An update to a historic Connecticut lighthouse, purchased in the fall of 2015, is now in its planning stages.
Bought by developer Frank Sciame and an anonymous partner for $290,000, plans have been developed by yacht-design architects Persak & Wurmfeld to turn the lighthouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, into a clubhouse for their grandchildren.
The lighthouse currently features four floors with a watch room and lantern room, and comes with original details like cast-iron windows and portholes. Plans call for a first-floor entrance foyer with storage, a second-floor master cabin, a kids’ cabin with bunk beds on the third floor, and a fourth-floor “salon” — a living room area with a sofa, end tables and a coffee table — and a galley kitchen. The fifth floor will feature a bar and an outdoor deck with a wraparound balcony that boasts a 360-degree view of the Long Island Sound and Connecticut River. (Right up there with the luxurious kids’ rooms that are de rigueur these days.)
Built in 1886 to mark a sand bar on the west side of the Connecticut River, the lighthouse is within walking distance of a 3.4-acre property that Sciame purchased from the estate of the late actress Katharine Hepburn. That estate, now divided into three separate parcels — one of which is on the market, another is expected to be listed this spring — includes 680 feet of private beach on Long Island Sound. Sciame bought the estate for $6 million in 2004, shortly after Hepburn’s 2003 death, as The Post previously reported.
“I’ve decided to spend more time with my family using our boat, and the lighthouse is the perfect way to keep a connection to Fenwick after we’ve sold the Hepburn house,” Frank Sciame told the Post.
To be specific, on the market is a separate property at 6 Mohegan Drive, which has a 3,800-square-foot three-bedroom home, built in 2015, on 1.3 acres, with 200 feet of beachfront. It’s currently on the market for $6.88 million, and could be used as a “guest cottage” adjacent to the main house, which is known as the Hepburn estate, at 10 Mohegan Drive. That estate is on 1.47 acres and comes with a renovated 8,400-square-foot, six-bedroom home built in 1939, and features 220 feet of beachfront. That parcel was on the market for $14.8 million and is expected to go back on the market this spring with Colette Harron of William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty.
Both estates come with access to a Fenwick community golf course and tennis courts for additional fees.
The third property, 20 Mohegan Drive, is a vacant lot. It comes with 115 feet of beach frontage and Sciame has no current plans to sell it.
The Old Saybrook Breakwater Lighthouse has withstood several large hurricanes, including Sandy and Irene, and has been featured on some state license plates. It was auctioned by the US General Services Administration, which still owns the land beneath the lighthouse. Sciame and his partner are leasing the land submerged in water beneath it for an additional $23,500 for 30 years with an option to renew for an additional 30 years.
Sciame is a former chairman of the South Street Seaport Museum and the New York Landmarks Conservancy.
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