Ehrick Rossiter’s Rock Gate, Washington, Connecticut

Favorite

Offered at $6,200,000

Rock Gate, named for a dramatic outcropping of glacially carved stone encircled by the entry drive, is an important piece of Washington’s history and a Connecticut Preservation Award-winning example of architect Ehrick Rossiter’s design legacy. Commanding three secluded acres on the Washington Green, the striking home was built in 1885 as a Gilded Age “summer cottage” for General Lucious Barbour, a wealthy Hartford industrialist, art collector, and Connecticut state legislator. Rock Gate is considered Rossiter’s finest work in the Queen Anne style and is also his only home in Washington to survive in its original state to the present day. It was restored in 2009 with the goal of preserving the historic integrity of the house, while at the same time outfitting it to serve the needs of a modern and active family. The 9,000-square-foot Shingle Style residence has eight bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, eight working fireplaces, a designer kitchen, two dining rooms, a music room, library, living room, and study. Favorite highlights include the Titanic-style grand staircase and cozy firelit inglenook. The original millwork and exquisite ornamental details were carefully restored, from the butternut-wood panels and ceiling ornamentations to the fireplace mantels and walnut and fir wood floors. The three-car detached garage affords second-floor space for an apartment or studio. The heated saltwater pool is enclosed by a romantic vine-entwined live-wood fence. The grounds have been gently landscaped in keeping with an essential ingredient of Rossiter’s earliest homes—that they coexist organically within the natural surroundings—and Rock Gate blends effortlessly into the lush greenery of bordering Steep Rock Preserve’s nearly 1,000 acres of pristine woodland.

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