Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
By now, Montauk’s identity as a working-class fishing village has, like its beaches, largely eroded, between Surf Lodge and Gurney’s and trailers selling for $3.75 million. But the dome home at 54 East Lake Drive, built by a local handyman in 1976, is a vestige of an earlier era in the town’s history. With shingled sides and extensive interior wood detailing, it’s also a particularly well-preserved example of the DIY building craze that swept the country in the late ’60s and ’70s among hippie and back-to-the-land types. But the house, which just listed with Kevin Iglesias and Sarah Fox from Signature Premier Properties, is asking the very 2024 price of $2.99 million.
The dining area — domes are known for their large, open spaces.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
“He wasn’t a builder, but he had a vision,” says Iglesias of the late owner, Eugene Tallarico, whose son is selling the property. “He always had a liking of the dome shape and he wanted to do something architectural.” It’s one of the few domes on the East End, as far as Iglesias knows, and there is another dome home, an exceptionally large one, on the North Fork. His son Euguene Thomas Tallarico says that his father worked on the home while living in Greenwich Village and working as a purser for TWA. Whenever he had time off, he’d come to Montauk and camp out at the building site. He was an inventive person, according to his son, who installed unusual features in the home like a built-in vacuum system. “It was a unique adventure,” he says. “And I want someone to carry on his inspiration.”
Dome homes, popularized by Steve Baer’s 1968 Dome Cookbook, which detailed how to frame one out yourself with two-by-fours or PVC pipes, were based on Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic-dome design from 1954. (“You don’t need to know much, you just have to go ahead and try it out,” the book advised, although it appears you did need to know some trigonometry.) Part of the beauty of the dome fad was the notion that one need not be a professional, or spend a lot of money, to build a house. (A big focus of the movement was on reusing materials, such as steel from junked cars or bottle caps, as external coverings for the homes, not all of which survived the decades well.) The house at 54 East Lake Drive, however, was clearly built by a skilled craftsperson with an artistic eye. (Tallarico also painted, says Iglesias, and his paintings are still displayed throughout the home.) There are customized wood and stone floors, huge triangular windows that let in copious amounts of light, and cathedral ceilings in addition to three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, and a sprawling, curving kitchen. In all, the house is about 2,000 square feet.
The house isn’t on a huge amount of land, but it isn’t far from the water, and you can see the sound, and Connecticut, from the windows in the aerie at the top, a cupola with 360-degree views, according to Iglesias. It’s also relatively secluded, at the end of a very quiet, dead-end street about a five-minute drive from the village. All of which might help save it from demolition, a fate that’s befallen a number of other unusual, architecturally significant homes in the Hamptons. But given the current Montauk buyers’ market and the limited appeal of dome living — the homes, like octagon houses before them are, though inventive and often beautiful, not to everyone’s tastes — its survival isn’t a given, either. “It would be a shame to tear it down,” says Iglesias. “It’s a unicorn in Montauk. You can’t find another house like it.”
The home has high, dramatic ceilings with triangular windows.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
The kitchen is unusually spacious.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
The longtime owner added many custom elements and finishes to his home.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
One of the bathrooms.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
The dome has great views from the many large windows.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
The aerie has 360-degree views.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
The builder was a local handyman who also painted.
Photo: EPM Real Estate Photography
Rick and Kathy Hilton have listed their longtime Hamptons home for $15 million.
Zack Milligan/Hamptons Visuals
The glitz and glamour of Paris Hilton’s world are hitting the real estate market, and it comes with a hefty price tag.
Nestled in the exclusive enclave of Southampton, New York, a lavish estate that has been a sanctuary for the Hilton family is now up for grabs for $14.95 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Owned by Paris’s parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, this sprawling abode holds a special place in the family’s heart.
Rick, the scion of the Hilton Hotel empire founded by Conrad Hilton, and Kathy, a familiar face on reality TV’s “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” acquired the property in 1999 for $2.38 million.
Measuring a jaw-dropping 10,500 square feet with six bedrooms, this opulent residence, according to the Corcoran Group, promises the epitome of luxury living.
Memories of family gatherings and holidays have been woven into its fabric, including the fateful Thanksgiving in 2019 when Paris crossed paths with her now-husband, Carter Reum.
“The layout is perfect for comfortable living and entertaining, and we have countless happy memories there,” Rick Hilton told the Journal.
However, with the family’s relocation to Los Angeles in the 2000s, the Hamptons retreat has seen less of their presence, occasionally being offered for rent at a hefty six-figure price tag.
Situated on a sprawling 2.7-acre plot within a gated community, this 1990s-built residence boasts three woodburning fireplaces, high ceilings and timeless shingle-style architecture.
Updates in 2018 brought modernity to its kitchen, bathrooms and primary suite, the listing notes.
The grounds play host to a lagoon-style gunite swimming pool, an outdoor dining pavilion and numerous terraces for soaking in the sun.
Plus, the home offers deeded access to Fowlers Beach less than a mile away.
Jared Seligman of Corcoran holds the listing, but declined to comment on the listing.
The Southampton real estate market continues its upward trajectory, with median prices soaring to $1.61 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to Douglas Elliman.
Load more…
{{/isDisplay}}{{#isAniviewVideo}}
{{/isAniviewVideo}}{{#isSRVideo}}
{{/isSRVideo}}