SUFFOLK

Dix Hills

From 1964 to 1967, the great jazz musician and composer John Coltrane lived and worked in a modest brick ranch house, built in 1952 on Candlewood Path in Dix Hills. Some of his works are known to have been recorded in the studio there, his most celebrated work, A Love Supreme, was composed there. After his death in 1967, his family moved, and the house was later occupied by tenants.

John Coltrane House, January 2004. ROBERT C. HUGHES

Recently the Coltrane property, a 3.3 acre parcel, attracted the attention of a developer with plans to demolish the house, subdivide the property, and build two new houses. Town of Huntington Planning Board review never uncovered the former Coltrane connection to the by now deteriorated house. Fortuitously, within days of its destruction, a neighbor, jazz enthusiast and founder of the Half Hollow Hills Historical Society, went searching for the house as a matter of personal interest. To his dismay he found the property overgrown, a sign indicating redevelopment plans, and permits issued for demolition. He appealed to the Town's Historic Preservation Commission to recommend the house be landmarked, thereby staying the demolition until after a decision could be made by the Town Board. The Town Board scheduled a public hearing to consider the designation at which Coltrane family members, jazz authorities and members of the local arts community testified. Officially designated by the Town Board, the house is the Town's first designated cultural landmark.