The Montauk Home Preserved As Richard Avedon Intended

The Grounds Bettina and Frederick Stelle purchased eight acres from Richard Avedon almost 30 years in the past. The essential home, set again from the cliff by about 80 ft, was modeled after an 18th-century saltbox house in East Hampton recognized right now because the Home Sweet Home Museum. A smaller model, positioned additional inland, is occupied by the property’s longtime caretakers, Ed Johann and Dawn Roman.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The photographer Richard Avedon entertained a whole lot of curiosity in his house in Montauk, a modest cedar-shingle home sitting on eight acres of land overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. One tech mogul requested if the harbor may accommodate mooring a 100-foot sailboat. Jerry Seinfeld checked out it. Harrison Ford did too, calling forward earlier than dropping by.

“ ‘Listen, I am going to land the helicopter on the lawn, and I am breaking some laws, so don’t tell anyone,’ ” Ford apparently stated, in accordance with caretaker Ed Johann, whose spouse, Dawn Roman, has overseen the property since 1990. “Dick did not want to sell it to somebody whose first question was ‘If I tear this down, how big of a house can I build?’ ”

In 1998, a North Haven couple, the architect Frederick Stelle and his spouse, Bettina, discovered of the home after Bettina got here throughout a narrative I wrote in W journal about it. “The images hit me like a lightning bolt,” ­Bettina says. When she and Frederick drove out to satisfy Avedon, they have been greeted within the kitchen by the aroma of “Dick’s coffee cake,” a confection Roman used to have prepared for the photographer and his visitors upon arrival from town. Roman, who did Avedon’s gardening and landscaping, additionally laid out freshly baked bread and goat cheese from the property’s goats and gathered eggs from its chickens and apples from an orchard Avedon had planted.

“I fell even more in love with the magic and mystic spirit of the place,” says Bettina.

Avedon hadn’t but put the home in the marketplace, however in 2000, 4 years earlier than his demise, he determined to promote the property to the Stelles with the understanding they’d be respectful of what he constructed. When I visited just lately, almost 30 years after my unique shoot, I discovered that they had stored their promise. Except for a floating staircase and the recycled teak flooring that changed the unique vast oak planks, virtually all the pieces seemed like I remembered it.

Avedon had purchased the plot in 1977 on the recommendation of the photographer Peter Beard, who lived subsequent door, and he designed the home with the architect Harris Feinn to incorporate a collection of spare, breezy rooms with views of the ocean on one facet and the forest on the opposite. The eating space nonetheless has the unique open cabinets that Avedon stocked with glasses, cooking dishes, and heavy white plates. The wood-burning fireplaces of his personal design stay in use in the lounge, kitchen, essential bed room, and examine. Even the Stelles’ informal décor is in line with Avedon’s style.

The most vital change within the panorama across the property is the extent of the cliff’s erosion, which might require a large-scale reengineering of the bluff to include, says Frederick. That’s a challenge for a future purchaser to deal with. “We feel we are not the owners,” Bettina provides. “We are just the custodians who will pass it on one day.” Until then, they’ll have Roman’s espresso cake within the mornings.

The Entrance The driveway off the primary highway is lined with indigenous white oaks, purple oaks, and black cherry bushes.. “In Dick’s day, we let it be much more of a canopy when you came in,” Johann says. “He wanted a tunnel.”
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Steps to the Beach The Stelles rebuilt the stairsin 2009. The lowest touchdown had to get replaced 5 yearsago, adopted on the finish of final season by the higher flight of stairs adjoining to the bluff.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Cliff A portion of the Stelles’ garden collapsed ten years in the past. “People think that the bluff is eroding because of the wave action, and that is not the case,” Frederick says. The trigger is water from the couple’s property and the one behind that will get trapped between the clay layers underground and builds up, slowly breaking down the bottom. To set up a drainage system, he provides, is “a major project.” In the background is a chimney, the stays of a burned-down windmill belonging to late neighbor Peter Beard.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Garden The latched entrance is made with wooden branches from across the property. Avedon designed the structure, then in 1990, Roman planted an herb and vegetable backyard that blooms with daffodils and irises within the spring and sunflowers and begonias in the summertime. It stays in use
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Living Room “We wanted an informal, easily furnished room,” Bettina says. “Being married to a minimalist architect, we went for white cotton duck fabric everywhere.” The framed Hermès scarf was a present from Bettina’s late sister, Anne Keller-Dubach. On the left, a part of a ten-foot Terry Elkins panorama.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Dining Area The ceiling lights are by Ingo Maurer. The desk and chairs have been bought from the previous Country Gear retailer in Bridgehampton. “Dick’s long dining table was the inspiration,” Bettina says. “The kitchen definitely being the center of the house.” The candy bread is “Dick’s coffee cake,” nonetheless made by Roman.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Kitchen “My hall of fame,” Bettina says of the household pictures impressed by Avedon’s bulletin board. The charcoal drawing is by John Alexander. The still-life between the home windows, by an unknown artist, was present in an vintage store in Sag Harbor.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Study The hearth is constituted of native glacial until stone. The wood trolley and the portray above are from property gross sales.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Kitchen Fireplace The sculpture by the fireplace, an homage to Bettina’s late Jack Russell-Australian cattle canine combine, is from ARF Thrift & Treasure store in Sagaponack.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Main Bedroom The collage over the mattress was a collaboration between Bettina and Beard for a fundraiser benefiting the Sag Harbor Whaling & Historical Museum, the place Bettina has served as a board member because the ’90s. “I took a photograph of his bluff, and we added a whale journal that belonged to him. He added a few rocks and feathers,” she says.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Stairs The most vital change to the family was the redesign of an previous field stair with wood treads and risers. Frederick changed it, leaving gaps between the teak-and-steel steps to permit extra gentle in. He additionally galvanized the metal to guard towards rust, which left it with a sandpaper high quality.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

Dick’s Coffee Cake
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The Guesthouse The cottage off the kitchen was initially meant to be Avedon’s studio.
Photo: Jason Schmidt

The property at sundown in 2019, photographed by Bettina’s son-in-law.
Photo: Chris de la Motte