AN AMERICAN HOUSE The Essence of Traditional Wills in Vermont

Nothing captures American tradition like the respectfully modest, perfectly proportioned houses of Royal Barry Wills, the mid-century New England firm that specialized in Colonial Revival homes and reintroduced Cape Cod style.

- PATRICIA POORE

A SINGLE-STOREY Cape by the office of the Colonial Revival architect recently got unobtrusive additions that added space while knitting the house to a patio and the yard. “Two separate wings were kept secondary by their placement and scale,” says the Vermont architect Sandra Vitzthum. To the rear, she added a master suite over a drive-in workshop. A dining room was added off the side. Additions comprise 600 square feet.

“This is an unassuming house, but that was the idea,” Vitzthum explains. “Wills was a genius in re-creating the Colonial home for everyday Americans after WWII. He was the East Coast version of Cliff May, who dreamed up the California ranch house.”

The firm of Royal Barry Wills designed ordered and simple houses, most often furnished with such Colonial Revival conventions as Federal mantels, wing chairs, and antiques. This house was built in 1977, when architect Richard Wills was principal. “It’s a comfortable place to live,” agrees owner John Meyer, who collects work by Vermont artists—and who restores Model T Ford cars.

Wills’ revival houses nevertheless were modern, built with electric kitchens, ductwork, closets, and mid-century bathrooms. In fact, “what’s new, as we renovate these houses in the 21st century, is that the kitchens become more nostalgic, no longer frankly ‘modern’,” explains Vitzthum. The kitchen she designed in the original space is “refined without being showy; modest, like a New Englander.