HomeMy WebLinkAboutEM-11 BUILDING-STRUCTURE INVENTORY FORM FOR OFFICE USE ONLY
EM-11
DIVISION FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION UNIQUE SITE NO. /03/0,°��'�
QUAD
NEW YORK STATE PARKS AND RECREATION SERIES
ALBANY, NEW YORK (519)474-0479 NEG. NO.
YOUR NAME: Town of 0outbold SPLFTA DATE: Seratember 1987
YOUR ADDRESS: Town Hall, Main Rd. TELEPHONE:—.516 765 1892
Southold, LI, NY 11971
ORGANIZATION (if any): Southold Town Community »evel-oj2ment ffice
IDENTIFICATION
I. BUILDING NAME(S): Theodorus 5tamos House
2. COUNTY: ,S1ff 01 k TOWN/CITY:_,S outb ald, VILLAGE: East Mar; on
3- STREET LOCATION:
4. OWNERSHIP: a. public ❑ Iz private :0
5, PRESENT OWNER: John Trikoukas ADDRESS: same
6. USE: Original: residence'/a._rt ,9�dd j_Q_ Present: resic?nD- _ _-
7. ACCESSIBILITY TO PUBLIC: Exterior visible from public road: Yes 0 No ❑
Interior accessible: Explain rtrivat e residence
DESCRIPTION
H. BUILDING a. clapboard ❑ b. stone ❑ c- brick ❑ d. board and batten ❑
MATERIAL: e. cobblestone L1 f- shingles ❑ g. stucco ❑ other:_glass , braced
vertical board
C). STRUCTURAL a. wood frame with interlocking.joints ❑
SYSTEM: b. wood frame with light members
(if knovn) c. masonry load bearing walls ❑
d. metal (explain)
e, other vertical and diagonal wood bracing
10. CONDITION: a- excellent 0 b. good ❑ c. fair ❑ d. deteriorated ❑
11. INTEGRITY: a. original site a b. moved ❑ if so,when?
c. list major alterations and dates (if known):
Dcterior deck added to north and west walls .
Alterations to kitchen and bathroom.
12. PHOTO: neg: KK I-15, fm N 13, MAP` NYS DOT o,
Orient quad.
1 Y
1 uy M1
S2 N 2Z ,8
f:
i 8 Rocky h IEW vF•
+APt
.fl �ockyQ-
;a ayo n
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6uT €AH
_ 5 � \1
M A
_ N
Marion
X -.
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14. THREATS TO BUILDING: a. none known K] b.zoning ❑ c. roads ❑
d. developers ❑ e. deterioration ❑
f. other:
15. RELATED OUTBUILDINGS AND PROPERTY:
a. barn❑ b. carriage house ❑ c. garage ❑
d. privy ❑ e. shed ❑ f. greenhouse ❑
g. shop ❑ h. gardens ❑
i. landscape features:
j. other:
16. SURROUNDINGS OF THE BUILDING (check more than one if necessary):
a.open land ❑ b. woodland
c. scattered buildings ❑
d.densely built-up ❑ e. commercial ❑
f. industrial ❑ g. residential KI
h.other:
17. INTERRELATIONSHIP OF BUILDING AND SURROUNDINGS:
(indicate if building or structure is in an historic district)
Located in a low density heavily wooded area north of Main
Ed. , near LI Sound. Surrounded by houses of both an earlier
and later date , this unique structure is on a alight knoll
with ornamental trees that camouflage the house .
18. OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES OF BUILDING AND SITE (including interior features if known):
1 story house raised on vertical and diagonal posts , with
a lour gabled roof repeated, inverted, on the underside of
the house. Gables are decorated with wood strips in a king
post design. North and south walls predominantly glass ,
in rectangular panes . Open interior plan with central ser-
vice core .
SIGNIFICANCE
I1). DATE OF INITIAL CONSTRUCTION: 1951
ARCHITECT: Tony Smith
BUILDER:
'0_ HISTORICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL IMPORTANCE:
Designed by architect Tony Smith, pupil of Frank Lloyd
fright , this house was the residence/studio of painter
and sculptor Theodorus Stamos who achieved international
fame following his first one man show at `i4akefield Gal-
lery, New York, in 1943 . The house is an important example
of Early Modernism on Long Island because of its unique
construction and sculptural design.
1. SOURCES:
Correspondence , Alastair Gordon, Sag Harbor, NY.
Art News , December .1966 , pp 52-57Amithsonian, May 1987.
Interview, John Trikoukas , 9/87/Suffolk: Times , 11/26/54.
z?. -rHENIE:
Form Prepared by Kurt Kahofer, research assistant
r
Theodorus Stamos House EM-11
East Marion
NY Times , 10/1$/87
fry.
HEODOROS STAMOS
OCTOBER 6-31
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bORSKY GALLERY
"t8 W 58th ST.,NYC 10019 (212)838-3423
5
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1 � 4
Stamos House, from S , neg: KK I-16.
Theodorus Stamos House , East Marion EM-11
glass doors The entire perimeter of the structure is surrounded by a
covered porch, while wider sun decks extend out from either of the long
(east and west)sides of the house.The all-round overhang of the flat root is
supported by 18 I-beam style posts
Robert Rosenberg had designed a low,Miesian pavilion of glass in 1959
l
lob.,
atop the secondary dune overlooking Two Mile Hollow beach in East
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� Hampton. The house, which Rosenberg had designed for his own family's
W use. had a communal living area with a sleeping room at one end A
. �.' separate bunkhouse would be added to the property at a later date.
Approaching the house from the north, one could look right through the
interior living area out to the dunes and ocean beyond. With its north and
south walls made almost entirely of glass. the house practically vanished
into the scenery.When Philip Johnson visited the Rosenbergs,it is said that
Geller house, (Lawrence, by Mer• he referred to the house as a poor man's version of his own glass house in
cel Breuer, 1945. (ES) Connecticut.
Not all of the new houses had flat roots Two of Marcel Breuer's Long
Theodorus Stamos House Island projects,the Geller house inLawrence(1945)andtheHanson house
East Marion in Huntington (1951 ) had "butterfly" roofs Starting high at the ends, the
EM-11 planes of the roof sloped down towards a central low point.
George Nelson used a similar configuration(but with different effect)in a
house he designed in East Hampton in 1951.Two long sloping ramps gave
shape to the house, which was built for a bachelor and his invalid mother.
The ramps were needed for the mother's wheel chair.A high vantage point
at one end of the house was required to gain an ocean view out over the
rroofs of a neighboring public bathing pavilion.Nelson extended the forms of
° the two ramps to give the house its overall criss-cross shape
T. Some of the more experimental houses of the period pushed the
s
traditional"geography" of the American house to a new limit.Truly isolated
on the landscape like imaginary objects in space, they were radical
I ~ departures from the accepted imagery of the house. They tested the
i } tolerance and adaptability of their inhabitants. forcing them in some cases
x� #
to alter the habits of their everyday lives. Elemental geometric solids tilted,
skewed, and rotated like children's blocks: the houses rase up from their
sites, looking more like abstract sculptures than human domiciles.
The unusual house/Studio that Tony Smith designed in 1951 for the
artist Theodoros Stamos in East Marion was one such departure. A long
diamond-shaped hull form is cradled high on a set of vertical and diagonal
braces There is full fenestration at both the south and north ends,while two
skylights near the center of the roof bring ample studio light to the middle
part of the house Like a boat in dry dock raised on posts or a lunar landing
module, the house makes strong metaphoric associations mixed with a
certain amount of architectural tongue-in-cheek It really possesses two
peaked roofs — one at the top where most roofs are found and the other
below, dropping down like an underbelly
Theodoros Stamos house and Here in the Stamos house(as well as in the house/studio that Smith also
studio, East Marion, by Tony designed at this time for the art dealer Betty Parsons in nearby Southold),we
Smith, 1951. (AG) can recognize a rare sculptural sensibility that would be brought to full
recognition in Smith's second career as a sculptor
Andrew Geller (then still a designer at the Raymond Loewy Corporation)
also created a series of sculplure-like structures along the shores of Long
Island. Two of his more eye-grabbing projects from the 1 950 made use of
diamond or "box-kite" shapes in their designs.
The Pearlroth house(1959) in Westhampton Beach and the Hunt house
Long Island Modern, Alastair Gordon, 1987 . P. 20 .
T'N 11
By Judd Tully
Sydney and Frances
Lewis—the quest
for the best. in art
After a tentative start some 25 years ago,
the Richmond couple,founders of Best
Products,gained momentum and expertise
In the early 1960s.Sydney and Frances Lewis of Rich-
mond,Virginia,attended an auction in New York with
their friend painter Theodore Stamos and bought—
at Stamos' urging—an anonymous French chest and a
pair of side chairs.At the time they had no idea their
spontaneous purchase would lead them into an en-
tirely new field in their more than 20-year bout of
collecting fever.And into an accumulation of art that
would ultimately require a new wing back home at the
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
"I was intrigued by those lines," recalls Sydney
Lewis of that first piece of Art Nouveau bought at auc-
tion."I can speak for me.I can't speak for Mf .Lewis."
Before his next sentence emerges, Frances Lewis af-
firms"Absolutely,absolutely,"and charges seamlessly
into the conversation. "Now stop me if I'm wrong,"
Mrs. Lewis challenges with the arch of an eyebrow,
"but we started collecting, for furnishing our house,
like everyone else around here with 18th-century Eng-
lish furniture, buying at auction, mostly in England.
That lasted about two years."
Interviewing the Lewises together at home or in
their offices at corporate headquarters, one grows ac-
customed to getting compound answers to single ques-
tions. A longtime friend of the Lewises puts it this
way; "SydneyandFrances is definitely one word.They
kind of flow together."
The Lewises are something of a down-home Medici
family,keen on bringing the latest expressions of cul- Philanthropic Lewises are quite at home in new
ture to the public. Their ability to do so has been wing of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,Richmond.
Smithsonian Nov, 1987 .
84