Connecticut home where Abe Lincoln hung out is for sale

World-renowned pianist Frederic Chiu and award-winning sculptor Jeanine Esposito are itemizing their Westport, Conn., property, which comes with an actual dose of historical past, for $2.59 million.

The Colonial Revival, at 52 Weston Highway, dates to 1806. At 9,700 sq. ft, it comes with seven bedrooms and sits on 2.63 acres.

From 1826 to 1889, the property was half of a bigger property owned by a banker named Morris Ketchum; it was then often called the Hockanum property. Correspondence between Ketchum and Abraham Lincoln provides a glimpse of the latter visiting its grounds — and it additionally seems doubtless that George Washington held a Revolutionary Conflict fundraising assembly there or close by. Native lore, undocumented, additionally has Rock Hudson and Buffalo Invoice passing via. What’s for sure: Frederick Legislation Olmsted, the co-creator of Central Park, additionally visited.

Past historical past, the grounds include mature specimen bushes, together with a number of that had been reportedly “extras” from Olmsted’s Central Park mission, together with a 400-year-old copper beech — one among solely 4 within the state. The property additionally contains tall cypress bushes and a Kentucky yellowwood which might be “very uncommon, particularly in Connecticut,” Esposito informed Gimme Shelter. 

The principle home encompasses a rounded music room, a proper eating room, a chef’s kitchen — and a important bed room suite with curved partitions and a balcony overlooking the gardens. Authentic particulars embrace vintage large plank flooring — from an 18th-century farmhouse — and 4 fireplaces. There’s additionally a 2,000-square-foot carriage home, that includes one bed room, one rest room and beamed ceilings, which is zoned as a authorized rental.

There’s additionally a 350-square-foot studio constructing with a full tub that is sort of a “small lodge room suite,” Esposito stated. The grounds additionally embrace loads of room to construct a pool.  

The homeowners purchased the property for $1.5 million in 2011. The residence has additionally been house, for the previous 12 years, to their community-based nonprofit Beechwood Arts and Innovation. It’s the place they’ve hosted greater than 100 “arts-immersion salons” to showcase artists and performers, together with Grammy Award-winning Joshua Bell, who is without doubt one of the artists to autograph the “singing wall” within the breakfast room.

Esposito tells Gimme that the couple is staying in Connecticut, close to Westport, and “persevering with to run Beechwood Arts and Innovation.”

“Frederic is beginning to journey rather a lot once more with concert events, judging competitions and educating full time at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh and the Hartt Faculty in Hartford — and I’m a 35-year innovation advisor and likewise touring, so we’re having fewer occasions at Beechwood and wish extra versatile areas to dwell in to accommodate that,” she added. Beechwood, she added, “is a very magical place the place a lot has been shared artistically and neighborhood connection sensible — and it’s bittersweet to depart.” 

The itemizing dealer is Cyd Hamer, of William Pitt Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty.