For $12 million, you can own an Adirondack-style lodge on a private lake in Bedford
This stately but totally comfortable Adirondack-style lodge on a private 45-acre lake in Bedford is the longtime home of New York restaurateur Shelly Fireman and his wife, Marilyn, now listed for sale for $12 million.
“It is, in the true sense of the word a retreat,” says listing agent Rita Kirby, of William Pitt/Julia B Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. “People come to see it and assume it’s from the 1920s or ’30s” because of its authentic Adirondack look from another era.
In fact, the 8,000-square-foot house was built in 2004, with six bedrooms, six full bathrooms and one partial bathroom.
Outbuildings include a gatehouse that has been transformed into a sports center, with a half basketball court and a climbing wall, a small lake house that mimics the Adirondack style of the main house and a covered boathouse that houses the Firemans’ two boats.
“You’ve got the best of both worlds here — the authentic Adirondack design, but it has all of the amenities that people expect today,” Kirby says.
These include a pool and dock, a wine room, a theater, a game room, four big wood-burning fireplaces clad in river stone, a gym, and a bluestone terrace with an outdoor kitchen and fireplace.
Marilyn Fireman remembers back to 2010 when she and Shelly first saw the eight-acre spread on Blue Heron Lake.
“For 30 years, we had been looking for a house in the country,” she says. “We were really looking for something on a lake and most were four hours away. This, unbelievably, is just an hour from New York.”
“We really wanted privacy and this has that,” she says. “We fell in love with it.”
“We looked with Rita for years and everything just looked like another white house in Connecticut,” Marilyn Fireman remembers. “This one spoke to us because it said escape.”
Shelly Fireman is the founder and proprietor of Bond 45, Brooklyn Diner, Redeye Grill, and the pre-theater dining Broadway favorites Cafe Fiorello and Trattoria Dell’Arte.
Asked to pick a favorite, Marilyn says it would probably be Fiorello, at 1900 Broadway between West 64th and West 65th streets. “It was our first, and my husband likes to say that we live above the store, 41 stories up.”
The Firemans also have a home in Tuscany, where they now spend most summers, and their son and his wife have a home on an island off the coast of Maine, where they visit frequently.
“We’re just not using the house like we used to,” says Marilyn, who was a fashion buyer for many years and serves as the interior designer for her husband’s restaurants. “Style and taste are my forte.”
Indeed, the interiors here are pretty fab, with a wonderful color scheme and impeccably designed furnishings. In fact, almost everything was commissioned or bought custom for the house, and the Firemans are selling the home furnished. And they are throwing in their classic Adirondack wooden boat, valued at about $300,000, as part of the deal. (Motors are not allowed on Blue Heron Lake and their boat is fully electric.)
“The design quotient of the house is really, really high,” Kirby says. “Every room in the house has lake views. Every room is informal, very much like a lodge.”
Architectural and design details include gorgeous built-ins (especially in the dining room), alderwood floors, coffered ceilings, extensive millwork, big picture windows to take in the unobstructed lake and forest views, wainscoting, window seats, a mudroom with swing saloon doors and front and back staircases.
The ceiling in the breakfast room has been hand painted with a map of the lake. The octagonal family room offers high ceilings and red walls.
The ground-floor primary bedroom suite offers dual bathrooms, a private patio and a sitting area with a fireplace.
The restaurant-style (no surprise there) commercial kitchen features three large refrigerator/freezers, two dishwashers, a big range and stone countertops.
An upstairs bedroom is now used as a library/office and three of the upstairs rooms have access to large balcony that overlooks the lake. The finished third floor is mostly just used for storage by the Firemans.
“The property is utterly private,” and completely deer fenced as well, Kirby says. “You can’t see the house from the gatehouse or the street.”
It’s just a few minutes’ drive to the center of Bedford or the town of New Canaan, Conn., and its vibrant restaurant scene.
Like this house?
Address: 40 Old Corner Road, Bedford
Price: $12 million, with an estimated $86,548 in annual real estate taxes.
Schools: Bedford
Agents: Rita Kirby and Annaliese Kirby, William Pitt/Julia B Fee Sotheby’s International Realty
More information: williampitt.com
Property website, with two videos: Blue Heron Haven
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Waterfront lakehouse in Westchester: a $12 million lodge in Bedford
