Horizon (1993-94) (Newport, Rhode Island)

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Horizon, the Edmund Calvert, Jr, and Alice T. Lynch House (1993-94; Albert P. Hinckley, Jr [Warrenton, Virginia], architect):

A large residential complex in the French manner set atop a hill on a large walled terrace. The main house is a large stuccoed 11⁄2-story T-plan house with principal entrance in a recessed central pavilion on the north elevation, full-height casement windows with transom lights on the 1st story, standing-seam-copper roof above the sunroom across the south elevation, complex high- hip slate roof with copper cresting and ball-and-flèche finials at the corners, casement-window dormers, and 2 tall chimneys symmetrically placed on the central section of the house.

The main house faces a long, rectangular pool to the north, and at the opposite end of the pool is a smaller 1-story stuccoed pavilion with French-door-lined symmetrical façade, semi-octagonal bay window on the north elevation, and low hip roof behind a parapet. The complex is reached by a winding road to its east, and landscape features include an open terrace south of the main house and a tree-lined quadrangle west of the pool. While the main house draws principally on vigorous 17th-century Loire Valley châteaux for inspiration, the guest house recalls more the simpler 18th-century Petit Trianon at Versailles; such admiration of French forms has been typical of upper-income Americans for much of the 20th century. Like most houses built toward the end of the 20th century, this is sited to capture impressive views of the Atlantic.

Lynch (1928-2003) was the son of the founder of Merrill-Lynch, the brokerage firm, where he also worked. While this complex does not contribute to the significance of the district because it falls outside the period of significance, it nevertheless is consistent in type, form, scale, and setting with those properties that create the district’s significance. (3 non-contributing elements: 2 buildings, 1 site)