LI homes for sale with a history to tell

Homes always are stories. Modern homes are short stories. Historic homes are novels.

 

The Peace and Plenty Inn, for example, could be the tableau for a narrative about Colonial days. Built nearly 31/2 centuries ago, it once served as an oasis for settlers and travelers who could enjoy a safe bed and a round or two in the tap room. George Washington dropped by in pre-Revolutionary War days. Walt Whitman visited. So, in later years, did Theodore Roosevelt.

 

"That was the halfway point on the Island for people out east traveling to Manhattan," says owner James Dolan, 44, an auto mechanic. "It's where all the farmers stopped on their way into the city."

 

Want a good mystery? Check out the Sag Harbor home of Capt. John Hulbert, a local patriot who may have created the country's first flag. The tattered stars and stripes specimen supposedly was displayed in Philadelphia in 1775. Tests have failed to confirm or disprove authenticity.

 

Is history an element in the sale of such homes?

 

"For some people, it's important to know the background on a house. Others could care less," says Margaret Trautmann of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.

 

For Marie Beninati, who owns a Peconic bed-and-breakfast with her husband, Lee, delving into the home's history was all the fun. The BandB was once featured on the HGTV cable program "If Walls Could Talk." To Marie, the walls did.

 

"I was fascinated by it," she says, after finding out the home was built in the 1860s by a man who made a fortune selling decorative glass-embedded, light-filtering pavement designed for subways and basements. "It's important the right people buy it and that it's preserved. Once homes like these are gone, they're gone forever."

 

The following novels are for sale.

 

LOCATION 127 Main St.

 

LISTING HISTORY On the market since May 2010 with no price changes.

 

ANNUAL TAXES $53,357

 

WHAT'S FOR SALE A 10-bedroom, six-bath, three half-bath Italianate manor on 51/2 acres. The three-story structure has a formal dining room that opens onto a covered patio. It has a library, a gourmet kitchen with wine storage, a mahogany paneled media room and a heated pool. The two master suites have double walk-in closets and formal marble fireplaces, each with a Juliet balcony overlooking fountains and extensive gardens with century-old plantings. Also on the property is a three-car garage with a two-bedroom, one-bath apartment upstairs for staff or guests.

 

HISTORY This was one of the opulent residences of Robert David Lion Gardiner, one of the last descendants of a historic Long Island family. His progenitor, Lion Gardiner, founded New York's first English settlement on Gardiners Island, between the North and South forks, after purchasing it from the Montaukett Indians in 1639, and Capt. Kidd once buried treasure there.

 

LISTING AGENT Tim Davis, The Corcoran Group, 631-283-7300, ext. 211