A grand 8,000-square-foot country manor on a prime 7.6-acre lot in Montauk, New York, is expected to hit the market next week with a price tag of $9.5 million.
The shingle-styled manor with Georgian influences was built in the 1920s by then-owner Carl G. Fisher, the multimillionaire race car driver and developer of much of Miami Beach and Montauk. The private and very exclusive 261-acre Fisher Island in Miami is named for him (he once owned it).
In 1925, Fisher bought essentially the entire peninsula of Montauk, which is on the far eastern tip of Long Island, with aspirations of making it the Miami Beach of the north.
Alas, the stock market crash of 1929 and ensuing Great Depression ended his Montauk dreams.
Fisher was quite the self-styled entrepreneur. In addition to developing Miami Beach and Montauk, he created the Indianapolis Speedway and helped build the first cross-country highways.
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"The house was built sometime between 1925 and 1927," said Ryan Burns, who is handling the sale with his two brothers, Greg and Matt, as part of the Burns Team at Compass.
The property features a main house with six bedrooms, all with full en-suite bathrooms, and two partial bathrooms. A guesthouse has five bedrooms and five bathrooms, with an attached two-car garage.
Also included in the $9.5 million sale price are three adjacent buildable lots that measure 0.9 acres, 0.58 acres and 0.47 acres.
Neighboring land owned by East Hampton Town provides an additional buffer, Mr. Burns said.
The property is quite private, he said, "but it’s very centrally located, smack in the middle of everything." It is close to Star Island, Montauk Downs Golf Course and the vibrant town center.
Montauk has long been a sleepy, surfing- and fishing-centric hamlet compared to the buzzy next-door Hamptons communities like Bridgehampton, Shelter Island and Amagansett, but that has been changing in recent years, with prices climbing.
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The Foxboro Drive property has been in the Akin family since 1954 and is currently owned by Bobby Akin and his two sisters. Their grandfather bought it from Mr. Fisher’s widow, he said.
"Carl Fisher chose the house location, we think, because of the views," Mr. Akin said via email. "The house has water views on three sides because it is on one the highest elevations in Montauk. He also wanted to be a little further from the ocean due to inevitable storms that threaten homes directly on the water."
According to the homeowner, Carl Fisher chose the house location because of the views.
Compass"My grandfather, an avid fisherman, had been fishing out of Montauk since the late 1940s," he said. "He would see the house each time he would return from fishing and wondered who owned the majestic house on the hill."
The house atop the hill was designed by the Schultze & Weaver architectural firm, designers of the iconic Tudor-styled resort buildings Fisher commissioned in Montauk, as well as Miami's Freedom Tower, and the Pierre Hotel and the Sherry-Netherland, both in Manhattan.
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Original architectural details include soaring-paneled ceilings, three stone fireplaces, a sweeping central staircase, arched windows, timber floors, French doors and a large formal dining room. Some of the bedrooms are quite large, with views of the surrounding property and distant vistas.
"It’s a special piece of history in Montauk," Mr. Burns said. "We’re hoping that someone will keep it and restore it, but it can be torn down."
But, he added, "we hope the buyer is someone who will keep it as a family compound, the way it is now."