Edith Wharton's Newport Estate Sells for $8.6 Million

Edith Wharton's Newport Estate Sells for $8.6 Million

Edith Wharton's Newport estate has sold for $8.6 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Wharton and her then-husband Edward Robbins Wharton bought the home in 1893 for $80,000, or about $2.3 million in 2020 dollars.

"The property had originally been asking $11.7 million. Listing agent Kendra C. Toppa of Lila Delman, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate, said the deal was agreed upon before the coronavirus pandemic began dominating the headlines. The buyers wanted to stay the course,'” she said.

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Known as Land’s End, the property sits on about 5.6 acres with a 11,000-square-foot, nine-bedroom main house. It retains much of its historic detail, including original moldings and stone bench in the entry hall. It has a chintz-filled living room parlor with buttercream walls, a billiards room and french doors that open up to the ocean. There is also a room designed for cutting flowers from the garden," reports WSJ.

"Edith's summers in Newport helped to inform much of her writing, most notably her famous work, The Age of Innocence, in which she describes the wealthy, quintessentially American vacation town," writes Architectural Design.