When we think of farm house style, our minds may jump to oversized sinks and rustic decor, but the architecture of traditional farm houses deserves its fair share of appreciation too. Below we’ve selected seven of our favorite farm houses from decades of the AD archive, captured by leading architecture photographers. From an Elizabethan era Tudor-style home to a new build inspired by its owners’ love of Americana, these structures would surely spice up one’s view while driving down an old country road.
Clint Eastwood’s Carmel centerpiece
When Clint Eastwood purchased the 22-acre Mission Ranch in Carmel, it was to ensure that its old charm wasn’t knocked down by some developer. “I had always loved the place and they were just going to flatten it. They said it was obsolete,” Eastwood told AD for the property’s feature in July 1993. “I thought it should be preserved as it was.” A large part of that irreplaceable charm lies in the property’s original structure, the traditional farm house that was built in the 1850s. With white siding and a vast porch, it’s a picture-perfect reminder of the property’s era as a quaint dairy farm.
The farm house and the property’s other structures were decrepit when Eastwood bought them, but he hired Alan Williams of Carmel Development Company to oversee the restoration, which involved rewiring, overhauling the piping, and rebuilding the chimneys too. To this day, it stands as the Mission Ranch Hotel and Restaurant, a place where anyone can go to enjoy its comfortable beauty and precious view of the Pacific Ocean.
Henry Moore’s Hoglands
The late sculptor Henry Moore and his wife Irina Radetsky had lived in their Hertfordshire Elizabethan farm cottage for 40 years at the time of the home’s March 1980 feature in Architectural Digest. Named Hoglands, the property was once a pig farm; though in his time there, it became devoted to creation, with a series of outbuildings serving as studios spread across the 70 acres. The farm house is typical of the Tudor style, with a white stucco exterior and tall red brick chimney, adding a humble feeling to a property otherwise defined by its fine art. “I hope that after I’m gone, young sculptors will come to Hoglands to see how I worked,” he told AD—and indeed, the property is now open to visitors.
A thoroughbred hideout
A love of horses brought the late Irish businessman Tony Ryan to Lexington, Kentucky, the city that’s known as the thoroughbred capital of the world. Featured in the June 2006 issue of Architectural Digest, the estate that Ryan acquired for himself and his horses measures in at an expansive 1,200 acres. Ryan worked with British designer Tiggy Butler to restore the horse farm’s 1840 Greek Revival mansion, with major work inside and some touch-ups outside. Grandeur needed to be central from the outset of the property, so Ryan and Butler had the portico restored, with a classical lintel put into place over four Ionic columns, and a 19th-century copper lantern to light up the impressive entrance.
Americana-influenced
When a homeowner couple with a passion for classic Americana wanted a new build, architect Patrick J. Burke delivered an 18th-century-style clapboard house, accompanied by a fieldstone guest barn which “gave it a true farm feeling,” as Burke explained to Architectural Digest in the home’s June 2008 feature. The two different styles give the compound the sense that it was built up over time—perfect for a couple who favor the age-worn. That being said, the architect added details that tied the structures together. For instance, he used the stone from the barn’s façade in a gable end on the primary structure. Stylewise, the property certainly passes as something from a century or three prior, but its abundance of windows speaks to more contemporary tastes, offering much more light inside than an untouched 18th-century farm house likely would.
A picturesque paddock view
When Calvin Klein cofounder Barry K. Schwartz and his wife Sheryl decided to make their 750-acre thoroughbred horse farm their primary residence, an overhaul was in order. Stonewall Farm had a farm house, but it was too small for their purposes. They hired architect Rebecca Rasmussen to craft a farm house for the New York property that would be fitting for a Kentucky horse farm, and ended up with a grand 26,000-square-foot Colonial-style residence. “The Schwartzes wanted a more traditional house on the outside, but inside they wanted it to be eclectic,” Kelly Hoppen explained to Architectural Digest in the home’s June 2005 feature. The home is set on a rise, offering a picturesque view of the small pond and horse paddocks.
Old barn, new site
Featured in the June 2008 issue, this 18th-century barn was originally located in northern Ontario, Canada, but homeowner, architect, and interior designer Ellen Denisevich-Greckis had it relocated to a four-acre plot of land in Rhode Island. She was creating a summer home for her family, and the centuries-old building was to stand at its center—with a few adjustments. Local stone was added to the barn’s façade so that it would fit in better with the area’s other farm houses, a cupola was popped on top to bring light into the interior, and naturally, the second-floor haylofts were converted into bedrooms and sitting rooms. Along with these updates, a local 18th-century home was purchased for its frame and used to craft a covered side terrace, seen in this image at left, surrounded by the property’s expansive wildflower meadow.
Prioritizing simplicity
For this Nantucket vacation property, AD100 Hall of Fame architect Hugh Newell Jacobsen worked to create a “gathering of simple structures,” as he described them to Architectural Digest in a July 2004 feature. The property features a series of New England farm house pavilions, meticulously crafted in the simplest fashion possible with clean lines and shingle siding. Instead of roof gutters, Jacobsen used bands of gravel along each structure’s perimeter (also known as French drains) to avoid complicating the lines of the structures. The spire of a nearby congregational church, seen in this image at the far left, was considered in the siting of the pavilions, with the ultimate goal being to allow a view of the spire from the primary bedroom window.
