 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.
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