Westport’s modern houses have not fared well. The town lost Paul Rudolph’s Micheels House to demolition in 2007, and other modern houses have come down since. Against that record, the Allen House at 4 Burritt’s Landing North stands out. It survived, and it earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places.
The architect
The house was designed in 1958 by Roy Binkley Jr., a protégé of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. It was built for Ernst and Marcia Peterson Herrmann.
The plan is an H, two wings joined by a connecting element, a form that lets a house open to the landscape on several sides while keeping private and public rooms apart. The landscape was designed by Frank Okamura.
What listing does and does not do
National Register listing is an honor, and it can open the door to certain tax incentives for qualifying rehabilitation work. On its own, it does not prevent a private owner from altering or demolishing a house. In Westport, the stronger local protection comes from designation by the Historic District Commission, which can refuse demolition of designated properties. Everywhere else, a 180-day demolition delay applies to buildings at least 50 years old and 500 square feet or larger.
That is why the survival of houses like this one depends so heavily on owners. Our story on saving a Riverside Avenue saltbox shows how an easement can do what the rules cannot.
The rest of the period
The Allen House belongs to a larger Westport story. Victor Lundy designed the town’s Unitarian Church and, in 1962, Hillspoint Elementary School. Local modernists including Larry Michaels and Joseph Salerno built houses across town, and the Westport Historical Society later mounted an exhibition on the era. Our history of building in Westport traces it, and our list of Westport’s National Register listings includes the Allen House among 17.
Sources
- Wikipedia, The Allen House, Westport, Connecticut, accessed Oct. 2026
- Wikipedia, National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairfield County, Connecticut, accessed Oct. 2026
- Town of Westport, Demolition delay ordinance, accessed Oct. 2026
- 06880, Paul Rudolph, Jan. 29, 2010
