Art dealer W. Graham Arader specializes in antique maps, books, and prints, and he has a side interest in antique houses. “I own the seventh-oldest house in San Francisco,” he says, “I own the only pristine beaux-arts mansion on Madison Avenue, and I own George Washington’s home in Virginia.” Also in his possession is a 19th century Victorian house in Nyack, N.Y.

Arader bought the home, roughly a 40-minute drive from Manhattan, for about $6 million in 2005. “I bought it for the beauty of the house,” he says. “I’m an art dealer. I like things that are beautiful, plus I bought it for my seven children to use on the weekends.”

After 13 years, though, four of those children have left New York, and he’s decided to put it on the market. It’s listed with Richard Ellis at Ellis Sotheby’s International Realty for $4.75 million. “I’m taking a loss,” he says, “but I’m not using it anymore.”

The History
The house, known as “Pretty Penny,” was built in the 1850s for a local merchant and was purchased in 1932 by actress Helen Hayes, who lived in it for more than 60 years. “She had all kinds of unbelievable guests,” Arader says.

Visitors to the home included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marilyn Monroe, and Ronald Reagan. “Sometimes, her children and grandchildren come by to tell me how much they love the house,” says Arader.

Charles MacArthur, Hayes’s husband, commissioned Edward Hopper to paint the home; she later donated the work to Smith College, where it’s currently on view.

Shortly after Hayes’s death in 1993, it was purchased by Rosie O’Donnell, who reportedly poured more than $2 million into restoring it. “Honestly, Rosie did such a good job that I would not have changed any of her extremely wise, sophisticated, and elegant decisions,” Arader says. O’Donnell installed steel girders throughout the house and, among other touches, updated the rose garden Hayes had planted.

O’Donnell sold the house in 2000 to a buyer who sold it to Arader five years later.

The House
Given O’Donnell’s “masterful” renovation, Arader says, he did very little to the interior, aside from filling it with art and furniture from his gallery. The house, which covers about 6,000 square feet, is built in the “Italianate Victorian” style, with a variety of ornamental flourishes.

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