This elegant room has irreverent pops of color, reminiscent of Academy-award winner Katharine Hepburn’s feisty, outspoken nature.
THIS ROOM'S AMENITIES:
Overdyed rug in fuchsia
Glamorous Asian daybed with coffee table featuring books about “Kate”
Stearns and Foster handmade mattress
Oversized shower in sparkling subway tile
Gas fireplace
ABOUT KATHARINE HEPBURN (1907–2003):
Born in Hartford, Hepburn’s successful New England parents had a summer home in the Fenwick neighborhood of Old Saybrook. She attended Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where her acting career was born. Legend has it that when Hepburn was nineteen years old, she visited the soda fountain appearing somewhat down in the dumps. Miss James, the community’s pharmacist – and also confidant and friend – asked young Hepburn why she seemed sad. Hepburn told her there was an audition for a play in New York City that she had her heart set on – but her parents wouldn’t give her permission to go or bus fare to get there.
Miss James thought for a moment, then slid the necessary bus fare across the marble counter towards Hepburn. “There you go,” Miss James said. “You take that bus and go give it your best shot.” Miss James was right to believe in her – Hepburn’s acting career spanned 60 years and earned her four Academy Awards and in 1999 she was awarded the Greatest Female Star of Classic Hollywood Cinema by the American Film Institute. From comedy to Shakespeare, her 66-year career included well-known films such as “The African Queen,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” and then later in life, “On Golden Pond.”
Hepburn was regularly seen entering James Pharmacy for her favorite Mocha Chip ice cream or to use the old oak phone booth that once stood there. It is rumored that one starstruck visitor became so flustered at the “celebrity sighting” she put her ice cream cone into her pocketbook so that she could approach Hepburn. With her unconventional lifestyle and the independent characters she brought to the screen, Hepburn epitomized the "modern woman" in the 20th-century and is remembered fondly by the residents of Old Saybrook.