Katharine Hepburn probably wouldn�t recognize the oceanfront mansion in the Fenwick section of Old Saybrook, which had been in the Hepburn family since 1913 before being sold for $6 million in 2004, a year after the screen icon died.
Frank Sciame, a New York construction company owner, and his wife, Barbara, bought the estate with plans to renovate and flip it. They liked it so much that they�ve spent their summers in the fully renovated home with six bathrooms, seven fireplaces, a private dock and beach, and stunning views of Long Island Sound. Now they�re ready to sell everything at $28 million for three lots and 3.5 acres or, for $18 million, the largest lot, which includes the mansion on 1.5 acres.
�People buy a mansion, then put $9 million into it,� says Colette Harron, the listing agent at William Pitt Sotheby�s International Realty in Essex. �This is not like that. It�s a work of art.�
Hepburn called it Paradise. We�re calling it expensive. (Her most expensive listing ever will net Harron 3 percent of the sales price, or the entire 6 percent share of almost $1.7 million if she finds a buyer at the listed price.)
Hepburn lived here year-round in her later years, swimming each day, at a time when the home was more often described as a white-washed brick cottage. It�s something even grander now. But no grander, of course, than the Hepburn legacy.
