Allan M. Schneider, the legendary Hamptons real estate agent, once called the Creeks “the most important house in East Hampton.” Now, the fabled estate currently owned by Ronald O. Perelman is being shopped as a whisper listing, according to the New York Post, asking $180 million.
The estate is named for the two creeks, tributaries of Georgica Pond, that border the 57-acre property. There’s more than a mile of (heavily guarded) frontage on Georgica Pond and views to the Atlantic beyond. The house itself was built in 1899 for artist Albert Herter by Grosvenor Atterbury, architect of the Parrish Art Museum.
“Well, Albert Herter simply has no right to exist. To begin with, he was born to wealth and social position; he is handsome and attractive in manner, and he has exceptional talent. You see, his career knocks the props from under those accepted saws about the impetus of poverty.” — Regina Armstrong, The Art Interchange, January, 1899. Albert was the son and nephew of the famous Herter Brothers decorating company, the 19th century’s premier interior decorators and furniture craftsmen, in demand from the White House to Fifth Avenue mansions.
Albert’s wife Adele was also a talented painter. They made their home, then called Près Choisis, a showplace inside and out. Below is a photo from the Library of Congress labeled, “View to house from orange and yellow garden.”
Besides the orange and yellow garden, no doubt chosen to reflect the Mediterranean style of the house, was an acre-sized garden of blue irises, tended by 30 Japanese gardeners. The interiors were spectacular as well; Herter was a muralist among other things. The performing arts, too, were well-represented: there is a studio-theater on the estate where Caruso, Isadora Duncan, and Pavlova performed.
In 1952 the artist Alfonso A. Ossorio purchased the estate from Christian A. Herter, Secretary of State in the Eisenhower Administration. Ossorio, too, worked on the garden, creating a spectacular garden of conifers, unlike any other on earth.
Ossorio was an Abstract Expressionist; he was influenced by Jackson Pollock and Pollock was influenced by him as well. It’s from the Creeks that Pollock took that fatal drunken drive home to Springs on August 11, 1956. (And supposedly, plenty of drips from Pollock’s work remain on the studio-theater’s floor.) Besides Pollock and wife Lee Krasner, Ossorio entertained such figures as Grace Hartigan, Franz Kline, Elaine and Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko.
After Ossorio’s death in 1990, the estate was offered for $25 million, with no takers until Perelman saw the place and did a deal that very afternoon for $12 million. Then, in the three weeks between closing and July 4th, the house was entirely renovated, back to the way the Herters had it in many cases.
Perelman, of course, is also a patron of the arts. Visible in the aerial photo above are two large sculptures, Torqued Torus Inversion and Junction by Richard Serra. Another Serra, 7 Plates, 6 Angles, is on the drive to the house. Perelman also threw the legendary Apollo in the Hamptons fundraiser for ten years, raising $30 million for the Apollo Theater.
Why is Perelman selling? He told Vanity Fair he wants “a less complicated and less leveraged business life.” He is, after all, 77, and he’s been married five times with eight children. His net worth, once estimated at nearly $20 billion, is now estimated just under $5 billion.
We’ll be very interested in the next iteration of the Creeks. The new owners will only be the fourth family to own it in 120 years.
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