Alfred and Ada Pope built Hill-Stead between 1898 and 1908 as a retirement home and country estate for entertaining their many guests and showcasing the Impressionist paintings they had begun collecting in 1888. The 33,000-square-foot house is both a planned exhibition of its residents’ art and one of the nation’s most notable examples of Colonial Revival architecture. It exemplifies a significant period in American architectural history, though one less obvious than the bold “form follows function” modernism that came later, or the opulent architecture of the summer “cottages” of Newport, Rhode Island, many of which are Hill-Stead’s contemporaries. The Pope Riddle house successfully melds New England Colonial architecture with the grand-scale country house. The exterior is based on the common farmhouse—here, writ large. The imposing colonnade, added months after the Popes took up residence in 1901, is a nod to George Washington’s Mount Vernon.

Working with Edgerton Swartout, a junior architect at the distinguished New York firm of McKim, Mead & White, the Popes’ daughter, Theodate, a fledgling architect, sought the look of a classic New England farmhouse, in which “ells,” porches, barns and sheds with mismatched rooflines are added over time. In Theodate Pope Riddle, Her Life and Architecture, author Sharon Smith describes the results: “A charming sense of rambling informality was gained, the effect being quite unlike that of the more symmetrically planned houses by McKim, Mead & White. Clearly it was the floor plan that determined the exterior frame; the rooms were not stuffed into a preconceived format.”

In 1906-1907, under the direct supervision of McKim, Mead & White, Theodate added a study for her father to the original structure, as well as a Greek Revival pedimented porch that looked out north over Alfred Pope’s six-hole golf course. In the 1930s, she redecorated the study and used it as her own sitting room and architectural office.

Today, visitors explore 19 rooms illustrative of the 1916-1920 period. Filled with the art and furnishings amassed by the Pope and Riddle families, these intact domestic interiors— including bathrooms and closets— lack only the original kitchen, laundry and servants quarters.

CARRIAGE BARN
A wood structure contiguous to the main house, the Carriage Barn exhibits two horse-drawn carriages, the Popes’ mode of transportation until about 1910. Original architectural plans show this space as containing stables, a harness room, carriage house, carriage shed and tool house. In May 1908, fire destroyed the Carriage Barn, as well as the laundry and Butler’s Room located at the east end of the Pope Riddle house. By December 1908, Theodate had rebuilt the structure and also constructed a stone garage with attached greenhouses across the drive.

MAKESHIFT THEATER
In 1917 Theodate added a 5,115-square-foot space to the back of the Carriage Barn. This Arts and Crafts theater originally functioned as a community room where Theodate showed motion pictures to the townspeople of Farmington and hosted holiday parties for village youngsters. Today it is an airy space for meetings, social gatherings, wedding ceremonies, workshops and performances.