Backstory: Water Mill's Villa Maria Mansion & Religious Retreat

In 1883, industrialist Josiah Lombard built a 20,000 square foot mansion on the headwaters of Mecox Bay on the south side of the Montauk Highway in Water Mill. A serene spot at that time, he had a historic windmill brought over from Sag Harbor and placed on his front lawn.

The house, named “Grey Gables,” was, and still is, glorious. Built in the Rococo style, its entryway features a dramatic winding staircase in the front hall, 10 bedrooms, a ballroom, a library with books behind glass enclosed shelves and out back a beautiful sun porch facing the water with a painting in bas relief of a 17th century celestial map of the night sky. A separate cottage was available for guests.

The family owned it until 1929 when a man named Courtland Palmer bought it at auction for $100,000, and rented it out to Hollywood star Irene Coleman and her bohemian friends who had wild, booze driven parties there and trashed the place. Two years later, Palmer re-sold the property for $250,000 to the Dominican Sisters, who converted it to a religious retreat and parochial high school. Four years after that, in 1935, members of a non-profit called the Water Mill Civic Society asked if the Dominicans would deed to them the two acres of front lawn the windmill sat on. If they could get it – they offered $1 for it – they’d make that lawn a triangle with a new road between it and the mansion. And keep it forever as a historic place.

The Dominicans obliged them, but remembering the wild parties held on the property, required there be a codicil in the sale. If inappropriate behavior such as nudity, drug taking, drunkenness or  fornication were to ever take place on that triangle, then the owner of Grey Gables would have the right to buy the triangle back for the dollar they’d paid for it. Signed, sealed and delivered.

The house continued as a parochial school until 1953. After that, it became a retirement home for the aging sisters. And in 1988, it opened up to the community as a cultural center. Renamed the Sienna Spiritual Center at Villa Maria, opera was held there, also seminars, classes such as tai chi, the joy of movement, music, lectures, prayer meetings, and study groups that included vows of silence. I recall, in 2002 sitting on a blanket out on the lawn listening to the Irish tenor Ronan Tyson sing. It was a beautiful time.

Fundraisers were also held there. And on two occasions, the mansion became the “show house” for prominent interior designers. Also during this time, a second floor business center was added. And a third building – for art and classes – was built.

It would have been nice if this enterprise had succeeded, but by 2004, it was apparent it would not. As a result, it was sold again, this time to Vince Camuto, the founder of Nine West, who paid a reported $15 million. He hired an architect and a designer and converted it back to the grand mansion for a wealthy family it once was. It was now no longer open to the public.

The last sale for Grey Gables took place in 2018, three years after Camuto’s passing. The home and property went for approximately $72 million to another rich man who agreed to allow the wonderful view one gets from the bridge to the bay just west of his property across his back lawn be kept clear forever.

Have a East End real estate story? Want to share? Text us at 516-527-3566. We’ll call you back, and then write it up for this weekly column. –Dan