Escape The City

Jonathan Burden’s rustic Long Island weekend home is a modest, tranquil bolthole away from the bustle of New York

- Juliet Benning

For antiques dealer and furniture restorer Jonathan Burden, the weekly escape from New York is a vital aspect of his lifestyle. On Friday evenings, he makes the journey to the Hamptons, where he takes the Greenport ferry, arriving at Shelter Island to join his wife JJ, a costume designer, and daughters, Ophelia, 13, and Florence, 11, at their weekend farmhouse.

While taking regular holiday rentals nearby on the island, Jonathan had watched the house with interest for many years before acquiring it. ‘It seemed as if no-one was ever there,’ he says. ‘We left notes on the doorstep asking the owners to contact us if they were ever to sell but we never heard from them.’ But two years later, the call came that was to change the Burden family’s future. The owners, an elderly couple who had lived on the farm since the Sixties, were ready to sell. Without hesitation, the property swiftly changed hands.

‘It had been a working farm with a cow, a pig, a horse and hens,’ says Jonathan. ‘There was also a barley field. The owners fished in the summer, raised livestock in the winter and sold produce, more or less living off the land.’ Eager to retain the house’s rural character, the Burdens made few changes. ‘We redecorated and added new windows,’ says Jonathan. ‘Plus the screen porch and an outdoor dining area.’