BOSTON - June 11, 2019 - (Newswire.com)
When it comes to the McGinley House, a comprehensive list of its features — the acreage and square footage; the in-ground pool and Jacuzzi; the tiered yards and gardens; the number of bedrooms and fireplaces; the massive guest house, etc. — is more than sufficient to inspire a lengthy queue of buyers; however, compiling a portfolio of the specs almost misses the point entirely and overlooks exactly what makes the property so exceptional.
Succinctly put, the McGinley House is everything our current era is not: balanced, tranquil, thoughtfully crafted, and enduring. From its celebrated classical gardens to the modern touches exquisitely blended throughout the traditional Georgian mansion, the grounds and structures are a cohesive testament to American history, art, industriousness, and family, and will serve as an exceedingly apt oasis for any who share similar devotions.
Designed and built by Henry Forbes Bigelow and Philip Wadsworth, the premier architects of the early twentieth century whose resume of masterpieces include the Boston Athenaeum and George R. White’s illustrious Lilliothea in Manchester-By-The-Sea, the McGinley House immediately strikes you with its intelligence, both in its general design and in the way it educates and captivates its guests and dwellers.
Standing in the driveway, revering the grandiose nature of the impressive structure before you, you may notice the windows. Unlike the tyrannical symmetry of typical Georgian construction, the fenestration is deliberately asymmetrical, serving as a sort of artistic wink from the graves of Bigelow and Wadsworth. It is a unique element that not only sets the mansion apart and gives it an individual, almost sentient, character but tangibly induces the sense of nuance and liveliness present throughout the interior.
Ellen Biddle Shipman was one of the most important landscape architects during the 1910s and 20s, when many of the most notable and ostentatious estates were being built across the country. Her landscaping philosophy, in harmony with the aesthetics of the other major players responsible for the masterwork of the mansion, revolved around a preternatural expertise in the area of plant species and softening the restrictions of a garden’s walls by incorporating them into the garden itself, hence the budding cherry trees bustling over the brick barrier as you coast along the driveway to the front door.
Simply put, the virtues of the McGinley Mansion are as multi-dimensional as they are subtle; it is the ideal sanctuary for a family who knows how to appreciate the finer things in life yet still dedicates itself to modesty and enjoys the heedless pleasure their loved ones find in what appears to be just an amazing mansion. Money can buy square footage, bedrooms, privacy; install fireplaces, maintain a pool, plant some trees and flowers, but what it cannot do is cultivate a life that lives up to the grand, fading notions at the heart of the McGinley Mansion—that’s on you.
Media Contact:
Joshua Stephens
617-682-9661
Jstephens@warrenre.com
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Original Source: The McGinley House - a Historic Mansion in Milton
