Sawyer and her husband, the late film director Mike Nichols, bought Chip Chop for $5.3 million in 1995. Dating back to the late 1930s, the estate was designed for actress Katharine Cornell and has multiple houses, a swimming pool, a tennis court, and two stretches of private beach.
The main residence is a shingled New England-style house with three bedrooms and 10 chimneys. It was designed by the architect Eric Gugler, who was known for remodeling the White House’s West Wing for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The estate also has a two-bedroom caretaker’s house, two detached bedroom suites for guests, and two beach cottages known as the Shacks.
Sawyer and Nichols renovated the property, adding dormers and creating replica antique windows and doors, some of which required hand carving.
