JENNA OUTCALT
Staff Writer
The Bird, Tree & Garden club will hold its biennial House and Garden Tour from noon to 5 p.m. today, providing exclusive access to 12 houses on Chautauqua Institution’s grounds. Proceeds from the tour are dedicated to funding the BTG’s educational programs and conservation projects.
The Lilla Hus
13 Center
The house on 13 Center dates back to 1878. With seven bedrooms and six-and-a-half bathrooms, the owners, Krista and Paul Ritacco, oversaw a rebuild of the house from its original state with approval from the Architectural Review Board. However, the house mimics 19th-century style and pays homage to some original features, including a two-story porch.
The house’s nickname, “Lilla Hus,” is Danish for “purple house,” referencing the exterior color. The Ritaccos worked with architectural color consultants to choose the rich palette.
The Faithful Remnant
27 Miller
The Faithful Remnant lives up to its name, adhering closely to its original 1879 design. Owner Bob Jeffrey — a historic preservationist — added a kitchen and two bathrooms. The kitchen has custom-made cabinets designed to mimic the original cabinetry, and the columns, shutters and windows are original to the house.
Antique furnishing and dishes came from Jeffrey’s great-grandparents. Jeffrey himself is an artist who creates watercolor paintings largely focused on architectural topics. His work is featured throughout the house.
The name of the cottage came from its previous owner, Peg Simpson. She named it after the group of Chautauquans who would remain for the very end of the season at the Institution.
The Whitla House
10 Peck
The Whitla House hosts a collection of all things Chautauqua this year, as owner Bijou Clinger collects memorabilia associated with Chautauqua. Along with the collections around the house, the home still has original furniture on the first floor, even including a player piano. The house is named for Eleanore Whitla, Clinger’s grandmother, who bought the house in the late ’50s.
The house was commissioned in 1899 by Walter King. King had a large family, hence the house’s six bedrooms and sleeping porch. Family legend claims King only checked on the house once while it was being built, allowing a contractor to mistakenly put the lakeside windows on the uphill side. This led the Kings to take advantage of the area to the side of their house and build a porch facing the lake to make up for the missing windows.
The Selden Cottage
28 Peck
Hosting seven bedrooms and four porches, the Selden Cottage was built in 1893. The top floor remains a snapshot of the original home, with a wood cabin aesthetic and bathroom outfitted with a claw-foot tub.
The Selden Cottage has undergone several updates over the years, with remodeling in 2017 removing shag green carpeting to revert to the original pine flooring on the second floor. In 2024, areas on the first floor underwent a modernizing remodel to keep up with the second floor.
The Linden Cottage
30 Peck
The Linden Cottage is a Victorian lakeside retreat built in 1888. With large windows and porches, the house is meant to invite relaxation and highlight natural views.
Current owners Sherry and Tim Sanger bought the Linden Cottage in 2018 and have been restoring and modernizing it. The house has five bedrooms, five bathrooms, a loft, a study and a children’s playroom. The playroom is in the house’s turret, once a part of the attic. The renovations also extended the first and second floor porches.
The Branch Cottage
32 Peck
The owners of the Branch Cottage, Laurie Branch and Sean O’Neil, centered their updates around the arts and crafts style of the original house. It formerly belonged to the Fay family, who maintained the original woodwork of the house and transferred it with all its furnishings to Chris Branch — Laurie’s brother — and his wife Liza. The couple updated the house to finish the third floor and basement and added additional bedrooms and bathrooms.
When Laurie Branch purchased the home in 2010, they continued to update it to accommodate a growing family. However, they felt the house was losing its original feel, eventually leading to restorations matching the original woodwork and even converting the office space to a library with a rolling ladder.
The Teat Cottage
51 Peck
Owners Chris and Jim Teat built their cottage, nicknamed “The Breezeway,” in 2019, but they designed it to mimic homes that have been at Chautauqua since the beginning. Chautauquan architect Matt Benson designed the home to emulate Chautauqua, with intentional spaces for conversation and culture.
The house is built on the 1877 Chautauqua Assembly’s hitching grounds. The garden is on train tracks that were used from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. The boulders and rocks under the tree by the house are from the challenging dig to convert the train tracks into a garden.
Everett Jewish Life Center
36 Massey
Every House and Garden Tour includes a denominational house. This year, it is the Everett Jewish Life Center at Chautauqua, which finished construction and opened in 2009. The building features a community room, dining room and kosher kitchen. The EJLCC serves breakfast for residential guests, which became so popular that it produced a cookbook to share its recipes.
Edith Everett funded the center in honor of her late husband Henry. She and her family wanted to create a place that could hold programs celebrating Jewish culture and host guests on the grounds.
The Scavone Cottage
45 Cookman
This Cape Cod style house was built in 1937. According to historical records, the 1884 Chautauqua Assembly leased the property to Clement Studebaker, one of the founders of the Studebaker Corporation. Coincidentally, the house also used to belong to the parents of the current owner’s stepmother.
The first floor of the cottage features pottery from the owners’ travels to Greece, Italy and Japan. Anne Hoyt Scavone, one of the owners, has been active in updating the front and side gardens to include newer plants alongside the more mature ones.
The Carter Cottage
43 Cookman
The Carter Cottage was constructed in 1894 and bought in 1910 for $1,260. It underwent multiple additions and renovations throughout the 20th century, including the painting of a mural on all four walls of an upstairs bathroom in the ’60s. One wall of the mural still remains after some restoration.
The current owners, Rob and Nicole Carter, bought the house in 2020; the previous owner gifted them paintings of buildings around Chautauqua. Nicole has continued the tradition, painting more Chautauquan buildings that are special to the Carters.
The Acker Cottage
44 Cookman
This arts and crafts style cottage was built around 1902. James T. Powers, chief of the Chautauqua Fire Department, bought the house in 1911. Later on, another Chautauqua Fire Department chief, Norman Becker, also lived in the cottage.
The current owners are Jeff and Lynda Acker, who got married in the Hall of Philosophy. Following their 2004 purchase, they updated and reconfigured the house while preserving the arts and crafts style it originally maintained.
The Maestro Cottage
39 South Front
This Cape Cod house was built in 1981 and fully renovated after Irene Cramer and Steven Goldberg purchased it in 2011. Cramer and Goldberg’s daughter Hannah, an interior designer, masterminded the renovation, which included opening the first floor and expanding the second floor. The redesign included preservation of original details, including iron sconces and hand-painted fireplace tiles with images of the house itself and other Chautauqua landmarks.
Illustrations by Laura Quisenberry / Design Editor
