Here’s how many mid-century Cape Cod villas you can buy for $5 million

Why buy a house when you can buy two handfuls of them?

In the outer Cape Cod town of Wellfleet, Mass., a historic cluster of midcentury modern bungalows has been listed for $5 million — ripe for a buyer looking for an investment that could include running vacation rentals. in a popular summer destination.

Built in the late 1940s by architects Nathaniel Saltonstall and Oliver P. Morton, the eight homes range from 600 to 750 square feet and are all built to receive maximum sunlight.

“Saltonstall and Morton was an interesting firm, because they were doing a kind of high New England modernism for mostly wealthy clients at a time when it was still viewed with a lot of suspicion, especially in the provincial Boston area,” Peter McMahon, executive director. of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust, told Boston.com.

The current listing marks the first time the adorable cluster of picturesque cottages, officially called the Wellfleet Colony, has gone on the market since Boston artist Loris Stefani bought the complex from Saltonsall in 1963 and turned it into a hotel.

Originally, the colony (as it is known locally) had 11 villas spread over 10 hectares, and the grounds also had a laundry building, a storage shed, a kitchen and an office built around an art gallery.

Also, those staying in the tiny houses enjoyed maid service and often the company of A-list celebrities. For a time, the Colony became a “haven” for lovers of mid-century modern architecture, and past guests “have including actors Paul Newman and Faye Dunaway, writers Lionel and Diana Trilling, Bernard Malamud, William Shirer”, artists, professors, poets. , psychiatrists, such as Margaret Mahler, a pioneer in mother-child bond research, and generations of guests who continue to find the Wellfleet Colony as inviting and magical as ever,” and others boasts the Colony’s website .

Today the complex — the technical address for which is 25 Way #55 — sits on just under 4 acres. Overall, the listing says the property includes 13 full baths and 15 bedrooms, with some of the cottages offering views of Cape Cod Bay and others overlooking Chequessett Yacht & Country Club.

The listing is held by Gibson Sotheby’s International Realty.