There are houses, and there are houses. A good one is enduring, inspires curiosity, and imprints a stamp of rebooted creativity on anyone who visits. But historic houses, and their accompanying tours, are not a monolith. Some are troves of original objects that never left, and others are masterworks of specialized sourcing. Some have been demolished, rebuilt from scratch and reconstructed from old records. Whether preserved through love or money, or both, these jewel boxes of American design span centuries, and designers will never tire of poking around their inspirational gold mines. Here, said designers share their favorite historic houses across the US—with a particular emphasis on the Eastern seaboard.
Beauport
Beauport (built in 1907), or the Sleeper-McCann House, was Henry Davis Sleeper’s home in Cape Ann’s Gloucester. With tony clients like Joan Crawford, Sleeper was a prolific decorator in the early days of professional design, but his own house on Eastern Point was where his instincts for color, maximalism and architectural salvage really went wild. “He certainly knew quality,” says AD100 designer David Netto, “but he didn’t do that style for his clients, his approach was more academic. Beauport is like a movie set.”
A unique blend of Shingle, Queen Anne, Colonial, and European revival styles, the house is over 14,000 square feet, comprised of 40-plus rooms, hidden staircases, Chinese and Spode porcelain, Spanish and Portuguese glaze, American glass, hooked rugs, endless prints, and a level of collector’s detail that would make Tony Duquette proud. When Helena Woolworth McCann (Frank Woolworth’s daughter) bought the house, she left it largely untouched and lived in the memory of Sleeper’s many parties and eccentric houseguests.
As Netto describes, “It’s a bohemian house built by an artistic person, that was then coveted by someone rich. Rich people always want more order, but there was this bananas house and she wanted it. I find that very interesting.” A Nooks and Crannies Tour walks visitors through every hidden inch. “I love secrets,” Netto says. “And this house is secretive.”
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
The Deering family of agricultural scions were no strangers to developing magnificent properties in Florida, including the grand Vizcaya Museum and Gardens (built between 1914–22) in Coconut Grove. The villa is cradled by a subtropical forest and Biscayne Bay, and is, as Miami designer Juan Poggi of Poggi Design says, a true interpretation of Mediterranean architecture, with Aubusson rugs, gold leaf moldings, silk damask walls, and chandeliers in crystal, porcelain, or carved wood. “James Deering had to be a very sophisticated man to work around all this space with such a clear knowledge of what he and his team were trying to accomplish,” Poggi says. “It was a very sophisticated home for Florida at the beginning of the 20th century. I have carefully explored it several times, because it’s a bundle of details and not a simple place to describe. It’s the closest thing we have around here to a European museum.”
Rosecliff
Another must-visit among America’s finest historic houses is Rosecliff, located in Newport, Rhode Island. “Of all the Newport mansions, Rosecliff is by far my favorite,” says designer Lindsey Coral Harper, who fell in love with the city during formative summers escaping New York. The turn of the 20th century home of Theresa Fair Oelrichs, heiress to a silver fortune, was modeled after Versailles’s Grand Trianon and named for the thousands of roses planted along the Cliff Walk. “I am a huge fan of Stanford White architecture and the exterior of this H-shaped building is perfect. The inside is breathtaking—the perfect setting for filming the parties of The Great Gatsby. I always find inspiration for window treatments, valances, and pelmet shapes when walking through.”
The Breakers and Marble House
The Breakers, (built between 1893–95) Cornelius Vanderbilt II’s “summer cottage,” is considered the most opulent of the Newport mansions, no small feat in the face of Gilded Age glamour. Architect Richard Morris Hunt’s oceanside steel and stone palazzo is a gargantuan, over-the-top recreation of Italian Renaissance architecture, and every one of the 70-plus rooms is outfitted in detail to maximize the world’s finest materials, down to the last gleaming copper kitchen pot. “There isn’t a wall or ceiling left undone,” Coral Harper says. “I always find inspiration in a butler’s pantry, and one of my favorite features is the large hidden safe for keeping silver. Each room is more ornate than the next. It is a sheer wonder of the era.”
Cornelius II’s brother, William K. Vanderbilt, and his wife Alva also brought on Richard Morris Hunt to build their 140,000-square-foot “cottage,” modeled after the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Marble House (built from 1888–92) is worth visiting “for the sheer magnitude of marble that adorns the house throughout,” Coral Harper says. “Over 500,000 square feet procured from all over the world cost over seven million dollars at the turn of the [20th] century. The rose colored marble dining room is a favorite of mine. Besides, who doesn't look great in a rosy room?” Have lunch at The Chinese Tea House on the Atlantic-facing back lawn, and there’s a children’s tour geared to budding design buffs.
Montgomery Place
Before the wealth of the second Industrial Revolution, there were the great river mansions of upstate New York to teach the Gilded Age a thing or two about fine living. Janet Montgomery (née Livingston), daughter of Robert Livingston III, grew up at Clermont, later building Montgomery Place (1805) in nearby Red Hook, where the focus on the 434 acres was orchards, gardens, greenhouses, farm-, and woodlands. In 1840 and 1860, the federal style house was updated by renowned architect A.J. Davis with a portico and other Classical Revival details. The main house is currently closed, but the grounds, with several other Davis buildings, are open to explore and they have one of the most charming views of the Hudson.
Edgewater
Designer Darren Henault is partial to another A.J. Davis homestead for the Livingston family, two miles south in Barrytown. Edgewater’s (built in 1824) last private owner, preservationist Richard Jenrette, hired curators to track down many pieces of original decor for one of the valley’s most well-appointed interiors. “These first objects were pulled from all over to create a magic place that is very correct but still a home. It’s less dynamic when historical places are more information, less inspiration,” Henault says. “I’m connected to the living that took place here—not a static museum.”
The Stanford White Music Barn at Kaatsbaan
A few miles away in Tivoli, on the grounds of the Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, stands the Stanford White–designed barn (1895) where Eleanor Roosevelt stabled her horses at her grandparents’ then property. “At the moment, it’s sort of a curiosity,” Henault points out. Sonja Kostich, chief executive and artistic officer at Kaatsbaan, says, “It is in a very barn-like condition and needs extensive renovation for it to become more robustly used,” but it makes for a striking welcome to performance goers.
Wethersfield
“At the moment I’m most excited about Wethersfield (built in 1939) in Amenia, New York,” Henault says of the 1,000-acre estate near his Millbrook home. “It came alive when BalletCollective staged a COVID-safe performance of The Nutcracker at the property. The dancers lived there, and the house was breathing again. Chauncey Stillman had a spectacular house—pay attention to details like the needlepoint peacock he sewed.” An avid equestrian, Stillman’s formal classical gardens, elaborate hedges, and over 20 miles of riding and hiking trails are still one of the biggest draws of this lesser-known property.
Boscobel
Dubbed the house that was saved, Boscobel (built between 1804–08) is the house that Henault believes stands out in upstate New York. Built for prominent Loyalists in the Revolution, the house is a Federalist ideal and largely inspired by owner States Dyckman’s time in England, with a covetable collection of Duncan Phyfes and period American furniture. After falling into disrepair, the home was demolished—but Reader’s Digest cofounder Lila Acheson Wallace paid to have it painstakingly reinstated piece by piece, 15 miles north of the original location. “It’s historically perfect, but you can feel this layering of time. Regardless of how brilliant and studied the restorers were, you can’t help but feel there’s an unmistakable early 20th-century overlay. I can’t put my finger on precisely why, but it’s the undefinable special spice that I find unique.”
Manitoga
In Garrison, about 150 years after Boscobel was originally constructed, industrial designer Russel Wright built the house and studio at Manitoga (1960s), a modernist testament to the landscape, built directly into the side of a rock quarry ledge. He named the building Dragon Rock for the exposed boulder that appeared inside. Hudson Valley–based firm River Architects has been tasked with its restoration and updating since 2012. Partners Juhee Lee-Hartford and James Hartford point out that it’s one of the few East Coast National Historic Register homes built in the latter part of the 20th century. “Wright was always trying out new design ideas, materials, and techniques here,” Hartford says. (The studio ceiling of pine needles embedded in epoxy, for example.) “That’s what makes it really wonderful. But the nature of experiments is that sometimes they don’t work over the long term, and updating becomes necessary." Added to the tour this year is the Russel and Mary Wright Design Gallery, a haven of midcentury American objects and design essentials.
Reynolda House
“[Architect] Charles Barton Keen’s take on a southern porch at Reynolda House (built from 1914–17) is one of my favorites,” says Reilly Townsend Dinzebach of Reilly Townsend Design. “It’s set back deep into the house, under that iconic green terracotta roof, overlooking the impeccable Thomas Sears–designed gardens.” In older photos, the North Carolina–born designer points out, the decorated porches were just as layered as the interior rooms, down to the upholstered valances with trim. “It all feels so quintessentially Southern.” The house and working farm of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds sat on over 1,000 acres and included Five Row, the segregated Jim Crow–era settlement that housed many of the employees of the tobacco factory. This year, the property featured the exhibition Still I Rise: The Black Experience at Reynolda to shed light on this under-discussed history.
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Graylyn
In 1925, R.J. Reynolds’s corporate leader, Bowman Gray, purchased nearly 90 acres from Reynolda to build Graylyn (built from 1927–32), known as the most expensive and largest estate in North Carolina after the Biltmore. An underground tunnel is said to lead between the neighboring mansions. “When you step inside, it certainly does not feel like you are in Winston Salem anymore,” Townsend Dinzebach says. “Southern style as we know it today is rich in European influence. The craftsmanship that [architect] Luther Lashmit included is impressive—vaulted hallways, hand-painted tile and custom ironwork. It makes you think twice about how to treat the ceilings in your next project.”
