Good Morning Lacquered Lifers! Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a lecture by Architectural Digest’s Mitchell Owens, on the subject of one of the great lady decorators, Ruby Ross Wood, and today I’m going to show some photos of the home she shared with her second husband Chalmers Wood. Little Ipswich, named after Mr. Wood’s Massachusetts hometown, was built between 1927 – 1928 on forty three acres in Woodbury, Long Island. Designed by the revered classical architects Delano & Aldrich, Mrs. Wood had asked for a single story design so that she could have extremely high ceilings in every room. According to Owens, the floor plan of the house was not ideal, as the second guest room could only be accessed by walking through the first, but it was an absolutely stunning house. Like so many of Long Island’s large estates, Little Ipswich was demolished in 1995 to make way for a housing development. What a loss.
Good Morning Lacquered Lifers! Happy to be back in South Carolina this morning after a very busy and productive time in Connecticut. Part of that productive time was meeting with a favorite client, a client whose 1903 Shingle Style home I am so privileged to be helping restore. So today we’re going to talk about some of my favorite Shingle Style houses, the Montauk Point Association Houses. Built between 1882-1883 in Montauk, and designed by renowned architectural firm Mckim, Mead & White, these homes exemplify the Shingle Style.
The land for the association was purchased by shipping magnate Arthur Benson from a local farmer for $150,000 – how many more zeros do you think that would include today? Benson envisioned a summer colony of like-minded people who would appreciate a relatively casual social life and enjoy time out of doors. Frederick Law Olmsted planned the community, siting the homes and common buildings over looking the Atlantic Ocean and following a contours of the land – connecting buildings via an informal network of unpaved paths.
The de Forest HouseThe Sanger HouseThe Sanger House
All the homes are different, but feature common architectural elements that embody the shingle style. As in the de Forest house above, all the houses feature shingled roofs and upper stories, sitting on a painted clapboard base. Gables, and accents such as moulding around the windows, and porches all connect the houses casual atmosphere as well as their distribution along the cliffside. The clubhouse burned down in 1933, and the Orr House in 1997 (it was fully reconstructed), however, the majority of the other houses are still intact and privately owned. While lifestyles and needs have changed – kitchens and bathrooms enlarged, heating systems installed – the houses still retain the hallmarks of the Shingle Style and would be easily recognized by their original owners and designers. And how about that view?
Photos via The Houses of Mckim, Mead & White availablehere.
Good Morning Lacquered Lifers! Today I’m sharing an amazing adaptive reuse project located in France’s Loire Valley. Fontevraud L’Hotel is a restored thousand year old monastery that is a part of the Abbaye de Fontevraud, the largest Abbey in Europe and one of the largest surviving monastic cities from the middle ages. It was founded in 1101 as the ideal city – a place for work, prayer and reflection – and it has evolved over the years from its original mission to both a resting place for Richard the Lionheart and a prison under Napoleon. The Abbey was declared an historic monument in 1840, and a World Hertiage Site in 2000, so it is well worth visiting especially when you can stay at the Fontevraud L’Hotel. Completely re-imagined by architects Jouin Manku, every fixture and every piece of furniture was designed specifically for the hotel. I have often written about my appreciation for the juxtaposition between historic architecture and modern furnishings, or modern additions to historic structures, and Fontevraud L’Hotel is no exception. Not shying away from the modern, the hotel has even gone so far as to put in an iBar, where a huge digital library can be accessed. Oh, and did I mention that upon arrival each guest is provided with an iPad through which they can access hotel services and history about the Abbey? I am not sure which is the bigger draw, a visit to the Abbaye de Fontevraud and the tombs of Henry the 2nd, Richard the Lionheart, and Eleanor of Acquitaine, or a stay at Fontevraud L’Hotel. For more information on the Abbey and the Hotel, visit the Fontevraud website.
Little Ipswich, named after Mr. Wood’s Massachusetts hometown, was built between 1927 – 1928 on forty three acres in Woodbury, Long Island. Designed by the revered classical architects Delano & Aldrich, Mrs. Wood had asked for a single story design so that she could have extremely high ceilings in every room. According to Owens, the floor plan of the house was not ideal, as the second guest room could only be accessed by walking through the first, but it was an absolutely stunning house. 
Like so many of Long Island’s large estates, Little Ipswich was demolished in 1995 to make way for a housing development. What a loss.
