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Famed Summer Estate of Washington Post Publisher on the Market
186 sprawling acres of Martha’s Vineyard, previously owned by the late Katharine Graham, is coming on the market. She purchased it to prevent the beachfront property from being developed.
Located in one of America’s playgrounds of the rich and powerful, a trust tied to the family of Katherine Graham, publisher of the Washington Post, is selling a large portion of her summer home for $39.5 million.
The Wall Street Journal reports in the recent article, “On the Market: Katharine Graham’s Summer Estate for $39.5 Million,” that the expansive 186-acre beachfront property overlooks James Pond, Buzzards Bay and the Elizabeth Islands. There are meadows, stone walls and a brook that runs through the land, according to listing agents Gerret C. Conover and Thomas E. LeClair of LandVest, an affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate.
Graham led the Washington Post through its ground-breaking reporting of the Watergate scandal and the 1971 publishing of the Pentagon Papers. The period was depicted in the 2017 movie “The Post.”
Graham purchased the property in the early 1970s, in an effort to keep it from developers, according to LandVest.
In her memoir, “To the New Owners,” journalist and author Madeleine Blais said the property “felt like the set of a Katharine Hepburn movie, one in which the heroine shows verbal spunk and athletic grace in equal measure.”
Katharine Graham died in 2001. In her will, she bequeathed a large part of the original property to her son William, a lawyer and philanthropist, according to the listing agents. He passed away last year. The property is now owned by several limited companies, linked to trustees and executors for William Graham’s estate. The proceeds of the sale reportedly will be donated to charity, according to the listing agents.
The house on the property is about 5,000 square feet with eight bedrooms. It has a large covered deck for dining with views of the Atlantic Ocean and a large kitchen for entertaining.
Graham’s property also includes a three-car garage with an apartment, a two-story caretaker’s home, and barn and a one-bedroom private beach house.
The actual home where Katherine Graham lived, which was named “Mohu,” is not included in the sale of the rest of the property. It sits on a separate parcel of land.
Reference: The Wall Street Journal (August 1, 2018) “On the Market: Katharine Graham’s Summer Estate for $39.5 Million”