More stories

  • in

    Playwright Noel Coward’s $10.3 Million Former Connecticut Estate Overlooks the Long Island Sound

    A Connecticut estate with ties to film and theater royalty has just hit the market for $10.3 million.

    Dubbed Pebbles, the Fairfield property was designed in 1927 by the architect Francis Hamilton. Later on, the English playwright Noël Coward and his partner John C. Wilson, a Broadway producer, owned the stately spread, and over the years, several stars of screen and stage used Pebbles as a summer getaway, including Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh, and Richard Rodgers. Wendy Ryan and Andrew Whiteley at Brown Harris Stevens hold the listing.

    Picture windows surround the dining room, looking out on the water.

    Brown Harris Stevens

    The six-bedroom, nine-bath Georgian Revival mansion sits on almost three acres with views of the Long Island Sound and Manhattan skyline. Over the years, it’s been both carefully maintained and updated by a lineage of owners, meaning that classic details are paired with modern-day features. Off the foyer are both a formal living room and a more casual family room, both with wood-burning fireplaces. The large eat-in kitchen is done up with stark white cabinetry, while the adjacent dining area is surrounded by picture windows that look out toward the water.

    The bedrooms are all located upstairs, with yet another fireplace found in the primary suite. Here, you can also relax in the bathroom’s soaking tub or kick back in the private lounge. The home’s basement level, meanwhile, has been turned into a rec room, offering plenty of space for children or adults to play.

    A wood-burning fireplace sits opposite the bed in the primary suite.

    Brown Harris Stevens

    Out back, ample green space surrounds the pool, which can be seen in the 1968 film The Swimmer, starring Burt Lancaster. A couple of garden plots are scattered around. One is centered around a fountain, while another has more of a southwestern, desert vibe. Manicured hedges line the walkways and the perimeter of the lot.

    A little more than 50 miles north of Midtown Manhattan, Fairfield has long been a favored commuter suburb of New York City. With easy access to both nature and the beach, it offers the best of the city and country. The town is also known for some pretty spectacular homes. To wit: a $7 million mansion inspired by the Vanderbilt family’s Shelburne Farms estate in Vermont and built by architect Jack Franzen for the late businessman Mickey Herbert.

    Click here to see all the photos of Connecticut’s Pebbles estate.

    Brown Harris Stevens

    Authors

    Tori Latham

    Tori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter. When not…

    Read More More

  • in

    Mary Tyler Moore’s Connecticut Estate Sells for a Reduced $16.9 Million

    The Greenwich, Connecticut, estate that served as the home of late TV legend Mary Tyler Moore has been swooped up after being listed about one-and-a-half years ago.

    The waterfront property was first listed in September 2023 for $22 million, but the buyer, represented by Helene Barre and Fran Ehrlich of Sotheby’s International Realty–Greenwich Brokerage, paid a reduced $16.9 million, its most recent asking price. Joseph Barbieri at the same brokerage represented the seller, Moore’s husband, Dr. S. Robert Levine.

    “It was an honor to represent this remarkable property, once home to a beloved TV icon,” Barbieri said in a statement. “I am pleased with the successful outcome of the sale.”

    The double-height solarium features stained glass inserts sourced from churches and synagogues.

    Daniel Milstein for Sotheby’s International Realty

    Moore and Levine snapped up the Georgian Colonial in 2006 for about $10 million, and the five-bedroom, nine-bath abode includes almost 14,000 square feet of interior space and sits on an impressive seven acres of land. While the home was originally built more than a century ago, the couple worked with architect Stephen Wang to update the home. Standout details include a double-height solarium with stained glass sourced from various churches and synagogues, a laundry room with a built-in dog shower and grooming station, and a decked-out gym and spa.

    Elsewhere, you’ll find a foyer with harlequin-patterned floors and a wood-paneled billiards room and library with built-ins. The primary suite—all 2,000 square feet of it—includes both dual bathrooms and walk-in closets.

    The 65-foot pool is accompanied by its own fireplace.

    Daniel Milstein for Sotheby’s International Realty

    Across the expansive grounds, landscaped by Janice Parker, you’ll find a host of amenities to boot. A guest apartment sits above the three-car garage, and the 65-foot pool comes with its own fireplace. Plus, there’s a pond and five acres of conservation land.

    Moore, the iconic actress known for starring in her eponymous sitcom, died in 2017 at the age of 80 after contracting pneumonia, according to The New York Times. She married Levine in 1983, and the two split their time between Greenwich and Manhattan. When Levine decided to sell the Connecticut estate in 2023, he told The Wall Street Journal that doing so was part of his process of moving on. Back then, he added that a portion of the proceeds from the sale would go toward the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, a nonprofit that works to advance research for restoring and preserving vision in people with diabetes.

    Click here to see all the photos of the Connecticut estate.

    Authors

    Tori Latham

    Tori Latham is a digital staff writer at Robb Report. She was previously a copy editor at The Atlantic, and has written for publications including The Cut and The Hollywood Reporter. When not…

    Read More More

  • in

    Richard Gere Gets $10.75 Million for His Bucolic Connecticut Estate

    Now that he’s announced a move to Spain to be closer to his publicist wife Alejandra Silva’s family in Madrid, Golden Globe-winning actor Richard Gere has unsurprisingly handed over the keys to the sprawling Connecticut estate he paid married musicians Paul Simon and Edie Brickell $10.8 million for a little more than two years ago, back in summer 2022.

    “For me, going to Madrid is going to be a great adventure because I have never lived full-time outside the United States,” the Pretty Woman star said in a recent Vanity Fair España article. “For Alejandra, it will be wonderful to be closer to her family, her lifelong friends, and her culture. She was very generous in giving me six years living in my world, so I think it is only fair that I give her at least another six living in hers.”

    As first reported by the New Canaan Advertiser, Gere and Silva have now offloaded their New Canaan residence to an LLC tied to James Hoffman of the general contracting and real estate development company SBP Homes, which picked up the nearly 32-acre spread in a clandestine deal in early October for $10.75 million.

    Built in the late 1930s and designed by architect Harold Reeve Sleeper, the rambling estate features a five-bedroom, nine-bath English country-style main house and a three-bedroom, two-bath guest cottage that Simon previously used as a recording studio. Outdoor amenities include a swimming pool, terraced patios, gardens, woodland trails, a natural pond, and a waterfall.

    RELATED: This $9.2 Million Mansion in Connecticut Has a Hidden Staircase to Your Bedroom

    Because the deal was done off-market, current photos are scarce. But on-line listings from a few years ago show the primary dwelling has an entry foyer with a winding staircase topped by a chandelier. From there, a spacious fireside living room is lined with built-in shelving and the kitchen is outfitted with an eat-in island, stainless appliances, and an accompanying breakfast nook. Other highlights include a wood-paneled study and an airy sunroom that doubles as an office space, plus an upstairs primary suite decked out with a wood-burning fireplace, a private balcony, and a cedar closet. There’s also an attached three-car garage on the premises.

    Before Gere and Silva purchased the home at a substantially reduced price, Simon and Brickell resided there for almost two decades, paying $16.5 million for the place in 2002. As for Gere, he reportedly had plans to convert part of the New Canaan property into a private, low-impact farm for growing mushrooms and providing honey, as well as raising goats.

    The Buddhist actor, who sold a two-bedroom apartment in a historic building in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park in 2022 for $3.15 million, has owned several other notable homes with celebrity connections. He transferred a waterfront compound in the Hamptons back in 2016 to Matt Lauer for a whopping $36.5 million, and in 2022 Ryan Murphy shelled out a bit more than $24 million for Gere’s 50-acre spread in New York’s rural Pound Ridge community. More

  • in

    Designer Reed Krakoff Seeks $25.5 Million for the Connecticut Estate of a Reclusive Late Heiress

    A 52-acre estate in New Canaan, Connecticut, with the tongue-in-cheek name of Le Beau Chateau and previously owned for more than 60 years by the late and reclusive copper-mining heiress Huguette Clark, has been listed for $25.5 million. Rob Johnson and Mary Higgins of Brown Harris Stevens hold the listing.

    Though she was free to leave at any time, for two decades before her 2011 death at the age of 104, Clark lived quietly and simply at a reported cost of more than $800 a day in a Manhattan hospital room overlooking Central Park. During her long life, the doll collector and painter amassed a portfolio of rarely- and never-used homes that included a trio of sprawling co-operative apartments in the same aristocratic building on New York’s Fifth Avenue, a grand Italianate villa overlooking the ocean in Santa Barbara, and Le Beau Chateau, which she bought in 1951 as a potential refuge from a nuclear attack during the Cold War but, curiously enough, never spent a single night in.

    The Manhattan apartments were sold off shortly after she died for a combined $55 million, and the Santa Barbara mansion, known as Bellosguardo, which she had not visited in half a century, was bequeathed to a foundation that now offers limited docent tours.

    Geometric artworks add contemporary flair to the dining room’s period fireplace.

    James Gagliardi of Modern Media

    Clark’s unoccupied but always maintained Connecticut spread, which she had unsuccessfully attempted to sell a couple of times in the years before her death, was acquired in 2014 for $14 million—a steep discount from the original asking price of $34 million—by veteran fashion designer and tastemaker Reed Krakoff and interior designer Delphine Krakoff. The design- and architecture-savvy couple subsequently oversaw a respectful restoration and careful update that included the seamless integration of modern conveniences and luxuries.

    A long drive passes between a pair of modest cottages—a two-bedroom caretaker’s residence and a 1,300-square-foot exercise pavilion—and weaves across the property before arriving at a large motor court at the front of the 21-room French-style manor house that was originally built in 1937. Across the nearly 15,000-square-foot mansion’s three floors are nine bedrooms and 10 bathrooms, plus four additional powder rooms. Three of the 11 original fireplaces are still functional.

    RELATED: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Tirranna House in New Canaan Just Sold for $6 Million

    The Krakoffs opted for a neutral color palette of creams and beiges, with plush fabrics and art-friendly cotton-white walls that keep things light and bright. Antique chevron-patterned wood floors are underfoot throughout much of the main floor public rooms, as well as in many of the upper-floor bedrooms. Other highlights include a sweeping circular staircase, a vast living room alongside an equally spacious library, and a formal dining room jazzed up with a thoroughly modern, mold-like Cloud sculpture of interchangeable fabric tiles by French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

    The spacious primary bath showcases antique statuary, Louis VX-style chairs and a Lucite vanity.

    James Gagliardi of Modern Media

    RELATED: The Chic Connecticut Estate From ‘The Stepford Wives’ Could Now Be Yours for $7 Million

    To one side of the house is a formal garden, and at the rear, a vast lawn rolls down toward a simple rectangular pool hemmed in by a clipped hedgerow. A reconditioned tennis court is set in a sunny clearing near the estate’s gated entrance, while dense woodlands ensure complete privacy from neighboring estates.

    The Krakoffs, who maintain a Parisian hôtel particulier, have bought and sold a hefty number of other noteworthy homes on the East Coast. They sold a Manhattan townhouse in 2007 to Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, and in 2014 they sold an even more grand Big Apple townhouse for a staggering $51 million. And in the Hamptons, they once owned Lasata, the childhood summer residence of Jackie Kennedy. (It is now owned by fashion designer and filmmaker Tom Ford.) The couple has since custom built a striking new home in the Hamptons, a series of ultra-modern bunker-like glass and concrete pavilions overlooking the sandy dunes in Amagansett.

    Click here for more photos of the New Canaan estate.

    James Gagliardi of Modern Media More

  • in

    Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue’s Former Connecticut Hideaway Lists for a Record $27.5 Million

    A waterfront mansion in Connecticut once owned by Marlo Thomas and Phil Donahue has returned to market seeking a whopping $27.5 million. 

    Back in 2007, the entertainment industry veterans built their dream home on the shore of Long Island Sound, designed by local Westport architect Roger Ferris + Partners. The television icons, who married back in 1980, later offloaded their sprawling Beachside Avenue property in 2013 to its current owner Andrew Bentley. At the time, the local property magnate shelled out a cool $20 million for the shingle-style colonial, Mansion Global reported. Bentley also snagged several parcels nearby, including two that formerly belonged to disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

    Arched French doors offer up to sweeping views of the Long Island Sound.

    Compass

    The Gold Coast home, currently Westport’s most expensive listing, was briefly on the market in 2020 for $28 million. Now that the spread is back up for sale—albeit with a slight discount—it stands to set a record for the area if it fetches anywhere near its whopping $27.5 million asking price.

    RELATED: A Former Grey Goose Exec Re-lists a Sprawling Connecticut Home for $28.5 Million

    Measuring 11,450 square feet in size, the rambling residence occupies a generous 6.6-acre plot with 400 feet of private waterfrontage, along with a cobblestone courtyard and manicured gardens. Altogether, the home features five bedrooms and five full bathrooms, plus a powder room, and throughout are striking coastal views in every direction thanks to walls of windows and French doors that open to broad terraces bordered by plush lawns.

    Other notable highlights include a south-facing patio that can be reached via the main living room, sunroom, and kitchen. Plus, the primary suite has been decked out with rustic barn wood ceilings, a recently redesigned sitting area, and a sleek spa-like bath and dressing room. The property also features a guest wing with its own separate entrance, a full-size tennis pavilion, a home gym, and four garages.

    The primary suite faces the water and features barn wood ceilings.

    Compass

    “There are no other properties with the expanse of land, amount of waterfront and level of luxury home available for purchase,” Compass agent Leslie Clarke, who’s representing the listing, told Mansion Global. “Beachside Avenue is a coveted address and it’s rare for properties to come on the market.” 

    RELATED: A $25 Million Private Island in Connecticut That’s Just 40 Minutes From Manhattan

    Funnily enough, the standing record in Westport for the town most expensive home was set in 2006 when Donahue and Thomas offloaded another waterfront home on Beachside Avenue that they owned to financier Herbert M. Allison, Jr. for $25 million. Since sold again, the current owners of the property, Peggy and Gary Reiner, have built a huge new house closer to the water’s edge and, as of last year, planned to demolish the original Tudor-style home.

    Click here to see more photos of Thomas and Donahue’s former Connecticut home.

    Compass

    Authors

    Abby Montanez

    Abigail Montanez is a staff writer at Robb Report. She has worked in both print and digital publishing for over half a decade, covering everything from real estate, entertainment, dining, travel to…

    Read More More

  • in

    The Real-Life Connecticut Estate From ‘And So It Goes’ Just Listed for $8.6 Million

    If you wish you could’ve been the buyer of Michael Douglas’s fictional Connecticut mansion from the 2014 movie And So It Goes, the real-life property is now on the market for one deep-pocketed fan to purchase.

    The Rob Reiner-directed flick follows Douglas’s character, Oren Little, a high-end Fairfield County real estate agent who’s trying to offload his priciest listing to date—his own Greenwich estate. Hoping for one last big sale before he retires, viewers get to see a lot of the residence as Oren hosts different showings.

    Interestingly enough, the just shy of $8.6 million asking price is right around the same as what Oren was hoping to get. Sadly, however, Diane Keaton, who co-stars as Leah Hartman, won’t be your neighbor. Joy Kim Metalios with Houlihan Lawrence has the listing. 

    The Greenwich, Connecticut, mansion that starred in the 2014 movie And So It Goes is for sale.

    Mike Cinelli/Jump Visual

    The ivy-covered Colonial, which dates back to 1930, was originally built by J. Alden and Quentin Twachtman, a brotherly 19th-century architect duo and the sons of American painter John Henry Twachtman. The brick-clad abode is positioned on roughly four acres and features a ton of outdoor amenities like a clay tennis court, a swimming pool, and an adjoining pool house. 

    Today, the 7,691-square-foot spread looks virtually unchanged from when it appeared on screen. You’ll find that everything from the smartly wallpapered dining room to the light fixtures, hardwood flooring, and French doors are intact. Several years prior to filming, the five-bedroom, eight-bath home underwent a renovation that included updates to the scullery kitchen, family room, and guest wing.

    The formal dining room features a fireplace, wood floors, and floral wallpaper.

    Mike Cinelli/Jump Visual

    Other highlights of the estate include a wood-paneled library, a slate patio, and, of course, the primary suite, which is decked out with a cozy fireplace, two bathrooms, and a large dressing room. And yes, Douglas did rest his head here.

    Click here to see all the photos of 131 Pecksland Road. 

    Mike Cinelli/Jump Visual More

  • in

    Tommy Hilfiger’s Former Connecticut Estate Hits the Market for $9.7 Million

    Tommy Hilfiger has racked up quite the real estate portfolio, and now a Connecticut estate formerly owned by the fashion mogul has hit the market. 

    The palatial pad sits on over five sprawling acres in Greenwich, tucked away on a private country lane. Asking just shy of $9.7 million, the English manor-style home dates back to 1932 and has undergone significant updates since, including a slew of renovations in 2014 by its present owners. Altogether, the extensive spread comprises a 7,438-square-foot main house, a guest apartment above the garage, and a poolside cabana. There’s also a professional tennis court where former owner, Wojciech Fibak, and eight-time Grand Slam champ Ivan Lendl used to play—so you know it’s legit. 

    Tommy Hilfiger’s former home in Greenwich, Connecticut is up for sale.

    Kyle Norton

    Inside, the brick-and-stucco abode is decked out with tons of period details like wood floors, high ceilings, preserved moldings, and decorative wainscoting. Other highlights include its four fireplaces, multiple patios, and arched doorways.

    While nearly all the rooms are impressive, the study is definitely a showstopper with its fancy plaster tracery ceiling. Elsewhere, the first floor holds formal living and dining rooms, a spacious family room with a bar, and a large chef’s kitchen. The latter feels super bright and airy thanks to all-white cabinets and countertops, and nearby is a beautifully detailed breakfast nook with parquet floors.  The second floor is where you’ll find all six bedrooms, with the primary suite occupying its own private wing with a sitting room, a cozy fireplace, a dressing room, and dual baths.

    The English manor-style home was originally built in the 1930s and has since been renovated.

    Realty Plans

    The manicured grounds are tough to beat, designed by Southampton-based landscape architect Perry Guillott, while the charming pool house, entered via a wisteria-covered terrace that sports two hanging swings, boasts two baths, a kitchenette, and a game area.

    Ellen Mosher and Julie Church of Houlihan Lawrence have the listing. 

    Click here to see all the photos of Tommy Hilfiger’s former Greenwich estate.

    Kyle Norton More

  • in

    Mary Tyler Moore’s Bucolic Connecticut Retreat Could Be Yours for $22 Million

    If you’ve always wanted to turn the world on with a smile, this Connecticut compound could be just the ticket! As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the picturesque 7-acre spread long owned by the late TV and film actress Mary Tyler Moore has just popped up for sale in the coastal town of Greenwich, asking nearly $22 million.

    Records show the beloved star of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and her husband, Dr. S. Robert Levine, paid around $10 million back in 2006 for the property, which is showcased by a Georgian Colonial-style house boasting five bedrooms and nine baths in nearly 14,000 square feet of living space accented throughout with dentil molding, bay windows, Venetian plaster walls, wood-beam ceilings and numerous fireplaces. There’s also a guest apartment resting atop an attached three-car garage.

    Built over a century ago, but extensively renovated and expanded during the couple’s tenure in collaboration with architect Stephen Wang, the fieldstone-clad structure features an elevator to all three levels, a double-height solarium, laundry room sporting a dog shower and grooming station, and gym equipped with a spa, sauna, and massage and steam rooms.

    Some of the solarium’s windows include stained glass culled from churches and synagogues.

    Daniel Milstein for Sotheby’s International Realty

    Other highlights include an entry foyer displaying harlequin-patterned floors, a curving staircase and wall of windows, as well as formal living and dining rooms, an office with its own powder room and a wood-paneled billiard room/library outfitted with built-in bookcases. A “comfortably scaled” kitchen with an eat-in island and high-end stainless appliances connects to a breakfast nook and family room, which has French doors spilling out to an al fresco dining patio.

    Secluded in its own upstairs wing is a 2,000-square-foot master retreat complete with dual walk-in closets and luxe baths; and outdoors, the Janice Parker-landscaped grounds are laced with stone terraces and bordered by 5 acres of conservation land, and host a pond and 65-foot pool flanked by a fireplace.

    According to WSJ, Levine is selling because it’s necessary for him to move on after the death of his wife, who passed away in 2017 at age 80. “If I’m going to step into my ‘what next?’,” he said, “I decided I have to step away from the house.” The retired cardiologist also told the news outlet that a portion of the proceeds from the sale will go to the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative, a foundation that works to preserve and restore vision in people with diabetes.

    The listing is held by Joseph Barbieri of Sotheby’s International Realty-Greenwich Brokerage.

    Click here for more photos of Mary Tyler Moore’s Connecticut House.

    Daniel Milstein for Sotheby’s International Realty More