Hepburn's former estate on sale for $28m

Four-time Oscar winner spent her final years at Connecticut house

NEW YORK - The former estate of legendary actress Katharine Hepburn, who died in 2003, is up for sale with a $28 million asking price.

The large six-bedroom house in the shoreline community of Old Saybrook in Connecticut was sold by Hepburn's estate for $6 million and has undergone significant renovation and updating since 2005, listing agent Colette Harron said on Monday.

Hepburn, who died at age 96, spent her final years at the house, which was built in 1939 after the Hepburn family home was destroyed during the 1938 hurricane that devastated large sections of the southern New England coastline.

The three-story, 15-room brick house features seven full bathrooms, a two-car garage, a dock and beach, and 207 meters of waterfront on Long Island Sound.

The four-time Oscar-winning actress once entertained Howard Hughes at the home, a scene that was dramatized in the 2004 film The Aviator. Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Hepburn won the actress a best supporting actress Oscar.

"It's a great work of art," Harron said, adding that the seller, Frank Sciame, has loved living in the house for the past eight years but it has become too much for him.

Sciame, a New York builder whose firm has worked on restoring such landmarks as the New York Public Library and Guggenheim art museum, has great respect for the property's historic value, she said.

Those with more modest budgets might consider the house alone, which along with its property has an $18 million price tag. For $28 million two adjacent parcels are included, more than doubling the acreage.

Reuters

(China Daily 08/03/2011 page10)