The House: 186 Windswept Way, Osterville, Massachusetts 

The Agent: Robert B. Kinlin

The Broker: Robert Paul Properties

Nick Churton from The Robert Paul London office checks out an iconic waterside home in Oyster Harbors and is delighted to see the wood for the trees.

I was blown away by Windswept Way. This leafy Cape Cod thoroughfare runs roughly north to south in Oyster Harbors: it cradles two holes on the highly-regarded Osterville golf course to the east and gives access to the properties that hug the beautiful shoreline to the west.

Arguably the most notable house on Oyster Harbors sits along this wooded way. When built in 1932 the French-inspired home in four acres of grounds promised to be a showpiece on the Cape. Ninety years later it is still a showpiece. Number 186 is certainly the house to have if you are into golf. It is also the house to have if you are into boats as it has an enviable deep-water mooring dock. But even if you aren’t into golf or boats, it is still the house to have because it is beautiful and iconic and is blessed by a dream location. The house has a short line of accomplished previous owners – the first was a Harrow-educated, English businessman from Tunbridge Wells, another was the Olympic figure skating champion, Tenley Albright, who later became a noted Harvard-trained surgeon.

The immediate past owner of number 186 valued his privacy to the extent that he enclosed the house in a thick curtain of trees so that nobody on the golf course or sailing out in Cotuit Bay could ever see through the leafy shroud. This lack of vision was for long a loss to many local people and visitors, as even a quick glimpse of the house is enchanting. But now a master gardener, the man who has orchestrated all things horticultural and arboreal at the property for the past twenty-five years, has gradually let the light shine in. The result is a beautiful view into the property but also from the house. On a clear day you can see the hazy outline of Martha’s Vineyard 35 miles away. And, of course, by taking a fast boat from the end of your pier you could be drinking cocktails with friends on the Vineyard in only a few hours.

Cape Cod has many sensational houses. I have been fortunate to visit one or two of them, but if I were in the market for one today I would look no further than this wonderful home.  I already like boats. I might even take up golf again. But most of all I can’t think of a nicer place to live.