Foggy Future for Legendary Home
Volume 49, Issue 8
By April Jimenez

White paint peels off the cedar shingles, flowered curtains still blow in the breeze through cracked widows and magazines from the 80s lay about the dusty coffee table. This is the once glorious Carrington property in the Pines, six now overgrown acres from midway to ocean with the 96-year-old, two-story beach cottage that resides on it. The house has fallen from grace, abandoned and in disrepair. Left as a ward of the Fire Island National Seashore (FINS), the Carrington house and its surrounding property have fallen to the wayside.
FINS Superintendent Michael Reynolds has stated that he is open to the idea of leasing the Carrington house to a nonprofit organization or a private group. The Superintendent welcomes ideas. “I am wide open. It could be a potential community house or a meeting place,” said Reynolds about the possibilities.
The building was once the dwelling of Frank Carrington, a Broadway producer and an owner of the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn , New Jersey . Carrington’s father constructed the main house in 1909, the guesthouse was added in 1947. The home, placed on six green and secluded acres of property, was once the epitome of the jet set lifestyle. Carrington entertained the likes of Bill Blass, Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Gertrude Lawrence and Truman Capote, who is said to have written his famous novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s, in bed at the Carrington house. The Seashore bought the house from Mr. Carrington in 1969 for $364,000 .
With a lack of funds designated for the upkeep, the beautiful home cries desperately for a new landlord. Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association (FIPPOA) board of directors member Eric L. Sawyer, in the past, has advocated the use of the home as a tool of community enrichment. “Approach the National Seashore and purchase or lease the abandoned Carrington Estate for preservation and development into a multi-use facility. I have always envisioned an artist-in-residency program. Others have spoken of building a tennis facility and gym; a daycare, playground or even day camp for the many children now enjoying the Pines,” Sawyer said. Other notions include turning the home into a guesthouse, as suggested by co-owner of the Pines Yacht Club Eric Von Kursteiner. Another suggestion by a local Grove resident is to establish a center for gay and lesbian youth. The price of the home is undetermined but it was estimated at $8 million almost ten years ago by former FINS ranger Bob Freda, who once occupied the home with his wife. Joan McKeon, a Kismet-based appraiser, said, “Without a formal survey it is difficult to tell exactly how much it is worth.” Reynolds seconds that uncertainty, saying that an appraisal would take a couple years to complete. So what does the future hold for this landmark home and property filled with history? The main objective, according to the superintendent, if the property is not taken over, is to keep it in good shape. “We want to stabilize it, which might be difficult to do but we need to take care of it.”