Jackie Kennedy Onassis' childhood home goes up for sale with $49.5M price tag
MCLEAN, Va. -- The childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis has been put up for sale by its current owners. Their asking price: $49.5 million.
The Washington Post reports Steve and Jean Case listed the Merrywood estate last week. The circa-1919 Georgian estate sits on the banks of the Potomac River in McLean, Virginia.
Steve Case is co-founder of AOL and CEO of venture-capital firm Revolution LLC. Jean Case is CEO of the Case Foundation and chairman of the National Geographic Society. Sotheby's International Realty and JLL said in a statement that the Cases travel often and no longer need the property.
The 23,000-square-foot home includes nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, indoor and outdoor pools and a lighted tennis court.
According to the New York Observer, $49.5 million will set a record for the most expensive home sold in the region.
Meanwhile, a Cartier wristwatch given to Jackie Kennedy plus a painting she made in 1963 as a thank-you gift to reciprocate sold for $379,500 on Wednesday, according to the Reuters news agency. The items went for more than three times pre-sale estimates, Christie's auction house said. They were considered "two of the most important historic artifacts to surface in recent years from the golden era of the Kennedy Presidency."
After about three minutes of "spirited bidding" online and by phone, the final price was reached at the New York salesroom of the auction house.
The Cartier tank watch, engraved on the back, was given to the then-U.S. First Lady by her brother-in-law Prince Stanislaw "Stas" Radziwill, according to Reuters.
The painting marked a 50-mile hike in Palm Beach in 1963 that Radziwill and other friends of the Kennedys undertook to promote fitness, Reuters reports.
