Ship’s Point

A Masterful Renovation of a Colonial Revival Estate

By Dylan Roche
Photography by Anice Hoachlander

The mid-portion of the Eastern Shore, where swans graze in cornfields and quaint towns serve oysters on the half shell, is a place where one can experience something rare: the pleasure of a pause. This is especially true if you follow a winding road to a serene point of land bordered by the Tred Avon River and Trippe Creek. Here, at their confluence, sits a magnificent Colonial Revival house known as Ship’s Point Estate. The estate’s 13+ acres once served as a shipyard for building and launching 450-ton wooden watercraft designed to fend off pirates and French mercenaries—as far back as the 1600s. Built in 1926, the estate’s primary building, a spacious manor surrounded by rolling lawns, has been masterfully restored with keen attention to architectural detail by Greg Wiedemann of Wiedemann Architects, along with Mike Campbell and the Winchester Construction Co. team.

“The house was built in 1926. It was a private residence, but briefly later on, it was some sort of club,” Wiedemann explains. “It had fallen into disrepair, and it wasn’t used as a residence immediately before our client bought it.”

Their client saw the potential in this nearly 100-year-old house, but restoring it to its former splendor would be challenging.

Fortunately, the owner told Wiedemann and Campbell that he didn’t want to compromise the quality of the restoration, giving them liberty to do their highest-level work. Although the interior of the house had to be gutted “right down to the studs” due to years of disrepair, the modifications to the exterior were minimal and included a new slate roof, new windows, and a small addition to the primary suite.

“We wanted to really maintain the character of the historic house,” says Wiedemann, who has worked in historic Easton for many years. In general, Colonial Revival architecture reflects the late 19th-century fascination with Georgian and Federal-style homes built by prosperous early Americans. Ship’s Point was built in 1926, during the first wave of Colonial Revival style construction between 1880 and 1945. Its grand composition amplifies its roots—the classic Tidewater Colonial mansion with its columns, dormers, fan windows, and front façade symmetry.

He points out that, like the classic Tidewater Colonial, Ship’s Point is one room wide, which allows sweeping water views on both sides. “The floorplan allows for an open connection to the land from two vantage points: in most cases, North/South or East/West,” says Wiedemann. However, the floor plan is more interpretive and departs from its predecessors. “Unlike the Tidewater Colonial, which tends to telescope as it gains additions over time in a linear fashion, this home has a T-shape.” He explains that as the home is composed of a main body and two wings, it reflects the five-part plan best illustrated by the famous historic Wye House, located nearby in rural Queenstown, Queen Anne’s County.

Wiedemann points out that the top part of the T shape became independent suites with full bathrooms, something that speaks to 21st-century living rather than the 1920s lifestyles of the time. Joining those four suites are the house’s primary rooms: the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen. Much of the woodwork in these rooms, fortunately, was salvaged or repaired.

To revive this woodwork, Campbell and his team had to remove layers and layers of paint to reveal the poplar wood beneath, a time-intensive and expensive project. “Other than a little bit of paint that fills small imperfections in the wood, we got it down to raw wood,” says Campbell. The period molding, including dentil molding, was painted white, as were the custom mahogany French casements framing the windows. New parts of the interior imitate what the house originally had. Wide-plank white oak flooring and polished nickel on the sconces and door hardware approximate the original design, as do the rebuilt portico and balusters outside the living room.

Despite its historical character, the house has many energy-efficient, modern amenities, such as its geothermal heating and cooling, heated floors in the bathrooms, and energy-efficient lighting. Advanced weatherproofing has also been added as the home, surrounded by water, needs protection from storms, flooding, and humidity. If left unchecked, these weather factors hasten deterioration. Winchester is known for the building science it uses in its approach to a project like this. The team installed a weather resistant barrier, insulation, and spray foam to ensure the three-brick-thick walls would stand up to weather for a hundred years to come.

Wiedemann and Campbell used 21st-century technologies to preserve and extend the home’s life while maintaining historic integrity. In this stately manse, the historic and modern coexist invisibly and almost effortlessly. “We’d like to make it sort of seamless between the old and the new,” Wiedemann says. “There’s a sense of continuity. So you’re not moving from a historic room into a room that’s dramatically different. That was on purpose. And we feel that that’s what makes this in its entirety feel like a home.”

This even comes into play with the smallest of details. Mechanical systems are hidden at first glance. In the primary suite, the automated shades disappear into the woodwork, and the television rises out of sight.

Campbell views the project as a testament to what he, Wiedemann, and their teams can achieve, particularly when they have access to the right resources. Because of their craftsmanship and respect for authenticity, Ship’s Point lives once more; its historical beauty and modern amenities are examples of successful 21st-century design. At last, one can recline on the lawn under a giant oak and be thankful for the fresh breeze and that the waters, once teeming with pirates, are now quiet.

ARCHITECT: Greg Wiedemann, Wiedemann Architects, Bethesda, Maryland. BUILDER: Winchester, Millersville, Maryland.