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BUYER: Michael J. Fox and Tracy PollanLOCATION: Quogue Street, Quogue, NY
PRICE: $6,300,000
SIZE: 7,000 square feet (approx.), 6 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms
YOUR MAMAS NOTES: About 100 years ago Your Mama was chatting with a very nice gentleman we'll call Freddy Flapjaw who swore up and down that Emmy winning actor Michael J. Fox was looking to buy a multi-million dollar house in Quogue, a sleepy and (some might say) staid village at the western end of the Hamptons that is wall to wall with old school estates carpeted with vast lawns and anchored by gigantic shingled summer "cottages."
Your Mama unable to confirm or deny the "rumor" about Mister Fox's purchase at the time, but Freddy Flapjaw said, "You'll see." Turns out ol' Flapjaw was indeed speaking the truth and according to the real estate gossip gurls at Newsday, the Parkinson's afflicted actor and his actress wifey Tracy Pollan recently plunked down $6,300,000 for a newly built shingled "cottage" on tony Quogue Street smack in the geographic center of the village.
Having spent many a-summer day frolicking in the riptide at Dolphin Beach on Dune Road, Your Mama knows thing or two about this particular neck of the Hamptons. The general consensus among summer people in that area is that if you want glitz and glamour, keep driving your shiny late model Mercedes further down Montauk Highway to East Hampton where the restaurants are filled to capacity with perfectly bronzed famous folks in designer duds paying big bucks to eat gore-may meals. If you prefer competitive cribbage played pool side, putting 5,000 piece puzzles together on the screened porch, and being surrounded by old and quiet money, then Quogue just might be a finer fit for you.
The new Fox/Pollan property reflects that special brand of Hamptons hodge podge architecture where a dignified and shingled Dutch Gambrel marries a quirky Victorian ladee who secretly has an affair with a giant farmhouse who paws her with his wide porches. Throw in all the mod-ren conveniences and the result is a sprawling 7,000 square foot house with gleaming cherry floors (they're cherry, right?), acres of simple but pleasing mill work, seven fireplaces, a wine cellar, a commodious master suite with two fireplaces, a sitting room/office and private water view terrace, and a gunite pool with a pool side guest cottage all sitting on 1.1 acres of meticulously maintained and supernaturally green grass.
With six en suite bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms, the Fox/Pollan summer house should provide plenty of room for the four Fox children. However with just four bedrooms on the second floor, the Fox twins will either have to bunk together or one of the older Fox children will need to claim the bedroom on the ground floor or the one above the garage that is accessed by a private stair off the kitchen...which is without a doubt the room Your Mama would have chosen as a teenager because it features a small private balcony perfect for a rebel teen to puff ciggies and other illegal substances. As an aside and for the record, Your Mama has long quit smoking cigarettes and so should you. No offense intended to any of you smokestacks, but it's a dirty, nasty, filthy, stinky and seriously bad habit that invites and even happily welcomes The Dreaded Cancer.
Freddie Flapjaw also whispered to Your Mama that the Fox/Pollan clan already has some residential roots in the area having forked over large sums of cash to rent a large house in Quogue the last few summers. Therefore, Your Mama imagines the sometimes wary and buttoned up Quoglians will be happy to welcome the Fox family with open arms this summer just as long as his celebrity doesn't attract any long lensed paps or freakos who think it's cute to sit out front of his house in their Hondas hoping for a glimpse of the bathing suited family.
Seriously children, don't do that...don't go to any of these celebs houses that Your Mama discusses. These people don't need you beating on their door acting like a damn fool thinking you're so clever for finding them. That just makes you an asshole. Don't think it does? Just ask anyone who's famous what they think of those "fans."
Anyhoo, if Your Mama is being honest, and we always are, Mister Fox is not really on our real estate radar so we're not sure where else Mister Fox and Miz Pollan own property. We do find some indication in property records that they own a Park Avenue apartment in New York City as well as a large house in pretty and pretty rural Sharon, Connecticut. It's also quite possible the Fox/Pollans own property in his native Canada and it's a pretty good guess they own a manse in one of the better zip codes in the Los Angeles area.
18 comments:
I used to live in Sharon, and would see him and Meryl Streep there, who also owns a house in Sharon, or did.
I really like the interior, especially the kitchen. And the fact that it is not surrounded by the bee-u-tee-ful people makes it even more appealing to me.
Long, long ago, before Mr. Fox became the Fox/Pollans, he had a place off Laurel Canyon Blvd. Drove the residents on Laurel Canyon crazy with the exhaust sounds from his car. This, mind you, is probably the ONLY negative thing I have ever heard about the guy.
I wish he and his family much happiness. Parkinson's is NOT easy.
When I visited St. John USVI the locals made it known that Michael J. Fox owned a home there (don't know if he still does).
I love Quogue and its neighbors, Westhampton Beach and Remsenberg. WB has a nice little village, restaurants are fine (who needs gourmet when you're supposed to be firing up the grill?), you don't need to get dressed, it's closer to NYC and you avoid the horrible traffic that starts where the road narrows past Quogue on the way to the "real" Hamptons. Most of all, it's NOT the famous Hamptons, and I think people have a sense of this and choose it precisely because of that (and of course, prices are lower so that may have something to do with it, but it's all relative).
There's sort of a new money/old money mix, as well as a mix of great old houses and estates. And one of the best things is the sort of ramshackle nature of Dune Road, with its mix of sick houses and old beachy little houses on the ocean and the bay. Give me this area any day (I'd take Amagansett though).
As for this house, it's quite nice, although I like my beach houses beachier.
sounds like my kind of place.
and this might be the first house featured on this blog where the buyer has a use for all those bedrooms.
Oh.
My.
God.
This is the most beautiful house I've ever seen in my entire lifetime. I'm in love. This would be my version of heaven. (If it were in a more Southern state, but I'll still take it!)
I'm lovin it
does it get better than this?
Quogue would be quite...
I'm thinking I'd like Water Mill.. but any way you look at it this is one of the very best HH featured on Mama's blog.
Best ever Mama
This looks like a wonderful family home and I wish the deserving family much luck and happiness. I am absolutely in love with the yard... so perfect for kids!
I'm not a big fan of the whole postmodern Robert A.M. Stern school of shingle style revival architecture. People tend to go nuts with quirky elements, and the resulting jumble almost always looks to me like its trying way too hard.
I'm not in love with this house, but I'd like it a lot better without that weird semi-detached ancillary wing.
I love everything about it, inside and out. Lovely.
I love this house and setting and I love Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan. I would pick this any day over the trendier Hamptons. I like to be around old money...so much more refined than new money!
Oh, my, my, my. Where is my pocketbook?
I need to sit down. I'm a huge fan of ramblers, although older, a bit time worn with creaky floors would make it drool worthy, this is a very nice house.
THE KITCHEN! I could cook AND sneak up to the ante-room deck for my drunken cigs, etc... Ooh, shame on me.
One of the better examples of when an architect sticks to the program and doesn't try to play "speculator."
No bad, and definitely not a McHampton; execution is almost flawless.
Good location, too - you'll already be sitting on the porch with a G&T whilst you watch the traffic creep towards the "other" Hamptons . . .
Damn, another nice house. If this was in LA, this would be awesome. Where are all these home in LA. We have no taste out here.
if i knew what i was talking about & i don't, i would say what pch said, so i'll just agree with him tho.
I'm with PCH on the whole post-modern Stern thing, but IMO, this one falls short of being a victim of it. While there are a few things I don't love, in general, it's a well done house, and, since I'm guessing this was a builder spec house, could have been much worse.
My (teen) daughter said she's diggin' the "weird" ancillary wing and would call it her hizzle until moving day. And as for moi, the rest of the house...well...a picture's worth a thousand words and I think I'm looking at a novel.
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