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Michelle Homedieu Huffman (center) with husband Ted Huffman, daughters Stephanie Tsai (left), Amanda Huffman (right) and granddaughter, Tensley Tsai.
Michele L’Hommedieu Hofmann, who had lived in California and had never been to New York until last week, had no idea her family history was there until she retired last fall and began researching her family history. What an important role my great-grandfather, James H. Hofmann, played. L’Hommedieu played in late 19th-century buildings on Long Island.
On their way to New York on Friday, Ms. Hoffman and her family stopped at the Eastern Han Dynasty he designed for Robert Southgate Bowne, founder of the Maidstone Club and first president of the Long Island Rail Road. Residence, during which she and her family took a crash course in the works of L’Hommedieu.
Her great-great-grandfather designed almost all of Garden City, one of the country’s first planned villages, starting in the late 1870s. As part of this trip, the Hoffmans visited many of the original Garden City buildings, including the Cathedral of the Incarnation and St. Paul’s School, which had been closed for many years.
L’Hommedieu is believed to have owned two houses, or “cabins,” as they were called, in the Ocean Avenue Historic District in East Hampton’s Summer Colony, one at 4 Pudding Hill Lane – the James Gallatin Villa, and the other at Ocean 32 Avenue is now listed with Brown Harris Stevens for $9.995 million. It was the house that Huffman noticed last fall that led her to East Hampton, where agents Elizabeth Wall and James J. Daughter and a granddaughter) provided a special tour. Bowen House was the only home she saw inside designed by her great-great-grandfather.
“When we planned the trip, it was kind of like a dream,” she said.
Completed in 1889, the 7,100-square-foot shingle-style home spreads over three floors and features 12 bedrooms (many of which are very small), eight and a half bathrooms, a pool room and nine fireplace.
L’Hommedieu died just three years after the building was completed. Bowen died in the house in 1896 at the age of 54.
In the 1890s, the Star often reported on who was coming to spend the summer, or who was visiting whom and at what house, in the form of a social directory. In a July 1892 article, the newspaper gushed about the “beautiful residences” of Gallatin and Bowen, saying they “presented the most artistic display of flowers we have ever seen. The broad squares were almost Covered by sweet honeysuckle, the lawn was well kept, surrounded by beautiful foliage, and without an ugly fence in the middle to mar the beauty of the vast expanse of green, a sight that left all passers-by in awe.”
“It was a big social venue back then,” Mr. MacMillan said, standing near the ornate main staircase and looking out into the pool room. “Dustin Hoffman was playing pool on the pool table while Barbra Streisand gave a speech for Bella Abzug on the steps.”
Bowen’s house has had just three owners in nearly 135 years and, unlike almost all neighboring houses in the village’s manor house, has had little change since it was built. “Many of the original details of the house remain,” Ms. Wall said. “They haven’t been renovated yet—the paneling and the box-beam ceilings, and all these little details.”
“It’s about as true to the original story as you can find,” Ms. Hoffman said after having the chance to explore the three stories.
The house’s greatest charm is also its greatest challenge. It is one of 15 houses in the Ocean Avenue Historic District; its frontage is protected and cannot be demolished.
The home first came on the market more than a year ago for $11.5 million. “There were a lot of people looking at houses, but what we started to see was the renovation costs and the original listing price was way too high,” Ms Wall said. “Some buyers were put off by the renovations.” It was relisted in January at a lower price.
The family that now owns it are three siblings, who inherited it from their parents who bought it in the 1960s and continue to use it in the summer. “When they all came there with their kids, there were so many bedrooms and so many places to hang out,” Ms. Wall said. However, modern buyers will want many amenities that a home simply doesn’t have – one of which is central air conditioning.
But it also has many virtues that even those less interested in its history can appreciate. “It’s well beyond what is currently allowed,” Mr Macmillan noted. (Under today’s regulations, a third story would also not be allowed.)
His advice to potential buyers: “You shouldn’t tear anything down because they’re never going to let you leave this footprint.”
Ms Wall said people were drawn to the “original details, paneling and beamed ceilings etc”. “The fact that the house has so many original things and the ceilings are so high on all floors – that surprises people.”
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