Looking to buy property in Martha’s Vineyard and have $65 million laying around?
You’re in luck.
Red Gate Farm, Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ sprawling, oceanfront estate in Aquinnah on Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts, was recently listed by Christie’s International Real Estate.
Fomerly a sheep farm, Onassis purchased Red Gate Farm in 1979, and the “Wall Street Journal” reports that she purchased it at the time for $1 million. With a list price of $65 million, that’s quite the return on value for the Kennedy family.
“Forty years ago, my mother fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard,” Onassis daughter, Caroline Kennedy, said in a statement. “When she found Red Gate Farm, it was a perfect expression of her romantic and adventurous spirit. The dunes and ponds and rolling hills of Aquinnah gave her the chance to create a world where she could be so close to nature, close to her family and friends, and, most importantly, close to her beloved books.
Kennedy said her mother even had a “fairy treehouse” built on the property for her grandchildren.
“Those grandchildren are grown so now it is time for us to follow my mother’s example and create our own worlds. We hope that a new family will treasure this place as we have for three generations. We are excited about the next chapter for Red Gate Farm,” she said.
Onassis hired architect Hugh Newell Jacobson to design the main house and guest house in 1980. She also hired Rachel Bunny Mellon, who redesigned the White House Rose Garden when Onassis was First Lady, to design the estate’s landscapes.
Caroline Kennedy, who now oversees the estate, commissioned Deborah Berke, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, to renovate and expand the main residence in 2000.
Rachel Bunny Mellon, who redesigned the White House Rose Garden when Onassis was First Lady, as hired to design the estate’s landscapes.
The 6,456-square-foot home is located on 340 acres of oceanfront real estate, and it has more than a mile of private Atlantic Ocean beachfront. With the exception of the dining room, every room overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.
The grounds also have two freshwater ponds, a vegetable garden, an outdoor pool, tennis court, exercise studio, hunting cabin, barn, boathouse, temperature-controlled storage building, two garages and, of course, the fairy treehouse.
The five-bedroom main residence boasts a library, fireplace, drawing room, living room, family room, dining room and even a chef’s kitchen with professional-grade appliances.
There is also a two-story guest house nearby the main residence that has four bedrooms.
