House and Garden: New Listings on the National Register

 Four Connecticut houses ranging from the 18^th to the mid-20^th centuries are among the sites recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In each case, the landscape adds greatly to the house’s appeal and livability (although in one case the landscape does not relate to the house’s designated historic significance).

Hollister homestead, Washington. Gideon Hollister, a leading early resident of Washington, built this house about 1765 for his son Preston. In addition to farming, the enterprising Gideon operated a sawmill, a trading post, and a potash works; he also held civic and military posts. Succeeding generations of Hollisters occupied the house until the middle of the 20^th century and continued to be important in Washington. Open fields, barns and other outbuildings on the property witness to the homestead’s ongoing use as a farm. In the latter part of the 20^th century the house became, like many other Litchfield County farmsteads, a weekend home.

Because Washington was still remote in the mid-18^th century, the house’s architecture is simple. Its saltbox form is uncommon in the region (only three exist today in Washington), and the finishes are plain. Later additions maintained this overall simplicity.

Although it is not old enough to contribute to the homestead’s historic significance, the garden is noteworthy. Built by then-owner George Shoellkopf beginning in 1975, its English design, with a series of individual ‘rooms,’ complements the historic buildings and the topography. The property is owned by The Garden Conservancy, which opens the garden to the public on summer weekends (see: www.hollisterhousegarden.org).

Rock Hall, Colebrook. In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, wealthy New Yorkers established country estates in western Connecticut. One of these was Rock Hall, begun in 1911 for Jerome Alexandre, the heir to a shipping fortune. Alexandre apparently chose Colebrook, rather than a more fashionable location, such as Norfolk or Sharon, to avoid snubbing: while still a college student, he had scandalously married a stenographer.

Alexandre’s architect, Addison Mizner, is best known for luxurious Mediterranean Revival estates in Palm Beach, Florida, where he moved in 1918. For Rock Hall, Mizner employed a simplified version of 16^th-century English design, which he called ‘Tudor’ and which reflected the Anglophilia of the American upper class at the time. The exterior is a severe composition of rubble stone and stucco, achieving visual effect from contrasting textures. The interior is more elaborate, and in an eclectic mix of styles—English, French Renaissance, and Georgian—characteristic of Mizner’s work. In the landscape are curving drives, allées of trees, a rustic garden pavilion, and a balustraded terrace which, before the trees grew up, would have provided scenic views. Rock Hall continued to serve as a summer home until 2007, when it became a bed-and-breakfast.

Elizabeth Hooker house, New Haven.  Born into a prominent Connecticut family, Elizabeth Hooker was able to devote her life to progressive causes, particularly women’s right to vote. Other interests included the Visiting Nurse Association and the birth control movement; environmental protection, particularly for the Sleeping Giant in Hamden; and, through the Colonial Dames and the Daughters of the American Revolution, historic preservation.

            Elizabeth Hooker’s house occupies a large lot on Edgehill Road in New Haven’s most fashionable neighborhood. It was designed by the firm of Delano and Aldrich, among whose works were country estates, town houses, and institutional buildings, including several at Yale.

            Like Rock Hall, the Hooker house is based on historical precedents, but has an exterior so simple as to be almost style-less. This choice was perhaps rooted in the English Arts and Crafts movement, which, more than its American version, emphasized a progressive view of society and the importance of social reform. The varied textures—brick walls, bluestone and rough wood trim, tile roofs, and leaded windows—provide a subtle richness and help the house to blend with its gardens. These were designed to be relatively formal near the house and naturalistic farther from it. Jim and Martha Alexander received a Connecticut Preservation Award in 2009 for restoring the house and gardens.

Allen house, Westport. Officially known for its current owners, the house was built in 1957 for Ernst Herrmann, a furniture designer, and his wife, Marcia, to plans by Leroy Binkley, a Chicago architect who designed several houses in Westchester and Fairfield counties.

Binkley studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, but the Herrmann house also has a number of elements that resemble the work of Mies’ contemporary, Marcel Breuer. One is the H-shaped footprint, which Breuer called ‘binuclear’ and promoted as a way of separating public and private uses. Cantilevers and fieldstone walls also resemble Breuer’s work. However, the dramatic sloping end walls that support the cantilevered deck and screen it from the street, are Binkley’s own.

Binkley sited the house for views to a pond and to capture sun for both light and heat—compensating for the heat loss through the glass walls. Unfortunately, the house also gains heat in the summer, and the Allens have installed screens and awnings to control the summer sun.

Another element of the relationship of the house to its surroundings was landscaping by Frank Okamura, of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. Much of this has been lost, but a small, Zen-style garden of stones and gravel remains.