14 January 2008

A Modern House on a Snowy Day

A couple of inches of snow fell overnight and this morning the light is flat and gray. Our house was designed by Moore & Hutchins, in 1939, for a friend of John C.B. Moore's named Bertram Willcox. It's listed in a 1940 MOMA guide to modern architecture in the northeast. Guide in hand, Gina's aunt and uncle tracked it down and bought it in 1949. We moved in in 2000, after Gina's uncle passed away a few years earlier, at age 96.
1939 Modern, front
It looks substantially the same on the outside. It was built though as a weekend cottage for use in the fall and spring, so the inside has been changed several times to accommodate it for year-round (and family) use.

Shortly after it was built, Samuel Gottscho (or his partner, William Schleisner) photographed it, inside and out. You can see their photos by going to this page, clicking on "Moore and Hutchins," and then clicking around until you find the Willcox house. The house Moore designed for himself is also pictured; it's next door to us. -- TA

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