First Family’s Vacation Plans Take Shape
President Barack Obama and the First Family will rent the bucolic Blue Heron Farm off South Road in [97.7% White] Chilmark for their vacation during the last week of August.
The 28.5-acre property some five hundred yards down Cobb’s Hill Road, spans the Chilmark and West Tisbury town line and overlooks Town Cove, the westernmost finger of the Tisbury Great Pond.
While the mechanics of renting the property were still ongoing at press time, the Gazette has learned that a rental agreement for the farm will comprise three leases, one to be held by the Obamas, another by the Secret Service and a third by a White House entourage.
The amount of the rental has not been disclosed, but up-Island properties similar to Blue Heron Farm rent for between $35,000 to $50,000 per week.
It is understood that the Obamas have treated the transaction as a standard Vineyard summer rental, from payment terms right down to questions about bringing the family dog.
A partner in Wallace and Company Sotheby’s International Realty confirmed yesterday that the Edgartown real estate company has leased Blue Heron Farm for a block of 60 days in August and September from owners William and Mollie Van Devender, and that the company will sublease the property.
.... Unconfirmed reports have it that First Lady Michelle Obama and children Sasha and Malia may decide to come to the Vineyard a bit earlier, possibly as houseguests of Vineyard friends, before the president joins them for a quiet family vacation and rest. There are four dwellings on Blue Heron Farm property, including a white Victorian farm house, a reconstructed Pennsylvania hay barn and a Vermont shed, the latter two of which date back to the 1800s and were transported and reconstructed by West Tisbury builder Rick Anderson in the early 1990s.
Named by its previous owners, the late New York real estate developer M. Anthony Fisher and his wife Anne, the farm has undergone several renovations in the last decade. Situated overlooking a remote finger of the Great Pond, it is quiet and private, with an apple orchard, flower and vegetable gardens, stone walls, a swimming pool, golf practice tee and small basketball court for the basketball-loving president. It is understood that Mr. Obama and his family will also be offered access to the private portion of Squibnocket Beach if they so choose.
....In 2005 the property was bought by William and Mollie Van Devender for $20.35 million in what was, at the time, the second highest price paid for a single residential property in Vineyard history.
Mr. Van Devender is a timber businessman and was one of three original investors in the Vineyard Golf Club, a private course built in 2000 off the West Tisbury Road in Edgartown.
And in case you are wondering, the post-racial post-partisan Hyuffington Post has found out that the property's owners contributed to the Fred Thompson and John McCain presidential campaigns.
Could they be.... is it possible? Ew-dirty Republicans?!
Posted by: RealEstate | Monday, 21 September 2009 at 06:51 AM