Seabeach (Newport, Rhode Island)

 house, place with historical importance, cottage

Seabeach, the Charles Coolidge and Edith Burnet Pomeroy House (1895-96; Ogden Codman [Boston and New York]):

A high-shouldered, 21⁄2-story, shallow-T-plan, shingled house with parged foundation, fully exposed basement story on the symmetrical, slightly-projecting-end-pavilion-articulated north elevation, where the principal entrance is centered; symmetrical 3-bay east and west elevations; 5-bay southern elevation overlooking large terrace with 3-bay projecting central pavilion flanked by projecting pergolas and French doors on the 1st story; tall, narrow casement windows; wide entablature and shallow bracketed cornice; high hip roof with barrel-vault dormers, large cross gable above the south elevation’s projecting pavilion, and chimneys on the east and west slopes of the hip roof and on the east slope of the cross gable.

Two low, 1-story, hip-roof contemporary buildings symmetrically flank the north elevation and frame the motor court entered by a winding drive from Hazard Road to the northwest; a modern 2- stall garage is west of the main house.

The 31⁄2-acre property features a handsome, picturesque landscape with ample lawns edged with trees and shrubbery.

As completed, this house was originally stuccoed, leading locals to refer to it as “the mud palace.” Coolidge was a New York businessman who was an early resident of Pierre Lorillard’s suburb at Tuxedo Park, NY. Codman’s occasional friend and co-author Edith Wharton disparaged the house, and Codman himself later referred to it as “’my poor little first attempt.’” This is Codman’s first complete residential commission, followed almost immediately by Southerly/Landfall, 20 Brenton Road (q.v.).21 (1 contributing building, 1 contributing site, 3 non-contributing buildings)