The Spirit Behind the Felix House

The hardwood floors are covered in red enamel, a trace to the rumor that the house spent time as a brothel during Prohibition. Corner sinks speak of its days as a boarding house. And faint footsteps, traces of perfume, and cold breezes have claimed home to an unseen presence there, at 151 W. Penn St., while termites and squatters defamed it. 

The Felix House is the home that Marty Ross had been searching for. 

Growing up in Baldwin during a time when Long Beach was known for drugs and crime, a young Ross was never allowed to go to the city. Her husband, Richard, born and raised in Brooklyn, had no interest in Long Beach. 

But all that changed when Ross attended Long Beach's 75th anniversary celebration and fell in love with the history and historic homes of the area.  

Naming their home after Pauline Felix, the woman who bought their mini-mansion — one of the 12 original homes built in Long Beach — for $25,000 in 1908, was a way to pay her homage. "For a female to buy this house during that time, or to even have that kind of money is very interesting to me," Ross said.   

The Felix House is now one of the most sought after in Long Beach, next to the Villa Clara on West Bay Drive, in which people request to peek inside. No one famous grew up in the house, and nothing of historic significance ever happened there. But Ross's passion and years spent recovering the original details of the home excites outsiders and leaves other historic homeowners asking: "Have you seen what Marty Ross did with the Felix House?" 

The Ross's bought their first home in Oceanside, where they lived for 30 years and raised their five children. They passed that home down to one of their daughters, so that she and her husband can now raise their family in it, just as Felix had done with her home — a gesture that offers an insight into the connection Marty and Richard feel with Felix and her home.   

Knowing what she wanted when she set out to find a historic home in Long Beach — terracotta tiles, a stucco frame, and a neglected place that she could bring back to life — Ross found it all when she laid eyes on 151 W. Penn St. in 1998. Though the home was under contract when she spotted it, fate came into play when it went back on the market 17 months later.  

The couple purchased the home, located in the historic Red Brick District, just as Ross was up for retirement.  

For seven months, most days from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., she worked on renovating the home. She labored beside contractors, and slowly pulled back the years of paint and wallpaper, sanded down original doors, buffed original handles, and moved the original iron claw bathtub, left on the top balcony to be thrown away, back to its spot, revealing the true beauty that Felix created years ago.

Alexandra Karafinas, president of the Long Beach Island Landmarks Association, worked hard to get the Felix home placed on Long Island's National Register of Historic Homes.

"The Felix home is spectacular," Karafinas said.  "Marty did a wonderful job bringing the beauty back to the house.  It's something that needed to be seen and recognized." 

It's been 10 years since the Ross's moved to Long Beach and became historic homeowners, but Marty and Richard feel they own none of it.  

"When you have a home this historic, you're more like a caretaker," Ross said. "It's bigger than you and your family. When something breaks you can't just forget it, or take the easy way out. There's a special hand needed to work on historic homes."  

And there just might be something else in the house that agrees with her on that. Something that has been heard pacing the halls, opening and shutting doors, turning faucets on and off, and scaring Richard, a non-believer in the supernatural, to question his position.

The history behind that "something" is something that Ross eventually wants to take some time to investigate.

For now, she invites the spiritually curious to experience it themselves during Long Beach's annual Ghost Tour, hosted by the Long Beach Island Landmarks Association each October. It is Ross's hope that people will look beyond the lay of her floors to see what really lives there.      

This is the first story in a series on historic homes in Long Beach.

UPDATE on Nov. 4, 2010: Marty and Richard Ross's daughter, Jennifer, is part owner of the Felix House.