Wellfleet home of legendary mid-century modern architect could be rehabbed over summer

In August of last year, I received a press release about the Cape Cod Modern House Trust’s mission to save Marcel Breuer’s Wellfleet home from potential demolition.

Shocked that a home like this would ever go to market, I hopped on the phone with founder Peter McMahon and asked him how this all came to be. I was enlightened to how often these houses are bulldozed to make way for gargantuan homes and how McMahon was adamant about saving this home — and Breuer's final resting place — from that same fate.

At the time, the trust was scrambling to pull together enough money to buy it.

Who was Marcel Breuer? You probably know what his furniture designs look like.

Now, after raising almost $1.3 million and securing a pre-approved bank loan to cover the remaining balance of the $2 million asking price, the trust is set to close "right on schedule," on June 28, pivoting their mission from saving the Breuer House to restoring it.

“I'm really focused on making a strong finish and then I'm concerned about getting all the ducks in a row to start the work,” McMahon said.

Cape Cod Modern House Trust to close on Breuer House in June

The process for acquiring this house was long and involved. Conversations between McMahon and Tamas, Breuer’s son, began years back and McMahon tried everything to buy it. In the beginning, the price fluctuated, going from $5 million to $3 million and seemed to be a pipedream purchase for McMahon — he even tried to convince the Trustees of Reservations to buy it.

Last March, however, the price plummeted down to $2 million and McMahon knew it was now or never.

“I actually tried a bunch of other schemes when it was more expensive,” he said. “I wanted it to be safe and keep it from being demolished. That was my main goal.”

Once the papers are signed, the trust hopes to begin restorations in July and is seeking $200,000 from the Wellfleet Community Preservation Fund’s Historical Budgeted Reserve at this month’s upcoming town meeting.

“When you restore a house, you really get to know it on a deeper level,” McMahon said. “(It) was a very rustic cabin when it started and then he added more layers of finishes. It's gonna be interesting to peel those (layers) back and see what colors things were painted and all kinds of stuff like that.”

The goal is to restore the house to its condition in 1981, how Breuer left it when he died. His ashes are buried under a stone slab on the property along with the ashes of his wife, Connie, her sister and her sister's husband.

Structurally, some of the house's pressing needs are a new roof, septic system and power source line. Plus, a rebuild of the rotten exterior decks and stairs.

Along with the house, the trust also inherits all of its belongings, ranging from Breuer’s extensive library of books, some from acclaimed authors, artists and friends, to the family’s photograph collection. All of these must be catalogued and removed from the house for restorations and then archived later.

“You kind of see the world through his eyes a little bit because you're seeing what was important to him, and also to the rest of the family, just by the objects that are in the house and the way the house is situated,” McMahon said.

On an “expert’s retreat,” the trust hosted recently, McMahon and 10 knowledgeable guests in archiving and restoration discussed best practices for the restoration along with potential educational programming ideas to implement starting next summer.

“We talked about doing a May semester thing like a post-graduation but before most people's internships start for students,” he said. “Or maybe a fall semester for post-docs where they actually live at the house … We're also looking at the model of a field school where different institutions would use the building as a field station to do their work.”

Though the Breuer House will be under construction for some time, public tours of the trust's other properties — like the Kugel/Gips House I visited in October — will be going on throughout the year. For more information on the Cape Cod Modern House Trust, visit their website www.ccmht.org/.

Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and things to do. Contact her at frowley@capecodonline.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Mid-century modern homes in Wellfleet: House trust comes to rescue