The Great Grey Gardens Garage Sale: hoards flock to the house of Jackie Onassis’ notoriously eccentric relatives for a shop
The property located in East Hampton, New York, was once the home of the Beales, affectionately known as Little Edie and Big Edie
Grey Gardens was the home of Jackie Onassis’s eccentric Beale relatives, notorious for letting the 6,000 sq ft home devolve into an overgrown dump. Then it was the estate of Ben Bradlee, the former executive editor of The Washington Post, and his wife, the journalist Sally Quinn.
Now it’s a madhouse – in the best possible way.
The East Hampton, New York, property, which was listed for US$18 million and recently sold for an undisclosed amount, is the scene of a bustling estate sale being held on Friday and over the weekend. That’s the polite word for a garage sale among the high rollers of Long Island’s East End, and it is drawing hundreds of buyers. Susan Wexler, whose Bridgehampton company, Behind the Hedgerows, is managing the sale, declared it an “impressive” turnout.
People started lining up around 4am and were admitted to the house 40 at a time. The first space on the walk-through was an elegant porch with a hammock. Then came a foyer with grey and white striped wallpaper and crown mouldings. The eager visitors moved through the immaculate house in a kind of civilised stampede, shod in blue, hospital-style booties that Wexler issued to keep the place clean.
