Blue Heron Farm, the Chilmark estate that played host to President Barack Obama and the First Family in summers past, sold last week for $37 million. 

Owned by a limited liability company associated with world-renowned architect Norman Foster and his wife Elena Foster, the gentleman’s farm on Cobbs Hill Road was deeded over to the Blue Heron Farm Nominee Trust on July 10, according to records filed with the Dukes County Register of Deeds.

The estate has 30 acres along the shores of Tisbury Great Pond.

Mark Alan Lovewell

The estate has 30 acres along the shores of Tisbury Great Pond.

Mark Alan Lovewell

The 30-acre estate along the shores of Tisbury Great Pond was the vacation destination for the Obama family for three summers starting in 2009. The First Family would later stay at other properties on the Island before they purchased their own home in Edgartown in 2019.

Blue Heron Farm was listed by Corcoran Property Advisors and Maggie Gold Seelig of MGS Group Real Estate. Island attorney Fain Hackney was appointed trustee for the buyer. Both Brian Dougherty, the CEO of Corcoran, and Mr. Hackney did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Ohio-based attorney Matthew Zeiger later replaced Mr. Hackney as trustee for the new owner, and also did not respond to a request for comment.

The total sale price was not reflected in the deed for the four parcels that make up the farm, but the cost was apparent in other register records and through fees paid to the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank.

The land bank collects a 2 per cent fee of property sales. The Palm Trust, another entity involved in the deal, paid $740,000 to the land bank for the property, putting the total sale price at $37 million — about $2 million under the initial asking price. Deeds excise paid to the county also peg the sale price at $37 million.

A land bank report listed the property as being granted to both Palm Trust and the Blue Heron Farm Nominee Trust, though the former trust doesn’t show up on any of the deeds in the county register’s office.

The property belonged to a real estate corporation associated with Norman and Elena Foster.

Mark Alan Lovewell

The property belonged to a real estate corporation associated with Norman and Elena Foster.

Mark Alan Lovewell

The home sale is one of the largest on the Vineyard in recent years. The record property sale for the Island remains the 215-acre Herring Creek Farm in Edgartown, which sold for $64 million in 2001.

Blue Heron Farm was initially developed by Vineyard philanthropist M. Anthony Fisher in 1991. Over the years, the property expanded to include two full-sized homes, a boathouse, a 150-year-old barn from Pennsylvania, gardens and an apple orchard. A white clapboard farmhouse on the property was inspired by the home of Kevin Costner in the movie Field of Dreams. 

There is also a design studio, gym, tennis court, multiple garages, staff housing and multiple riding rings and paddocks. 

After Mr. Fisher and his wife died in a plane crash in 2003, the property was purchased by Mississippi businessman William Van Devender, before being purchased by Blue Sky MV LTD, the real estate corporation associated with the Fosters.