KITH AND KIN

Moving full-time into an 18th-century house in Dutchess County, New York, deepened one ex-Brooklynite's sense of community.

- ASAD SYRKETT

The rear facade of the Georgian-style residence, built in 1770 by Benjamin Noxon. For details, see Resources.

Through a door framed by Boston ivy, a view of design researcher Alyse Archer-Coité's backyard in Poughquag, New York.

Alyse Archer-Coité, in Totême, and her mother, Gloria, with ArcherCoité's long-haired calico, Pip, in the sitting room. Antique Azande burial sculpture (left).

Analyse Archer-Coité knows design. That much is evident in her work: as an editor at several independent print and digital art and interiors titles; as former programming director at the defunct Brooklyn architecture and urbanism incubator A/D/O; and, now, at Apple, where she leads research for the tech titan's industrial design team.

What she did not know, until recently, was just what moving herself full-time from Brooklyn to the hamlet of Poughquag, New York, two hours north of the city, would mean, beyond the evident allure of space and fresh air. “The day after I got the keys, we got a foot of snow," says Archer-Coité, recounting her earliest days in her stately 1770 Georgian retreat, all hipped roofline and elegant red brick. “When the snow stopped, I realized I didn't have a shovel. It was a very quick initiation to life in the country,” she adds, laughing now, but with an air that indicates the story is only funny in retrospect.

Before the storm, Archer-Coité had enlisted two friends-fellow “city-ots,” she jokes, using a local term of not quite endearment—to help her settle in overnight. With her car snowed into the garage and no way to dig themselves out, they decided to go on a run. Along the route, her nearest neighbors offered to plow her driveway; they struck up a conversation about the house, and an enduring friendship ensued.