Architect shares his love of Westport Point

Architect shares his love of Westport Point

By Paul Tamburello, Correspondent

October 18, 2007

Photos by Jon Alden

Click here to view photo album of Jim Collins’ presentation to the Westport Historical Society

Westport architect James Collins, Jr., is president of Boston-based Payette, an award-winning architectural firm specializing in high technology health and research buildings. You could probably fit the entire village of Westport Point into one of his company's current projects, which involves renovating a million square feet of national historic buildings on MIT's main campus.

Yet, Mr. Collins has an affinity for the small village atmosphere of Westport Point. He has summered for the past 15 years in his three-quarter Colonial there. His house was built in 1776.

Mr. Collins's family has owned property in Westport for three generations. They unhappily lost three beach houses to hurricanes in 1938, the mid forties and 1954.

Mr. Collins looks at Westport Point with the eyes of an architect. He describes the Point as one of the most unusual harbor villages in the country.

Westport Point is protected by a barrier beach and surrounded by an estuary with a river that splits around it. The Point is not that wide and a road runs smack down the middle of it.

"The result is that you're equally aware of the urban aspect of a central street and a rural quality that allows you to look past the buildings and over the grass behind them and see water on both sides of the street," Mr. Collins said.

The entire area faces south so both sunrise and sunset are visible from most of the houses.

"There will be people who say you need to travel thousands of miles to get these four different experiences but here they have them within feet of each other," Mr. Collins said.

How did the village get this way?

"Enlightened self-interest zoning," Mr. Collins said with a laugh.

From the beginning, it seemed that everyone built close to the street to take advantage of using the back yard for gardens, animals or water access. The roofs of the Cape and Colonial style houses closer to the Point are all pitched the same way, which creates a natural grade down to the water.

Mr. Collins uses words like "ventilation" and "rhythm" in describing the village character and architecture of Westport Point. That should register with anyone who has walked past the houses near the end of Main Road and wondered how the views down to the water on both sides were orchestrated.

Mr. Collins said most of the village houses were located so they "huddled up" to the north side of their lots. They weren't built in the middle of them.

The lots have random widths, depending on how much money the property owner could afford to spend.

"No one ordered them to build on the north side of their lots but that and the random lot widths creates a rhythm of openings between them," Mr. Collins said. "You look left and say 'nice house,' look right and say 'nice gap to the water.' You can say this all the way down the street."

When families grew bigger and more space was needed, they "telescoped" their houses by adding on to the back so the village got denser but those all-important gaps providing views to the water didn't get filled in," Mr. Collins said.

Heading north, away from the Paquachuck Inn, most of the houses are Capes or Colonials. The Capes are one floor, never two, have simple detailing and may sport dormers or an attic. Classic Colonials are usually two stories, have regular-sized windows, a central chimney and several types of roofs.

What a range of them there are: full Capes, three-quarter Capes, half Capes and, in one case, a Cape that morphed into a Colonial. Owners continually tinkered with their Cape and Colonial style houses, adding, subtracting or replacing windows, adding porches and extending living space.

Chimneys have been added to some houses and, in one case, a chimney was built partially over a window. Hardly any of them are carbon copies of another.

Farther up the road, the architecture gets more kaleidoscopic. Styles include Greek Revival, Arts and Crafts, Italianate, Gothic Revival, American Foursquare and Bungalow Craftsman.

"When architecturally knowledgeable people come to the village, they flip out," Mr. Collins said. "This is an important place because it houses as many great homes of architectural style as anyplace I've ever seen in my life," Mr. Collins said.

Mr. Collins inherited his love of Westport Point from his father. On a stroll through Westport Point with his Dad when he was five years old, Mr. Collins asked him why he loved the neighborhood so much.

"Oh, Jim, this is a special place, this is sacred ground," his Dad said.

Now that he's lived there 15 years, Jim Collins feels the same way.

Westport Point architecture

Westport Point contains examples of Cape, Colonial, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Victorian Shingle, Georgian Revival, American Foursquare, Arts and Crafts and Bungalow styles. Some houses are a mix of two or more styles.

Architectural styles and periods

1626 - 1725 First Period Architecture

1600s - 1960 Cape

1725 - 1775 Georgian Colonial

1780 - 1830 Federal

1830 - 1875 Gothic Revival

1825 - 1850 Greek Revival

1845 - 1860 Italianate

1860 - 1880 Second Empire

1870 - 1900 Richardsonian Romanesque

1875 - 1925 Victorian Eclectic

1880 - 1910 Queen Ann

1880 - 1900 Victorian Shingle

1895 - 1930 Georgian Revival

1895 - 1930 American Foursquare

1905 - 1930 Arts and Crafts (Craftsman)

1905 - 1930 Bungalow

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