Rebuild of house in Margate restores beach view and reunites owners through time

In 1979 Ken and Arline Borow bought the almost perfect summer home — a charming, three-bedroom, red brick Cape Cod, with a quaint wooden gate providing direct access to the Margate beach.

Today, where the Cape Cod once charmed the Borows, a stunning, contemporary home of white shiplap siding, white brick, and glass soars skyward, overlooking the sand and surf.

There’s more behind this transformation than simply progress … maybe even a bit of enchantment.

When the Borows moved in 42 years ago, they realized the first floor offered no view of the beach. Renovations ensued: Windows, windows, windows were added, as well as a third bath, a clever expansion of the second floor accommodating two more bedrooms, wraparound brick patios, and a restoration of the cherished wooden gate.

The A-frame Cape Cod, gone square and slightly contemporary, seemed so perfect then that The Inquirer featured it in an article — written by this reporter — in 1981.

“It wasn’t just a house; it was part of our family,” said Gabrielle Frantz-Greenfield, the youngest Borow child, who was 13 in a photo with the 1981 article.

“I loved the sounds of the people, the ocean, and our laughter!” Frantz-Greenfield said wistfully. “When I grew up and had my own children — Moriah and Eli — it was where we all shared memories, and so much love!”

But there came a time, in 2017, when the Borows decided to sell. “When we bought the house, the previous owners’ grandson told me how he lamented his grandparents selling it,” said Ken Borow, Gabrielle’s father.

“And now, are we sorry we sold it?” asked his wife, Elaine. “We were 80 years old, moving to Florida, and didn’t want two houses. But it was a family gathering house. My kids, and their kids, grew up there. Friends and relatives visited. We had street barbecues with neighbors. It was that kind of street.”

“When my parents sold the house, we were all devastated,” said Frantz-Greenfield, who heard her parents express regret before the ink was dry on the agreement of sale. “They sold it to the nicest people in the world, but I couldn’t pass the street without sobbing.”

Sometime after the sale, she rode her bike to the house to say goodbye. “As I stood before it, Brad Beidner, the new owner, came out,” Frantz-Greenfield remembered. “I introduced myself, trying to control my tears. Looking at me kindly, he said, ‘Do you want to feel better? Come with me to look at the ocean.’ ”

They walked to the back patio, where a stunned Frantz-Greenfield exclaimed, “I can’t see the ocean!”

Newly constructed dunes, created to mitigate flooding, completely obscured the once perfect view — a consequence that had stirred up quite a controversy among area homeowners.

» READ MORE: Margate beaches not ‘ruined,’ experts say

“Do you feel better now?” Beidner asked. Teary-eyed Frantz-Greenfield nodded and accepted Beidner’s hug and offer to look around the house. “I felt so at home, I almost opened the refrigerator!” she said.

Perhaps it was the aura of loving memories tucked into every corner that drew Michelle and Brad Beidner to the Borows’ home. “This is it!” Michelle said. “I felt it the minute we walked in.”

“There was something special about the house. It had great personal charm, a kind of gravitational pull,” said Brad, a private investor in financial markets, following a start on Wall Street. Originally from Tenafly, N.J., he spent his early summers on the beaches of Long Island, N.Y., where “things were far apart,” he said. “Down here we’re just off the beach and walking distance to the fishing pier, stores, restaurants. It’s all about friendly people and Margate’s Downbeach Deli!”

Michelle, a retired partner in MiCa Sports, an executive search firm in New York City, grew up in Upper Dublin in Montgomery County and spent summers in Margate.

The Beidners loved the house, but just three weeks after they moved in, the dunes were constructed, and gone were the great views. Nonetheless, the Beidners enjoyed three summers appreciating the home’s charms and beach access via the little wooden gate.

As the summer of 2019 waned, the lost views and growing family needs pressed for a bigger house — “a lasting family legacy,” Brad said.

Up was the only way to go and was becoming de rigueur in Margate and surrounds — to wit, the new construction to either side of the Beidner home. But first, the charming Cape Cod had to come down.

Hammonton Architect Bob Lolio, Buena builder Ben Burghen, and Surroundings, a Northfield design firm, were hired to create a new perfect home for the Beidners. Christine Schwartz, Surroundings’ owner, met with them about the same time she hired young designer Moriah Frantz. When Schwartz told Frantz about the new Margate client, Frantz, wide-eyed, blurted, “Oh my God! That was my grandparents’ home. I grew up there!”

“It seemed like fate, and Christine brought me onto the job,” she said. “When I told Michelle of my connection to the house, she gave me the biggest hug!”

» READ MORE: Threatened by demolition, beloved Jersey Shore Victorian gets a second chance in Cape May

What Frantz didn’t tell the Beidners was that the home’s attraction was so strong that soon after the sale, she and her mother would go there when no one was home to sit on the front porch and imagine they still lived there.

The Beidners invited the Borow family to the demolition of the Cape Cod, offering them keepsakes — whatever they wanted, like doorknobs, locks, bricks — ”anything but the wooden gate,” said Frantz-Greenfield, who has since heard it may be the property of Margate City.

Over the next 16 months, the new home soared upward, stretching the house from two levels to five, and from about 1,900 square feet to about 4,000, boasting five bedrooms, five baths, seven decks, and front and rear patios.

Walter Brahman, of Somers Point’s Euro Line Designe, developed the interior constructions, including the kitchen, baths, closets, and cabinetry, using natural materials such as stone, quartzite, and marble, while Schwartz and Frantz created interior design elements.

Brad appreciates the home’s smart technology, citing sophisticated indoor and outdoor lighting and sound systems, and automated window shades.

A tour of the home begins with the garage and storage area at ground level. Up a few stairs, and through the custom-designed, mahogany front door is the foyer — level 2 — where a fanciful chandelier from Canada provides a warm welcome.

Up more stairs — or via the home’s elevator — level 3 offers bedrooms and baths for son Spencer, 18, and daughter Gari, 20, plus a guest bedroom and bath, spacious office/lounge with sleep sofas, back stairway to ground level, and laundry room with a black penny tile floor. The etched, frosted-glass door panel reads, “Laundry Room, Help Wanted.”

Level 4 encompasses the expansive, many-windowed, open great room, where glass wall panels slide open to a partially covered deck — with gas barbecue — overlooking the shoreline. “It’s all about the views,” said Michelle, pointing out that the marble surrounding the living area’s gas fireplace resembles ocean waves. Playfully dangling from the vaulted ceiling are handblown glass globes of light from the Czech Republic.

In the dining area, a table of bleached, Costa Rican mango wood seats 10 beneath a whimsical chandelier reminiscent of an organic molecule.

The windowed corner sink in the kitchen area overlooks the beach. Complementing a built-in, floor-to-ceiling refrigerator are freezer drawers tucked under the broad, island countertop/breakfast bar. Off the kitchen is a pantry and wet bar.

A wide, halo-shaped ceiling fixture emits an ethereal glow at the top of the stairs to the master bedroom and bath (with porcelain-walled steam shower and quartzite bench) on level 5, which has spectacular views.

“From three decks you can see from Atlantic City to Ocean City, and all the fireworks on July Fourth,” said Michelle, standing next to the hot tub on the deck off the bedroom. “We sit here at night watching the colorful, changing designs of the Ferris wheel on the distant pier.”

The Beidners wanted a contemporary, but warm, organic feel to their family legacy. “And, yes! We got it,” Michelle declared. “Our dream has become a reality. I see our family and friends creating memories here for years to come. I love the smells and sounds of the ocean, and watching the sunrise from our bed, and the sunset from the covered deck off the bath.”

And the little wooden gate behind the new home, the last reminder of the charming Cape Cod? It’s still there, providing access to the beach — and memories for many generations of two families.