John Coltrane's Dix Hills home redesign plan seeks to capture the spirit of the jazz great's life and times on Long Island

Award-winning architect and design teams have been named to return the Dix Hills home of legendary jazz musicians John and Alice Coltrane to the splendor of its midcentury modern heyday.

Manhattan-based companies Kliment Halsband Architects, a Perkins Eastman studio, and Aaris Design Architects will begin working this fall to create a design plan for the interior to reflect the years between 1964 and 1967, officials from the nonprofit Friends of the Coltrane Home said. John Coltrane died in 1967 but the family remained in the home until 1973.

The four-bedroom ranch home on Candlewood Path is where John Coltrane composed what is considered his masterpiece: "A Love Supreme." Alice Coltrane, also a noted jazz musician, recorded her first five albums there, including “A Monastic Trio” in 1968.

Steve Fulgoni, founder and president of Friends of the Coltrane Home, said they plan to restore the home’s basement recording studio to be used as an interactive experience for visitors and students. 

“This architectural team is going to help us design the interior and create the experience of how John and Alice lived,” he said. “Together with the Coltrane family and local community, we will plan for what the home will be in the future and we hope it will positively change the lives of people of all ages.”

Frances Halsband, a founding partner of Kliment Halsband Architects, said in a statement that bringing the spirit of the Coltrane family back into the life of the community and the nation “is a great honor, a wonderful opportunity to share a place filled with music and love, a true force for good.”

Nicole Hollant-Denis, founder and president of Aaris Design Architects, whose projects include developing the historic African Burial Ground National Monument in lower Manhattan, said in a statement that the home is among the treasures of America’s young and complicated history.

Kliment Halsband will focus on the historic preservation aspect, and Aaris Design will work on the home’s interior design, said Marcella Goheen, executive director of The John and Alice Coltrane Home.

The town bought the 3.4-acre estate for $975,000 in 2005 from a developer, who had plans to demolish the house. It is listed on the National and New York State Register of Historic Places and is a locally designated historic landmark, officials said.

The nonprofit owns the home while the town retains ownership of the land.

Fulgoni said plans are also moving ahead to fix floor joists, restore the brick facade and replace windows using money from a $1 million grant received in 2021 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

A $10 million fundraising campaign will kick off later this year to support these projects, Fulgoni said, as post COVID-19 pandemic inflation has sent construction costs skyrocketing.

Huntington town historian Robert Hughes, who also sits on the Friends board, said it’s a point of pride for the town to have the home of the world-renowned John Coltrane in its borders.