Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Rent Yourself Some Palm Beach High Class

OWNER: Estate of Aimee de Heeren
LOCATION: North County Road, Palm Beach, FL
PRICE: $90,000/month
SIZE: 13,539 square feet, 9 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms
DESCRIPTION: The beauty is graced with nine bedrooms overlooking the ocean on the east side of the house, and on the west side there is a salt water pool, floral and rose gardens. There are four fireplaces and an elevator along with a library, living room, dining room, pantry, kitchen, loggia, twelve bathrooms, and many terraces. A two story tower on the ocean hold a living room, bedroom and ladies' and mens' baths. The beach cabana and tennis court complete this splendid vacation paradise.

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Yesterday Your Mama discussed the sophisticated and soo-blime Manhattan townhouse of deceased international high society icon Aimee de Heeren, who in life was cultured, multi-lingual, beloved by blue bloods every where, and a devout devotee of Omega 3 oils and Dr. Peter D'Adamo's blood type diet which many in her circle believe kept her looking healthy and many years younger than she actually was. At 90, the ladee was said to look 60, and that, children, is really something to strive for.

Thanks to some late night and in depth digging by Billy Blabbermouth, Your Mama has learned that Louwana, Mme. de Heeren's legendary house in Palm Beach is available for lease at $90,000 per month. Located on an ocean front parcel that happens to sit right next door to that vulgarity that Donald Trump has on the market for $125,000,000, the Addison Mizner designed Louwana was built in 1919 by Gurnee Munn and named after his first wife Mary Louise Wanamaker. Mister Gurnee Munn was our Mme. de Heeren's huzband Rodman's mother's (Fernanda Wanamaker Munn de Heeren) first husbands' (Ector Munn) brother. Does that make any damn sense? Lawhd have mercy on our booze addled brain, Your Mama understands quantum mechanics better than we do the labyrinthine family trees of these high society types.

Anyhoo, Louwana is far from the largest or grandest house to line the swanky shores of Palm Beach, however, it is often referred to as "the last great house in Palm Beach." None the less, at more than 13,000 square feet with 9 bedroom and 12 bathrooms, there is plenty of room for several branches of the family tree to take up residence. According to listing information, the house sprawls over 4 levels, and includes formal living and dining rooms, a library, 4 fireplaces, and elevator and staff quarters.

In addition to the main house there is a large salt water pool set in a walled courtyard on the landward side of the house, a tennis court, a large ocean side lawn for rousing games of croquet or bocci or whatever ball games Palm Beachers play in the winter, and a beach cabana offers a living room, bedroom and his and hers bathroom, because the Lilly Pulizter types apparently don't think it's appropriate for the ladees and the mens to be changing in the same room or sitting on the same terlits.

The interior of the house retains that particular sort of grace and genteel that can only be experienced in a house that has been owned for generations by the same family. These rooms are not about some hedge hog or make-up maven buying a piece of architectural and social history and then hiring a nice gay decorator to go up in there and work the interiors into a fanciful facsimile of what a Palm Beach winter estate is supposed to be. This house has been richly layered over time like a catty wompus wedding cake, every rug, every book, lamp and still life painting adding to the depth and quirky richness giving it that elusive, uber-desirable and strong sense of "place" that decorators and homeowners alike are always trying to create.

No babies, Your Mama does not want any flowered chesterfields, Ming vases or pickled paneling up in our seaside residence, but for this house, in this location, with it's history, there is really nothing to be changed. Except that kitchen, because let's be honest, it's looking rode hard and put away wet what with those broken down blinds and plastic dish drainers from the Wal-Mart over in West Palm. And let's talk about the styling for the photographs. Your Mama understands that some of these photos were taken for a magazine layout, but what's with that Flamenco dress flapping in the breeze on the balcony? Please.

Access to the house appears to be either through or adjacent to a small estate that sits directly on the North County Road and which property records reveal belongs to Christopher Kellogg, a man whom Your Mama assumed had all kinds of cereal money, but The Social Butterfly says that's not the case and that particular Kellogg money, or what is left of it, is also from the Wanamaker fortune. Mister Kellogg is in some way connected by marriage and two or three times removed from Mme. de Heeren, but sorry kids, but we're simply too tuckered out to parse the crazy-making Munn/Wanamaker/Kellogg/de Heeren family trees to determine the exact connection between Mister Chris Kellogg and Mme. Aimee de Heeren. Why don't one of you people do it and let me know what you figure out.

It's quite possible that Mme. de Heeren's Palm Beach estate will come to the sale market as well. Although, wouldn't it be so much better if one fo the remaining Wanamaker/Munn/Kellogg heirs grabbed this horse by the reins? Yes, we think so too.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW, what I wouldn't give to be able to afford this "rental"!!!!

Anonymous said...

It's gorgeous and from a day gone by. With the possible exception of the Ikea bookshelves in the library.

Anonymous said...

I love that flamenco dress!

luke220 said...

Ah, old money- it is so refreshing to see.

Anonymous said...

She has a daughter & grandchildren so I would imagine the estate is left to them, no doubt through some overly complicated family trusts but oh well ...

It's not my type of interior, but given the location, the owners age & the history I kinda like it ... It's nice when every piece of furniture has a story behind it rather than just something you picked up at Armani Casa!

A property on Rue Varenne in Paris has just been listed also. Not sure if it's hers but I read somewhere her property was on Rue Varenne - maybe just a coincidence?

Anonymous said...

I love it but can't help but wonder why they need TWO plastic dish drainers AND a dishwasher. How many dishes can you being trying to clean at one time? And why wouldn't you tuck those under the sink (along with the dishwashing soap) before you photograph the room for some magazine?

Ahhh - the eccentricities of the uber-rich, I guess.

Anonymous said...

here is a great birds-eye view.

:)

Anonymous said...

The yard look incredibly DUMPY.

No worries, one month worth of rent $$$ can fix that.

Anonymous said...

This is awesome.

What's up in kitchen...vinyl windows and $10. blinds? That pic is what happens when caretaker opens house to tract-house stager & throw-away camera. Luckily, property stand on it's own.

The clay barrel roof tiles apprear to be history; replaced by dark shingles. Too bad.

Geez, this place is awesome.

CB, we should care take.

so_chic_darling said...

it's very Grey Gardens just before everything went terribly wrong but the signs are there,the red dress the disturbingly waspy kitchen.Oh my,but I LOVE it!

so_chic_darling said...

The plastic drainers are to protect the Flora Danica porcelain after the maids have hand washed it.

Anonymous said...

Greetings once again Mama from my jade and semi precious stone inlaid inner sanctum here in Hong Kong.
As far as I can tell from the not so in focus vases in the pictures you so graciously provided we seem to have a grouping of some early Quing blue and white porcelain in one of the ladies formal reception rooms,in fact I would say that they may well in fact be Kangi(1662-1722)however without personal inspection I would not be able to tell if they were 19th century copies,in themselves very valuable also.

Anonymous said...

I am also most excited by and longing to see a more close up view of what looks to be a very important pair of Rose Medallion lidded vases above the fire place.
I have may wealthy Chinese collectors who would fight for such treasures should they in fact turn out to be the real thing.

Anonymous said...

Now I have nothin but respect for Mama and all of Mamas opinions. But why, Mama, did you not make fun of that written description of the house? I know your thing is the pictures, but come on Mama, those rich folks wanna rent for 2 times my salary they had better find someone who can write better than ", and on the west side there is a salt water pool, floral and rose gardens." Really, Mama? Floral AND rose gardens? Last time this child checked her little brain, roses are flowers.

Thank you, Mama, for allowing me to say my piece. I love you.

Anonymous said...

This is old money at the beach. You have that kitchen and then you have valuable vases. That's what old money does and I love it!

To the anon who asked about LGB in a previous post: He's doing o.k., BGD still in hospital. He's exhausted and gets home very late so he's not looking at the blog. Send your good thoughts his way.

Alessandra said...

I love that this is a family house and looks like real people actually live there. And yes, the dish drainer is for the fine limoges porcelain that is far too delicate for the likes of some vulgar and commercial dishwasher. The very idea!

Good thoughts out to LGB and BGD.

Anonymous said...

A scarecrow for unwanted guests? I want one.

Busy, busy, busy, but duly noted on the history and treasure of it all.

Father Dowling said...

This looks a lot like my grandma's house which was built it the 30s, the kitchen is similar. The thing is it wouldn't matter what the kitchen looked like, only the servants went in there anyway. ;)

Anonymous said...

now *this* is shabby chic. for reals.

didn't immediately think about Grey Gardens before things went "terribly, terribly wrong,"vibe, but i agree with so_chic.

maybe it's the lonesome hanging Flamenco dress doing the foreshadowing ...

Anonymous said...

I really do appreciate links...except in comments. My comment pop-up isn't full screen normally. The aerial view link shows Trump's property centered(w/ large semi-circular room) The Mizner is in lower right-closer to ocean

Anonymous said...

Mama I'm ready for some more Hampons

what happend to lgb
did Mama kick him out?

Anonymous said...

omgoodness that sounds like tamp....

HAMPTONS

Anonymous said...

Morning all....I found a website about this interesting woman with some photos included too. And Mama is right, the woman was beautiful, stately, youthful and energatic through her entire life. There are a few photos from the early 2000's when she was in her late 90's. Good for her.

http://www.aimeedeheeren.com/

Peace
Joel

Anonymous said...

Not to worry about links in the comments area. You can right click your mouse on the link and "Open Link in New Window" so it'll open in a full view browser and still keep the comments open.

Anonymous said...

Haha awww the kitchen reminds me of my first apartment on Wilton minus the Jane's Addiction and Concrete Blonde posters! I can smell the Nag Champa... There's something comforting about this pad.

Anonymous said...

What a mess the site is. The drive seems to take you past the Kellogg sub-division, past a couple of sheds, and tips you up at a side door. It may be that there is a new drive in the making alongside that new property? In any case, who wants something like this without an impressive arrival to go with it, hmmm? Beyond that, I think the architecture is a messy pile, and the interiors are seriously dissapointing. I was expecting so much after that glorious and immaculate townhouse in NY. Ah well, I'm just hard to please.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:27, LGB's significant other is in the hospital. He has been (understandably)absent from the blog for a couple of days but did post a quick message on the Chupi topic.

Get well soon, BGD!

Anonymous said...

N'est pas une beach house

Anonymous said...

I'm wishing th best for you lgb and bgd!