Thousands of bricks came off the front of 247 Candlewood Path. Workers stripped the facade down to the gypsum sheathing, cleaned the bricks and put the same ones back. They had modeled the facade in architectural software first so each brick could go back where it came from. That project ran from 2024 until about December 2025, and the cold winter of 2026 then stalled the patio work. The house where John Coltrane composed "A Love Supreme" is still not open in the year he turned 100.
So the centennial's last scheduled event in Dix Hills takes place this Saturday at the Half Hollow Hills Community Library on Vanderbilt Parkway. The house will be there only as architectural renderings on display. The restoration has been slow and careful, and that care is what visitors will see when the house opens.
The Opening Date Moved. The Birthday Did Not.
The centennial of John Coltrane's birth fell on September 23, 2026. In December 2025, DownBeat reported that the Home was poised to soft open in September 2026, to coincide with his centennial.
On September 22, the eve of the centennial, Steve Fulgoni, president of Friends of the Coltrane Home, told Newsday the renovation was on track to finish by early 2027. The Home's own site now says the exterior is nearly completely restored, work has moved to preparing the interior for visitors, and the organization anticipates opening to the public in 2027.
He lived in Dix Hills from 1964 until his death in 1967, according to the Town of Huntington, and the Town's page notes the house is not yet open to the public. In those three years he wrote one of the most celebrated records in jazz there. The work of making that house safe for visitors has now lasted more than two decades.
Why the Bricks Took a Year
When the Town bought the house in 2005, it was vacant and slated for demolition. Fulgoni described burst pipes, animals inside and mold spread through much of the structure. One of the nonprofit's first jobs was patching holes in the roof. Here is how the restoration unfolded from there, drawn from the Home's September 2026 restoration account and Newsday's reporting:
- 2005: The Town of Huntington buys the property and transfers the house to Friends of the Coltrane Home.
- 2012: Clearing the overgrown vegetation shows that both the front and back porches will have to be reconstructed.
- September 2013: The roof is fully restored and the soffit along the roofline repaired, which replaces the earlier patches.
- 2020 onward: Using grant money, volunteers hire craftspeople to re-create the house as it was in the Coltranes' time.
- 2024 through about December 2025: The facade is rebricked with every original brick, and replica windows are installed in the original style.
- Winter 2026: Intense cold repeatedly halts work on the front and back patios.
- September 2026: Most major exterior projects are done, and the effort shifts to the interior.
The brick decision was made on purpose. The Home says it chose to reuse all of the original facade bricks rather than new material, and that the slower route was the right call. The frame work served a different goal. Newsday reported that crews repaired wood framing damaged by termites and water so the house can hold the visitors expected to walk through it. A family home is not built to hold a museum crowd, so the structure has to be rebuilt before anyone can visit.
The front garden bed is next on the outside. The Home plans to plant foliage and shrubs similar to the ones originally there.
What the Money Is Buying Inside
Newsday put the funding behind the post-2020 work at $4 million in grants from Suffolk County and the Manhattan-based Mellon Foundation. The Home also reported a $1.75 million JumpSMART grant for the facade and for interior work that includes the basement studio and the meditation room.
The basement matters to the story of both musicians. Alice Coltrane recorded five albums there, according to Newsday. The Home's interior restoration update says the studio has been cleared of damaged paneling and given refreshed concrete floors and new paint. It is planned as a working recording space with modern equipment for musicians and students, not a roped-off exhibit. The future-of-the-home plan also includes artists in residence, along with classes in music, history, meditation, yoga and improvisation.
Upstairs is the guest bedroom where John wrote "A Love Supreme." DownBeat describes it as a modest-sized room that overlooks the yard and meditation trail and gets plenty of light through the top-floor windows. The same report said visitors are meant to reach every level of the house, by the restored staircase or a planned system of elevators and lifts. That plan is one more reason the structural work comes before the opening.
Kathleen Hennessy, vice president of Friends of the Coltrane Home, told DownBeat how visitors will use the house:
"It's not supposed to be behind a velvet rope. We're going to let people come in and sit on the furniture and listen to the music."
The design team includes national names and local ones. Newsday reported that design studio Pentagram is advising on the interiors and Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects on the grounds. The National Trust for Historic Preservation hired Nelson Byrd Woltz in January 2020 to draw up the landscape plan. The Trust had named the house a National Treasure in 2018. Closer to home, the Home has partnered with HGLV Architects, a firm in the Town of Huntington. The Home's site describes a future meditation garden with winding paths and a space for outdoor classes.
Who Holds What on Candlewood Path
The site has an unusual ownership split. After the 2005 purchase, Huntington designated the property a park and deeded the house to Friends of the Coltrane Home. The foundation owns the house and the Town keeps the land. The Home says the Town maintains the surrounding grounds under an ongoing partnership.
Because the house sits on a residential street and is not yet open to visitors, the Home has held its centennial programs at other venues around the Town. Its fall calendar included Jazz at the Barn in Huntington on October 3 and a John Coltrane at 100 program at St. John's in Huntington on October 4. The last one on the list is in Dix Hills.
Saturday at 55 Vanderbilt Parkway
The Home's third annual Force for Good Day is part of its yearlong "John Coltrane at 100: The Coltrane Legacy" celebration. The details:
- When: Saturday, November 14, 3 to 4:30 p.m.
- Where: Half Hollow Hills Community Library, Dix Hills Branch, 55 Vanderbilt Parkway
- Cost: Free, with tickets through the Home's event page
- Program: Jazz saxophonist, composer and educator Jeff Lederer leads a discussion of Coltrane's importance in education. Then the Coltrane Home Youth Ensemble performs alongside professional jazz musicians.
- On display: Architectural renderings of the future Coltrane Home, according to Newsday's Dix Hills listings
The ensemble shows the plan for the house already working without the house. The Home describes it as a growing, grassroots group in which returning students mentor new members. The goal is a community of young musicians that grows beyond a single performance. That is the same purpose the basement studio is being rebuilt for, and the ensemble is doing it in a library first. Fulgoni put the mission this way to Newsday: "Our mission, in John's words, is to be a force for good. That's what we hope the home will be, not simply a historic house."
The program runs from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, with the renderings of the 2027 house on display in the same building.
A restoration that reuses every original brick shows what a house is worth when its history is protected. The DH team weighs original materials, structure and story with the same care when we price a home. If your Dix Hills house has history worth showing, Deepak Hemrajani and the DH team will put a number on it. Unlock your free home valuation and #MAKETHATMOVE.
