REAL ESTATE

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The buyer, who's still doing his due diligence, has let the reins go, and others can now come in to compete for the house.

As it is, the house is 5,000 square feet, giving it a footprint of only 2,500 square feet, not even the size of a dressing room for typical Wall Street warrior abodes. That, and the fact that this is a true summer cottage—no heat, no insulation, antiquated electric and more—begs the question: Is the 4.3 acres of pond front really worth $35 million? Time will tell.

The Georgica Association is a true diamond in the rough. Its winding paths, dirt roads and discreet properties down long driveways umbrageous in cool woodlands are the norm. Very little has changed there in 100 years. A few new houses have been erected or remodeled, but the effect has been minimal. Notable transfers include the Fowler property that sold for $11 million about five years ago for what was at best a seasonal structure with single-wall construction dating to the turn of the century. I hear the current owners have updated it slightly but are keeping it as a summer cottage. It enjoys one of the most panoramic settings on Georgica Pond.

One of the best properties in the Association used to belong to Clifford Klenk. It was on six acres with two houses: a sprawling ranch house and a boathouse. Part of the deal was that Klenk sold his estate to the Joseph family, maintaining life tenancy in the boathouse, which he remodeled at his own expense to the tune of $1 million. That compound sold in the mid 1990s for about $5 million. Imagine what it would be worth today!

Wall Streeter Fred Seegal, no stranger to selling high and buying low, made major changes to his house when he purchased it from the Kennedys next door. But it wasn't much of a house to begin with, so it was an improvement all around.

The Association still maintains a private tennis club with an all-white dress code as requirement to play on the courts. At the entrance to the Association sits a guard under a sun umbrella who is there to ask visitors where they're going. I don't think one wouldn't be allowed admittance, but it's a nice old-fashioned touch.

In these days of electronic gates and impenetrable privet hedges lauding over supermarket-sized houses, a place like the Association is a faded anachronism worth saving. Let's hope this latest transaction will keep the status quo. —S.D.