By Sandra Fleishman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 14, 2005
The house that Anthony M. Natelli built for himself at his exclusive Avenel community in Potomac is up for sale for $6.175 million.
Natelli, who died last year, helped develop the posh residential community and its adjacent golf course as a founding partner of Potomac Investment Associates.
Stonehedge at Avenel is a 14,000-square-foot modern-day stone castle on almost two acres of land. It overlooks the ninth and 10th fairways of the Avenel golf course. The house was listed last week by Jan M. Evans of W.C & A.N. Miller Cos.
With a separate apartment connected to the main house by a breezeway, the estate includes seven bedrooms, seven full baths, three half-baths, two fountains, two master bedrooms, six fireplaces, four laundry rooms, a gourmet kitchen, an elevator, a home theater and a wine room that Natelli built "because he liked to make wine," Evans said.
The property also includes an outside swimming pool, a tennis court, two two-car garages and a carport.
Avenel, a community of about 900 luxury houses, including townhouses and detached homes, sprouted from about 1,000 acres of farmland on the Potomac River in southern Montgomery County. Natelli, one of the area's most prominent developers, built about 200 of the houses at Avenel, the community's infrastructure and the Tournament Players Club at Avenel. He died in March 2004 at 67.
The owners of Stonehedge at Avenel are Kirby G. "Buddy" Pickle Jr., a telecom executive, and his wife, Ginger Pickle, who is well known for philanthropic works.
Buddy Pickle is chief executive and director of DSL.net Inc. in New Haven, Conn., a nationwide provider of high-speed Internet access and data communications to small and mid-size businesses. The company, which went public in 1999, has yet to see a profit although revenue has increased.
Pickle was previously chief executive of Falls Church-based Velocita Corp., which was purchased out of bankruptcy protection by AT&T Corp. in 2002, and the No. 2 executive at Vienna-based Teligent Inc. He was president of UUNet Technologies Inc. and a director at MCI Communications Corp. before moving to Teligent.
The Pickles paid $2.79 million for the Avenel property in June 1997 and expanded the house, adding a second office, the second garage and an expansive kitchen, according to Evans. The kitchen has a two-story domed fireplace.
Other interior features include a gym, a bar and billiards room, a second-level formal dining and living room that overlooks the mammoth "great room" on the main floor, and 21-foot-high ceilings on the main floor with 17-foot-tall windows looking out at the golf course.
The property was assessed at $3.16 million in 2004.
The Pickles plan to "downsize" while their youngest son finishes high school, Evans said, and eventually hope to move to Florida. They also own 91.8 acres in Talbot County on Maryland's Eastern Shore, for which they paid $2.15 million in 1999, according to county land records. That property was assessed at $1.05 million in 2004.