Paul Rudolph designed the Micheels House at 16 Minute Man Hill in 1972. It had 3,336 square feet, by the count of the Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture. In 2007 it was demolished.
The fight over it was unusually public. The National Trust for Historic Preservation called the house of “great significance.” Connecticut’s attorney general at the time, Richard Blumenthal, sought an injunction. Neither stopped the demolition.
Why it could not be saved
The buyers, David and Yvette Waldman, paid $3.234 million for the property. The house was the first Rudolph design to be demolished after the architect’s death in 1997, and it was replaced by a house of 6,204 square feet.
The episode exposed the limits of Westport’s preservation rules. A 180-day demolition delay applies to buildings at least 50 years old and 500 square feet or larger. The Historic District Commission can block demolition only for properties in a local historic district or individually designated. A house that is neither can be delayed, studied and argued over, and then taken down.
What it means now
This year’s agreement at 125 Riverside Avenue shows the alternative, a private preservation easement reached before a house comes down. Other modern houses have survived, including the Allen House on Burritt’s Landing, now on the National Register.
For buyers of older and architecturally significant houses, the lesson runs both ways. A significant house can be a pleasure to own and a complicated one to change, and a buyer planning a teardown should ask early whether a house carries a designation or a following. Our guide to rebuilding lists the questions.
Sources
- Paul Rudolph Institute for Modern Architecture, Micheels Residence, accessed Oct. 2026
- Wikipedia, Louis Micheels House, accessed Oct. 2026
- 06880, Tear down that house? Inside Westport’s Historic District Commission, May 15, 2023
- Town of Westport, Demolition delay ordinance, accessed Oct. 2026
