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Location: Claverack, N.Y.
Price: $440,000
The Skinny: Built in 1848 as a wedding present, the Catherine Bushnell Mansion had become a prominent bed-and-breakfast by the mid-20th century. Guests at the inn, nicknamed a "Pension for the Elite," included First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, actress Helen Hayes, and midcentury icon Marilyn Monroe. The latter was photographed embracing a tree on the property during her stay, clad in her famous white dress.
Today, the house is listed for $440,000, a price that includes seven bedrooms, seven bathrooms, seven fireplaces, towering French doors on the first floor, and wide plank flooring throughout. The original windows are guarded by storm windows, and a new roof and new septic system top the list of improvements. There was formerly a pool on the property, since filled in, but there’s plenty of room on the 3.19 acres to fit a new one.
Given all that history and the fine condition of the place, the low asking price is probably due to the home’s proximity to the road and the commercial farming operations it calls neighbors.
Source: Sotheby’s.
View the original item at Curbed.com: "The Hudson Valley Inn Where Marilyn Monroe Once Unwound," by Rob Bear.
More from Curbed.com’s House of the Day:
- A Gilded-Age Mansion on the Shores of Narragansett Bay
- A Paul Rudolph-Designed Mansion on Long Island Sound
- An Eames-Saarinen Case Study House, Marred by Addition
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