Hepburn’s Fenwick Estate Taken off the Market

The new owner of Katharine Hepburn’s former Old Saybrook estate in the town's exclusive Fenwick section has taken the property, listed at $28 million, off the market after it failed to sell. 

Frank and Barbara Sciame bought the 3.4-acre waterfront estate in 2004 for $6 million, a year after the iconic Hepburn died. After making extensive renovations they put it back on the market two years ago but had no takers.

For a time, it was rumored that President Barack Obama and his wife wanted to buy the property. The White House eventually released a statement saying the First Couple were not interested in the home.

According to a report in the Hartford Courant, the Sciames, who live in Manhattan, made “top to bottom, multimillion dollar" renovations to the house, which included lifting it more than 5 feet to protect it from flooding. They also got the town’s permission to subdivide the property and build a guesthouse. 

Patch reported earlier that the property abuts an additional 3 plus acres that were designated by Hepburn to remain forever open as conservation. The Lynde Point Land Trust retains ownership and maintains the conservation parcel. Click here to see photos of the estate.

The Sciames have been using the house as a summer home since they bought it and will continue to do so, much like Katharine Hepburn did before she made it her year-round home in her late 80s. 

The house was built in 1939 after the hurricane of ’38 destroyed the original cottage built by Hepburn’s family in 1912, according to a report in the Shoreline Times. The property has 680 feet of waterfront and Old Saybrook’s Outer Light and Inner Light lighthouses can be seen to the east. 

Hepburn’s 1939 rebuild cost around 300,000 and had 21 rooms, nine baths, six fireplaces and a four-car attached garage. She called it “paradise.” 

Click here to read the full report in the Hartford Courant.

Click here to read the 2011 report in the Shoreline Times.