Listing of the Day
Location: Woodstock, New York
Price: $1.2 million
There were two important artists named John Kahn in the 1960s. There was John Kahn, the rock and roll bassist famous for his longtime collaboration with Jerry Garcia. Then there is John Kahn the artist, woodworker, and master set builder, who has left his mark on everything from Muppets sets to the Big Apple Circus. He’s also the man who spent 15 years building this tower house in the Catskill Mountains around Woodstock, New York.
Which is not to say this John Kahn—the artist—doesn’t have his own Dead ties: In 2007 he sold the house to its current owner, Rhoney Gissen Stanley, a children’s dentist who was the former secretary to the Grateful Dead. She memorialized her forays into 1960s counterculture in her 2013 book, "Owsley and Me: My LSD Family," which recounts the story of meeting her husband Owsley "Bear" Stanley—soundman to the Dead and the first guy to, on his own, become a mass producer of LSD.
Dr. Stanley wrote the book with the late"Saturday Night Live" veteran Tom Davis, best known perhaps creating the Coneheads skit, which was conceived during an R&R trip he took in 1978 with Dan Aykroyd to Easter Island in the South Pacific. It’s this detail that takes us back full circle to John Kahn, as Easter Island is the current home of the artist, who remains close friends with Dr. Stanley and even keeps a studio on the Woodstock property.
More:Click to visit a Tuscan villa with a watchtower included
Fitting, then, that this elliptical chain of connections circles a house that is itself circular. Explaining how he came to the idea for the house, Mr. Kahn says: "The landscape itself spoke to me and said, it’s got to be a round structure, whatever it is. So the idea was really gifted me by the lay of the land. Originally it was going to be a little cabin in the woods, but as I went along I realized it’d be cool to keep building up."
Dr. Stanley agrees that the creative vibe in this house runs deep. Asked what she liked best about living in the tower house, she replied: "Creativity. Whenever you walk around you see something new. Even after nine years, people who come to visit me are always noticing new details they’d never seen before. And the same happens for me—and I live here!"
"The intrigue for me is that this house is essentially the artist’s largest piece of work—and you can live in it! It’s such a rich piece for the senses. Every detail is in perfect harmony with nature," says listing agent Kimberly Crail.
The Stats
The house, which clocks in at 3,518 square feet and sits on five-and-a-half acres, has three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, two partial bathrooms and a garage.
More:Check out this former carriage house with a watchtower
Neighborhood Notes
It’s no secret that Woodstock, since the early 1900s but especially since 1969, has been one of the country’s most vibrant artists’ colonies. "It’s a very mystical area," says Ms. Crail. "If you look at how many artists, musicians and writers live in the Catskill mountains around Woodstock, you figure, there’s got to be something to that reputation."
Listing Agent: Kimberly Crail, Keller Williams.
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