Sandy Hook has been a quiet enclave of distinctive homes, thanks to Mary Rockwell Hook. She studied architecture before it was a suitable career for women, and in 1952 she designed the first two winter cottages in her Sandy Hook development, off Ocean Boulevard.
" It's special because Mary gave young architects the chance to build there," said Libby Hook, her daughter-in-law. "I'm happy the buyers of my Tim Seibert home will save it. Everyone loved that house." Seibert, Victor Lundy, Ralph and Tollyn Twitchell, Frank Folsom Smith, Jack West, William Rupp, Jim Holliday and even Paul Rudolph designed some of the early modernist homes. Rudolph introduced his barrel-roof design in a small beach house that was enlarged in 1979 by owner Walter Macomber, the late restoration architect at Williamsburg, Va.
The round house that Hook built for herself was really an octagon with each pie-shaped section forming a room with the outer wall almost entirely glass. That house and many others gave a feeling of being outdoors. She and Seibert designed the most Sandy Hook houses.
Libby Hook, who recently moved to the mainland, said she'll miss the friendly neighborhood of 42 homes and walking on the beach. Neighbors share a private beach where Big Pass meets the Gulf of Mexico.
That very beachfront is bringing changes to Sandy Hook. Directly on the water at 2 Sandy Hook Road, David Fields and Brian Anderson of Gulfside Homes are building a house with more than 5,400 square feet. Brandyn Herbold of Brandyn & Co. is listing it for $5.9 million, including the historic Carousel House, designed by Tollyn Twitchell. The Carousel was moved near the road to make room for the new house. Architect Bill Whitmer designed the new, elevated house with some of the curving features of the carousel, which will become the guest house.
Next door, an elevated 1995 house is listed for $6.5 million by Les and Becky Freed of Century 21 Advantage, Siesta Key. The Freeds live in Sandy Hook in a remodeled 1968 house that's built around a 16-foot-tall octagonal great room with clerestory windows.
" We really liked the house and we wanted to be near the beach, not directly on it. The house was a challenge to furnish because there's not a square corner," Les Freed said. "It's a close-knit neighborhood; a short walk from the Village. "
The house he's listing was designed by architect George Palermo and built of poured cement by Bruce Saba on the footprint of a house that had burned. That means it's closer to the water than the $5.9 million house being built to meet newer coastal setbacks.
" It has spectacular 270-degree views and it's cozy for having 6,700 square feet, " Freed added.
Listings are scarce in Sandy Hook, but Kate Tyler of Coldwell Banker has one for $1,795,000. It's an older Cape Cod-style house that she says may be a teardown because the property, with nearly three quarters of an acre, has Gulf views.
" Sandy Hook is a great family neighborhood -- my favorite on the key, " Tyler said.
Her listing, at 34 Sandy Hook Road, is next to Whispering Sands, also part of the 55 acres that Mary and Inghram Hook purchased in 1936 for $10,000. Sandy Hook is the central part of that land, which also includes the condominiums of Sandy Cove. Mary Hook, who died in 1978 at age 101, first designed the Whispering Sands inn and cottages as a haven for artists and writers. Eleanor Roosevelt once visited the inn and mentioned it in her newspaper column. Eventually the rustic winter compound was replaced by the present condominiums.
Ron Stahl Realty has been active in Sandy Hook. Stahl was the listing agent and Brandyn Herbold the selling agent on the $850,000 sale of Libby Hook's home across the street from the private beach access. Tim Seibert designed it with with an atrium, large screened lanai, 8-foot sliders, beamed ceilings and flat roof. It will be a second home for the New Jersey buyers, who have retained Seibert Architects and Pat Ball Construction for the remodeling work.
Stahl has a contract on another Seibert house he listed for $965,000. That closing is set for Jan. 23, and he had another sale there in October 2002.
" In 33 years in real estate, I've always liked Sandy Hook. It's the old Sarasota -- the way it was," he said. "People want the privacy, the beach access and the serenity. Values will only go up. It's a real neighborhood; unique; close to the Village. "