This photograph by Robert Hefner shows Broadview, the main house of the Bell Estate, on April 29, 1988, not long after Reginald and Loida Lewis bought it. The Lewises were the first family to live in the house since Dr. Dennistoun M. Bell’s widow, Agnes Loftus Bell, died in 1968.
Bell built the 21-room Georgian-style house in Amagansett on what became a 556-acre property. The project, begun in 1914, was finished in 1916. The property included a funicular going down to the beach. After Agnes, Bell’s second wife, died, the estate spent over a decade in limbo. Developers had hoped for more than a thousand new homes on the property at one point. To the relief of local preservationists, those plans were stopped.
While the fate of the property was in doubt, cottages there were rented for corporate retreats, and the ballroom was used in the 1988 movie “Masquerade.” By then, the original Bell Estate had been subdivided into three sections, with 191 houses planned. The main house was sold as a five-and-a-half-acre property with 560 feet of beachfront, views of Gardiner’s Bay, a pool, and tennis courts.
The Lewises, both lawyers, reportedly fell in love with Broadview because of the dramatic views from the bluffs. Reginald was widely recognized as the “first Black billionaire” thanks to his success in business. He opened his own New York law firm in 1970 and his business, TLC Inc., in 1983. Just before buying the Bell Estate, he purchased Beatrice International in what was the largest overseas leveraged buyout at the time, forming TLC Beatrice. He also briefly owned McCall’s Pattern Company, which he made profitable before selling. He died in 1993. Loida now lives in East Hampton Village.
The Lewises and their two daughters enjoyed almost four years at Broadview before the house burned to the ground on Nov. 6, 1991, despite the efforts of local fire departments. The Lewises sent each of the firefighters Thanksgiving turkeys.
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Andrea Meyer is the head of the Long Island Collection at the East Hampton Library.
