Dana Mckee and Tom Stoner were not looking for a new home. Until last spring they were settled on Park Island and content in an early 1950s home built by Clem Dreisewerd, a left-handed World Series pitcher for the Boston Red Sox turned builder, as a private home for Jacques Fortier, one of the original developers of the island.
“No, we weren’t looking for a house,” McKee said. “We hadn’t even thought about looking at a house or even listing our house. But I met another mid-mod enthusiast on a Facebook page. They mentioned an Albert Ledner home for sale in Lakewood South. Our current home was next door to a Ledner, and we were surrounded by Ledners, but we had never lived in a Ledner. This was a Ledner! A Ledner, how fabulous!”
During his extensive career, modernist architect Albert Ledner, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed more than 40 houses in the New Orleans area.
Situated on a pie-shaped lot in a curve on Jacquelyn Court that flares dramatically to the rear of the property, the Ledner-designed property captivated McKee before she even toured it.
“What if we go to the open house and they have offers?” McKee asked Stoner. “I called the realtor before the open house,” she said. “They already had four appointments! I made an appointment immediately, and things just snowballed from there.
“I knew it was perfect for us. Perfect for the way we live.”
By July, Stoner was living in this house with the couple’s cats while McKee prepared the Park Island house for sale.
Built in 1959, the natural brick, 4,000-square-foot house has 9-foot ceilings. Mature weeping willow and cypress trees soften the angular lines of the home, which are emphasized by “Gemini,” a towering steel sculpture the couple commissioned. A restful Japanese-style fern garden is in an enclosed outdoor vestibule outside the front door. The back of the house wraps around the pool and yard. Eleven interior skylights illuminate the interior.
The house sustained considerable damage after the post-Katrina levee failures, and a previous homeowner gutted the house and opened the first-floor living spaces.
The sleek kitchen has ebonized ash cabinetry, glamorous Black Galaxy granite on the counters and a 4-and-a-half-foot-by-8-foot seated island with Wolf Subzero appliances. It flows into a spacious living room bisected by a two-sided operational gas fireplace and a partially open dining room with access to the expansive yard on two sides. The home’s original white terrazzo floors have been replaced by ebonized Brazilian cherry. The living room affords a panoramic view of the rear garden, a six-sided swimming pool, and a spa through operational Arcadia doors.
“Living on Park Island, my husband had become a swimming fiend,” said McKee, a former corporate executive in neuroscience research and video ethnography.
“On Park Island, we had a pool, but it was visible from the bayou. He loves the privacy the high, creeping fig-covered back wall provides.”
Four iron grill gates with geometric square designs allow access to various entryways from the outdoors.
“One was original to the house,” McKee said. “The 2008 copies were fabricated by Irish Channel Iron Works in a mid-century design from the 1960s to replicate the original.
“No expense was spared in the renovation,” said McKee. “Everything they did was of the highest quality.”
McKee and Stoner’s existing collection of furnishings from a who’s who list of noteworthy 20th-century designers transitioned seamlessly into their new home. The circular dining table was designed in 1966 by Warren Platner. A glass cabinet displays collectibles from the Krewe of Zulu, of which Stoner is a member.
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
Photo by Liz Jurey
In the living room, the furnishings have chrome-plated steel frames. A sinuous black leather LC4 chaise is in the style of Le Corbusier, 1929. To its right is a black leather 1929 Barcelona chair and hassock by Mies van der Rohe. Between the two is a 1927 E1027 adjustable side table by Eileen Gray. At the other side of the room is a pair of ivory leather LC3 Grand Confort chairs in the style of Le Corbusier, 1929. A pair of Artemide Tolomeo floor lamps illuminate the space. A recently acquired 1975 wall sculpture, “Raindrops,” by Curtis Jeré of burnished chrome hangs above the fireplace.
Opposite the fireplace is a glass console and an Aeolian grand piano, both acquired from the previous homeowners. A lacquered Asian-style cabinet and a polished Hobey Helen wooden console from McKee and Stoner’s existing collection complete the room.
The couple’s eclectic art collection reflects lifetimes of interests. It includes original works by local artists Dr. Bob, Earl Hebert, Pam Rosen, Peter Boutté, Epaul Julien, and Julienne van Vliet as well as African masks, Bauhaus prints, and a large totem. There are also original stencil-style digital prints by Stoner, a 3-D designer and former cabinet maker. His subjects include local musicians.
Stoner acquired the prominent, 5-foot carved wooden Senufo bird overseeing the living room from a Moroccan art specialist who sought out tribal art from around the world for families such as the Rockefellers.
“The bird is slightly pigeon-toed,” Stoner said. “I am pigeon-toed, too. I developed a rapport with the bird. So, I traded some carpentry skills for him.”
Don’t miss the 2025 MidMod Home Tour and Happy Hour! Explore beautifully preserved Mid-Century homes, sip on a cool cocktail or beer, and mingle with fellow design lovers and preservation enthusiasts. Whether you’re a longtime modernist or just love a great house tour, this event is not to be missed.
