Doors Open Saturday For Quogue Historical Society House Tour

Halls and all will be decked for the holidays when the Quogue Historical Society holds its house tour on Saturday from 2 to 6 p.m.

Tour-takers will be able to visit “the Diamond House,” “the Tudor house,” “the Barn,” “the Music House” and “the Stuart Disston House.” The event is a fund-raiser for the Historical Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving and interpreting the history of Quogue to foster an understanding of its cultural and architectural heritage.

The Diamond House is a modern residence on Dune Road. It has a vaulted ceiling suggesting a seagull in flight, and its exterior lines and surfaces are minimalist. Reached by ramp, an upstairs living room looks out to the ocean over a dune said to be the tallest in Quogue. The owners are Joel and Susan Leitner, whose decorations will celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah.

On Ocean Avenue, the Tudor House dates to 1928 and was once owned by Ralph Baldwin, mayor of Quogue and president of the Quogue Field Club. The home is believed to have been designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, and originally had an indoor pool, where Mr. Baldwin’s wife swam daily to maintain her figure. Legend also has it that Dune Road residents flocked to the house seeking shelter during the 1938 hurricane.

The Music House on Post Lane, which is owned by Marianne and Frank Decker, is a post-modern with shingle-style roots. Three sections wrap around a large deck with a swimming pool in the center, with a greenhouse at one end and a music room at the other. Large windows look out on the deck from every room, making the outside a very real part of the interior. Curved walls and wall niches with recessed lighting are enhanced by paint colors like adobe orange that reflect the owners’ love of southwestern Pueblo and African art. In the music room stands a 1913 Model M Steinway piano.

On Assups Neck Lane, the Stuart Disston House is named for is architect, who lives there with his fiancée, Bobbi Brown. The modern summer house is topped with a roof terrace with views of Quantuck Bay, and consists of a series of stacked rectangles loosely forming an “L.” The 3,400-square-foot house features glass doors that slide into the wall at the ground level. The public spaces—living room, dining room, family room and kitchen—flow into an ipe wood terrace and lap pool. Upstairs, each room has access to the rooftop terrace.

Last, but not least, is the Barn, the home of Mary Ann Casati and Geoff Judge on Heatherwood Lane. It was the original Hallock homestead and the barn was built around 1902 with a three-stall horse stable, living quarters for the caretaker and a large open space on the first floor for hay and space for weekend visitors to park their carriages. When the current owners bought the property in 1987, there was no insulation, no plumbing and no electricity; during renovations, they camped out in one upstairs room, sleeping on air mattresses and bringing in a hose for water to wash dishes in Rubbermaid tubs. Mr. Judge’s sister and sister-in-law, Jennifer Judge and Ethelind Coblin, were the architects who cut open spaces to let in lots of light without disturbing the integrity of the classic barn structure.

The Barn will be the setting for a cocktail party following the tour, for which Melissa Cook and Maureen Leness are the co-chairs.

Advance tickets are available online at www.quoguehistory.org/holiday-tour and at the Lily Pad. On the day of the event, tickets can be purchased from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the historical society’s Pond House, 114 Jessup Avenue, and from 1 to 4 at the Quogue Library. Prices are $85 for the house tour and party, $125 for the tour and party at the patron level, $50 for the tour, and $40 for the party.

For information, call (631) 996-2404, email info@quoguehistory.org, or visit www.quoguehistory.org.