New Eothen Owner Seeks Variances

The East Hampton Town Zoning Board of Appeals will hold a hearing on Tuesday on an application from Adam Lindemann to build a 450-square-foot pool, a patio, and a pergola on the more than five-acre compound in Montauk that once belonged to Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The work requires Z.B.A. approval, including a variance to build closer than 100 feet to wetlands, the minimum distance prescribed by town code.

Mr. Lindemann, who bought the property from the chief executive officer of J. Crew, Mickey Drexler, is an art collector who is reported to have sold a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting at a Sotheby’s auction last year for a record $57.3 million.

The property’s history is legendary. The site, known as Eothen, was developed by the Church family, founding partners of the Arm & Hammer company. Accessed via Cliff Drive, near Deep Hollow Ranch, the structures on it, built before town zoning was adopted, are connected via a long circular driveway. 

A certificate of occupancy issued to Dorothy E. Church in 1971 shows four cottages, a three-bedroom house, a stable, and a three-car garage. Warhol, the famed Pop Art artist, and his filmmaking colleague bought the property in 1972. In a feature in Variety magazine their guests over the years were said to have included Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Lee Radziwell, Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minelli, Halston, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards. 

“The property is iconic, not only for the cottages and their environmental and visual setting within the environment, but also for its history of ownership,” Brian Frank, the chief environmentalist with the East Hampton Town Planning Department, wrote in a memo. The department does not oppose the project, per se, but apparently wants to make sure the changes are in keeping with the overall aspect of the property.

The file for the application can be found at the Z.B.A. office on Pantigo Road prior to the hearing, which will be held at Town Hall at 7:10 p.m.