Own Architectural History With Marcel Breuer-Designed House in Poughkeepsie

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Marcel Breuer’s fantastic McComb House in Poughkeepsie, NY, is currently on the market for a relatively reasonable price of $795,000. The 2,838-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom home sits atop a 3-acre lot in the scenic Hudson Valley.

Built in the early 1950s, this home is one of the earliest examples of what would become classic hallmarks of the midcentury modern style.

“It was such a departure from what Americans were used to. You look at it in context of postwar America; everyone’s coming back and moving to the suburbs to these white clapboard Colonials with small windows. Yet houses like this are so different from that,” says listing agent Graham Klemm. “They’re all big windows and simple materials, high ceilings, and light and bright, and open floor plans—all these things that didn’t exist or weren’t the norm of American building at the time.”

Exterior

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Living room

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Bauhaus-trained Breuer was one of the key architects of the modernist movement, best known for his work on buildings such as the Whitney Museum in New York, the French UNESCO headquarters, and IBM Laboratory, as well as such furniture designs as the Wassily chair.

“It’s like having Benjamin Franklin design your house,” says Klemm.

Breuer was building a dorm on the nearby Vassar campus decades ago when the McComb family spotted the construction and commissioned him to build their home. His now-iconic touches throughout the home present Easter eggs to be discovered by architecture nerds. For example, the fireplace design that he used throughout his career is in evidence here, along with dark slate floors and panels in the color that would later be known as “Breuer blue.”

The home was built using the “binuclear” design that distinguishes many of Breuer’s buildings, with separate wings for the bedrooms and living areas. Large windows throughout the home let in light and views of the surrounding woods. Those views can also be enjoyed from the enclosed glass patio or the porch spanning multiple rooms along the side of the house.

Deck

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Bedroom

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“Today we take all of that for granted, but this house and many houses of this time period were so different and kind of the original ones, the real deal,” says Klemm. “So when you find the real deal, it’s pretty cool.”

The home is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, making it ideal for those who are invested in both architecture and history.

“I’d hope that the ultimate buyer of this house understands what they’re owning. It’s like owning a Picasso or Cezanne—it’s a piece of art. It takes a certain buyer to understand that in terms of value and how to own it and what you should or should not do to it,” Klemm says.

“Each owner is meant to preserve it and to uphold it and to be the caretaker of it while they have possession of it, and they’re meant to pass it on in that same or better condition to the next person.”

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