We are very proud to represent the buyer of this magnificent property in Williamstown. Located just a half mile from William College, the Robinson House was built in 1948 and is sited on a private 42 acres with river frontage and mountain vistas. The 5,000 s.f. butterfly roof home was designed by Bauhaus-identified architect, Marcel Breuer, one of the handful of residences he designed in Massachusetts, including his own adjacent to the home of his mentor, Walter Gropius.
Gropius had come from Germany to Cambridge to chair the Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Breuer soon followed to join the department. Though Modernism had already started to sprout in this region, via such pioneering architects as Edwin Goodell, Eleanor Raymond, and Henry Hoover, the influence of these legendary icons of international design soon attracted young progressive architects and designers and Modernism flourished around Boston, especially in the immediate postwar years.
The Robinson house was built for Preston Robinson, a senior engineer at Sprague Electric (now home of Mass MoCA) and his family. The bi-nuclear plan features some trademark Breuer touches, with fieldstone walls carrying a through line between indoors and out. A freestanding stone fireplace serves as a room divider in the main living area, an open floor plan that leads to the dining area, with walls of glass offering dramatic views of the gently rolling green grounds and the Berkshire foothills beyond. As Dwell helpfully points out, “The property also includes a separate 900-square-foot guest house, a gorgeous swimming pool, frontage on the Hoosic River, as well as private access to Hopkins Forest conservation land.”
Gladys Montgomery is the gracious listing agent for William Pitt Sotheby’s. Featured photo by Randy O’Rourke.
