Former Coltrane Home in Danger

The house where John Coltrane (pictured) spent the last few years of his life, the place where he wrote his masterpiece “A Love Supreme,” could be bulldozer candy. The house, which sits on a three-and-a-half acre lot in the pleasant Dix Hills community in Huntington, N.Y., was home to John Coltrane from 1964 to 1967. When the saxophonist died in 1967 his wife, Alice, continued to live at the house with their children until 1973. Since then the house has been vacant; it has never been declared an official landmark (as past homes of artists like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington have). A land developer acquired the property in 2002 and plans to demolish the house, subdivide the acreage and build new homes to sell. Steve Fulgoni, an engineer and jazz fan local to Dix Hills, doesn’t want to see that happen.

Fulgoni has begun an effort to save the house from demolition, have it designated as a landmark and turned into a Coltrane museum. After reaching out to the media and the proper authorities, Fulgoni met with the Huntington Preservation Commission on Feb. 16 armed with a stack of e-mails and letters from folks in the media who support the cause to save the Coltrane house. The next day Fulgoni received a message from the Commission stating: “The Commission whole heartedly supports recommending historic designation. . .The Commission is forwarding your package of support letters to the Supervisor and each Town Board member updating them on the overwhelming support in favor of saving the house. As for the vote, we have scheduled a special meeting on March 3rd.”

Fulgoni, pleased with the results of his hard work but aware of hurdles still to overcome, wrote in an e-mail to the press that “if the Preservation Commission votes ‘yes,’ as I was told, the next step is that there will be a public hearing before the Town Council, who ultimately votes for the designation.”

As you might expect, we at the mighty JT hope that does happen. We’re also happy to direct anyone interested in helping Fulgoni to www.dixhills.com, a Web site Fulgoni created specifically for this situation. The Web site features pictures of the house, an archive of media coverage on the subject and information on how to help.