Subscribe our newsletter and get notifications to stay update
When billionaire investor, collector and competitive sailor Bill Koch first set foot on Cape Cod in the 1970s, he did so as a guest in one of the area’s most storied estates. The summer home of banking heir Paul Mellon and his wife, the renowned horticulturalist Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, was a beacon of quiet elegance, filled with fine art and cultivated gardens — and often visited by close friends Jacqueline and John F.Kennedy.Now, over a decade after acquiring the estate from Bunny Mellon herself, Koch is ready to part with it, the Wall Street Journal first reported. The waterfront compound in Osterville, Massachusetts, a gated enclave of Oyster Harbors, is listed for $23.85 million, one of the priciest properties currently on the market in Cape Cod.“My main Cape home is next door — it is plenty big for my friends and family now,” Koch said in an email to the Journal.
“It is time for someone else to enjoy this marvelous property.”The roughly 7.5-acre estate, first built in 1954, includes a 7,300-square-foot main house with eight bedrooms, along with two two-bedroom guest cottages, an artist’s studio, a beach house and a greenhouse. Winding paths connect the structures across sweeping lawns, with panoramic views of Nantucket Sound.The estate also includes a private dock and more than 500 feet of waterfront.Listing agents Joanna Dresser and Kelly Crosby of LandVest of Christie’s International Real Estate called the property a rare convergence of provenance and potential. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to own a legacy property with both historical provenance and limitless potential,” Dresser told The Post in a statement.
“The setting, the history, and the sheer scale of this estate are unmatched on Cape Cod.”That history runs deep. Paul Mellon, whose family established the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., was known for his deep appreciation of fine art and thoroughbred horses.His wife, Bunny, became one of ...