Anderson Cooper Expands Hamptons Compound

BUYER: Anderson Cooper
LOCATION: Quiogue, NY
PRICE: $1,700,000
SIZE: 3,654 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It seems that smart, savvy and sometimes giggly CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper is on a bit of a real estate tear in the last few years with pricey property procurements in both New York City and the Hamptons where he's just completed the purchase of a multi-acre compound next door to the summer/vacation home he's long owned in the tiny, pin drop quiet (and somewhat obscure) community of Quiogue.

Property records Your Mama peeped show Mister Cooper snatched up his first house in Quiogue way back in April 1998 when he and another unmarried male named Steven Elzy dropped $700,000 on a thickly treed two-parcel spread that totals 3.14 acres and fronts a slim finger of the multi-pronged Quantuck Bay. In March of 2003 property records we accessed indicate Mister Cooper bought out Mister Elzy's interest in both parcels that comprise the property for $1,150,000.

According to the Suffolk County Tax Man Mister Cooper's clapboard-sided crib in Quiogue, situated at the tail end of a long, private driveway, was built in 1974, measures 3,749 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms and a detached garage.

A couple of videos of button pushing comedienne Kathy Griffin visiting Mister Cooper in Quiogue last summer reveals that not only is Mister Cooper built like a brick shit house—as is, it should be noted, 50-plus year old Miss Griffin—he's as hairless as a baby's backside, doesn't keep much food around besides a lot of hot doggy things, and has a spaniel named Molly. The videos also reveal his hideaway in the Quiogue, an area many snooty Hamptonites are adamant isn't really The Hamptons, includes an extensive gym where he pumps weekend iron and a black bottom swimming pool surrounded by an unsightly black chain link fence. It appears to Your Mama the swimming pool is set far from the house, enough of a distance perhaps that unless there's a pool house—and there does not appear to be a pool house—Mister Cooper and his friends, especially the more crass ones like the Miss Griffin, might be inclined to take a wee behind a tree rather than make the long traipse across the broad tree-shaded lawn to use the facilities in the house.

Anyhoo, at some point the 2.4 acre property next door to Mister Cooper's low key house in the Hamptons became available. The property was last listed, according to listing information we dug up on the interweb, for $2,250,000. Since the transaction has yet to be digitally recorded we weren't able to confirm the purchase price through property records but Mister Cooper is reported by The Post to have snatched up the property for somewhere around $1,700,000. The Post also reported that Mister Cooper's plans to maintain the property as is—although we imagine he'll do some upgrading—and that his interest may (or may not) have had something to do with preserving his privacy and ensuring a buyer didn't knock down the existing house and erect some sort of heinous mcmansion.

The seller of the waterfront property was the widow of Oscar-winning screenwriter Budd Schulberg who wrote the iconic 1954 film On the Waterfront starring Marlon Brando and went to meet The Great Director in the Sky in 2009.

Listing information shows the shingled cottage was built in the 1940s, measures 3,654 square feet and includes 4 bedrooms, 3.5 bathrooms, and 2 fireplaces in the main house. There's additional living/office space above the garage as well as a pool house adjacent to the in-ground gunite swimming pool and spa.

In addition to his budding compound in Quiogue, the not quite out of the closet silver fox owns a couple of New York City properties including a very contemporary penthouse just south of Midtown Manhattan he acquired in April 2005 for $2,480,000. Previously to the penthouse, the globe trotting cable news anchor owned another apartment in the building on a lower floor with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 11.5-foot ceilings, Carrara marble counter tops in the suped-up kitchen, deluxe slate and blue stone bathrooms, a stereophonic surround sound system, and custom closet organizers. Records show he sold the apartment in January 2006 for $1,580,000.

In September 2009 Mister Cooper scooped up an approximately 9,000 square foot decommissioned firehouse near Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. Property records show he paid $4,300,000 for the four-floor structure and recently reports indicate the beau-hunky newsman recently moved in after an extensive renovation and restoration headed up by New York-based architect Cary Tamarkin that included the installation of an elevator and the restoration the 1906 red-brick and terra cotta quoined façade as well as various original spiral staircases and brass fire poles.

listing photos (Quiogue): Prudential Douglas Elliman
exterior photos of firehouse: Curbed