Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House

This architectural tour brings to light the genius and influence of Harrie T. Lindeberg, a leader of the American Country House Era who synthesized Scandinavian, European, and American traditions.

Harrie T. Lindeberg (1880–1959) was born of Swedish immigrants who settled in New Jersey. He apprenticed with architect George A. Freeman, joined the prestigious firm McKim, Mead & White in 1901, and forged out on his own in 1906, beginning fifty years of independent practice. An impressive client list includes the leading American families—Du Pont, Havemeyer, Doubleday—for whom he built houses in affluent suburbs and resorts across the country—Rhinebeck, Newport, Grosse Point, Lake Forest, and the Gold Coast of Long Island.

As a designer, Lindeberg drew inspiration from the English Arts and Crafts movement, with touches from the Beaux-Arts, mixed with Norman, Tudor, and Georgian elements. He borrowed ideas from his ancestral Sweden, including steep roofs and a floor plan that interacted closely with the landscape. Today, as his country houses enter their second century, a remarkable number stand as they were originally built, prized by their owners for their livability and their elegantly wrought design.

Architect Peter Pennoyer and historian Anne Walker bring Lindeberg’s work to life in Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House. This survey of Lindeberg’s most stunning and influential projects includes more than 200 photographs—including new color photography by Jonathan Wallen—floor plans, and sketches. After introducing Lindeberg’s personal history and professional background, the book traces his career from his acclaimed debut in Pocantico Hills to larger developments like Meadow Spring and the export of his signature style to the Onwentsia Country Club in Lake Forest, Illinois. Pennoyer and Walker follow Lindeberg as he adapted to the building busts of the Great Depression and the rise of modernism. Experimenting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s aesthetic mission to bring America’s architecture abroad, Lindeberg also designed the United States Legation in Helsinki.

A gorgeous entrée to one of America’s most recognizable yet underappreciated architects, Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House brings readers insight into how we view country houses today.

Peter Pennoyer founded Peter Pennoyer Architects, an award-winning firm recognized as a leader in classicism and historic preservation, in 1990. He is a member of Architectural Digest’s AD100, a trustee of the Morgan Library & Museum, President of the Whiting Foundation, and former Chairman of the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture. He is the coauthor, with Anne Walker, of five books on the important early twentieth-century American architecture firms Delano & Aldrich, Warren & Wetmore, Grosvenor Atterbury, and Cross and Cross.

Architectural historian and author Anne Walker joined Peter Pennoyer Architects in 2000, and she has since collaborated with Pennoyer on five books about twentieth-century American architecture. She is the author of Peter Pennoyer Architects, and the The Finest Rooms in America with Thomas Jayne and Life at the Top: New York’s Most Exceptional Apartment Buildings with Kirk Henckels.