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Archive Dive: At Home with Kate
Welcome to Archive Dive—my new excuse to obsess over the absolute treasures hiding in House Beautiful’s 130-year-old archives. Every month, we’ll dig up a favorite story from the past (epic room makeovers, wildly bold design swings, and style moments that were way ahead of their time) and talk about why they still resonate today. It’s part history lesson, part design deep-dive, and 100 percent a love letter to the iconic taste that’s defined HB for over a century.
—Jo Saltz, House Beautiful Editor in Chief
It was on the heels of a tell-all book, The Private World of Katharine Hepburn, written by former Life photographer (and Hepburn's friend) John Bryson, that the Oscar-winning actor opened the doors of her two East Coast homes to House Beautiful readers. From our February 1991 issue, the story captures her equally at ease in rural Fenwick, Connecticut, and in Manhattan—gardening, lounging with a script, and leaving the entryway overflowing with dozens of straw hats, as if she hadn’t moved a single thing in anticipation of the photographer’s arrival. This easy elegance, coupled with a disarming humility, was always Hepburn's charm.
By Jane Ellis
Katharine Hepburn lives today just as she always has—in her own inimitable style, with a strong dash of Yankee savvy. "It's all simple and easy," she says of her two houses, one in rural Fenwick, Connecticut, the other in Manhattan—as simple as her favorite Queen Anne's lace, as easy as the way her flats are hung together in her bedroom. Hepburn is a no-nonsense octogenarian who gardens, cuts firewood, cooks, and paints (her work above). As spirited as she was as Jo in Little Women, she is surely more domestic.
“What you see is a lot of junk” is Katharine Hepburn's description of her two houses. "It may all seem sloppy, but it is comfortable," she adds in her self-deprecating way. "Here is what the family and I have collected over many years." Since she was a child, her weekends have been spent at a country house near Old Saybrook. During the week, she lives in the Manhattan townhouse that she rented in 1931 and bought for $27,000 a few years later.
Long ago, she said, "My privacy is my own, and I am the one to decide when it should be invaded." Now seems to be the time. In The Private World of Katharine Hepburn (Little, Brown, 1990) by her friend, former Life photographer John Bryson, we have a glorious glimpse of the star's life today. "Most books like that are a big bore," Hepburn comments in her raspy drawl. What she likes about this one is that it shows the way she really is, polishing the furniture, cooking a chicken, drying her clothes on the grass.
"There is no design," Hepburn says of her houses. "They are not decorated, there are no curtains, everything is casual." That means worn Oriental rugs, white slip-covered chairs, a clutch of collectibles, a stuffed duck, a toy soldier, and African masks. "I don't love anything particularly; it has all just happened through the years with both houses." What she does have a passion for is flowers. "I love all those wildflowers, beach peas, Queen Anne's lace, and goldenrod." She admits, "I'm not mad about goldenrod, but there it is, for better or worse." She is an active gardener, but she says, "My gardens are lousy; they're owned by someone who has no time, and they look that way."
Another hobby is painting. "I try to paint, but I'm not good," is Hepburn's disclaimer. She has her pictures propped up around the house. "I've kept them all," she says, "except for two I gave to a charity for wild animals."
The actress's life is rooted in New England values, and she says she has lived like a man: "I can mend anything and do all the hard work in the house and garden." She chops wood, lays the fire, hauls logs to the city, and ferries plants back and forth. Every weekend, she drives three hours to Fenwick.
Her life today epitomizes her long-emulated personal style: a mixture of elegance and ease. (The once-unconventional turtlenecks, pants, and loafers picked for comfort years ago continue to influence designers like Calvin Klein today.) In her two houses, that same mix appears in a gentle clutter of objects and furnishings that have come together over a remarkable life. Although nominated for 12 Oscars and winner of an unprecedented four, Hepburn has always preferred the East Coast to Hollywood. She says, "I was brought up here, and I like the flowers and trees that dominate the seasons. I don't like desert places."
