On the fiftieth anniversary of the Grey Gardens documentary (released September 27, 1975), we return to one of America’s most mythologized houses — not in ruin, but in radiant renewal.
Immortalized by Albert and David Maysles, the storied halls of Grey Gardens once echoed with the eccentric lives of Big and Little Edie Beale, relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Their crumbling estate became a symbol of faded aristocracy and defiant individuality, preserved forever on film.
Today, the house tells a very different story. Saved from near collapse by Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, and since 2017 meticulously restored by Liz Lange — entrepreneur and CEO of the fashion line Figue — and her husband, Grey Gardens has been given vigorous new life. The restoration preserved its idiosyncratic charm while modernizing it for contemporary living, striking a delicate balance between history and reinvention.
The gardens, redesigned by landscape architect Deborah Nevins, now weave together heritage and renewal: a revived walled garden, a reconstructed pergola, and the whimsical thatched hut, all blending with new plantings to create a serene atmosphere.
On this anniversary, Liz Lange welcomes us inside the reborn Grey Gardens — a house that once embodied decline and eccentricity, now a testament to endurance, restoration, and the myths we continue to build around place.
Books:
Grey Gardens (BFI Film Classics) Paperback – 4 Sept. 2025
Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens: A Life in Pictures Hardcover – Illustrated, 15 Oct. 2008
Staunch: The Edies of Grey Gardens Paperback – 5 Oct. 2023
The Film:
The Movie about The Beales of Grey Gardens
My World of Interiors 