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By Dylan Roche | Photography by Stacy Zarin Goldberg
There is a reason shingle-style architecture is so ubiquitous in waterfront communities—primarily in the Northeast, such as Newport or Nantucket, but also on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. These “playful waterfront homes,” as architect Christine Dayton describes them, gained popularity around the same time as Victorian architecture and share some of the same attributes. “It has a lot of character, and the steeper roofline makes it a more commodious house, so it can accommodate large families,” she says.
Commodious—there’s the key word. Signifying space and comfort, it perfectly describes a home suited for multigenerational living and family gatherings.
That makes this architectural style a clear choice for homeowners who want to frequently welcome their adult children with grandchildren in tow for an extended getaway. This was the case with Dayton’s clients, who lived in St. Michaels. The couple had moved to St. Michaels about ten years prior because they loved the sense of community.
They had recently bought an empty waterfront lot for a completely new build. When Dayton began working with them to reimagine the Dutch colonial house they’d been living in—just down the street in the same neighborhood—she used the basic layout of their old home as inspiration but expanded on it to accommodate the anticipated frequent family visits.
Dayton notes it isn’t unusual for a client to look at the way they live in another home as a starting point. It might be because they’re building a new primary home, as was the case here. Or they might be designing a secondary home—not an unusual occurrence on the Eastern Shore, which draws vacationers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey. “They relate to spaces they’ve lived in before, and they know how they work,” Dayton says. “We took cues from what they knew from their other house. This was the new and improved version, if you will.”
As for those improvements? Much of it came down to needing a little bit more space. “We added ensuite baths to each of the bedrooms, [and] reworked the efficiency of the mudroom-laundry room entrance from the two-car garage,” Dayton says. “We also created a larger, more spacious family gathering space on the second floor, along with the bunk room.”
The homeowners didn’t specifically request the contemporary transitional shingle style, but the high roofline of this architectural style meant it could have plenty of space on the second floor for guest suites and a living area while still having a large vaulted family room on the first floor with windows to take in the water and sky view.
Maximizing this type of view is always a priority when designing a waterfront home. “That’s the money view, right?” Dayton quips. However, it does present certain challenges. As a waterfront home, it has to serve a purpose from both sides: the front needs to maintain a welcoming street presence, where the owners could sit on the front porch and greet neighbors who pass by, but the back needs to take advantage of the waterfront, where most of the time could be spent.
There’s also the issue of privacy. Leave the view unobstructed, and it’s easy to see into the house from the water; put up some privacy barriers, and you end up obstructing the view. The solution, in this case, was a pool deck with minimal fencing, which creates a screen of privacy around the house without ever making it difficult to see the Miles River.
Inside, the house’s open floor plan in the main living area lends itself to large family gatherings. The L shape creates designated spaces for the kitchen, dining, and living room—or the ‘river room,’ as it’s known in this house, with its arch-top windows that look out over the water. This design maintains an openness so family members can interact with one another while they’re cooking in the kitchen, sitting at the table, and relaxing in the river room.
As Dayton was working with these homeowners to design this home during the pandemic, they were aware of how many people’s lifestyles were changing, their family included. “As for the Eastern Shore, a lot of people used to come down Friday to Monday, but during COVID, people were down here for weeks at a time. The weekend became more Thursday to Tuesday,” she explains.
That meant designing a house that would host large groups of people, including remote workers or virtual students enjoying long weekends. Knowing they would need private spaces for a phone call or a Zoom meeting, the second floor was designed to include discreet spaces away from the open space so nice for communal gatherings: guest suites, a mixed-use gathering space, and a workspace.
“If somebody needed space to do something for work, creating those little nooks gave them that opportunity,” Dayton says. The raised gambrel roof with steeper pitches and dormers meant the second floor had the space to accommodate these needs. It also meant the mixed-use gathering space, which works equally well for a sitting room or a home office, had a beautiful view of the water.
Enlisting the expertise of an architect is an exciting endeavor; even when both parties understand each other, the outcome can be unexpected or a compromise. Dayton has done something extraordinary: conceiving the home that existed in her clients’ imagination. The interior is commodious with room to roam while its pitched rooflines cast long shadows on the lawn, paying homage to its shingle-style beginnings.
ARCHITECT: Christine M. Dayton Architect, PA, Easton, Maryland. BUILDER: Spurry Builder, Inc., St. Michaels, Maryland. INTERIOR DESIGNER: Louise Christoffers, Higgins & Spencer Inc., St. Michaels, Maryland. KITCHEN DESIGNER: Chris Potthast, Kitchen Creations, LLC, Easton, Maryland. LANDSCAPE DESIGNER: KDB Landscapes, Easton, Maryland.
© Annapolis Home Magazine
Vol. 15, No. 4 2024