Where Celebrities Live: Bedford, New York

Filed under: Famous Homes, Celebrity Homes

The tranquil hills of Westchester County, just north of New York City, is home to hordes of high profile folks who crave a quiet country setting close to midtown Manhattan. Here's who lives here.

Pastoral and pristine Westchester County has been a bucolic haven for horsey and high society types since the late 19^th-century when huge homes on vast estates were built by some of America's wealthiest families including the Rockefellers (Pocantico Hills).


Many of the quaint and upscale communities that dot the countryside claim celebrity residents, including political movers and shakers Bill and Hillary Clinton (Chappaqua), divorcing Tinseltowners Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins (Pound Ridge), late night talk show king David Letterman (North Salem), "Desperate Housewives'' Vanessa Williams (Chappaqua) and New York City's multi-billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg (North Castle).

As many celebs as may be strewn around throughout Westchester County, it's in and around the three itty-bitty unincorporated hamlets that comprise the Town of Bedford (Katonah, Bedford Village and Bedford Hills) where a veritable crush of notable names from the rarefied and glammy worlds of politics, high finance and Hollywood own country getaways and sprawling estates.


Homemaking honcho Martha Stewart, the reigning queen of Katonah, has bunked in Bedford since 2000 when she shelled out around $15 million for a historic 150+-acre working farm (shown above). Stewart spent many more millions more restoring and customizing her Katonah crib. She even went so far as to lift a 1925 farmhouse, spin it around so it would face her pasturelands and add 4,000 square feet of interior space, including a kitchen any gourmet chef would die for. It was here in this residence, called the "Winter House," where in 2005 Stewart endured five months of house arrest after she was released from a Federal prison on a conviction related to obstruction of justice charges.

Stewart painted every structure on her big Bedford spread a particular shade of gray she dubbed 'Bedford Grey' and now sells to all the regular people who want their homes to look like hers. When Stewart sought a variance on the height of a barn she wanted to raise she reportedly handed out chocolate chip cookies at the town hall meeting. She was granted the variance for the barn but she ran afoul of some of the local residents a few years later in 2007 when she audaciously attempted to trademark the name Katonah, the name of the Indian chief from whom the town was originally purchased. Her request was denied.

Just down the road a piece from Stewart's spread, close enough to send a day-maid to borrow a cup of sugar, is a vast estate owned by billionaire financier George Soros who added an adjacent 63 acres and a 19-room mansion to his existing property in 2003. He reportedly paid around $21.5 million for the property he bought from "Jurrasic Park" author Michael Crichton.

Since the early 1990s American fashion icon Ralph Lauren has owned a lavishly maintained 250+-acre estate in Katonah that actually abuts Martha Stewart's farm. A long tree-lined driveway meanders through the property until it comes to Lauren's 17,000-square-foot Norman-style stone manor house, built in 1919. The posh pad, photographed for Architectural Digest back in 2004, includes a mahogany-paneled library and a 5-room master suite with a colossal custom-built dressing room far larger than most Manhattan studio apartments.


Michael Douglas and his actress wife Catherine Zeta-Jones are some of the town's newest celebrity residents. The A-list couple reportedly leased the Colonial-style mansion (shown above) for at least six months before they paid paid $5.075 million for a 5.7-acre estate tucked down a long driveway and surrounded on three sides by a famous horse farm. The 6,300-square-foot main house and includes 5 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms and a separate cottage perfect for overflow guests or staff.

Celebrated actress Glenn Close and her bio-tech entrepreneur husband David Shaw are long time Bedford Hills residents who purchased the first part of their 10+-acre homestead that includes a 1910 Federal-style farmhouse in 1989. The couple scooped up an adjacent parcel in October of 2000.


Academy Award winning actor and activist Richard Gere and his wife Carey Lowell, who own a residence in nearby Pound Ridge, recently re-opened the low-key but very luxe 8-room Bedford Post Inn (shown above) in Bedford Village that includes a well-regarded restaurant popular with locals and local celebs.

Billionaire real estate pooh-bah Donald Trump has owned the historic 'Seven Springs' estate in Bedford since 1995 when he paid a reported $7.5 million for the 200+-acre property once owned by the Rockefeller family. The 39,000-square-foot Georgian-style mega-mansion, built in 1919, was the childhood home of Pulitzer Prize winning powerhouse Katherine Graham, owner of The Washington Post. Previous reports on the property reveal that Trump's mansion includes 13 bedrooms, 12 baths and an indoor swimming pool made of gleaming white marble.


Because of its exclusivity and proximity to New York City. Westchester County will likely continue to attract celebrities and other monied types for many decades to come. It's long been rumored that superstar music moguls Beyoncé and Jay-Z bought a house in Scarsdale and this reporter was told that Alex 'A-Rod' Rodriguez was interested in a Bedford estate on the same road as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

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