Riverside house noted for rehab job
GREENWICH — Marc Johnson had always been intrigued by the stone house on the water at Cherry Tree Lane.
There was something unique about its appearance — sturdy, rugged and well proportioned, with a spectacular view of a little tidal pond off the Mianus River. And plenty of history to go with it.
Johnson, who was already living along the water in Riverside, didn’t hesitate when the old house went on the market. “As soon as I walked in the door,” Johnson recalled, he wanted to live between its thick stone walls. “It’s so rare to find a house that really stands out.”
The house was in good shape, but needed modernization and an extensive renovation. Johnson and his partner, Andy Fox, of Stone Harbor Land Company, worked for a year to make the home a showcase for historic rehab. They succeeded, and this month their handiwork was honored with a citation from the state homebuilders trade association, a HOBI Award — from the Home Building Industry — in the historic rehabilitation category.
It wasn’t an easy job, Johnson admits. The house was built like a fortress, with walls as thick as 24 inches. The outbuilding was once a part of a large estate run by an artsloving society doyenne, and it was clad with local fieldstone and red brick. And for reasons Johnson still can’t understand, the original builder laid down cement slabs on every level of the home.
The builder and his team hired a subcontractor with special tools to cut through the cement for upgraded utilities. He and his engineering team also had to find an iron beam to carry the weight of the structure after interior loadbearing walls were taken down to “open up” the formerly cramped living quarters.
“Just a lot of work,” Johnson said, which ran through 2017 and 2018.
Thanks to all that heavy lifting, the house now has a bright and airy feel inside, while maintaining its original rocky exterior.
Working with a local designer, Amy Hirsch, Johnson’s team laid down a lightly varnished oak in
abundance, a material that was also liberally used in 1912. “It helped soften it up, and we carried the wood planking throughout the house. I was trying to keep it somewhat sympathetic to what you’d find in the 1920s, but it is in keeping with contemporary taste,” the builder said. “With kind of a nautical style, fresh and clean.”
Johnson wasn’t working with an award in mind, just what worked with the site — “I think about doing what’s right for the home and the given location,” he said.
The remodeling team benefited significantly with the addition of a mason, Johnson recalled. “He loved doing the work. It was a real masonry job. Oldworld craftsmanship.”
For the picturewindow view of the tidal pond and rustling sea grass outside, Johnson whitewashed the walls around the panoramic portal, saying goodbye to the rather unfortunately chosen green paint applied by a previous owner. The decor uses muted colors of gray and navy, which also highlight the collection of Delftware that Johnson inherited from his mother — he’s half Dutch.
The rehab would almost certainly please the original residents of the house. Valeria Langeloth and her first husband, Jacob, lived in the house with their servants while their larger mansion was completed, designed by the architect of Grant’s Tomb in upper Manhattan, John Duncan. Jacob Langeloth was a native of Germany who made a fortune in importing German mechanical equipment to the United States. Langeloth died before he could move into the great estate home he had built, Walhall, in 1914. She later remarried an executive of The New York Times, Frederick Bonham.
The lady of the house was famed for staging musical performances at the estate, and once had 25,000 daffodils strewn across the grounds for spectators at a performance of “Iolanthe” by Tchaikovsky in the early 1930s. She died in 1952, and the great estate home was later torn down, and the estate broken up into housing lots.
The Superintendent’s Cottage, as it was known, was saved and separated into its own 1acre residential lot.
The judges of the recent HOBI award, for historic renovation under $1 million, wrote of the renovation: “The greatest achievement of this project was the ability to restore and enhance a historic 1912 stone residence. The Superintendent’s Cottage has regained its proud status overlooking Long Island Sound.”
Johnson called the citation a pleasant surprise, in addition to the positive reactions he’s received from neighbors.
“When you have a structure that’s 100 years old, you never know what you’re going to find,” he said, “I would say this was one of the trickiest homes we’ve done. Very gratifying the way it worked out.”