Leedom- Cott Residence. Est.-1963
137 Beach Hill Walk. Addition – 1985
Architect Horace Gifford- Louis Muller.
Architect Horace Gifford (R) & Edwin Wittstein (L).
On right- Robert Miller & TV House.
Sometimes when designing a home on Fire Island there are rooms without a view. That is just where Architect Horace Gifford found himself at the home he was now designing for Kenneth Leedom director of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. So he created one. He was referred by friends Robert Miller & Edwin Wittstein who were working with him on there TV house on Ocean Walk.
The home was situated in the middle of the island offering no outstanding views of neither ocean or bay. A blank canvas that would eventually be surrounded by other houses, but for now was bare of any vegetation.Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
By JOHN LELAND, New York Times.
Kenneth Leedom (L) met Peter Cott (R) in 1955. Leedom, the son of an itinerant farmer, was an executive director of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and said he enjoyed the work, but he more readily told about a five-year stint as a traveling companion and then lover to Vladimir Horowitz (below) , the celebrated pianist. “He had an anger in him that was unbelievable,” Leedom said. “The number of meals I’ve had thrown on the floor or in my lap.” “But then he was calm and sweet,” Leedom added. “And he really adored me.” Peter Cott was born Saul Prigozen in Brooklyn and grew up in Cedarhurst, on Long Island, in a family that moved from Orthodox to Conservative Judaism. He changed his name for the stage. He was a World War II pilot, an actor, a theater publicist and the executive director of Westbeth, an artists’ residence in the West Village.
Together for almost 60 years they were devoted to each other.
By creating a common area between the living and sleeping areas it then became the view. Renderings by Christopher Rawlins.
Also a great outdoor space with some privacy.
The house was featured in American Home Magazine in 1964.
1975
In 1985
an addition was added by architect Louis Muller.
Today it can easily be missed as it sits surrounded by homes and is set back..
Once inside its beauty reveals itself…
