WINTERTHUR, DE.- Winterthur Museum and its licensee Connor Mill-Built Homes of Middlebury, Vermont, announce the release of a new collection of homes: 13 beautiful designs of various sizes inspired by historic homes represented at Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library, where founder Henry Francis du Pont established the world’s most important collection of early American decorative arts. Connor Mill-Built homes are available nationwide as a mill-built architectural package for final on-site completion.
For the first time, the extensive architectural assets of Winterthur Museum have been viewed not just as exquisite examples of historic interiors but to inspire the design of entire houses. The collection’s designer, Linda Connor, says that, “the collection is unique in that it tells a story of American architecture from the 1600s to the 1920s by replicating historic vernaculars from South Carolina to New England but offers layouts designed for 21st-century lifestyles.” Ranging in size from 1,776 square feet to 5,400 square feet, homes in the collection include classic American styles from Neoclassical and Greek Revival to Colonial Revival and Georgian.
In the early 20th century, H. F. du Pont inherited a grand country place at Winterthur in Delaware that today encompasses a 175-room house and 60-acre naturalistic garden within nearly 1,000 acres of woodland and meadows. With an emphasis on both beauty and comfort, H. F. du Pont furnished the rooms of his family home with American antiques and other decorative and fine objects that represented the best in craftsmanship and style available to Americans between 1640 and 1860.
Among the antiques acquired by du Pont were architectural elements that he creatively incorporated into the design of his house, which opened as a museum in 1951. Like other preservationists of the time, du Pont was motivated by a deep appreciation for historic American craftsmanship and a fear that the skills that had created such exquisite examples of architecture, arts, and crafts were disappearing in the early 20th century. His collection sought to show America as it had been. With such exceptional architecture, attention to detail, and an extraordinary sense of color and proportion, du Pont created a residence that is, in itself, a work of art. It is a mission and passion shared by Mike and Linda Connor, founders of Connor Mill-Built Homes, who were chosen by Winterthur to design a collection of houses inspired by the museum’s architectural assets.
“My wife Linda and I share the mission and passion of du Pont. In our 50 years of designing and building new old houses, we too have been driven by an appreciation for historic American craftsmanship, architecture, and attention to detail,” said Mike Connor. In addition to the Winterthur Collection, the company offers dozens of other historic designs. “While accurate historic architecture is often thought to be too difficult and time consuming to build for today’s housing market, Connor Mill-Built Homes’ innovative factory processes has proven that sophisticated architecture from past centuries is still available and affordable in today’s residential building industry.”
The 13 models in the Winterthur Collection range from a 1,776-square-foot Federal cape based on a home from the Virginia colony to a 5,400-square-foot shingle-style home from New York. All homes can be shipped anywhere in the United States of America.
