5 Sprawling Homes in which Artist, and Writers, Completed Their Most Famous Work
For many, working from kitchen tables, repurposed reading nooks, and makeshift home offices has been an adjustment over the past year and a half. But for others, especially those who identify as creatives, working from home is the norm: Many authors, playwrights, and artists have avoided reporting to an office every day, pandemic or no pandemic. With all that time spent creating from home, it’s no wonder the Flemish Revival–style mansions, wood-shingled cottages, and Georgian estates in which such visionaries as Kati Marton and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney worked are so stunning.
Such was the case for literary icon Jean Kerr, who wrote her most famous book, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, both in and about the Larchmont, New York, home she shared with her husband, theater critic Walter Kerr. That said, as any art-minded professional knows, cabin fever can stifle creative work, which explains why novelists, playwrights, and directors tend to sell their abodes, and these five are worth looking at. article from Arch Digest.
Jean Kerr
The quirky and historic home on the Long Island Sound that once belonged to author Jean Kerr and her equally notable husband, New York Times resident theater critic Walter Kerr, has only housed three families in the century since it was built—the Kerrs being one of them. Walter once described the architectural gem as “neo-gingerbread,” but the 9,000-square-foot abode that’s designed like a contemporary castle is undeniably stunning.
Shaped like a quadrangle, the structure formerly made up the stables and carriage-house complex for the nearby Crocker Estate (now the Larchmont Shore Club). Not only did the Kerrs raise their six children here, but Jean wrote her homage to suburban life, Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, about this specific house. The book was published in 1957, when urbanites were retreating to charming towns just outside bustling cities. It was later adapted for the screen in a film starring Doris Day.
Price: $5.49 million. Beds/Baths: 6 bedrooms, 5 full baths, 2 half baths. Square Footage: 8,596 acres
Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney
The socialite with a taste for exquisite art may have been a talented sculptor, but her real legacy is one that bears her name: the Whitney Museum of American Art. The museum, which takes up residence in New York’s Meatpacking District, boasts an undeniably modern architectural aesthetic—quite the opposite of the Long Island manor in which she sculpted her masterpieces. The home is the last remaining structure on the famous Whitney family estate in the charming village of Old Westbury. Gertrude, the great-granddaughter of railroad titan Cornelius Vanderbilt, commissioned large-scale art installations that were built directly into the neoclassical mansion she used as her studio. Perhaps the most famous is the colorful, sensual replica of a daring Howard Gardiner Cushing mural that wraps around the walls of a winding staircase.
It was here, on Long Island, that the doyenne of contemporary American art invited undiscovered painters and sculptors to create pieces that would decorate the walls of her private workspaces. Of course, she too completed a number of her works within these circa 1912 walls.
Price: $4.75 million. Beds/Baths: 5 bedrooms, 5 full baths, 2 half baths. Square Footage: 6.6 acres
Kati Marton
Hungarian journalist, author, and radio correspondent Kati Marton is selling the two-story Southampton waterfront home that she bought with her late husband, diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke, in 2005. Though Marton’s primary residence is in Manhattan, the Hamptons beach house served as a longtime weekend escape complete with nearly 130 feet of frontage, a sizable heated pool, and a French doors–enclosed deck.
Marton’s time at her two-acre sanctuary wasn’t always spent leisurely swimming laps in the 38-by-15-foot pool, sipping tea in front of the wood-burning fireplace, and padding through the two-deck primary suite, though; she wrote three of her books there, including her latest, a biography of the German chancellor Angela Merkel that’s set to hit stands in October.
Price: $4.2 million. Beds/Baths: 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, 1 half bath. Square Footage: 3,400 square feet.
Evelyn Waugh
English writer Evelyn Waugh, who authored more than 30 books between 1928 and 1965 (though he’s most famous for his early satirical pieces), spent much of his later life in a 17th-century Georgian manor situated on 35 acres of lush gardens. The 12-bedroom estate, three hours outside London in Somerset, also belonged to three prominent English families before Waugh bought it for his own family in 1956.
The 16,200-square-foot mansion boasts all of the amenities to satisfy a more contemporary resident, including Miele appliances, a heated swimming pool, and multi-car garages. However, the façade, a simple rectangular shape in red ashlar sandstone with a yellow ashlar door and window surrounds, is centuries old. In fact, it bears an official Grade II historic designation. With quite a few offices throughout the United Kingdom, real estate firm Strutt & Parker has listed the magnificent home for 5.5 million pounds.
Price: £5.5 million. Beds/Baths: 12 bedrooms, 7 full baths. Square Footage: 21,967 square feet
Oliver Goldstick
His name may not be as famous as the shows he’s written for and produced, including Netflix’s Bridgerton and ABC’s Desperate Housewives, but Oliver Goldstick has done some of his best work from the comfort of his circa 1923 Los Angeles home, on the market to the tune of $4 million. Casa Amarilla, the nearly 4,500-square-foot Mediterranean-style home’s nickname around the Los Feliz neighborhood, is one of many houses built by silent-film stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
The glamorous home features a balcony that overlooks a Gatsby-inspired soirée space below. On occasion, the wild parties allegedly made their way upstairs to what is currently the primary bedroom’s bath and formerly a screening space dubbed “the rumpus room.”
Price: $3.99 million. Beds/Baths: 4 bedrooms, 5 full baths