In the early days of the pandemic, Jonathan Travis and his friend Ethan Rafii were visiting another friend’s country house outside New York City when they began to dream big. What if they pooled their resources and bought a shared house together? “To be candid, we were having a mushroom experience,” said Mr. Rafii, 38, who works in finance and is a partner in Kettl, a Japanese tea company. He and Mr. Travis had become friends through a shared passion for art. As they were lounging that night, Mr. Travis suggested that a shared house could be not only a getaway from their Manhattan apartments, but a place to display their collections and maybe start an artists’ residency.

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Persons: Jonathan Travis, Ethan Rafii, ”, Rafii, Travis Locations: New York City, Kettl, Manhattan