Book titled Harriet T. Lindeberg and the American Country House by Peter Pennoyer and Anne Walker, displayed standing upright. The cover shows a stately stone house with an arched door, decorative urn, greenery, and trimmed hedges.
Open book showing a black-and-white architectural floor plan on the left page and a color photo of a large brick house with a gravel driveway and manicured lawn on the right, accompanied by descriptive text below the photo.
Open book shows black-and-white photos and a floor plan of a house. Left page has one photo of a house. Right page has two house photos on top and a labeled floor plan below, with text blocks on both pages. Trees and lawns are visible in the images.
A photo of a large brick manor house with steep gabled roofs, tall chimneys, and many multi-paned windows is displayed across the center of an open book, with green lawn and trees under a partly cloudy sky.
An open book displays a page of text about Shadyside, Houston, Texas, beside a photo of a house with arched wooden doors, tall windows, green vines, manicured shrubs, and a stone path bordered by red and pink flowering bushes.
Open book shows photos of a large stone house with steep roof, arched doorway, circular driveway, ivy on walls, detailed windows, curved staircase with wood railing, arched doorways, and elegant interior wood floors and furnishings.

Harrie T. Lindeberg and the American Country House
By Peter Pennoyer & Anne Walker

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.

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