Fair Field: Is this the largest private home in the U.S.?

If bigger is better, Fair Field in Sagaponack has been playing an entirely different game. The sprawling estate owned by billionaire industrialist Ira Rennert is routinely described as one of the largest private residences in the United States, with a roughly 64,000-square-foot main house and more than 110,000 square feet of buildings across a 63-acre oceanfront property.

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And yes, it is every bit as over-the-top as those numbers suggest. Completed in 2003, the Italian Renaissance-inspired compound sits along the Atlantic in one of the Hamptons’ most coveted communities. The estate includes the main residence, two pool houses and a playhouse, along with a dizzying list of amenities: 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, three swimming pools, two tennis courts, a basketball court, bowling alleys and a 164-seat screening theater.

There is even a private power plant.

The main house alone is larger than many hotels, while the entire compound has been compared to a private resort. And that was precisely the problem for some of Rennert’s neighbors when plans for the property surfaced in the late 1990s.

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At the time, the proposed residence was described as a staggering 100,000-square-foot-plus compound that would dwarf virtually every other home in the Hamptons. The Washington Post reported in 1998 that the planned 63-acre spread would include 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, a 10,000-square-foot playhouse and a restaurant-sized kitchen.

The controversy became so intense that the project helped fuel a broader debate about just how large a private home should be in the Hamptons. Southampton subsequently established a 20,000-square-foot maximum floor area for new single-family homes, although exceptions can be granted by the town's Zoning Board of Appeals.

Fair Field, meanwhile, went ahead. Today, the estate is surprisingly difficult to see from the road. According to Dan's Papers, Rennert surrounded the property with a dense wall of evergreen trees following construction, leaving most passersby with little more than a gated driveway and a glimpse of the landscaping.

That privacy only adds to the mythology. From the air, however, the scale becomes much easier to appreciate: formal gardens, expansive lawns, multiple structures and pools spread across the property toward the Atlantic. Aerial photographs show something that looks less like a summer house and more like a small private village.

And while Fair Field is frequently called the largest private home in America, there is a little fine print. Rankings vary depending on whether they count the main residence alone or the entire compound. The main house is generally listed at about 64,000 square feet, while the buildings together total roughly 110,000 square feet.

63 acres. More than 110,000 square feet of buildings. 29 bedrooms. 39 bathrooms. Three pools. Two tennis courts. Bowling alleys. A basketball court. A 164-seat theater.

And all of it tucked behind a wall of trees in Sagaponack. That's not a summer home. That's a Hamptons kingdom.