This redevelopment of a private rural estate offers a modern reinterpretation of the historic stone structures to reconfigure and connect interior and exterior spaces. Located on 640 acres of agricultural land in rural Pennsylvania, this private estate includes buildings dating back to the early 1800s.
The house is one of 14 buildings—most of them old and smartly refurbished—that transform the farm into a small-scale manufacturing facility and entertaining space extraordinaire. There are stables, a dairy barn, and milking parlor; three food-production greenhouses from the University of Maryland; and a building where cheese is made from the owners’ 20 or so cows and a clutch of sheep and goats. The reconfigured main house was an ad-hoc process of blending existing structural elements with salvaged and regional finds. “The challenge was finding the right components to add and using craftsmanship to incorporate all the materials the owners found,” says Weldon, who hired local Amish masons to re-create old finishes. As a sustainable and aesthetic measure, the designers reused salvaged materials throughout, including potting shed timbers and brick and greenhouse casework and doors.
“When you clean up sagging materials and put them back together with sharper joinery, you’re adding a modern sensibility while respecting what’s there,” Kruntorad says. Most of all, he adds, “the way the light comes in gives these worn elements a texture and quality that would be hard to draw.”
