The Kolumns

Former People’s Bank ceo David E.A. Carson calls his Wellfleet, Mass., home "The Kolumns" because of "the pairs of dark-red steel K-shaped ceiling supports," reports Lisa A. Phillips in the New York Times (5/8/09). Back in the day, David "helped People’s survive the banking crisis of the early 1990s" by expanding the bank’s training programs and its credit-card business while others were cutting back. He thinks the current crisis is no different and points out that some banks are doing just fine simply by "lending money to the people who would pay it back."

After he retired, David’s kids suggested he build a house on Cape Cod so they could, you know, come and visit. "I didn’t want the house to be just mine," says David. "I wanted it to be a concept we all bought into." The result is a $2.3 million, 5,000 square-foot abode "set on a steep, wooded, one-acre lot." It is centered on a great room, but "it has several sublevels, with rooms and balconies separated from the main floor by a few steps … Even when the house is full the layout offers privacy."

The design was supposed to recall an oak leaf, but David says it ended up looking more like a ship. This was perfect, because David’s father was a merchant seaman and his father a sea captain. David himself had sailed to America from England as a child. "It’s part of my DNA," he says. "The water and the things that border on the water … are fascinating and a great stimulus and keep the mind active." Of Wellfleet, he adds: "It is incredibly beautiful, one of the first places settled by the Europeans … You’re part of the Northeast Corridor, but it’s still the primitive land the Pilgrims arrived at" (images).