Saunders & Associates Sells Historic Oceanfront Property for $16,900,000

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1497897183BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY - Saunders & Associates announces that it has sold the historic property located at 119 Dune Road Westhampton Beach, NY, listed at $16,900,000. “ The sale of this historic building required specialty knowledge and handling due to the federal, state, and local restrictions placed on the new owner” said Jeanmarie Braat, the listing and selling broker.  “I was thrilled to facilitate this transaction as it involved finding a new owner who would honor the legacy and story of the property as a key element of the local history of Westhampton Beach”.

The property, once the home of the notable Donald Pels, the pioneer in the wireless and communications industry, former American Broadcast Company executive and Wendy Keys, former executive producer for the Film Society of Lincoln Center, consists of a 5.1 acre 7000 sq ft beachfront compound built in 1909.  Designed by prominent architect J. Sarsfield Kennedy renowned for the famous Gingerbread House in Bayridge and the Picnic House in Prospect Park;  the shingle style house on Dune Road is reminiscent of elements of both a European Villa and Craftsmans style design.  A long, curving driveway leads to the home, where a fieldstone porte cochere opens to the columned front porch.  Overlooking the ocean, the 15 room house contains eight bedrooms, six full and two half baths, panoramic ocean views from many large windows, and a private boardwalk to the beach. Other delightful features include beamed ceilings, fireplaces, bay windows with banquette seating, beautiful woodworking and convivial spaces for gathering and entertaining. Outdoors, set away from the house, is the heated gunite pool and spa, and an elegant pool house with high, open ceilings with beautiful beams and rafters, used as a billiard room and lounge.

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119 Dune Road was one of the only homes to survive the great hurricane of 1938 which produced a destructive tidal wave.  As referenced in a 1938 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the architect of 119 Dune Road, Mr. Kennedy, noted that when he visited the home after the hurricane he found the home in “first class condition”- the results of design work that he deemed preventive and precautionary.  These extraordinary design features would later be standard techniques used in houses built in similar settings.

“I am passionate about what I do and the pride I feel having been fundamental in the transaction of this iconic Westhampton Beach home, will remain with me for a lifetime”,  says the broker Jeanmarie Braat.

For more information about this historic home or other properties in greater Westhampton Beach, please email at jbraat@saunders.com.