Peter Beard’s Montauk property is up for sale again. The Wall Street Journal has a real estate story marketing the storied compound of ramshackle houses on the cliffs right by Dick Cavett and where Warhol also had a property. (Adam Lindeman and David Zwirner are there these days.) Beard has tried to sell the place several times before.
The property now consists of five ramshackle cottages with blue trim. (One, which the couple gave to their daughter on her 16th birthday, is painted pink inside.) The main house, which Mr. Beard built out of an old windmill, burned down 30 years ago and was never restored. Gone, too, is Mr. Beard’s high-dive to nowhere, an actual diving board which used to jut out from the cliffs but would have plummeted divers to sudden death.
Old buoys and life preservers still rest on a shad-blossom tree, relics of a family tradition of bringing them up whenever they washed up on shore. Hundreds of smooth rocks that Mr. Beard brought from the beach are artfully scattered around—some in clumps on the grass, others piled playfully on wooden tables to resemble steak, potatoes, oysters and other hors d’oeuvres. There’s a large trampoline tucked in the brush, and Ms. Beard’s cat is buried in the front of a two-story cottage she shared with her daughter this summer. (She plans to exhume the cat when she leaves.)
The Beards say they’ll miss the full moons, storms and big snows on the ranch, but all three say they’re ready for their next adventure, especially as Montauk begins to fills up with condo developments, trendy nightclubs and a more corporate crowd. “It’s lots of fun to be on the edge, but we’re not on the edge anymore,” says Ms. Beard.
The Original Hampton’s Party House (Wall Street Journal)
