts, house today. Bloomberg reports that the property, which was facing foreclosure, has been saved at least temporarily. The 97-year-old estate raised $800,000 before the foreclosure deadline. Susan Wissler, senior executive officer of Edith Wharton Restoration Inc. says that the situation is still very critical. There is still an outstanding balance of around $5.5 million in bank loans (a $1.3 million mortgage and an additional credit line of $3.2 million). The Wharton preservation group had missed a $30,000 payment to Berkshire Bank in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in February. Edith Wharton Restoration started a campaign to raise $3 million The $800,000 was raised from 1,300 donors including former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner and his wife, Jane who gave $25,000. The Mount will be open for the season beginning May 9 but a new foreclosure date of May 31 still looms.
