Hideaway that spawned spa culture to be sold
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Your support makes all the difference.You will no longer spy the languid form of Ava Gardner walking its passageways, but the house going on the market in central Maine might grab your fancy if you are an aficionado of beauty products. It was once the summer home of Elizabeth Arden.
There is a still greater significance to the property, known as Maine Chance Farm, and being marketed for $850,000 (£557,000). Ms Arden turned the house and the extensive grounds around it into a destination spa resort back in 1934 – in the glamour era of Hollywood leading ladies.
It was a venture that helped to establish Ms Arden – born Florence Nightingale Graham in Ontario, Canada – as the 20th century's greatest pioneer of cosmetics. Maine Chance Farm was the first spa opened in the United States. It spawned an industry that is still growing today.
The resort became a favourite hideaway for society women of America for decades, before closing in 1970, four years after Ms Arden's death. Among those who went there for the Arden skin treatments were Gardner, Judy Garland and the former first lady Mamie Eisenhower. Other guests included European royalty, politicians and socialites from both American coasts.
Interested parties will find a two-storey home with eight bedrooms and six bathrooms, and a waterfront setting on Maine's Long Pond. The resort also used to include a farm, stables, a bowling alley, a gala dance hall and 32 acres of lawns and gardens.
Ms Arden, who was 88 when she died, changed her name in 1910 when she went into partnership with a friend to open a beauty salon on Fifth Avenue, New York. She began to market her beauty products internationally five years later and opened her first overseas salon in Paris in 1922. She also opened a second spa resort in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Even in its first years, Maine Chance Farm would charge its elite guests as much as $1,000 a week for the privilege of wallowing in its unparalleled luxury. Among the staff responsible for the pampering were masseurs and hairdressers imported from across America and from Europe. The spa emphasised diet and nutrition as well as the use of Arden treatments.
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