Tasteful Friends

Didn't work...sorry.

The listing was closed.

Wonderful house, OP. I found it at this link, sold in January.

At 5900 square feet, it's not small, yet because of its complex form with one room deep wings in many directions it feels intimate and light-filled, most rooms having dual or triple aspects. Richard Morris Hunt is famous for his vast Newport cottages but his smaller houses display his talent, too, and often more of his own taste.

There are a couple of choices by recent owners that are underwhelming, but nothing terrible. On whole the whole is very handsomely and faithfully restored and shows how striking 1870s design could be. The double doors at the back of the entrance hall are not right; these are a new design and look out of place, the millwork, the segmental arch, the glazing pattern of the doors is all wrong and especially wrong for the important space. I would fix that yet keep some transparency to the rear. The kitchen is an odd configuration, not at all what I would have done, but it grows slightly on me. The octagonal space is a little too new looking, but it's okay.

Otherwise I like a lot of the smaller design decisions made by recent owners, and the original house itself is fairly faultless.

This is much nicer, dearies.

Thank you , R3! It is a gorgeous house..a house of my dreams.

R5 reply is from OP

Absolutely stunning R4. Very tasteful and understated, but perfect for the setting...and what a setting and view! Must be nice to have that kind of money.

R3 that is a beautiful house. I'd change a few small things, and some of the furniture isnt what I'd pick (too contemporary) but overall definitely one of the nicer places I've seen on here

R4 thats a new build, and it shows. That said it is mostly fairly nice, but I'd want better than fairly nice for 25 mil

The home in R3's post is not too far away from me. That's a brand new addition with a new kitchen. Driving by it a few times, I saw the construction. I think it's under 10 years old.

R9: Both are weak points of the house, detracting from the very solid, chunky massing. Few people would notice that they are additions, but they are a bit at odds with the old house and clearly so if you know the architecture of the period. I would probably not have extended the house (nor placed the garage so prominently.) The octagonal breakfast or small dining room is later in feel than the rest of the house more American "Queen Anne" of the late 1880s-1890s where the original house, while finished in 1882, is more late 1870s English "Queen Anne" or Stick Style (as sometimes expressed in brick rather than wood, as at Mark Twain's house.) The kitchen which connects the octagon to the main has an improbable clerestory; it's not terrible, it reads as a separate element, but maybe the kitchen and breakfast room are a bit showy when showiness isn't needed. I don't dislike either part enough that I would do anything about it, other than maybe paint that cat orange woodwork in the ceiling of the latter space. The kitchen is an unusual space, but it would not be a big hardship at all to live with it. But those are admittedly minor quibbles. It's a really splendid and liveable house even with them.