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Important Modernist House Endangered! 
Listed as one of the Connecticut Trust's 2007 Most Important Threatened Historic Places in September, the Alice Ball House is in jeopardy of being lost.
The owner of the property, Cristina Ross has applied for a demolition permit to take down 523 Oenoke Ridge Road in New Canaan, known historically as the Alice Ball House. Concerned preservationists including the Connecticut Trust have registered a formal objection to the application and have asked the town's Historical Review Committee to impose a 90-day demolition delay in order to work out alternatives to demolition. This could include finding a new owner for the property, as the house is currently listed with Prudy Parris of William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty in New Canaan.
The Trust objects to the demolition of the house for the following reasons:
a) The Alice Ball House, constructed in 1953, is a significant example of a modern suburban residence and represents the flowering of New Canaan as a suburb and a center for modernism in the years following World War II. It is one of a small number of modernist houses that were featured and critiqued through magazine and newspaper articles in the 1950s.
b) Alice Ball was a single woman who commissioned a house in the minimalist style to demonstrate the practical application of modernist philosophy and aesthetics in her own lifestyle. Subsequent owners of the house have expanded the house while respecting the form and proportion of the building and its integral relation to the surrounding landscape.
c) The Ball House was designed by Philip Johnson (1906-2005), one of the nation’s premier architects, who took great pride in the design and referred to the house as “a little jewel box.” Johnson’s use of a cross-axial plan with a flat roof, glass walls and ample natural light demonstrates an innovative use of forms and material within the traditional rectilinear plan.
A decision will be made on Thursday, November November 15 on whether the demoliton delay will be invoked. In the meantime, preservationists will be actively seeking solutions including the possibility of finding a new owner who will respect and appreciate the Ball House as a significant architectural piece of American history.
Below are relevant links including the Listing Agent for the property.
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