A roughly 30-acre property on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts where former President Barack Obama and his family spent a number of summer vacations recently went on sale for $39 million.
The estate’s owner since 2011 has been Sir Norman Foster, a British architect known for projects such as the Gherkin high-rise and Wembley Stadium in London. Foster designed and built a contemporary pool house and pool at the former Obama property on Martha's Vineyard to complement the traditional New England-style main and guest houses.
Maggie Gold Seelig of MGS Group Real Estate and Brian Dougherty of Corcoran Property Advisors are marketing the property.
On Martha’s Vineyard, the median price of a single-family home that sold in March was $1.7 million, according to Homes.com data. The picturesque island, located 16 miles off Cape Cod, has long attracted celebrities; film director Spike Lee has a house in the town of Oak Bluffs, and former President Bill Clinton also summered on the island.
The Obamas chose to stay at the location in the town of Chilmark on the island’s western side “for its incredible privacy, serenity, and significance,” real estate brokerage Corcoran said in a statement. The family stayed there during Obama’s first term, before Foster bought the house, according to the Vineyard Gazette.
In much of Chilmark, the minimum required lot size for new construction is at least three acres, according to Homes.com, which says there were just three active listings in the town as of March and the median single-family home price was $2.3 million.
Known as Blue Heron Farm, the land abuts Tisbury Great Pond. The 7,000-square-foot main house has a wraparound porch that looks out on a rolling lawn. The guest house includes five bedrooms. There’s also staff housing, a 150-year-old barn that was relocated from Pennsylvania, a sizeable waterfront boat house, a tennis court and equestrian riding rings.
Foster bought the property in 2011 for $22 million, according to Dukes County records.