IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

'Grey Gardens' home is for sale — and it looks so much better

The home that was the subject of the 1970s documentary "Grey Gardens" is on the market. Take a tour inside.
/ Source: Zillow

An iconic American estate just came on the market in the Hamptons, and the opportunity to snoop through the listing photos is so rich that you almost expect Big Edie and Little Edie Beale — the reclusive subjects of the cult ’70s documentary “Grey Gardens,” named for this very estate — to step out and offer a tour.

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group
Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

The Edies would be thrilled at how beautifully their environs have been maintained — or really, vastly improved. Grey Gardens was in squalid disrepair when they lived there. Although Big Edie was an aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who summered at an estate down the road as a child, the elder Edie had fallen into poverty and was unable to keep up her own estate.

RELATED: See the Hamptons home where Jackie O. spent her summers

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group
Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

She and her daughter, Little Edie, were devoted to keeping up appearances in their own eccentric way — which produced documentary gold.

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group
Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

They’ve also been the subjects of a Broadway musical and an HBO movie, and were spoofed recently on the IFC series “Documentary Now!” by Fred Armisen and Bill Hader, who recreates a Little Edie signature look by wearing sweatpants on his head.

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group
Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

Grey Gardens, the estate, was reborn decades ago when it was bought by star journalists Sally Quinn and her husband, editor Ben Bradlee of The Washington Post’s Watergate fame. They returned the property to its 1897 glory and used it as a summer home.

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

RELATED: Nostalgic for the past? You'll love this retro home that's stopped in time

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

“It’s authentic. It’s the real thing. When Sally and Ben preserved it, they worked really hard to restore it to its original grandeur,” said listing agent Michael Schultz of Corcoran Group Real Estate.

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group
Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

They stripped it down to its original paint colors, and brought back the charm of its old Dutch doors, built-ins, wainscoting and marbled sinks. Bradlee died a few years ago, and Quinn has listed the home for $19.995 million. “It just wasn’t the same without him,” she told The Wall Street Journal.

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group
Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

Quinn furnished much of the home using items she found in the attic and refurbished. “I was just hyperventilating when I saw all this furniture — it was all so beautiful,” she said. Her office includes a cabinet filled with Little Edie’s glass animal collection.

Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group
Home from Grey Gardens
The Corcoran Group

Photos courtesy of The Corcoran Group.

Related: