Ahmet Ertegun, who worked with Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones, built the roughly 11,000-square-foot house in the style of a Russian dacha.
The Hamptons home of the late Ahmet Ertegun, the Atlantic Records co-founder who has been called the “greatest record man” in U.S. history, was built for entertaining on a grand scale.
The Southampton house was built in the style of a Russian dacha by the Turkish Ertegun and his wife, Romania-born society doyenne Mica Ertegun. After seeing the initial plans, Ertegun had the living room enlarged to accommodate an orchestra, according to Vanity Fair.
Ahmet died in 2006, and following Mica’s death in December 2023, the waterfront home on about 5.5 acres is coming on the market for $52 million, according to listing agent Tim Davis of the Corcoran Group.
The couple had no children.
Known as Boatman House, the property has a private dock on a creek leading to Shinnecock Bay, and the ocean is visible from the upper floor, Davis said. Designed by the late architect Jaquelin T. Robertson around 1990, the roughly 11,000-square-foot, 10-bedroom house has Palladian architectural features such as classical columns, said Davis, noting that the property is in very good condition. The living room is designed as a two-story cube, with a pyramidal vault ceiling. The home’s walls are hung with large-scale Turkish portraits, while the rooms are filled with antique furniture. The furniture isn’t included in the sale.
The property also includes a roughly 75-foot-long outdoor pool and manicured gardens with cherry and pear trees.
The idea of the dacha arose from the property’s proximity to nature, according to the 2002 book “Beach Houses.” The site reminded Mica of “the Russia of Chekhov and Pushkin, and of the lazy hours those writers spent communing with nature in their country estates,” the book said. The roof of the house is copper, and the wood siding was painted in yellow ocher, a color “as Russian as borscht,” the book said.
Ahmet, who worked with musical acts including Ray Charles and the Rolling Stones, sold Atlantic Records to Warner Bros in 1967 but stayed on as chairman. Mica, an interior designer, had clients including Leon Black and Alice Walton.
The Erteguns had homes around the world, including a five-story townhouse in Manhattan, a summer home in Bodrum, Turkey, and an apartment in Paris, according to the book “The Last Sultan: The Life and Times of Ahmet Ertegun.” Ahmet felt that the definition of success was “when you have no keys,” the book said; when he arrived at each of his homes, there was always an assistant there to open the door for him.
The Hamptons market has been slow for the past few years but is showing signs of life, according to a fourth-quarter 2023 report by the Corcoran Group, which showed the first sales-activity growth in eight quarters. There were two deals over $50 million in the fourth quarter, up from none in the same period of 2022.
For more information and a private showing, please contact
Tim Davis, Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Thomas P. Davis, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
Corcoran Group Real Estate
24 Main Street Southampton, NY 11968
T: 631.702.9211 or 516.356.5736
E: [email protected]
W: www.timdavishamptons.com
