Nicole and Dan Donovan are honoring Westport’s heritage by displaying a Westport Historical Society plaque identifying the original part of their 9 Greenbrier Road home (small stone house on the left side of photo with three dormers) as being architected by Frazier Peters which was built in 1930. Peters, a Westport resident during the 1920s and 1930s, was well known for his design of stone houses using a poured concrete and stone technique that he developed. It is said that he built 10 stone houses in Westport. The Donovans, who had lived in Fairfield before returning to Westport where they both grew up, said they were impressed how Coastal Construction Group of Westport and partner Jeff Cook had honored the original house designed by Peters by adding to it in kind, carefully matching the Peters stonework. Parents Mollie and Jack Donovan gave them the Westport Historical Society plaque as a gift. Mollie, co-chair of the Society’s Exhibit Committee, was aware that the Society provided plaques commemorating key events or people associated with a house even if the house is less than 100 years old. So after the house was identified as being architected by Peters, a plaque was authorized and ordered for a Christmas gift. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Bob Weingarten for WestportNow.com
Sponsors
6 thoughts on “Honoring Our Heritage: 9 Greenbrier Road”
Leave a Reply
Subscribe
Enter your email address to get WestportNow.com delivered to your inbox:
Powered by FeedBlitz
Of Interest
Support a classroom.
Build a future.
What's inside
Property Transfers
Arts & Leisure
Business
Community
Health & Fitness
Education
Politics
Real Estate
Sports
COVID-19 Info
Westport Info
Westport Weather
Westport Traffic
Of Interest
Westport YouTube
Social Media
Westport-Area Blogs
Suggest a Westport-area blog by sending email to: editor@westportnow.com
Good question. While we have to applaud the fact that the original house was not torn down, it is barely indentified as a part of this structure. The “addition” dwarfs the original, sort of like the tail wagging the dog.
Still, at least it’s there. What would Frazier say??
Washington’s axe, no offense to the Donovans, who are fine Westporters.
Here is a link to which discusses Jack’s reference to Washington’s Axe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus#George_Washington.27s_axe
Two key reasons which I would like all to consider for including 9 Greenbrier into this series.
First, we are honoring the architect Frazier Peters. Peters who lived in Westport during the 1930s and was responsible for the design of over 20 houses. His style was unique and distinctive. He was known for and utilized local resources such as fieldstone to create the houses. His architectural style contributes to the character of Westport past and should be recognized by all owners of a Frazier Peters architected house.
Second, whether one likes the look of the house at 9 Greenbrier or not, we should all consider that the builder had a choice. Demolish the Peters house or incorporate it into the design of a new larger house. I for one am thankful that the builder decided to preserve this unique house and design it into a larger house. By doing so the biulder was able to honor the heritage of the Westport architect Frazier Peters.
I don’t think this is a case of Washington’s axe. The adjoining monstrosity to Peter’s human scaled residence should not be recognized by any society calling itself Historical. An attractive (and large) addition could have been added using a real, classicist architect. There are not so many around, but they do exist. Maybe the Historical Society could take it upon themselves to educate the house-building population of Westport as to exactly what classical architecture is.
It is interesting to note that this seems to be a construction group without architect services. Their homes appear all very similar. Not to be too picky, their website has several typos!!!
After looking at their portfolio, this seems to be one of their more attractive homes. As I wrote previously, at least the Peters building is still intact.
I think Mr. Wright’s suggestion is right on target, pun or no pun.