Along a tree-lined street in New York’s ritzy Hamptons lies the stately yet mysterious Grey Gardens. With its sweeping porches and charming name, the home initially conjured images of East Coast privilege and gentility. But perhaps Grey Gardens is best known for what came after —the decay, the cats, the raccoons, and the fiercely independent mother-daughter duo who lived there heedless of what anyone thought.
The original fourteen-room mansion sits majestically on four acres in East Hampton, designed in 1897 by acclaimed architect Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe. Back then, it was commissioned by newspaper heiress Margaret Bagg Phillips, although it was the second home owner, Anna Hill, who named the house Grey Gardens, after the walled Spanish granite garden she installed.
In 1924, after the birth of the three Beale children, the illustrious Grey Gardens entered its most memorable era when it was purchased by Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her husband Phelan Beale. Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale was born into wealth and status as a niece of famous tycoon John Vernou Bouvier III, making her aunt to future First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
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