New England Home, Wit & Whimsy

This small house with a large presence draws from sources far and near: ancient Greek Doric temples, Palladio’s ‘Redentore’ and Villa Barbaro, Peter Harrison’s Redwood Library, Jefferson’s Monticello, Asher Benjamin’s carpenter pattern books, and local Greek Revival building traditions of Concord.

The house responds to the Greek Revival traditions of the neighborhood on the exterior with a wholly unexpected interior.  The house is organized around two courts:  first, an arrival court on the public side, and second, a garden court on the quiet private side.

This house outside Boston was built of Chester County fieldstone to evoke Pennsylvania stone farmhouses the owners had admired when they were growing up around Philadelphia. The house and outbuildings, though new, have the feeling of having grown and evolved over time.