They’re pulling up their deep-rooted East Coast sticks and headed west. First they bought and sold homes in southern California — more on that in a minute, then they put their light-filled co-operative apartment in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood on the market at $3.15 million — it’s currently in contract to be sold at an unknown price, and now married musicians Ad-Rock, a.k.a. Adam Horovitz of the 1980s hardcore punk turned hip hop group Beastie Boys, and riot grrrl artist/activist Kathleen Hanna, former lead singer of the punk band Bikini Kill as well as the electro-rock band Le Tigre, have hoisted their groovy lakefront weekend hideaway in unsung Hewitt, N.J., on the market at $975,000. Tax records show Horovitz paid $799,000 for the property in the spring of 2006, around the time he and Hanna married.
Just 45 miles outside Midtown Manhattan and sited at the end of a tiny cul-de-sac on more than one-third of an acre with 200 feet of lake frontage in a private community on the shore of Upper Greenwood Lake, the three-bedroom and three-bathroom 1955 home is described in listings held by Maggie Sherman D’Aquila at Compass as a “Pristine Mid-Century California Contemporary” that showcases a plethora of carefully maintained original architectural flourishes.
With a playful stack of three porthole-like windows, the wooden front opens to a supermodel slender entrance hall divided from the dining room by a full-height slatted screen; The living room is anchored by a massive masonry fireplace accented with an asymmetrical overly of wood panels; And a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows in the adjoining living and dining rooms provide a cinematic sweep over the lake. The kitchen sports original cabinetry that includes a curved section and a small built-in dining table that can be hidden away in the cabinets when not in use, and two of the three bathrooms are emblazoned with eye-catching vintage tile work, one in baby blue and the other in cotton candy pink.
A broad deck allows the upper floor to spill out to the outdoors and enjoy the breeze off the water, while the walk-out lower level contains a massive entertainment space with direct access to the grassy backyard that slopes down to a private dock. The home is offered with a pontoon party boat included in the sale, and the modest HOA fee of about $1,000 per year covers lake and boat security, snow removal and access to the resident’s beach, playground and meetinghouse.
Ad-Rock, who’s long played bass in The Tender Moments, the band that backs up famously ribald New York cabaret treasure Bridget Everett, and Hanna, subject of the 2013 documentary “The Punk Singer,” plan to relocate to southern California where they’ve long maintained a real estate toe hold. Tax records show that about seven years ago they dropped a snippet more than $840,00 for a 1920 Spanish bungalow with a swimming pool in Pasadena’s historic Casa Grande neighborhood, which they sold in 2019 for about $1.05 million, and in 2018 they shelled out $1.73 million to upgrade to an early 20th-century Craftsman cottage on a palm-tree-lined block in a low-key but much sought-after South Pasadena neighborhood.