When the last surviving grandson of Henry Ford, William Clay Ford, Sr., died recently at age 88, many who read about his passing were drawn to reflect on the Ford Motor Company’s family dynasty. Founded in 1903 by Henry Ford with 12 investors and $28,000, it is one of the world’s largest family-controlled companies. Henry’s oldest grandson, Henry Ford II, took over direct control of the company after World War II, stabilizing it and recovering the losses experienced under the previous control of his father, Edsel Ford.
Halcyon Lodge was the Hamptons summer home of Henry Ford II until his death in 1987, a place where his family and siblings, nieces, nephews and cousins could get reacquainted after the long school year.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Hamptons’ seaside villages became a summer colony of the American Northeast with hotels (that have long since burned down) and a few grand Victorian homes owned by some of the country’s wealthiest families. Halcyon Lodge is one of only two Victorian homes that have survived in Southampton.
In 1951, the Fords commissioned Philip Johnson, the country’s most revered modernist architect and designer of the famed Glass House in Connecticut, to add a two-story cube-shaped addition with glass walls, offering views of both the ocean and the estate pond. When the Fords finally decided to sell, they asked the buyers if they could remove the addition and take it with them, but the request was emphatically refused.
The 10,000-square-foot residence has eight bedrooms, six baths and is located on 1.33 acres of beachfront with both views of the Atlantic and Old Town Pond. The traditional part of the home was built in 1910. Wonderful for entertaining, the dining room is large enough to seat a large group and the carriage house with its three bedrooms and the modernist addition easily handles the overflow of summer revelers. Nestled on an emerald green stretch of lawn, the pool, positioned on the dunes, also has great ocean and beach views. Porches and terraces are perfect for eating under the stars, taking in the sun or curling up with a good book.
Henry Ford II, grandson of the founder of Ford Motor Company owned this Southampton beach home for many years, now for sale, priced at $19.9 million.
Story is courtesy of Top 10 Real Estate Deals. For more information on the listing, visit corcoran.com