Famed dance photographer once lived at $799,000 Shelter Island home

The former Shelter Island home of photographer W. Radford Bascome Jr. — known for his images of modern dance icons including George Balanchine, Jerome Robbins and Alicia Markova, and classical music album covers — is on the market. The home, which is said to be the first A-frame style home built on Shelter Island, is listed for $799,000.

Bascome, who died in 1984, built the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, called Pear Tree Acres, in 1962. Area artists have created sketches and needlepoints of the home, says listing agent Penelope Moore of Saunders & Associates, who called it a "midcentury modern period piece," with an original green enamel fireplace in the master bedroom, vaulted ceilings with uplighting between the beams, original pendant lights and a street lantern said to have been brought from Brooklyn.

The two-acre property includes a carriage house with electricity and a studio where Bascome once worked. It is filled with copper beech and California privet trees, as well as one pear tree that bears fruit.