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Annapolis locals can immediately identify a classic Chesapeake Cottage with its signature plain façade, screened back porch, and subtle charm. Rather than presiding over the rivers they face, these cottages have surrendered to them. Inside their fading walls, one cannot help but relax, too.
This carefree character is exactly what Elisabeth and David Cohen loved in the 1940s cottage they purchased on the Magothy River in 2014. The Cohens, who live in Washington, D.C., wanted to expose their two young daughters to “a real summer and what comes with it,” says Elisabeth. However, there were sacrifices along the way. They had to climb steep stairs and, to avoid hitting their heads, twist their bodies to the angle of the roof to crawl over to their bed, recalls Elisabeth. The little cottage had no air conditioning, tiny rooms, and creaky floors. But it also had expansive views and sat right next door to Elisabeth’s parents’ home, where she had spent many happy days eating, crabbing, and boating.
The couple loved not just the cottage but also the lifestyle it inspired. When it came time to design their new home to share with friends, it was important to preserve its special soul. In 2018, they turned to architects Scarlett Breeding of Alt Breeding Schwarz Architects, who had designed neighboring homes on the river. Breeding shares: “They wanted a classic re-interpretation of the cottage. How do we keep that kick-back, easy style—that you-don’t-have-to-wear-shoes feeling?” After many conversations with the couple, she designed a quintessential bay cottage, using their memories of summers on the water to drive the details of its design—right down to an outdoor shower, gravel driveway, and big front porch.
“The Cohen cottage pays homage to the memories that Elisabeth grew up with on the river. I remember her saying, ‘no tall ceilings, we like small spaces,’” recalls Breeding.
They wanted a house that “spoke cottage” not only in style but in experience. To accomplish this, “We chose a blend of shingle and craftsman style with large bracketed overhangs,” says Breeding, describing the metal standing seam hipped roof. The home, measuring 50’ by 50’, has seven bedrooms, six baths, and, best of all, a screened-in back porch the depth of a living room. Interior glass pocket doors slide back to merge the waterfront porch and the great room.
“The number one priority was the porch. We built the house around that whole idea… I wanted the porch to become a part of the house,” says Elisabeth. “We did not want a formal house; we don’t live that way.”
Indeed, this home is incapable of becoming stuffy. A river breeze drifts into the informal great room, whose character-grade oak floors are pock-marked and veined. An easy style is evident in the kitchen, where the color scheme is driven by the delicate hues of the La Cornue range. The walls reinterpret the usual pine paneling and square grooves of older cottages with horizontal wood paneling. The center island, clad in shiplap, has the shape and dimensions of a dining room table. However, most family dining takes place on the porch. “Life happens in the fresh air of the screened-in porch,” says Breeding.
For David, life also happens in the outdoor shower whose door, for him, leads back to summers spent on the Jersey Shore. “Straight out of the gate, that was a must,” he says. Another ‘must’ was a gravel driveway. Recalling childhood trips, he says, “We would drive for hours and hours, fall asleep in the car, and wake up to the sound of the car pulling into the gravel driveway. That sound was the start of our vacation. When I pull in and hear the crunch of the gravel, I go into my Zen mode.”
Along with its gravel drive and back porch, the home has a true “cottage garden.” Landscape architect Kevin Campion defines this as “a garden that engages all of the senses. There are flowers and grasses to glimpse from the window, to pick from the garden and smell, hummingbirds and insects to observe, and water to hear,” explains Campion. Campion Hruby Landscape Architects began designing the landscape when the Cohens purchased the cottage in 2014. To encourage connections with nature all year round, he repaired the existing pool and designed a hot tub, a fire pit, and a water feature with serene sounds.
Supple grasses, perennials, and native plantings wrap sinuously around the cottage that is also energy-efficient—a departure from early bay cottages that pre-date today’s zoning laws. David Glazier, president of Wood Visions Construction, is responsible not only for building the house but for constructing four geothermal wells underneath the driveway and routing roof gutters to divert dangerous storm runoff into six two-thousand gallon underground containment basins. After building on rivers for more than 35 years, he observes positive change: “Waterfront homes are becoming increasingly energy-efficient as time goes on. It is a good thing. Yes, you have to get permits and go through all that, but every builder knows and accepts this as a part of the process.”
There is something intangible captured in this home and landscape—or rather, something is set free. Breeding puts it this way: “It is not the bricks and mortar that people love about cottages; it is the memories that they evoke. Whether it’s relaxing on the screen porch, the outdoor shower in the open air, sitting by the campfire, or sleeping with the fresh breeze off the water, these things stir the feeling of a kick-back lifestyle, away from the daily work routine.”
Finished just last summer, the cottage’s new roof gleams, yet tire marks linger in the gravel. Giant drifts of hydrangeas are burnishing in the sun. Already, time imparts its own slow polish to this riverside home that the Cohen’s daughters will surely recall, detail by detail. What’s more, Elisabeth’s wish has been granted. The home’s inner space is much like a tidal pool, where friends, family, and all of life eventually flow out to the generous porch.
ARCHITECT: Alt Breeding Schwarz Architects, absarchitects.com, Annapolis, Maryland | CUSTOM BUILDER: David Glazier, Wood Visions Construction, wood-visions.com, Annapolis, Maryland | LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT: Kevin Campion, Campion Hruby Landscape Architects, campionhruby.com, Annapolis, Maryland | LANDSCAPE INSTALLATION: Walnut Hill Landscape Company, walnuthilllandscape.com, Annapolis, Maryland | KITCHEN DESIGN: Alt Breeding Schwarz Design Team with Premier Custom-Built Cabinetry, premiercb.com
Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 10, No. 6 2019