Good as New: The Old Pebbles Guest House Has a Fresh Lease on Life at 114
The Pebbles house after its renovations.
In the fall of 2021, as a coastal storm with gusts upward of 60 mph was rearing its ugly head, Brian Stuart was a tad uneasy. Though the president of D.L. Miner Construction & Property Management in Avalon was fully confident with his firm’s capabilities, he couldn’t help but think about the 1909 structure up on stilts at the corner of First Avenue and 94th Street in Stone Harbor.
The property, which would become known as the Pebbles Guest House, was built five years before Stone Harbor was incorporated as a borough. In 2020, retired CEO Larry Berran became its fourth owner.
Berran was entrusting Stuart’s company with the major renovation and restoration of his new home. And Stuart wasn’t going to let any harm come to the historic structure. And just as Stuart had hoped, the house remained unscathed.
Though Stuart and Berran both knew the property previously had encountered Mother Nature’s fury – including two hurricanes – the glorious structure has always remained standing even though a few major storms did inflict some damage.
“In the old days, there used to be three pillars on either side of the wrap-around deck, and we added that back because the porch was blown off in the storm of 1914,” says Berran. “There is a picture of the house without the wrap-around deck on it. And the bottom of it I guess was flooded out a bit from that storm – at least, according to a few of the stories I heard from people at the Stone Harbor Museum.”
What he would also learn from historians at the Museum, was that there originally had been five grand Victorians in Stone Harbor, and that Pebbles was the last of these magnificent structures that remains.
It seems it was destined that Berran and the Pebbles property would come together. While Berran was originally looking at a different house to purchase in Stone Harbor, fate intervened in October of 2020 when one Friday night, he saw a real estate listing that came up and caught his immediate attention.
“I was able to go down the next day, look at the house and put it under contract,” recalls Berran, who says he paid cash. No inspection.
“I talked with Asher Slaunwhite Architects and they said you could probably do some really cool things with this land … I started to map out some of the things that we should do, and that’s how the plans came up.”
Asher Slaunwhite principal and founder Mark Asher was on board, along with Rebecca Fellerman, an associate with the firm and its project architect on the job. The team for Pebbles also enlisted D.L. Miner Construction. With Stuart overseeing the project with his team, the renovation and restoration took place from September 2021 to November 2022.
“I selected Christine Martenz as the interior designer for a couple of reasons,” Berran says. “First, I liked her style. She really understood that we wanted to have a nice-looking house but one that was going to be very lived in, for a number of people. Presently, she works for D.L Miner and she made the process so seamless and so easy. She was fantastic. I probably talked to her like 20 times a week.”
Not only was this a labor of love for Berran and his team, but the local support was there in droves. And the accolades have kept coming since the completion of the project.
“I think this is a treasure to have this still standing from those very early days,” says Jim Talone, a former president of the Stone Harbor Museum. “It’s a beautiful house. It’s very well-built. There’s a tendency to tear down so many of the old things in favor of the modern. Pebbles is an important part of Stone Harbor history.”
And to think the restoration was not initially at the forefront of Berran’s mind. Upon the purchase of Pebbles, he’d considered tearing down the four-story Victorian and doing a rebuild. But once Stone Harbor residents started to tell him of their love for the property that had become a guest house in 1939 and its nostalgic charm, Berran became intrigued. By the time he learned of the scope of the property’s history, including that the home was believed to have entertained not only celebrities of the day but politicians such as future President Woodrow Wilson, Berran became committed to saving the historic structure.
Before Berran purchased Pebbles, the property was being rented out as separate units. There were a few apartments on the ground level. And a big portion of the house upstairs was rented out.
“Floors 2 through 4 had eight bedrooms, and then there were three bedrooms between the two apartments on the first floor,” says Berran, noting that the 11 bedrooms were reduced to eight during the renovation to accommodate additional living areas.
“Legally he could have torn it down and it probably would have been cheaper,” Asher says, “but he definitely wanted to put in the effort to keep the nostalgic look of the home and the feel of the home. And I think Larry achieved that in a big way.”
“Larry was a great client to work for, and still is,” says Stuart. “We do some property management for him. He had a vision for the home to restore it back to a single family from a rooming house. And that was his goal. He had to go for a variance. And I think the town was really excited about it.”
Stuart had completed other historic renovations, including properties in Cape May and Wildwood Crest. So, renovating Pebbles while retaining some historical elements of the structure, especially the exterior, was right up his alley.
Some of D.L. Miner’s first steps were removing the furnishings from the home to prepare for the project, removing trim work, and taking the structure down to the bones.
“We do some extensive renovation work,” says Stuart. “We lifted it up, moved it over, drove pilings, moved it back and raised it and restructured what needed to be restructured, saving as much as we could.”
What they recovered just adds to the lore.
“We wanted to keep the front of the house looking very much the same as it had originally,” says Berran.
Among the items that were saved and restored included several original stained-glass windows; a secret staircase once used by servants; a beam with the original carpenter’s engraving; and a bronze art nouveau, Parisian statue of a woman reaffixed to the newel post of a staircase. She is holding a spray of flowers. And in the center of each flower is a lightbulb.
“One of the original features that we saved was very common in the homes of that era,” says Fellerman. “As the houses converted from gas to electric, they would celebrate with these sculptures that would fit on the bottom of the newel post of the stairs. And the house still had its original fixture. We were told her name was Penelope, but based on my research, I’m pretty sure it’s Persephone, representing the goddess of spring.”
And while Berran is enjoying that certain features, like the statue of Persephone and some early light fixtures continue to be utilized, he is also having fun with making his own personal touches: Where the bedrooms in the house were numbered when Pebbles served as a guest house, Berran has now named the bedrooms to represent treasured areas of his life, especially the affection he has for his mother. Terry Berran was the youngest of seven children and now has a room named for her.
“Her oldest brother, Joe, nicknamed her ‘The Little General,’ because she tried to boss everyone around,” says Berran, with an affectionate chuckle.
Today, it’s his deep-rooted connection with and for his family that is filling Pebbles with laughter and love.
And luckily, for vacationers with big families, Berran has decided to rent out the property several weeks each season. So, if you like incredible views … living space of roughly 6,100 square feet … spacious decks … enough sleeping space for multiple generations … a history steeped in the very beginning of Stone Harbor … and a cool statue … not to mention a private outdoor swimming pool and easy access to the 96th Street business district, then a fun-filled relaxing stay at Pebbles might be in your future.
“Anyone who is around these coastal towns as we are, we’ve seen a lot of historic homes demolished,” Asher says. “So, when you get the opportunity to save one, it’s a real treat. Especially one that is so iconic.
“Everyone knows this building. It sits so prominently on that corner. And so, again, it would have been a tragedy to lose it. It’s a real win-win for the town and, of course, for the client. Frankly, it’s thrilling to be a part of it.”