Old Soul, New Spirit

Awash in autumn’s afternoon light, this New Hampshire home assumes a golden glow. A nearby stand of oak trees, their leaves yellow against a gentle sky, further gilds the scene. And certainly it isn’t difficult to imagine candlelight streaming through the home’s windows come nightfall. After all, this house has been here for centuries, right? Wrong.

Though the timber-and-shingle dwelling appears to belong here, it has graced these acres only since 2006. “I wanted a place that felt—and looked—like it had been here forever,” says its owner, Sally Davidson, a Washington, D.C., restaurateur.

Warm, welcoming and iconic, the 2,500-square-foot house is the creation of architect Gregory Schipa of the Weather Hill Company. Redefining stewardship, Schipa rescues historic houses and outbuildings from locations around the United States, and then stores them at his site in Charlotte, Vermont, until they can be reassembled, restored and preserved elsewhere.

Davidson’s house is actually two reclaimed dwellings in one, Schipa explains. “I had this wonderful 200-year-old dovetailed log cabin in storage. And I thought it would make a fabulous room. I also had a Vermont post-and-beam farmhouse. Knowing that I wanted the style to be rustic, something that would honor the landscape, I decided to connect the log cabin to the farmhouse with a new kitchen wing, and then wrap the joined structures with porches to create the look.”

The result? A charming weekend house that captures the craftsmanship of the past and looks as if it’s been around for two centuries.

ARCHITECTURE
Gregory Schipa, The Weather Hill Company
INTERIOR DESIGN
Ted Reynolds, T.G. Reynolds Interiors
CONSTRUCTION
James Steele
PRODUCED BY
Stacy Kunstel