Ten Chimneys is nationally significant in the area of performing arts for its association with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. From 1922 until their deaths in 1977 and 1983, the property was the primary residence for Lunt and Fontanne and a social and cultural center of the American theater. Throughout their careers as the "first family" of the American theater, during which they starred together in 35 Broadway plays, the home served as a creative hearth and quiet refuge for themselves and a long list of theater friends, including Noel Coward, Helen Hayes, Laurence Olivier, and Vivien Leigh. Plays were written, reworked, and honed on the estate during the summer months, before the couple returned to Broadway for the theater season. It is especially unique and rare because of the well-preserved and intact condition of the both the estate and its furnishings.

Information provided by the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service.