Midcentury Glass House in New Jersey Offers NYC Skyline Views for Under $1M
Realtor.com
A midcentury modern home, designed by the same architect who conceived Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, is for sale in Montclair, NJ.
This is the first time in more than 50 years the well-preserved property has been on the market.
Offers have already come in for the mint-condition house, which is listed for $949,000; but none has been accepted so far.
Designed by Edward Durell Stone in 1959, the home maintains lots of its original character.
ExteriorLisa Kollberg
InteriorLisa Kollberg
ExteriorLisa Kollberg
Maintained like a museum
The four-bedroom, 2.5-bath abode has had just two owners since it was built, with the current owner having lived there since 1969.
“It has been maintained almost like a museum—no one has bastardized it,” says listing agent Amy Owens, with NJ Metro Group. “Most of the houses out here have been tweaked or added on to. This one has been maintained to the minutiae, and it makes it a little more sophisticated.”
The home has “Japanese influences,” the listing notes. It offers an open floor plan and design elements that blend with the outdoors.
“When you walk in, you can see through the house,” Owens says. “It’s all glass, and it makes it airy and open. You’re not just seeing the inside of the house. You’re seeing nature also. I’ve watched a family of deer many times.”
And right alongside those pastoral vistas is a glimpse of the Manhattan skyline, which is visible year-round from the front of the home.
Skyline viewsLisa Kollberg
BathroomLisa Kollberg
Interior stairsLisa Kollberg
BedroomLisa Kollberg
There are blinds and sliding shoji screens for privacy, and the home’s interior is not visible from the street.
The primary suite is on the main level with the kitchen and living room, while the other bedrooms are situated on the lower level.
“It’s all above ground,” Owens explains. “The typography that this house sits on lends itself to this style house. Montclair means clear mountain, and we’re up on a mountain.”
Owens says the area is known for its schools and easy city access.
KitchenLisa Kollberg
Everything in the home is in working order. The bathrooms are original, and the kitchen was updated in the 1980s.
“I like what they did in the kitchen,” Owens says of the remodel. “It was well thought out, and the lines are great. It didn’t harm the house in any way.”
She acknowledges that the new owner might want to update the kitchen a bit, and rid it of its once-popular Formica counters.
But she hopes the buyers will be purists when it comes to the home’s virtually untouched midcentury modern details.
“I think [the buyer] needs to be a devotee of the architecture style,” Owens notes. “I think you need to love it. If you’re looking at it and thinking, ‘It needs more storage’ or ‘I could add on,’ just buy another house. It’s that special.”
People seem to love the house, and the listing has gone viral—something that surprised Owens.
“We put the house on the market on a Thursday and had offers by Tuesday,” she says. “We had like 400 people come through the open house. I had a police officer controlling traffic.”
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