Katharine Hepburn at Home: The Iconic Hollywood Star’s Domestic Life in 15 Photos
Katharine Hepburn at Home: The Iconic Hollywood Star’s Domestic Life in 15 Photos
The four-time Oscar winner and notorious homebody divided her time between a waterfront Connecticut estate and the cozy New York town house where Stephen Sondheim was her next-door neighbor
Katharine Hepburn might be one of the greatest film stars of all time. But to her, acting was secondary to the great gifts of life—like “waiting for a custard pie.” “Life’s what’s important,” she once famously said, “walking, houses, family.”
In stark contrast to the glitz and glamour of Old Hollywood, Hepburn’s days at home were defined by intimacy and simplicity. When the Morning Glory star wasn’t filming in Italy or Uganda, she could be found in her idyllic Italianate New York town house or her Connecticut childhood summer home, which she used as her weekend getaway. Hepburn died at her beloved waterfront estate in 2003 at age 96.
Despite her larger-than-life film career, the actor purposefully kept a low profile and was a well-documented homebody. Take a look inside the houses that made Hepburn below.
Bettmann1/15Toddler Katharine
Katharine Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907, to Thomas and Katharine Hepburn, and by all accounts had an upbringing befitting a rule-breaking icon. Thomas was a urologist who established the New England Social Hygiene Association to educate the public about venereal disease. Her mother founded the Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association, with little Katharine tagging along to several “Vote For Women” demonstrations as a child. In her memoir Me: Stories of My Life, Hepburn wrote that they were “perfect parents” who “brought us up with a feeling of freedom.”
2/15Sister act
In this snapshot taken on the grounds of the Hepburn family home in 1940, Hepburn lounges in the grass with her younger sisters Marion and Peg. Katharine assumed a self-described “rich aunt” role to her sisters, who were 11 and 13 years her juniors, respectively. “I’d dress them up and take them to the theatre, to movies and museums and all the excitements,” she recalled. “We had great fun together. I’m sure that this was why I never had children of my own.” Katharine and Peg served as bridesmaids at Marion’s wedding with Ellsworth Grant in 1939.
New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images3/15All aboard!
In 1952, Hepburn was photographed on board the SS America, sailing to the UK to perform in a West End production of The Millionairess. The vessel was the first transatlantic liner to be designed by female interior designers. Anne Urquhart and Dorothy Marckwald chose every fabric and furnishing inside, settling on neutral tones and gentle blues, greens and reds instead of muddy colors that might make people seasick. The New York Times reported that “almost every one seemed impressed by the use of color and design” when the ship—complete with luxurious dog kennels and a swimming pool—returned from its first passenger-carrying run in 1940.
Sunset Boulevard/Getty Images4/15Well-dressed
Hepburn, shown here at a dressing table, was not fussy about her appearance. But she did set great store by dressing rooms, which gave her a home base while working. Though we don’t know where this particular photo was taken, we do know Hepburn preferred to prepare in rooms and not trailers. While shooting The Corn Is Green in Wales, the actress befriended the Hughes family, asking, if they could shoot the exterior of their house for the film. They allowed her to station her dressing table in their guest room—as opposed to a shaky, smelly trailer. “I had a great setup,” Hepburn writes in her memoir. “I could look out my window and see everything that was going on. In short: PARADISE.”
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images5/15Cozy Connecticut life
Here, Hepburn reads in the dining room of her Old Saybrook, Connecticut, childhood summer home, which was known as Fenwick. The estate was quite literally hand-built by the Hepburns; in her famous 1991 memoir Me: Stories of My Life, Hepburn wrote that her family watched the original cottage sail away on the Connecticut River during a hurricane in 1938. The Hepburns would rebuild Fenwick as a larger home for their six children, of whom Katharine was the second-eldest.
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images6/15Among the greenery
Hepburn, an avid gardener, had fond memories of flower picking every Sunday with her family. In her memoir, the actor wrote that bloodroot, lily of the valley, and columbine were among the flowers she most enjoyed collecting. She would even transport the blooms from her home state to her New York town house, where she’d re-plant them in the backyard.
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images7/15“Please go away”
Hepburn was notoriously private. Especially at her country home, she had plenty to keep her busy outside the spotlight. The actor played tennis, golf, and swam into the ocean into her 80s. “I swim all winter, so the season is never closed to me,” Hepburn once said.
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images8/15Lounging at home
In this 1981 snapshot, Hepburn is tucked up in her New York bedroom in Turtle Bay Gardens on the city's Upper East Side. In her memoir, Hepburn said she originally rented one of these town houses for $100 a month with her then-husband, Ludlow Ogden, eventually purchasing it for $27,500 in 1931 (around $610,000 nowadays). Though the pair divorced a few years later, Hepburn would keep the pad for the remaining seven decades of her life.
John Bryson/Getty Images9/15Courtyard queen
Turtle Bay Gardens’ shared, communal garden created a rare oasis in New York—and was reserved exclusively for residents. Each of the 20 houses had access to their own backyard marked by low walls, with paths pooling into the central square. The homes’ living rooms were also oriented to face the tranquil gardens. A fountain in the style of Villa Medici completed the grand, Mediterranean feel of the block.
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images10/15Working in the garden
Outside Hepburn’s New York home, the patio appeared to be like any other brownstone’s. But inside, the Turtle Bay Gardens pad was a resplendent Italianate oasis tucked away from the hustle and bustle of lower Manhattan. Hepburn was actively involved in Turtle Bay’s neighborhood association and was frequently spotted sweeping up and gardening. One resident even recalled seeing Hepburn shovel snow and almost mistaking her for a “regular” New Yorker–if it hadn’t been for the “lovely pair of boots” the On Golden Pond star was wearing.
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images11/15An eclectic study—and an iconic neighbor
This study in Hepburn's NYC home shows off a sampling of her eclectic taste. At the forefront is her love of wooden furniture. The actor paired antique Louis XV chairs with the Victorian seat in which she’s pictured relaxing here (reportedly, her favorite). Hepburn also showed flair for the unexpected. This room’s floor is covered with an extravagant Turkish kilim, whilst the hefty lamp pictured to the left was a Zuni pottery jar repurposed by Hepburn.
Hepburn also loved a good fireplace. She had six installed in her New York town house (much to the chagrin of next-door neighbor Stephen Sondheim). When her architect Jack Woolf objected to building a fireplace in the living room, she told him: “Mr. Woolf, I think your mother must have been a fireplace.”
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images12/15Hepburn and Tracy
Here, Hepburn stands in front of a portrait of actor Spencer Tracy in her town house. Hepburn and Tracy first met in 1942 and went on to co-star in nine films together—and engage in a longterm love affair although Tracy had been married to actor Louise Treadwell since 1923. Although the Catholic Tracy refused to divorce his wife, he and Hepburn continued their relationship until Tracy's 1967 death following a heart attack. It was only after Treadwell passed away in 1983 that Hepburn acknowledged their relationship.
ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images13/15“What kind of tree?”
Here, Barbara Walters interviews Hepburn in the intimacy of Hepburn's Turtle Bay living room in 1987. Their early adversarial interviews produced several legendary moments, including one, in 1981, in which Walters infamously asked Hepburn what kind of tree she would be. The pair eventually warmed up over the years—and in the journalist’s memoir, she professed she could repeat Hepburn’s strong opinions nearly word-for-word.
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images14/15Katharine’s fashions
Hepburn’s laundry, arrayed outside her waterfront home in Connecticut, shows off her lifelong love of androgynous fashion–a bold sartorial choice in Old Hollywood. Her tops were often simple shirts or polos, whilst her pants were wide-legged, structured yet comfortable. She was rarely seen in a dress, and when asked by journalist Barbara Walters whether she owned a skirt, Hepburn retorted: “I have one. I’ll wear it to your funeral.”
Photo: John Bryson/Getty Images15/15Katharine in the kitchen
In this 1981 photo, the actor is seen in the Fenwick kitchen alongside her secretary, Phyllis. Hepburn was a good baker and famously loved brownies moist, not cakey. Phyllis would be her “angel” and “right-hand man” for nearly four decades–or, in Hepburn’s words, a “totally selfless person working for a totally selfish person.” When Phyllis died in the mid ’90s, she would be placed in the Hepburn family grave plot in Connecticut. Hepburn died at her Old Saybrook estate in 2003 at age 96.
