Wakehurst
You are here
J. J. Van Alen House (Wakehurst)
1884–1888, Dudley Newton from plans by C. E. Kempe. Ochre Point Ave.
Wakehurst, which simulates an English Tudor manor house in its elevation and detailing, was built under the supervision of Dudley Newton from designs purchased by J. J. Van Alen from the British architect C. E. Kempe. Set back from the street and screened by a stand of trees, the horizontal mass of the house is treated sculpturally as a set of two-and-one-half-story staggered blocks, each of which terminates in a gabled end or dormer. Although the composition is remarkably restrained in its carved decoration, each elevation displays a lively sense of modeling, from the recurrent grid of window sets to the finials tracing the zigzag roofline. The central entrance leads to a wood-paneled hall running across the entry axis with the main staircase set before the visitor in keeping with English antecedents.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.