East End Eden: Plan underway to preserve John Steinbeck’s Hamptons house

The house was put up on the market final 12 months by Steinbeck household heirs.
Gavin Zeigler

John Steinbeck’s Hamptons’ house is in the marketplace for a whopping $16.75 million — however preservationists wish to rework the creator’s East Finish Eden right into a author’s retreat.

The house, a part-time residence for Steinbeck till his demise in 1968, was put up on the market final 12 months by Steinbeck household heirs.

The Sag Harbor Partnership is engaged on a plan to purchase the 1.8-acre waterfront property within the former whaling village and switch it right into a retreat run by the College of Texas. The tract comes with a two-bedroom cottage and Steinbeck’s gazebo-like “writing home.”

Doreen Atkins of Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty, who has the itemizing, stated the Steinbeck heirs are “open to anybody who involves the plate and pays their value. They’re very a lot in favor of anybody who sees the worth of this property and strikes ahead with it.”

“We’re attempting to get there first with the very best supply,” stated Susan Mead, the Sag Harbor Partnership co-president.

Steinbeck lived there together with his third spouse, Elaine, from 1955 till his demise.

Bettmann Archive

The Steinbeck heirs are “open to anybody who involves the plate and pays their value.”

Doug Kuntz

Steinbeck used it as a part-time residence till his demise in 1968.

Gavin Zeigler

The group has a pledge from the city of Southampton, by means of its Group Preservation Fund, to safe the property, stated Mead, who wouldn’t disclose the pledge quantity. It has additionally raised about $1 million for the acquisition.

Mead stated the College of Texas, which holds a few of Steinbeck’s papers, has pledged to create a $10 million endowment to take care of the property and run the middle.

April Gornik, a partnership board member, stated SUNY Stony Brook would even be concerned within the heart, as would native colleges.

Southampton City Supervisor Jay Schneiderman stated the city was able to commit “hundreds of thousands of dollars” to the acquisition.

The Sag Harbor Partnership is engaged on a plan to purchase the 1.8-acre waterfront property within the former whaling village and switch it right into a retreat run by the College of Texas.

Gavin Zeigler

The home websites on a 1.8-acre waterfront property.

“We’d wish to honor that piece of native historical past by preserving the place the place he wrote,” he stated.

The Nobel prize-winning creator, who wrote “The Winter of Our Discontent” from the home, lived there together with his third spouse, Elaine, from 1955 till his demise. His widow died in 2003.

The house was a part-time residence for Steinbeck.

Popperfoto through Getty Photos

Two Higher East Aspect townhouses that the “Grapes of Wrath” creator owned within the Nineteen Forties simply went in the marketplace for $18 million.