Thursday, August 4, 2011

Katherine Hepburn summer home for sale, 28 million








I'm reading a book about Katherine Hepburn right now, very very interesting woman in her family, and men. you've all probably noticed I get very interested in people once I'm reading about them.

Her Mother and aunt Edith were huge womens suffragist supporters. they both attended Bryn Mawr a university for women that was the first to accept that females could do more than just look pretty and supported higher education even if it meant they were certain to become old spinsters. well who in their right mind would want a woman that was educated. men truly believed they would turn into men!

her Father was a doctor, one of the first that supported talk about pre marital sex being the leading factor in gonorrhea, syphillis and other venereal diseases that were unthinkable to speak about in those days. as a matter of fact when brides who where infected on their wedding nights came to the hospital deathly ill they were not even told what was wrong with them or that their own husbands had infected them. they would give them a hysterectomy and send them on their way...if they lived.  their husbands would surely divorce them because they could not have children. often their children were born disabled in many different ways as they had been infected in the womb, again no one even told them what was wrong with them

both her Mother and Fathers sides of the families were plauged with suicide. it was never spoken of as in the those days society believed any suicide in the family surely meant the whole family was diseased. Katherines own brother committed suicide at the age of 15. after he was gone it was never spoken of again and a very large web of lies was related to the incident to cover up what really happened. how horrible to live with all those family secrets and certainly added to Katherines complexities and independance that was thought of as an arrogance.

her summer home in  Old Saybrook, Connecticut is now on the market for 28million. her family built the original house in 1913. it was blown away to sea by a hurricane in 1938 and this home is the rebuild

Katherine died in this home at the age of 96 in 2003

the new owners bought it to fix it up and flip it but apparently fell in love with it and kept it unitl now. they say of the renow's that even Katherine would not likely recognize the place. it was apparently cut up into many smaller size rooms and has been opened up considerably since.

this is what it looked like when Katherine lived there





this is what it looks like now























Katherine did little to upgrade the house over the years, here she is in the kitchen, clearly after extensive renovations you can see how much work the present owners have done
































in 1938 when the house was demolished by a hurricane it was shorlty after Katherine and Howard Hughes had broken up, apparently all that was left were some foundation stones and a claw foot bathtub. Katherine, one of her siblings and her Mother got out just in time and watched the devastation from higher ground.

this is how her house was portrayed in the Aviator about Howard Hughes













a little glimpse as to what it might have looked like inside

this is the signage that met uninvited looky loo's



No comments:

Post a Comment