Grey Gardens (estate)  Grey Gardens is a 14-room house at 3 West End Road and Lily Pond Lane in the Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton, New York. It is best known for having been the residence of the Beale family from 1924 to 1979, and specifically of mother and daughter Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and Edith "Little Edie" Bouvier Beale from 1952 to 1977. A 1975 documentary about the two, "Grey Gardens", which showed them living in squalor in the mansion, is considered one of the best documentaries of all time, and spawned a 2006 Broadway musical and a 2009 television movie, among other adaptations. The house itself dates from 1897, and was designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe. Other notable owners include Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, who lived together in the house from 1979 to 2014, and who significantly improved its state after moving in. It is currently owned by fashion designer and entrepreneur Liz Lange. In 1895, of oceanfront land was bought by F. Stanhope Phillips and Margaret Bagg Phillips, daughter of John S. Bagg, who had acquired the "Detroit Free Press" in 1836. The Phillips paid $2,500 () from the estate of a Mr. Candy. The couple announced their plans to build a $100,000 () house on the property. However, the purchase hit a snag when it was revealed that the property had been bequeathed to the U.S. government. In 1897, Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe (1862–1934) designed the house. Thorpe had designed several other houses in East Hampton. However, the house was not immediately built. Stanhope Phillips died in 1901, leaving behind an estate valued at $250,000 (). His brother challenged Margaret for control of the estate, saying she had used undue influence on him and that she had cremated him so that an autopsy could not be performed to confirm this. The court sided with Margaret. After the ownership issues were settled, construction on the house started. In 1913, Robert C. Hill, president of Consolidation Coal Company, bought the house. Hill's wife Anna Gilman Hill (1875–1955) imported ornate concrete walls from Spain to enclose the garden and hired landscape designer Ruth Bramley to create what would become the core of Grey Gardens. Bramley was married at the time to architect Aymar Embury II and their offices were in the same building. In 1924, Phelan Beale acquired the estate for his wife Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale.