Murray Moss and Franklin Getchell Are Leaving Their Yale Suburb

Maddy

4 days ago

Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

“Enough already with rural America,” Franklin Getchell wrote to me in an email declaring that he and Murray Moss were moving to more urban pastures, i.e., downtown New Haven. “We’re planning to move to an apartment in a tall building. And tall in Connecticut means 16 floors.”

Over the past four decades, the couple behind the legendary Soho design store Moss have lived in a loft in Murray Hill (covered in this magazine), a two-bedroom in Olympic Tower (also published in this magazine), and, since 2016, their current Colonial Revival home in Hamden, Connecticut, where they relocated after Moss was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and decided on treatment in the area. An eclectic collection of design treasures has followed them everywhere, many of them “objects from artists we worked with back when we opened the store in 1994,” says Moss.

Now, as they downsize, they’re tasked with paring down those treasures. A few days after receiving Getchell’s email, I spoke with him and Moss about what they look for in a home, the merits of renting, and the stories behind some of their favorite pieces.

Franklin Getchell (left) and Murray Moss (right) on the day of their wedding in their house.
Photo: Courtesy of the subject

When did you decide to move?
Murray: About two weeks ago.

Had you been thinking about it?
Murray: Well, we’d been thinking about simplifying our lives. Everybody that I have known for the past 45, 50 years, we’re all thinking about this — how to live with less things and less stress.

I think about how long we have known each other and how we’ve had parallel careers in first fashion, then design. There’s one day I will never forget: You called me and asked if I’d come over to the loft to see something. You had four crystal glasses on the counter. You said, “I’m thinking of opening a store.” That was the beginning of Moss.
Murray: We’ve known each other so long. I was thinking about how every time we have moved someplace, you’ve been there — since 1980! 45 years.

And now I’ve found myself living in a postwar building. You may find yourself living in one, too.
Franklin: Well, which war are you talking about?

Do you remember what appealed to you about your current, very un-modern house?
Murray: Well, it wasn’t strictly Colonial, but of that style. It was by Alice Washburn, a local architect who has a very interesting history of houses on this street, and the living room was so beautiful; it was paneled and all the windows were unpainted, which is very rare. Nothing had been touched. I just fell in love with it; I looked through the window of the door, and I said to the broker, “We are going to buy this house.”

Franklin: We had been looking for two years, and only at modernist houses.

And nothing struck your fancy?
Franklin: There was a nice house in Pennsylvania, but then we learned that the utility costs were very high because the owner left the lights on all night long to deter anyone from breaking in. It was a glass house.

The house at 185 Blake Road from the street.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

How did you embark on this new search?
Franklin: Well, we hired the same broker, Jack Hill from Seabury Hill Realtors. We knew how good he is. I didn’t want to buy this house, but Jack is very persuasive. He wouldn’t stop.
Murray: And I wouldn’t stop!

Are you looking to buy or rent?
Franklin: We are renting.
Murray: We think it’s wise to rent. It’s been over 40 years since we haven’t owned something; we want to experience what it feels like to be unattached and not have to worry about the landscaper, the exterminator, everything.

Ideally, what are you looking for?
Murray: Specifically, the house we are in now has grown to be too big for us. It’s three flights of stairs, which is getting tough for me. Amenities are important.

Franklin: We’ve been eyeing a high floor in a converted 1930s AT&T headquarters building. It was converted over 20 years ago, unlike the other 15 buildings we have looked at online, which all went up recently targeting younger people. All they talk about on their websites is the gym.

Murray: Eighteen photographs of the gym. And also where to practice golf.

Franklin: And parties on the roof. The reality is that we are looking for the largest we can find, but that is not very large! Maybe 1,500 square feet, as opposed to the 4,000 we have now.

Murray: Today we went and looked at a fantastic building — hotel size — and when we asked for the rental costs we were given the cost of the amenities only, in this case the dog grooming spa and the enormous swimming pool.

The living room has a wood burning fireplace and all original details, along with many design pieces that Moss and Getchell have collected.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

Monumental Earthenware Vase, 2005, by Hella Jongerius, in the foyer.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

And what are some of your favorite things in your current 4,000 square feet?
Murray: There’s a monumental Hella Jongerius vase, about five feet tall, as well as a small embroidery Hella made for us as a wedding gift. Also, a collection of her combo glass and porcelain bottle vases, just taped together with her studio shipping tape. We treasure so much from Maarten Baas, especially his burned pieces from his collection for Moss, Where There’s Smoke. By the fireplace, we placed the Dutch wooden clogs he burned for us as a present, and I have always loved loved loved the Eames Leg Splint in wood that he sculpted with fire and Maarten’s burned Ikea chair. We have two polished bronze sculptures on very large wooden pedestals from Job Smeets flanking the dining table. One of them is a giant stack of pots.

Wow.
Murray: I’ve also had various obsessions that have led to “private” collections of many other things, including Belgian ceramics and brutalist clay vessels from the 1970s. Large clay wall plaques from West German artist Helmut Friedrich Schäffenacker. Also, we have a collection of Weegee photographs — all distortions.

And all that’s going to fit in your new home?
Murray: Well, “downsizing” does present some heart-wrenching decisions. Although we should have a great-looking storage room.

Price: $895,000

Specs: 4 bedrooms, 4 baths

Extras: Wood-burning fireplace, outdoor terrace connected to dining room, 2-car garage, custom millwork, landscaped garden, and an extra office room.

10-minute walking radius: Eli Whitney Park, Hamden Hall Country Day School

Listed by: John Hill, Seabury Hill Realtors

Murray Moss’s office, with a Low Pad chair by Jasper Morrison, 1999, and a FLOS Biagio Table Lamp in the foreground, designed by Tobias Scarpa and carved from a single block of Carrara marble, 1968.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

The dining room with Softpad office chairs by Charles and Ray Eames and, on the two pedestals on the right, two sculptures from the Homework collection for Moss by Studio Job, 2007.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

In the living room, a vase by Tomáš Libertíny on a blue pedestal.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

On the far table, Long Neck and Groove Bottles by Hella Jongerius, 2000, and behind it, P40 chair, by Osvaldo Borsani for Techno, 1957. On the near left, the Milana chair, by Jean Nouvel for Sawaya & Moroni, 1994.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

The many bedrooms have been used as office space.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez

The primary bedroom, with Graphic Design Papier Mache Chandelier, by Studio Job from 2007, and a Moroccan cotton and wool pom-pom bedspread. On the wall, Self Portrait by Cyril de Commarque, 2000.
Photo: Rise Visual Media/Ed Bermudez