East Hampton Colonial House – Bories & Shearron Architecture DPC

Set on an acre in East Hampton’s exclusive Georgica Pond neighborhood is a new country manor house that looks as though it were built three centuries ago and beautifully modified to age gracefully over time.

The Colonial-style summer residence, designed by Bories & Shearron Architecture, pairs centuries of accumulated history with contemporary features, particularly in the modern interior layout, which includes a voluminous central stair hall, a sunken living/dining room, a family room, and a large kitchen

“The client wanted a house with historic character without being a period imitation,” says firm principal Dick Bories. “Our solution was an eclectic interpretation of several historic styles in the manner of the great 20th-century architect David Adler.”

Firm principal James Shearron adds that “it’s an eclectic 20th-century, 21st-century house with nods to period detailing in a fashionable contemporary experience.”

The siting of the nearly 5,000-square-foot house presented challenges because the lot was narrow, and there was a garage whose footprint and location could not be altered.

“The house is actually very simple,” Shearron says, “but has concentrated moments of special, classical detail.”

For example, the deep cove eave supporting the matched-board pediment inspired by Hope Lodge, a 17th-century manor in Pennsylvania, is dressed with turned mahogany urn finials, a treatment cued from Cliveden mansion in Philadelphia, as is the adjacent “fancy” garage dormer.

Further, the simple charm of a Dutch entry door is set in deep, paneled reveals crowned with a classical consoled pediment canopy accented by a complicated London-style lantern bracket.

The existing garage, rebuilt and restyled, is connected to the house via a classical segmented arch “dog trot” with exposed rafter ceiling. Set at a 90-degree angle to the house, it’s an arrangement that allowed for the addition of a formal pea gravel arrival court. “It was fashioned to appear as if a coach barn were a later addition,” Bories says.

The back of the house is a simplified version of the front, its facade broken only by a bay window to one side and a fine central pediment doorway and a screened-in porch on the other end, each tucked into the footprint. They are shaded by old-fashioned canvas gray-blue solid-color awnings finished with white fringe, a treatment that was popular in the 1930s.

The high-style fine details have been seamlessly integrated into a very simple five-bay rectangular block colonial house, then set against an easy-on-the-eyes color palette—a body of classic off-white shingles and trim, accented with a front door, raised-paneled shutters and matching swings of soft gray-blue.

The interiors, too, are contrasting studies in iconic architectural detailing. An entry hall bathed in white lacquer is topped with a pale blue matched--board tray ceiling, referencing the sky. It is a pared-down backdrop for an elaborate Chinese Chippendale-style central staircase whose contrasting dark-stained mahogany handrail turns it into a sinuous ribbon floating through the center of the house.

The whole house is anchored with the feeling of age that comes from its wood-plank floors, but in the entry hall, they are faux-grained with a formal pattern to elevate their materiality while retaining their warmth.

“The clients wanted a casual summer house that was modern and fresh, so the decorator, Lynde Easterlin, used a sisal runner on the stairs,” Shearron says, adding that the details in the second-story rooms, including the door hardware, also look as though they were upgraded over time with lesser-quality items, as they would have been back in the day when homeowners reserved most of their budget for the lower-floor public rooms.

One of the more dramatic features is Easterlin’s hand-painted blue and white mural in the living/dining room that complements the block modillion cornice taken directly from the Chinese Room in Gunston Hall in Virginia.

Timeless and elegant, the manor house is meant to last for generations. TB

Bories & Shearron Architecture

Greg D’Angelo Construction

Lynde Easterlin Design

Menuiserie Belisle

House of Antique Hardware; Michael M. Coldren Co.; Ball and Ball Antique Hardware Reproductions

Long Island Stair Rail Corp.

Historic Doors